Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Indonesia’s most active volcano rumbles, public ordered to stay

News

• Indonesia’s most active volcano, Mount Merapi on densely populated Java island, has shown danger signs with a series of small eruptions, and authorities have ordered villagers living on its slopes to leave and hikers to stay clear.

Beyond News

• A series of eruptions at Mount Merapi in 2010 killed more than 350 people and authorities are taking no chances after plumes of smoke and ash billowed into the sky late.
• There can be no public activity within a 3 km radius. Hiking is also temporarily prohibited, a spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency said.
• The agency raised the alert level a notch.
• Through the ages, Indonesians have tilled the fertile volcanic soil on the mountain’s slopes and more recently the volcano has become a tourist site.
• The disaster agency described Merapi’s eruptions as phreatic, which means magma heats up ground water and vapour is released under pressure.
• This month, the airport in Yogyakarta, the closest city to the volcano, was briefly shut down because of the eruptions.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Kerala may seek WHO help to battle Nipah

News

• A day after it was confirmed that the Nipah virusinfection had caused the death of three members of a family in Kerala’s Kozhikode district, a team from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has termed the incidence the “third major outbreak in the country.”

Beyond News

• One more person died of suspected infection of the virus. The laboratory result of another person who died has confirmed the presence of the virus. The State governmentis considering seeking the help of the World Health Organisation. A team of experts of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences is expected to visit the district.
• The illness was transmitted from animals to humans and bats were the carriers.
• Detailed tests would have to be conducted, in coordination with the Animal Husbandry Ministry. Only then could the complete cycle of infection be understood.
• Circumstantial evidence indicated that the deaths were among family members, the first level of contact, and healthcare workers who had got in touch with them. Secondary contacts were under observation.

World Bank listens to Pak’s grievances on Indus Waters Treaty

News

• A Pakistani delegation raised the issue of India’s alleged violation of the Indus Waters Treaty with the World Bank which discussed opportunities within the treaty to seek an amicable resolution, officials said.

Beyond News

• Meeting took place days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 330 MW Kishanganga hydroelectric project in Jammu and Kashmir, amid protests from Pakistan which claims that the project on a river flowing into Pakistan will disrupt water supplies.
• Pakistan’s Foreign Office had voiced concern over the inauguration of the hydroelectric project, saying inauguration without resolution of dispute between the two countries will tantamount to violation of the Indus Waters 1960 that regulates the use of waters in the shared rivers.
• Islamabad had been raising objections over the design of the hydel project, saying it is not in line with the criteria laid down under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between the two countries.
• The project was started in 2007, located at Bandipore in North Kashmir, envisages diversion of water of Kishan Ganga river to underground power house through a 23.25-km-long head race tunnel to generate 1713 million units per annum.
• On May 17, 2010, Pakistan moved for international arbitration against India under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty.
• The Hague-based International Court of Arbitration allowed India in 2013 to go ahead with construction of the project in North Kashmir and upheld Indias right under the bilateral Indus Waters Treaty to divert waters from the Kishanganga for power generation in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The international court, however, decided that India shall release a minimum flow of nine cubic metres per second into the Kishanganga river (known as Neelam in Pakistan) at all times to maintain environmental flows.
• Pakistan is building a 969 MW Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project downstream.
• The Pak Foreign Office in a statement in Islamabad last week said it was seriously concerned about the inauguration of the hydroelectric project.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear dispute over power plant in Gujarat

News

• The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up an appeal by Indian villagers against a power plant in Gujarat, funded by U.S.-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), which has allegedly resulted in environmental damages.

Beyond News

• The villagers along with several other farmers and fishermen, allege that coal-fired Tata Mundra Power Plant has resulted in widespread environmental damages.
• Washington DC-based IFC, the financing wing of the World Bank, has provided $450 million in financial assistance to the project.
• The Supreme Court said it would decide whether the IFC enjoyed immunity under the 1945 International Organisations Immunity Act.
• Petitioners knocked the door of the Supreme Court this year after lower courts dismissed their petitions arguing that the IFC enjoyed immunity, like other foreign countries, under the 1945 International Organisations Immunity Act.
• In their petition, the villagers argued that the Tata Mundra Power Plant has failed to comply with international environmental standards. This has resulted in devastation of local environment.
• In 2015, the applicants Indian farmers, fishermen, a trade union of fishworkers, and a local government entity  sued the IFC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They brought claims for negligence, negligent supervision, public nuisance, private nuisance, trespass, and breach of contract.
• The petitioners lost the case before a district court in 2016 and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 2017. Both the courts argued that IFC enjoys immunity.

Visa-for-money racket exposed in Rajasthan; Home Ministry orders probe

News

• The Home Ministry said that it was reviewing its internal processes after a Ministry official was arrested by the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for allegedly extorting money from Hindu migrants from Pakistan.

Beyond News

• A senior secretariat assistant in the Home Ministry was arrested last week, along with three middlemen, as he was caught accepting money from them at a hotel in Jodhpur.
• The official visited the city regularly to attend hearings on writ petitions from Pakistani Hindu migrants in the Rajasthan High Court.
• The Special Court (Anti-Corruption Cases) in Jodhpur has remanded the four accused, to the ACB’s custody.
• The three men who were allegedly operating as agents, have identified themselves as Pakistani migrants who have been granted Indian citizenship.
• Superintendent of Police (ACB-Jodhpur) said the probe had revealed that they had demanded and accepted bribes from about 3,000 Pakistani migrants in 2017 alone.
• The ACB officials have also questioned four other middlemen while collecting evidence of extortion from Pakistani migrants who had applied for visa extension, visa transfer and grant of citizenship.
• The ACB, which has registered the case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
• Long Term Visa (LTV) applications of more than 80% of the 20,000 Pakistani Hindu migrants in western Rajasthan were still pending.
• According to a Home Ministry official, 12,100 Hindu immigrants from Pakistan have been granted LTVs since 2012. LTVs are a precursor to citizenship based on reports submitted by respective State governments.
• Government had in 2015 exempted Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Afghanistan nationals, belonging to Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Christian and Jain communities who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, in respect of their entry and stay in India without proper documents or after the expiry of relevant documents. Since 2015, around 150 Bangladeshi Hindus were also granted LTVs.
• There are 400 Pakistani Hindu refugee settlements in cities like Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jaipur. Hindu refugees from Bangladesh mostly live in West Bengal and northeastern States.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos tested successfully to validate new features

News

• Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was successfully fired from a test range along the Odisha coast to validate some new features.

Beyond News

• The missile, an Indo-Russian joint venture, was tested from a mobile launcher at Launch Pad 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasore.
• The trial was conducted to validate its “life extension” technologies developed for the first time by DRDO and team BrahMos, said an official of the ITR.
• The successful test will result in huge savings of replacement cost of missiles held in the inventory of the armed forces.
• The two-stage missile first being solid and the second one, a ramjet liquid propellant  has already been introduced in the Army and the Navy, while the Air Force version had witnessed asuccessful trial, the DRDO scientists said.
• BrahMos variants can be launched from land, air, sea and under water.
• India successfully launched the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile from a Sukhoi-30 MKI combat jet for the first time against a target in the Bay of Bengal in November, 2017.
• At least two Su-30 squadrons with 20 planes each are planned to be equipped with the missile, which will be 500 kg lighter than the land/naval variants.
• According to the scientists, increasing the missile’s range from 400 km to further 800 km is now possible after India’s induction into the Missile Technology Control Regime in June 2016. Prior to that, India was bound by restrictions that limited the range of the missile, to less than 300 km.
• Currently, the Army is equipped with three regiments of Block 111 version of the missile.
• After two successful tests of the missile from INS Kolkata in June 2014 and February 2015, the test-firing from INS Kochi on September 30, 2015, validated the newly commissioned ship’s systems. The air launch version and the submarine launch version of the missile system are in progress.
• So far, the Army has placed orders for the missile which are to be deployed by three regiments.

Giant Chinese salamander speeding towards extinction, says study

News

• The world’s largest amphibians, giant Chinese salamanders, were once thought to be widespread but now face imminent extinction due to illegal poaching and hunting as a luxury food, researchers said.

Beyond News

• The over exploitation of these incredible animals for human consumption has had a catastrophic effect on their numbers in the wild over an amazingly short time span.
• Unless coordinated conservation measures are put in place as a matter of urgency, the future of the world’s largest amphibian is in serious jeopardy.
• Vast surveys were conducted in 2013 and 2016 at river sites where the critically endangered salamanders the size of small alligators and weighing some 64 kg  are known to live.
• China has a programme in place to breed and release giant salamanders back into the wild. At the few sites where salamanders were seen, researchers could not confirm whether they were wild or farmed.
• Field surveys and interviews indicate the species has experienced catastrophic range-wide decline apparently driven by overexploitation.
• The status of wild populations may be even worse than data suggest.
• Conservation strategies for the salamander require urgent updating.

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