Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Spells of heavy rainfall see two-fold increase

News

• Very heavy rainfall lasting less than 24 hours (sub-daily) in urban locations in India has become more intense during the last few decades.

Beyond News

• Researchers said that,the frequency of sub-daily rainfall extreme has also witnessed a two-fold increase between 1979 and 2015.
• Currently, rainfall data is reported on 24-hour basis and long-term sub-daily observations are limited. In cities, heavy downpour for less than an hour can create urban flooding due to large impervious area.
• Since heavy rainfall for less than an hour causes flooding and deaths, it is now necessary to record the amount of rainfall every 15 minutes especially in the urban areas.
• Most of the previous studies have considered changes in atmospheric moisture on account of local or global change in climate warming (thermodynamic).
• But extreme precipitation is also linked to variations in atmospheric motion and vertical wind velocity (dynamic).
• For 1 Kelvin temperature increase, the half-hourly rainfall extreme increases by about 10%, while it is only about 6% in the case of daily rainfall extreme.

Reasons

• Both large-scale change in climate warming and localised heating due to urban heat island effect could be contributing to increased air temperature in cities leading to intense rainfall.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

KRMB panel allows AP to draw 9 tmc ft water for irrigation

News

• The row over utilisation of Krishna waters between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has subsided for the time being with the three-member committee of Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) allowing them to avail 33 tmc ft water till the month-end for meeting immediate irrigation needs.

Beyond News

• The three-member panel allowed AP to utilise 9 tmc ft and Telangana 24 tmc ft water to protect the standing crops under Nagarjunasagar Right and Left Canal systems.
• Official sources said that about 15 tmc ft out of 33 tmc ft to be drawn by the two States would be released from Srisailam to Nagarjunasagar after generation of power.
• The dispute over utilisation of water reached a flash point on February 28 when the irrigation officials and police from the two sides gathered at Srisailam Right Canal regulator at the reservoir site, following orders issued by KRMB to stop water release to the canal.
• The river board has asked the two States to coordinate among themselves on release of water to Nagarjunasagar Right and Left Canal systems to save the standing crop.

Diabetes has five types, say scientists

News

• Scientists unveiled a revised classification for diabetes, could lead to better treatments and help doctors more accurately predict life-threatening complications from the disease.

Beyond News

• There are five distinct types of diabetes that can occur in adulthood, rather than the two currently recognized.
• People with diabetes have excessively high blood glucose, or blood sugar, which comes from food.
• Some 420 million people around the world today suffer from diabetes, with the number expected to rise to 629 million by 2045, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

Current types of diabetics.

• With type-1 — generally diagnosed in childhood and accounting for about 10% of cases the body simply doesn’t make insulin, a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels.
• For type-2, the body makes some insulin but not enough, which means glucose stays in the blood.

Issues with current classification:

• This form of the disease correlates highly with obesity and can, over time, lead to blindness, kidney damage, and heart disease or stroke.
• It has long been known that type-2 diabetes is highly variable, but classification has remained unchanged for decades.
• By isolating measurements of insulin resistance, insulin secretion, blood sugar levels, age, and the onset of illness, they distinguished five distinct clusters of the disease three serious and two milder forms.
• Among the severe types, a group of patients with insulin resistance in which cells are unable to use insulin effectively  was at far higher risk of kidney disease.

New groups:

• The third “severe” group were people with auto-immune diabetes corresponding to the original “type-1” diagnosis.
• The two other groups have milder types of the disease including one, which includes about 40% of the patients, beset with a form of diabetes related to advanced age.

India to help build nuclear plant in Bangladesh

News

• India, Bangladesh and Russia have signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation in the construction of the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.

Beyond News

• The MoU was signed in Moscow by the Department of Atomic Energy of India, the Ministry of Science and Technology of Bangladesh and Rosatom.
• Russia is building the nuclear power plant in Bangladesh on a turnkey basis.
• Indian companies can be involved in construction and installation works and in the supply of equipment of a non-critical category .

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Water detected in exoplanet’s atmosphere

News

• Astronomers have detected a large amount of water in the atmosphere of a hot, Saturn-mass exoplanet some 700 light-years away.

Beyond News

• NASA said that ,the planet, known as WASP-39b, has three times as much water as Saturn does.
• Researchers said that,though no planet like this resides in our solar system, WASP-39b can provide new insights into how and where planets form around a star.

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