Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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143% turnout in world’s highest polling booth

News

• The world’s highest polling station at 15,256 feet in Tashigang village of Himachal Pradesh  recorded an unbelievable 142.85% voter turnout. And all votes were duly declared valid.

Beyond News

• In another unique feature of the country’s democratic exercise, the smallest polling booth Ka, located near Tashigang in Spiti valley itself and having only 16 registered voters, the poll percentage stood at over 81.25%. A total of 13 voters cast their votes in Ka.
• Against merely 49 registered voters in the Tashigang electoral roll, a total of 70 voters cast their votes at the village polling booth.
• The unbelievable spike in the poll percentage was attributed to the desire of many poll officials, deployed at Tashiganag and other neighbouring polling booths, to cast their votes at the world’s highest polling station, located at a dizzying height of 15,256 ft.
• Out of the 49 registered voters of Tashigang village, a total of 36 villagers cast their votes. They included 21 men and 15 women, who together accounted for nearly 74% turnout among village voters.
• The poll officials cast their votes at Tashigang polling booth after showing their election duty certificates (EDCs) issued to them by concerned assistant returning officer.
• Tashigang is a village near an ancient monastery in Himachal Pradesh. It is the highest settlement in Spiti Valley near the India-Tibet border with villages Nako and Khab located nearby and is connected to Shimla by National Highway 22.
• Tashigang acquired the unique distinction of becoming the highest polling station during the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections in 2017, when the erstwhile polling station Hikkim at the highest altitude of 14,400 ft was replaced by Tashigang due to some technical reasons.
• Both Tashigang and Ka polling stations fall under the Mandi parliamentary seat where the highest number of 17 candidates among the four Lok Sabha seats in the State are in the fray.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

India adopts new standards for measuring units kilogram, kelvin, mole & ampere

News

• With the definition of the ‘kilogram’ getting a global, technical makeover, textbooks from those used in schools to ones recommended by engineering colleges in India are set to undergo an update.

Beyond News

• The kilogram derived its provenance from the weight of a block of a platinum-iridium alloy housed at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France.
• All other prototypes that served as national reference standards, including the one at New Delhi’s CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL), were calibrated to it. No longer.
• On May 20, the kilogram joined other standard units of measure such as the second, metre, ampere, Kelvin, mole and candela that would no longer be defined by physical objects.
• The measures are all now defined on the basis of unchanging universal, physics constants. The kilogram now hinges on the definition of the Planck Constant, a constant of nature that relates to how matter releases energy.
• The CSIR-NPL, which is India’s official reference keeper of units of measurements, released a set of recommendations requiring that school textbooks, engineering-education books, and course curriculum update the definition of the kilogram.
• The institute is also in the process of making its own ‘Kibble Balance’, a device that was used to measure the Planck Constant and thereby reboot the kilogram.
• An updated kilogram doesn’t mean that weights everywhere will be thrown off balance. For everyday measurements, consumers wanting to calibrate their instruments whether it’s for high-precision drug manufacturing or retail weighing machines will continue doing it the same way.
• The NPL itself will be relying on the kilogram maintained in the U.S.-based National Institutes of Standards and Technology to calibrate its one-kilogram weight.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

With RISAT-2B, India resumes radar imaging space fleet

News

• RISAT-2B, the satellite due to be launched from Sriharikota, will mark the resumption of a vital ring of Indian all-seeing radar imaging satellites after seven years.

Beyond News

• At least a half-dozen could be foreseen in the near future, mainly to add to the reconnaissance capability from about 500 km in space. A constellation of such space-based radars means a comprehensive vigil over the country.
• RISAT-2B is to be followed by RISAT-2BR1, 2BR2, RISAT-1A, 1B, 2A and so on. If ISRO orbited its first two radar satellites in 2009 and 2012, it plans to deploy four or five of them in 2019 alone.
• When it is cloudy or dark, ‘regular’ remote-sensing or optical imaging satellites which work like a light-dependent camera cannot perceive hidden or surreptitious objects on the ground.
• Satellites that are equipped with an active sensor, the synthetic aperture radar (SAR), can sense or ‘observe’ Earth in a special way from space day and night, rain or cloud. This all-weather seeing feature is what makes them special for security forces and disaster relief agencies.
• A radar imaging satellite is complex to assemble. Interpreting its images is equally complex. ISRO took almost 10 years to realise RISAT-1, said an another expert who did not wish to be named. It sends much heavier data than plain remote sensing satellites.
• Radar imaging satellites pick up structures, new bunkers very well, and sometimes help to count them, too.
• In India also use radar imaging for crop estimation because our main crop growing season of kharif is in May-September when it rains and gets cloudy. They have used this data extensively for forestry, soil, land use, geology and during floods and cyclone.”

Higher wind power generation brings down average spot prices by 26%

News

• The average spot prices of power have fallen 26% in May, as higher wind power production in States like Tamil Nadu has made them less dependent on energy exchanges for power.

Beyond News

• According to data from Indian Energy Exchange, the average power price fell to ₹3.03 per unit in May 2019 (up to May 15) from ₹4.09 per unit in May 2018.
• In April 2019, the average power price declined 19%, to ₹3.22 per unit from ₹3.98 in April 2018.
• Discoms generally buy short-term power from exchanges to meet their peak demand.
• Normally, May is supposed to be the peak month for the State because of ‘Agni Natchatram’. A combination of factors has been cited as the reason for the average cost of power coming down this month compared to last year.
• According to data from State Load Despatch Centre, an all-time high consumption of 369.940 million units was reached on April 12 and in terms of demand the all-time high was 16,151 MW on April 3.
• On May 17, 1,349 MW of wind energy was generated during the lighting peak evening hours and the consumption was 354.502 million units, as per the data.

Odisha’s plan to restore coastal green cover

News

• The Odisha government has chalked out a ₹200-crore, five-year plan to restore the green cover lost due to Cyclone Fani in the coastal region.

Beyond News

• Chief Minister has directed the Forest Department to implement the ‘Five-year action plan on revival of coastal shelter belt and afforestation programme’ on a mission mode.
• The government would undertake the afforestation programme on 8,000 hectares over a five-year period. While 65 lakh saplings were distributed in 2018-19 in Fani-affected districts, it would be doubled to 1.3 crore in 2019-20.
• Under an urban tree plantation programme, five lakh saplings would be planted in five years. Also, about 30,000 uprooted trees would be replanted and restored in suitable places. The government targets to plant fruit-bearing plants in 12,000 hectares which would help revive the livelihood of many cyclone-affected people.
• Of the 1.3 crore saplings, the Forest Department will plant 80 lakh, while 50 lakh will be planted by different educational institutions, industrial and private areas.
• Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed causing a damage of ₹537 crore when Cyclone Fani hit the State.

Global groups seek revision of WHO guidlines on biotherapeutic medicines

News

• Over 60 civil society organisations from across the world have written to the Director General of World Health Organisation (WHO) demanding revision of the global health body’s ‘Guidelines for Evaluation of Similar Biotherapeutic Product (SBPs),’ which were adopted in 2009.

Beyond News

• Biotherapeutic medicines, also known as biologics, are produced through biological processes and differ from the older generation small-molecule medicines that are derived through chemical synthesis.
• Civil Society groups claim that even though a Resolution of the World Health Assembly in 2014 mandates the Director General to convene the WHO expert committee on biological standardization to update the 2009 guidelines, till date, the secretariat has neither updated the SBP guidelines nor has the WHO given any scientific reasons for the decision, the group added.
• The groups including the Cancer Patients Aid Association (India), Section 27 (South Africa), Third World Network (Malaysia), and Treatment Action Group (USA) have demanded that WHO, in its capacity as the directing and coordinating authority on international health, promptly make public the scientific reasons for insisting on comparative clinical trials for the approval of SBP and urgently take measures to update the SBP Guidelines.
• They also sought public consultations to review the scientific evidence with respect to the need for comparative clinical trials, among other things.

Steps to prevent flooding in Kuttanad region

News

• With Southwest monsoon around the corner, the Kuttanad district administration and Irrigation Department in Kerala have sprung into action to ensure smooth flow of water through Thanneermukkom Bund and Thottappally Spillway.

Beyond News

• Earlier this month, a high-level meeting convened by Water Resources Minister proposed a host of measures to be taken before the onset of monsoon season.
• The earthen embankment in the middle of backwaters at Thanneermukkom would be demolished immediately.
• In regard to the Thottappally spillway, measures are afoot to remove sandbar at the estuary. Sources said that as decided at the high-level meeting, casuarina trees close to the estuary would be felled.
• The decision was based on an observation that the trees were impeding water flow from the Kuttanad region.
• Further, also decided to invite expression of interest for deepening Thottappally leading channel to ensure smooth flow of water from Kuttanad region and to go ahead with the planned removal of mineral-rich sand from the estuary.
• The Irrigation Department will sell the sand to the Indian Rare Earths (IRE)/Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd.

Evidence of water found on Ultima Thule: NASA

News

• NASA has found evidence for a unique mixture of methanol, water ice, and organic molecules on Ultima Thule’s surface the farthest world ever explored by mankind.
• The U.S. space agency has published the first profile of Ultima Thule  an ancient relic from the era of planet formation revealing details about the complex space object.

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