Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Number of people below the poverty line to increase in city

News

• The number of people below the poverty line in the Chennai city is likely to increase, as more than 28 lakh residents of notified and non-notified slums are expected to be included in the BPL list.

Findings

• Officials have compiled a list of 7.12 lakh BPL families, of the 17.88 lakh families in the city. The data already points to 40% people under the poverty line in the city.
• The percentage of BPL families is high in zones such as Tondiarpet, Royaouram and Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, with 45% under the poverty line. But southern zones such as Adyar have just 30% families below the poverty line. Southern zones such as Sholinganallur and Perungudi have 35% BPL families.
• Civic authorities in Chennai have sent a proposal to the government on new parameters for identifying BPL families in the city. The earlier list of 5.4 lakh BPL families was based on data generated in 2004 and parameters like employment and housing.
• The BPL list of 2004 has not been updated in Chennai. It was based on the SJSRY guidelines.
• SJSRY (Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana) provided gainful employment to the urban unemployed or the underemployed poor by encouraging the setting up of self-employment ventures and wage employment. This programme relied on the creation of suitable community structures, and delivery of inputs under the programme was through urban local bodies.
• The new BPL parameters are set to be redefined by the government shortly. From the 67 lakh residents of the 17.88 lakh families in Chennai, the Chennai Corporation has been able to receive just 12.03 lakh filled application forms from families. Many residents refused to get the application forms from Corporation officials.
• The new survey has identified 27,195 street vendors who are likely to be classified as being below the poverty line. But the issue is that some street vendors also earn huge sums of money, have good houses and own vehicles.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

India, Vietnam to strengthen cooperation in atomic energy, defence and security

News

• India and Vietnam agreed to further strengthen cooperation in defence and security, peaceful uses of atomic energy and outer space, oil and gas and renewable energy as Indian Vice-President concluded his four-day visit to the Southeast Asian country.

Beyond News

• Vice-President’s talks with his Vietnamese interlocutors were extensive and productive and covered whole range of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
• Both sides agreed to further strengthen cooperation in defence and security, peaceful uses of atomic energy and outer space, oil and gas, renewable energy, agriculture and innovation-based sectors.
• Vietnam is an important trade partner of India and their bilateral trade stood at nearly USD 14 billion last year having nearly doubled from USD 7.8 billion three years ago.
• Indian Vice-President and Vietnam Prime Minister Phuc expressed commitment to enhancing trade and investments and agreed to facilitate direct air connectivity to promote tourism, trade and people-to-people relations.
• Both sides reiterated the importance of building a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region on the basis of respect for national sovereignty and international law, and expressed full commitment to an open, transparent, inclusive and rules-based regional architecture based on freedom of navigation and overflight, unimpeded economic activities and peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law.
• Vietnam’s leaders appreciated India’s long-standing development partnership engagement, especially scholarships and training programmes. They also thanked India for extending concessional Lines of Credit for defence industry cooperation and implementing other socio-cultural infrastructure projects in Vietnam under Indian grants-in-aid.
• Vice-President’s visit has imparted momentum to the bilateral relationship and provided an opportunity to review various areas of collaboration and cooperation of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, with Vietnam’s leadership.

India, Australia to adopt classified communications: official

News

• Although the Australian Navy is, at present, “hanging off” COMCASA India’s secure communications agreement with the U.S.  Australia and India are “moving forward” toward a classified-level communications environment.

Beyond News

• COMCASA (the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) was a “major step forward”, especially for interactions between navies of two countries that are restricted to the classified environment, for example conversations on counter-terrorism.
• At the present juncture, communication in an unclassified environment is part of an age-old tradition of ships meeting on the high seas, though even in that space, there has recently been an “evolution of authority to Indian Navy ships’ commanding officers to be able to do passage exercises”.
• Although the Australian Navy is, at present, “hanging off” COMCASA India’s secure communications agreement with the U.S.
• Australia and India are “moving forward” toward a classified-level communications environment.

DNA database coming up for Indian rhino

News

• The Union Environment Ministry has embarked on a project to create DNA profiles of all rhinos in the country.

Beyond News

• By 2021, the project’s deadline, the Indian rhino could be the first wild animal species in India to have all its members DNA-sequenced.
• The project’s proponents, including the World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India) and the Centre-funded Wildlife Institute of India (WII), said the exercise would be useful in curbing poaching and gathering evidence in wildlife crimes involving rhinos.
• There are about 2,600 rhinos in India, with more than 90% of the population concentrated in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park.
• Once the database is complete, identifying rhinos that were killed or poached would be easier. The project is a subset of the Centre’s larger, ongoing rhino conservation programme.
• Since the 1980s, the government has been trying to move a significant number of rhinos out of Kaziranga in the interest of the species’ conservation, threats from poaching and challenges to their habitat.
• Outside Kaziranga, there are about 200 rhinos in West Bengal, 40 in Uttar Pradesh and 1 in Bihar.
• There are three species of rhinos, of which only one the Indian rhino is found in the country. The rhinos were once abundant and well-distributed in the country. However poaching reduced its numbers to about “200 wild animals by the end of the 20th century”.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Mobs attack mosques, Muslim-owned shops and homes in Sri Lanka’s Kurunegala District

News

• Mobs attacked several mosques, torched dozens of shops and homes of Muslims in Kurunegala District, some 100 km north-west of capital Colombo, in the biggest incident of violence since the Easter serial bombings.

Beyond News

• A police curfew, initially imposed in six villages in the district, was later extended to cover the entire island until, amid fear of further attacks.
• The government blocked social media platforms including Whatsapp and Facebook following the violence.
• The incidents point to an escalation of violence targeting Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, following the Easter terror attacks that the government attributed to two local Islamist radical groups.
• The IS, too, later claimed responsibility for the explosions that claimed over 250 lives in Colombo, in nearby Negombo and the eastern city of Batticaloa.
• At least three mosques were attacked late in nearby Kiniyama.
• Kurunegala, an ancient royal capital, is a Sinhala-Buddhist-majority district which is home to nearly 16 lakh people. Muslims living here constitute 7.3%, according to government data.
• Hours after the attacks in Kurunegala, reports of similar incidents of violence emerged from Gampaha district, less than 30 km from Colombo.
• Chilaw town, near Colombo, witnessed dozens pelting mosques and Muslim-owned stores with stones, and a local man being beaten by a mob, prompting a police curfew.
• Colombo-based NGO Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) said that it was “alarmed” by the increased spate of communal violence against the Muslim community since the Easter attacks.

China hits back, imposes tariff hike on U.S. goods worth $60 bn

News

• China said it will raise tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods in retaliation to the latest round of U.S. tariff hikes and Washington’s plans to target almost all Chinese imports.

Beyond News

• The announcement came after the latest round of S.-China trade negotiations ended without a deal, and after Washington increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
• S. President Donald Trump had also ordered the start of a process to impose new duties on another $300 billion worth of Chinese items.
• The new rates will target a number of American imports with tariffs ranging from 5% to 25%, according to a statement by the Tariff Policy Commission of the State Council China’s Cabinet.
• The Chinese response was announced soon after Mr. Trump warned Beijing not to retaliate.
• In addition to tariff hikes, China could also use other measures to hit back at the U.S., as it imports fewer U.S. products which limits its ability to match tariffs dollar-for-dollar.
• In a previous round of tit-for-tat moves, the U.S. imposed 10% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports in September.
• Beijing announced shortly after that it was hitting over 5,000 categories of U.S. products with tariffs of 5 to 10%.

House damage assessment survey kicks off in cyclone-hit areas of Odisha

News

• With a month left for the Southwest monsoon to hit Odisha, the State government said it would begin a door-to-door house damage survey and issue work orders for the construction of houses in cyclone-affected areas.

Beyond News

• The Central team was apprised of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Fani by the Special Relief Commissioner, before going for a field visit.
• While the people of the affected districts have gone through immense hardship, the loss of shelter has been a devastating experience
• The State government is undertaking a detailed house damage assessment which would be completed shortly. The exact number of houses damaged completely or substantially will be arrived at after the survey.
• However, according to preliminary estimation, about 5 lakh houses have been completely or substantially damaged across 14 districts with the major loss occurring in Puri district.

Assam produces an orchid link to the Orient

News

• An Assam forest officer’s chance discovery has given India one of its smallest orchids in terms of size and duration of bloom to be recorded botanically.

Beyond News

• Lecanorchis taiwaniana, which the Japanese Journal of Botany has published as a “new record for the flora in India” in its latest issue, is a mycoheterotroph, one of two types of parasitic plants that have abandoned photosynthesis.
• Lecanorchis taiwanianaadds to the orchid wealth of northeast India, which has 800 of some 1,300 species in the country.
• About 300 species are found in the Western Ghats and 200 in the northwestern Himalayas.
• The orchid, discovered earlier in Japan, Taiwan, and Laos, was found to have a maximum height of 40 cm and a blossoming period of five-six days.

‘Rain-loving’ snake discovered in Mizoram

News

• A month after a Russian journal published the discovery of a reddish-brown pit viper in Arunachal Pradesh, the New Zealand-based journal Zootaxahas come out with the discovery of a non-venomous snake in Mizoram.
• It’s literally raining reptiles in the Northeast, and the latest to be discovered has a Mizo name that means rain-loving.

Findings

• The discovery of another non-venomous snake species the Crying Keelback, in Arunachal was published in an international journal about six months ago.
• The new genus and species of the natricine predominantly aquatic that took a seven-member team of herpetologists 12 years to document, has been named Smithophis atemporalisafter eminent British herpetologist Malcolm Arthur Smith for his immense contribution to Indian herpetology.
• Although new to science, the discovery is locally called Ruahlawmrul or rain-loving snake.
• The maximum recorded size of the new species is 655 mm and is commonly seen in human dominated landscapes after rains.
• The team had conducted molecular analyses to find that Ruahlawmrul and other species called bicoloured forest snake (Rhabdops bicolor), found primarily in Meghalaya, differed from the Olive forest snake (Rhabdops olivaceous) endemic to Western Ghats.
• Based on DNA and morphology, the study established that the two species are not at all closely related and what was once considered to be a single species from the Northeast, are actually two distinct species.
• While the species from the Western Ghats continues to remain in the genus Rhabdops,the two species from the Northeast have been assigned to a new genus
• The species from Mizoram lacks specific enlarged scales in the temporal region of the head. This character is extremely rare in snakes of this family, hence its name Smithophis atemporalisor the Mizo rain snake.

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