Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Chellanam reels under sea erosion as rain intensifies

News

• The coastal village of Chellanam in Kerala continued to reel under severe sea erosion for the third day with heavy rains pounding the coast and water from the sea flowing into the compounds of nearly 50 houses.

Beyond News

• The rough sea and high waves have been threatening the coast, where people have been demanding shore protection measures for several years now.
• The seawater that rushed in dislocated some of the sandbags that were erected as temporary measures to protect the shores before the rains.
• Sandbags were being placed in the most affected areas and that about 70% of the works were completed.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

India and Myanmar to hold high-level meeting

News

• India and Myanmar will hold a high-level meeting in Imphal to bring the two countries closer.
• A nine-member team of Myanmar, arrived at Moreh, Manipur’s border town.

Beyond News

• They will hold bilateral talks with the top ranking officials of India during the meeting in Imphal.
• As a part of its ‘Act East’ policy, India and Myanmar have shared a cordial relationship. India has been extending developmental assistance to Myanmar over these years.
• On the other hand, the Myanmarese Army has been over-running some military and administrative camps of Northeast militant groups taking shelter in Myanmar. Assam Rifles personnel have also been destroying the camps of some militant groups in some hill districts of Manipur.
• They underlined the need to revamp the transport system in and around Imphal. Moreh town will be developed and spruced up since it should be the gateway for trade and other bilateral ties with Southeast Asian countries.
• In the recent past, Myanmarese Buddhists on pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, have complained of unnecessary travel requirements and the bad state of the NH102 that connects Moreh with Imphal in the hilly terrain.
• The “traditional barter system at Moreh” among people on either side of the International Border was legalised in 1995.

Shadow of Pakistan looms over China-India counter-terrorism ties

News

• Without naming Pakistan, China said that the global campaign against terrorism under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) must be stepped up, but the intent is not to target any specific country.

Beyond News

• China’s Vice-Foreign Minister signalled that Pakistan should not become the focus of the counter-terrorism agenda under the SCO framework.
• On Pakistan, India and China appear to be pursuing competitive narratives. During a visit to Maldives the first country that he visited after assuming office for a second time Mr. Modi slammed “state sponsorship of terrorism” as the “biggest threat” facing the international counter-terrorism campaign.
• But in the midst of the election campaign in India, China had agreed to designate Masood Azhar, the head of the Pakistan based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, as an international terrorist, meeting India’s long-standing and pressing demand.
• While it has agreed to designate Azhar, following the Pulwama terror attack, China has maintained that it rejects targeting Pakistan as a state-sponsor of terrorism.
• Without losing focus on security, the SCO a pan-Eurasian grouping pillared by the Russia, China, India and Pakistan along with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is expected to consolidate its economic flank during the Bishkek summit.
• Security and development are two major issues of focus for the SCO.

 ‘French firms encouraged to hire Indians who study in France’

News

• With the number of Indian students heading to France doubling in just two years’ time, the alumni are hoping that connections with the 500-odd French companies in India will lead to better job offers.

Beyond News

• French Minister of State for Europe and Foreign Affairs met the Indian alumni of French courses in business, engineering and design where one of the major issues discussed was the need to increase connections with the French companies based in India.
• The growth in Indian students heading to the U.S. and the U.K. has stalled over the last few years, largely due to immigration restrictions, and France has been rushing to fill the gap. A decade ago, the annual number of Indian students in France was just 400. By 2017, it had shot up to 5,000 which increased to 8,000 last year.
• Several factors have helped growth. Indian students have long faced a language barrier in France. But there are an increasing number of French courses being offered in English, aimed at international and French students who want to compete on the global stage, 90% of Indian students now in France are studying courses taught in English, whether at top business schools or the globally renowned Sciences Po.
• The programmes cost approximately €10,000 per year including tuition costs and living expenses and France also offers 500 scholarships worth €1.1 million specifically for Indians.
• Another attraction is the 2-year work permit visa which allows the Indian students to gain work experience after they complete their studies there.

India may give Pak. its due for action against terror groups

News

• A year after Pakistan was put on the “grey list” by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), New Delhi is beginning to accept that Islamabad has taken some action against the terror organisations on the ground.

Beyond News

• An official said Pakistani authorities had seized 771 seminaries educational institutions run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba and its fronts, Jamaat-ud Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniyat, and the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
• It is for the first time since early 1990s that Pakistan has begun to take action against India-focussed terror groups and freeze their assets.
• To avoid being put on the blacklist, Pakistan has seized properties associated with terror groups in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as well.
• A team of External Affairs and Home Ministry officials is now preparing to travel to Orlando, U.S. for the plenary session of the FATF, a global terrorism financing watchdog.
• Indian has taken a back seat to the U.S., the U.K. and France in the past year since Pakistan was put on the “grey list”, though Pakistani officials have frequently accused India of “dictating” terms in the action-taken reviews.
• Pakistan was on the “grey list” of countries of risk between 2012 and 2015 as well.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Scientists edit chicken genes to make them resistant to bird flu

News

• Scientists in Britain have used gene-editing techniques to stop bird flu spreading in chicken cells grown in a lab a key step towards making genetically-altered chickens that could halt a human flu pandemic.

Beyond News

• By editing out a section of chicken DNA inside the lab-grown cells, researchers prevented the bird flu virus from taking hold in the cells and replicating.
• The next step will be to try to produce chickens with the same genetic change.

ISRO gears up for Chandrayaan-2 mission

News

• Chandrayaan-2, the country’s first moon lander and rover mission, is a month away.

Beyond News

• After putting the spacecraft through manoeuvres at the earth end, a journey of over a month and a few more orbital manoeuvres as it approaches the moon, ISRO has set September 6 as the date to soft-land its landing craft at the lunar south pole – a region where no agency has got to so far.
• ISRO recently listed at least six complexities of soft landing a mission on the Moon something that pioneers Russia and the U.S. could not achieve easily back in the mid-1960s.
• Soft landing,is the most challenging part of the mission.
• The lander is named Vikram (meaning valour, after the father of the Indian space programme, Vikram Sarabhai). It will release a small robotic rover, named Pragyan (wisdom), to move around, feel and understand the lunar surface.
• Vikram must gently descend on a harsh rugged lunar surface, without getting damaged. It must also avoid landing in a shadowy patch. It needs sunlight for generating its power.
• Meanwhile, the mother ship or the orbiter that carries Vikram and Pragyan will go around the moon at a distance of about 100 km, taking pictures and gathering surface information and sending them back to earth.
• The moon’s constantly sunny side gets light for 14 Earth days or one lunar day. The lander and the rover are expected to work for just that duration.
• The mission carries 14 payloads or instruments to observe and gauge the lunar scene both from a distance and on its surface. One of them is a tiny NASA reflectometer to mark the spot for future missions and assess the distance from the earth.
• Weighing about 3,500 kg, Chandrayaan-2 will be launched on the heavy-lift GSLV-Mk III rocket.

India to help in conservation of Maldives’ Friday Mosque: PM Modi

News

• India will contribute to the conservation of Maldives’ Friday Mosque, a unique place of worship made of coral stones, Indian Prime Minister announced.

Beyond News

• Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih thanked the Indian side for their offer to carry out restoration of the Friday mosque by the Archaeological Survey of India under an Indian grant.
• He also appreciated the recent visit of senior scientists of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and their ongoing cooperation with the Maldivian counterparts, it added.
• Built in 1658, Friday Mosque is one of the oldest and most ornate mosques in the city of Male in Kaafu Atoll. The mosque was added to the tentative UNESCO World Heritage cultural list in 2008 as unique examples of sea-culture architecture.
• Indian Prime Minister arrived in the Maldives on his first two-day foreign visit after re-election as Prime Minister to strengthen the bilateral ties, reflecting the importance India attaches to its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.
• His visit demonstrates the priority that India attaches to the SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) doctrine.
• The relations between India and the Maldives deteriorated after the then President Abdulla Yameen imposed emergency on February 5 last year.
• China views the Maldives as key to its Maritime Silk Road project in the Indian Ocean as it has already acquired Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

Protected areas failing to save wildlife: study

News

• The world’s protected areas are experiencing major shortfalls in staffing and resources and are therefore failing on a massive scale to safeguard wildlife, a study has found.

Findings

• The analysis looked at more than 2,100 protected areas around the world and found that less than a quarter report having adequate resources in terms of staffing and budget.
• The study looked at nearly 12,000 species of terrestrial amphibians, birds, and mammals whose ranges include protected areas and found only 4 to 9% are represented within the borders of the adequately resourced protected areas.
• The findings also show that protected areas are grossly under-funded.

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