Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Nb: Notes of MARCH 27 & 28 are compiled in todays notes.

When snow turned orange

News

• Dust from a sandstorm in the Sahara desert is causing snow in eastern Europe to turn orange, transforming the mountainous regions of Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria and Romania into Mars-like landscapes, the media reported .

Beyond News

• The unusual scenes were believed to be created by a mix of sand, dust and pollen particles stirred up and swept across from storms in northern Africa.
• According to meteorologists, the phenomenon occurs roughly every five years.
• As the sand gets lifted to the upper levels of the atmosphere, it gets distributed elsewhere. Looking at satellite imagery from NASA, it shows a lot of sand and dust in the atmosphere drifting across the Mediterranean.
• It is not the first time eastern Europeans have experienced an eerie snow-tint.
• A similar phenomenon occurred in 2007 when mysterious “oily” orange snow fell across three regions of southern Siberia.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Khaps cannot interfere in marriage of consenting adults, rules Supreme Court

News

• In an “unlimited direction” to parents, society and khap panchayats (community groups), the Supreme Court ruled that interference, harm or insult caused to consenting adults who fall in love and choose to marry is absolutely illegal.

Beyond News

• With this judgment, the court has filled the vacuum caused by the lack of a specific penal law against honour killings.
• The court said the fundamental right of two people who wish to get married to each other and live peacefully is absolute.
• A bench had repeatedly emphasised that no one has any individual, group or collective right to harass a couple.
• The Chief Justice has said it is up to the courts to decide legally whether a marriage is null and void, or if children are legitimate or illegitimate; “no other person or group” have the right to intervene.
• The government had acknowledged that “honour killing was neither separately defined or classified as an offence under the prevailing laws. It [honour killing] is treated as murder,” the government said in its written suggestions.
• The proposed law against honour killing The Prohibition of Interference with Freedom of Matrimonial Alliance Bill  is still under circulation among the States.

Centre not for ‘creamy layer’ within SCs, STs category

News

• The Union government opposed the idea of a “creamy layer” within the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.

Beyond News

• The government told a Benchthat the principle of creamy layer cannot be applied to the presidential order on quota for SC/ST groups.
• The court was hearing a petition to exclude the affluent members or the “creamy layer” of the SC and ST communities from accessing reservation benefits.
• The Mandal judgment, however, confined the exclusion of ‘creamy layer’ only to the OBCs and not the SC/STs. Now, the petition wants the same exclusion from quota benefits to the ‘creamy layer’ among the SC/STs too.
• Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha said the government would not do anything to dilute the benefits due to SC/STs.
• The Bench asked the government to file a categorical affidavit.

China resumes data sharing on Brahmaputra as part of post-Doklam thaw

News

• China pledged to continue data sharing of Brahmaputra and Sutlej waters, marking another confidence building step between the two countries in the post-Doklam phase.

Beyond News

• The decision was taken during the 11th meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism (ELM) on Trans-border Rivers. The two-day meeting began on March 26 in Hangzhou.
• The data on water flows in both rivers is shared during the monsoons, to predict flooding, mainly in the northeast. It has been resumed after a gap of one year, when ties between the two countries had been strained due to the military standoff at the Doklam plateau.

Chinese dams

• The Chinese have been building dams on the Brahmaputra, including the Zangmu barrage. But they say that these dams are not used for storing water a downstream concern in Bangladesh and India–but for generating hydro-electricity alone.
• An Indian embassy press statement said,that both sides also reviewed the report on how data provided by China on the two rivers was being utilised.
• Analysts point out that the resumption of water sharing data is in tune with a series of steps that are being taken to reboot India-Chinapost-Doklam ties, following talks between the Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Xiamen BRICS summit in September.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

China’s space lab expected to fall to earth this week

News

• China’s first experimental space lab is expected to fall back to Earth between March 31 and April 4 and should burn up in the atmosphere, space authorities said.

Beyond News

• Tiangong-1 has officially stopped sending data and entered its final phase of life on March 16, a statement issued on March 26, by the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.
• The Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, is orbiting at an average height of about 216.2 kms, the announcement noted, but did not disclose any re-entry location.
• It is impossible to name the exact re-entry location at this stage.
• The approximate re-entry location cannot be decided until the last two hours before it starts to fall based on international precedents.
• Launched in September 2011, Tiangong-1 an experimental had a design life of two years. The heavenly vehicle successfully docked with the Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft and undertook a series of experiments.
• The lab completed its main missions following Shenzhou-10’s return in June 2013.
• During its extended flight, Tiangong-1 conducted experiments in space technology, space-earth remote sensing and space environment exploration, the office said. China plans to finalise its space station to rival Mir, the Russian space station currently in orbit by 2022.

Deer to get access to drinking water 24×7 in Kondapalli forest

News

• Spotted deer and sambar in the Kondapalli Reserve Forest (KRF) will now get access to drinking water 24×7 this summer.
• Kondapalli Reserve Forest is a reserved forest in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. It is spread over an area of 30,000 acres(120 km²) and is under the protection of Andhra Pradesh Forest Department.

Beyond News

• The forest authorities have decided to ensure availability of water round the clock in the natural water sources for the deer in the reserve forest.
• Scarcity of water had forced the animals to come out of the forest to quench their thirst, thereby falling prey to hunters.
• Since 2015, three deer were hunted by the local communities when they came out of the reserve forest in search of water. Cases are under trial as per the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.

India ranks 67 in fixed broadband speed in February: Ookla

News

• India ranked 67th in terms of fixed broadband speeds and 109th for mobile internet speeds globally in February, internet testing and analysis platform Ookla said.

Beyond News

• The company’s updated Speedtest Global Index revealed that in absolute terms, India’s performance in fixed broadband download speeds have gone up from average speeds of 18.82 mbps in November 2017 to 20.72 mbps in February 2018, marking significant improvement since last quarter.

 

‘Illegal immigrants issue top priority’

News

• Bangladesh High Commissioner said that the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India, particularly those with links to terrorist outfits, was being handled on a priority basis.

Beyond News

• Over the past two weeks, the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad has arrested 30 alleged citizens of Bangladeshi from various parts of the State.
• Three of the arrested accused claimed to be members of Ansarullah Bangla Team, a terrorist organisation, which owes allegiance to the Al-Qaeda and is banned in Bangladesh.
• He also said that, there is consistent coordination between India and Bangladesh over the issue. Information is shared regularly. The border security agencies of both countries meet twice a year, and Home Ministers of the countries meet at least once a year to discuss the issue. It is being constantly reviewed. The Bangladesh government has also nabbed and handed over insurgent elements to Indian security agencies.
• He said that.the governments of both countries were in talks to ensure bilateral cooperation in fields such as security, trade, connectivity, energy, and civil nuclear agreement.

Animals too have DNA fingerprints

News

• Individual members of many species also have unique and identifiable genetic profiles.

Beyond News

• As with human beings, a large number of variations in a relatively short sequence of DNA can make it possible to identify an individual and to distinguish that animal from other members of the species.
• DNA fingerprinting is commercially available for dogs, for example, for purposes like identifying a lost or stolen pet or tracing a pedigree.

Uses

• The approach is also used in wildlife research.
• It can determine whether an isolated population of wild birds has become too inbred for survival, for instance, so that some can be moved elsewhere.
• Scientists at the University of Arizona and elsewhere also have turned to genetic fingerprinting to identify individual animals that have been poached or illegally trafficked, as well as to determine where imported animals came from.

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