Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Manipur battles drought-like situation

News

• Manipur  State government was taking all efforts to overcome the “drought-like situation” in the State.
• If there was no rain by the end of this month, the State would approach the Centre to declare Manipur drought-hit.

Beyond News

• Manipur Chief Minister presented 40 water-pump sets to farmers to help irrigate parched paddy fields. He also disclosed that the Agriculture department was procuring 126 pump sets for immediate distribution to the farmers.
• Another 100 pump sets would be purchased in the next few days.
• The government had activated 157 lift irrigation schemes.
• Most farmers have sown paddy seeds in the parched fields. Some of them said that there were water bodies at many places but there were no irrigation networks.
• Due to erratic rains last year, paddy harvest was poor and the State is facing difficulty in supplying rice to BPL families. The government is trying to bring rice from the Food Corporation of India godowns in Assam and Nagaland before the onset of the monsoon.
• During the rains, landslides can affect transport along the National Highways 2 and 37, which are the lifelines of Manipur.
• The government has stopped tap water supply in most parts of the State as the rivers have dried up.

Pink City Jaipur gets UNESCO World Heritage tag

News

• The Walled City of Jaipur, known for its iconic architectural legacy and vibrant culture, made its entry into the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

Beyond News

• The announcement was made after the 43rd Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC), underway at Baku (Azerbaijan) from June 30 to July 10, examined the nomination of the Walled City of Jaipur for inclusion in the World Heritage list.
• ICOMOS (The International Council on Monuments and Sites) had inspected the city in 2018, post its nomination. The WHC in Baku examined the nomination and inscribed it in UNESCO World Heritage Site list, the official added.
• The historic walled city of Jaipur in Rajasthan, was founded in 1727 AD under the patronage of Sawai Jai Singh II. It serves as the capital city of the culturally-rich state of Rajasthan.
• The city was proposed to be nominated for its value of being an exemplary development in town planning and architecture that demonstrates an amalgamation and important exchange of ideas in the late medieval period.
• In town planning, it shows an interchange of ancient Hindu, Mughal and contemporary Western ideas that resulted in the form of the city.
• In addition, Jaipur City is an exceptional example of a late medieval trade town in South Asia and defined new concepts for a thriving trade and commercial hub. In addition, the city is associated with living traditions in the form of crafts that have national and international recognition.
• The World Heritage Committee is composed of representatives of 21 States Parties to the World Heritage Convention who meet annually.
• The Committee is in charge of implementing the Convention. To date, 1,092 sites in 167 countries have been inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

New rules mooted on drugs dispensed by doctors

News

• The Central Government is considering amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, 1945 to ensure that registered medical practitioners dispense only generic medicines.

Beyond News

• The matter was recently brought before the Drugs Consultative Committee (DCC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
• A proposal was received by the CDSCO committee wherein the DCC was apprised that registered medical practitioners can supply different categories of medicines including vaccines to their patients under the exemption provided, with certain conditions, under Schedule K of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
• As of now there are no specified types of medicines which can be supplied by doctors to their patients.
• It is now proposed that registered medical practitioners shall supply generic medicines only and physicians samples shall be supplied free of cost.
• The Indian Medical Association (IMA) said that it is planning to meet the drug control authorities about the issue later this month.

KYC norms for foreign portfolio investors to be investor-friendly

News

• The government is planning to take all possible steps to encourage more foreign investment in the Indian capital markets by making it easier for such investors to come to India and invest in a hassle-free manner.

Beyond News

• The importance of the government proposal can be gauged by the fact that foreign investors are often looked upon as prime drivers of any bull run in the Indian equity market and have been pumping in huge money in the stock market.
• Data show that in the current calendar year, FPIs are net buyers at nearly ₹75,000 crore with March seeing a record flow of nearly ₹34,000 crore.
• This assumes significance also due to the fact that the government plans to raise the limit of foreign holding in select public sector entities while eyeing ₹1.05 lakh crore through disinvestment.
• Incidentally, the KYC norms for foreign investors have evolved over the years based on continuous feedback from overseas investors and also based on factors such as The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, Guidelines on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Standards, Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Meanwhile, the government has also proposed merging the investment route for Non-resident Indians (NRIs) with that for the FPIs.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Union Budget 2019-20 foreign affairs outlay: The importance of being Thimpu

News

• India-Bhutan relations received a big boost with the allocation of the lion’s share of the foreign affairs outlay in the Union Budget presented in Parliament.
• That the budgetary allocation has been hiked successively over two years shows that following the 2017 Doklam crisis, India is according highest priority to the Himalayan country.

Beyond News

• Bhutan received ₹2,802 crore, out of the total allocations for foreign affairs commitments. This move has indicated that India is going to firm up its development commitments with the Himalayan country in the coming year which will also be crucial for ties with Beijing, with a new bilateral India-China summit being planned here.
• Ties with Bhutan will receive the highest level of attention with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit which is expected shortly.
• Though the External Affairs Ministry is yet to announce the date, it is understood that Bhutan will be the third South Asian destination of the Prime Minister after his re-election following his June visit to the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
• It is expected that top-level projects such as the Manghdechhu hydropower project and a multi-speciality hospital backed by India will be on the agenda during Mr. Modi’s visit.
• The Mangdechhu project is in its final stages and it is expected that the visit of the Indian PM could coincide with the inauguration of the high-capacity power project.
• Another high-profile project between the two countries is the South Asia Satellite programme.

Environment Ministry plans to use immunocontraceptives for wildlife population management

News

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) has launched a project for undertaking ‘immunocontraceptive measures’ for population management of four species of wild animals elephant, wild boar, monkey and blue bull (Nilgai).

Beyond News

• Human-animal conflict has emerged as a major challenge in managing wildlife in the country and human-elephant conflict causes the maximum number of causalities every year.
• According to reply tabled in Parliament, nearly 494 persons were killed by elephants last year alone.
• Between 2014 and March 2019, 2,398 people died in elephant attack in the country, with West Bengal accounting for maximum number of such deaths .

Larger features of total solar eclipse match IISER Kolkata’s prediction

News

• Scientists were in for a pleasant surprise as the total solar eclipse on July 2 proved their prediction correct in its major features.
• Their aim was to check whether their prediction of the shape of the corona had been realised, imaging the solar corona, or the Sun’s atmosphere was the motivation for many others.

Beyond News

• The corona can only be viewed during a total solar eclipse. This total solar eclipse was visible only within a narrow strip of land stretching over Chile and Argentina.
• Group, from IISER Kolkata, had used a two-step model to predict first the shape of the solar magnetic field on the day of the eclipse and then extrapolate it to describe what the corona would look like.
• The model built up by the IISER Kolkata team can be used to predict space weather. It will also be useful in analysing data from the proposed Indian space mission – Aditya-L1 – which is meant to study the Sun’s corona.
• This eclipse offered an excellent opportunity to view and image the corona. Despite being hotter than the layers of the Sun that lie within, the corona has lower density of photons. For this reason, the inner layers of the Sun such as the photosphere outshine the corona, rendering it practically invisible.
• When the Moon totally occults the Sun. During a total solar eclipse, the Moon’s disc completely covers the region of the photosphere. This lends a moment of total darkness.
• But just before totality, light from the Sun reaches viewers, first as a brilliant spot of light known as the “diamond ring.” At this stage, you can see the chromosphere and solar prominences. The next instant, when the Moon’s disc covers the Sun, we see an uneven ring of light – the corona. This is seen only during the totality.
• Based on constraints set by these observations, the group plans to refine their models before translating these into operational space weather forecasting tools.

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