Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

Editorials are covered separately. HINDU NOTES are available free date wise| CLICK HERE

Hidden mountain ranges discovered under Antarctica ice

News:

• Researchers have discovered mountain ranges and three huge, deep subglacial valleys hidden beneath the Antarctica ice.

Significance:

• The findings are the first to emerge from extensive ice penetrating radar data collected in Antarctica as part of the European Space Agency PolarGAP project.

Beyond News

• Although there are extensive satellite data that help image the surface of the Earth and its deep interior, there was a gap around the South Pole area, which is not covered by satellites due the inclination of their orbits.
• The PolarGAP project was therefore designed to fill in the gap in the satellite data coverage of the South Pole and in particular acquire the missing gravity data.
• Airborne radar data were also collected to enable mapping of the bedrock topography hidden beneath the ice sheet. The data reveals the topography which controls how quickly ice flows between the East and West Antarctic ice sheets.
• These valleys could be important in future as they help to channel the flow of ice from the centre of the continent towards the coast.
• If climate change causes the ice sheet to thin, these troughs could increase the speed at which ice flows from the centre of Antarctica to the sea, raising global sea levels.
• The largest valley, known as the Foundation Trough, is more than 350 kilometres long and 35 kilometres wide. Its length is equivalent to the distance from London to Manchester, while its width amounts to more than one and a half times the length of New York’s Manhattan Island.
• The two other troughs are equally vast. The Patuxent Trough is more than 300 kilometres long and over 15 kilometres wide, while the Offset Rift Basin is 150 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide.

Great Barrier Reef facing its toughest test ever

News:

• Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, under severe stress in a warmer, more acidic ocean, has returned from near-extinction five times in the past 30,000 years, researchers said.

Beyond News: 

• While this suggests the reef may be more resilient than once thought, it has likely never faced an onslaught quite as severe as today.
• In the past, the reef shifted along the sea floor to deal with changes in its environment either seaward or landward depending on whether the level of the ocean was rising or falling.
• Based on fossil data from cores drilled into the ocean floor at 16 sites, they determined the Great Barrier Reef was able to migrate between 20 cm and 1.5 metres per year. This rate may not be enough to withstand the current barrage of environmental challenges.
• The reef probably has not faced changes in SST (sea surface temperature) and acidification at such a rate are likely much faster now and in future projections.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Modi begins Indonesia visit by laying wreath at military cemetery

News

• Prime Minister began his Indonesia visit by paying homage to martyrs of Indonesian independence struggle as he laid a wreath at the Kalibata National Heroes’ Cemetery in Jakarta.

Beyond News

• Prime Minister will meet President Joko Widodo and discuss bilateral cooperation in a broad range of areas, including maritime, trade and investment.
• Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery in South Jakarta is a military cemetery in Indonesia. It was built in 1953 and opened in November 1954 when the first burial took place.
• More than 7,000 people who are military casualties and veterans from Indonesian War of Independence are buried at the cemetery.
• Prime Minister arrived in the Indonesian capital on the first leg of his three-nation tour to East Asia to cement the political, economic and strategic interest of the two friendly maritime neighbours.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Bengal’s Chau mask acquires GI fame

News

• The Chau mask of Purulia, the wooden mask of Kushmandi, the Patachitra, the Dokras of Bengal, and Madhurkathi (a kind of mat) have been presented with the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indication Registry and Intellectual Property India.

Beyond News

• A GI tag connects the quality and authenticity of a given product to a particular geographical origin, thereby ensuring that no one other than the authorised user can use the popular product’s name.
• Deputy Registrar of Geographical Indications, told that GI tags for these five rural crafts would not only help the artisans create their own brand but would also provide legal protection to artisans practising the crafts against attempts to duplicate them in other regions.
• GI tags are given on the basis of the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. The first product to be included in the list was Darjeeling Tea.
• While 500 families were involved in the making of large and colourful Chau masks used in the Chau dance, also known as Chhau, in Baghmundi block of Purulia, around 200 families in Kushmandi make the wooden masks used for the Mukha dance.
• In Paschim Medinipur, a few hundred families in Pingla village make the beautifully painted scrolls called Patachitra, and 3,000 families in two districts were into making Madurkathi.

Bacteria-coated broccoli sent to space

News

• Scientists have sent broccoli seeds coated with a healthy dose of good bacteria to space in a quest to find a viable way for astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) to grow their own vegetables and possibly one day on the Moon or Mars.

Beyond News

• The goal of the experiment, is to learn how to grow vegetables in the challenging, microgravity conditions of the space station and eventually on the Moon and Mars  as human space exploration expands.
• Six broccoli seeds were aboard the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft that launched this week from Wallops Island, Virginia, as part of a space station cargo resupply mission.
• Three of the seeds are travelling to space as it is, while the other three were coated with two different species of bacteria, developed at the University of Washington, that can live inside crop plants and improve their growth.
• These “beneficial” microbes, also called endophytes, may also help plants grow better in extreme low-gravity environments, and where nutrients or water could be lacking.

NGT issues notices on plea to halt road through Corbett

News:

• A plea seeking a stay on the construction of a link road linking Kotdwar to Ramnagar through the Corbett Tiger Reserve has led the National Green Tribunal to seek responses from the Uttarakhand government and the Centre.

Beyond News

• A Bench issued show-cause notices to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, National Tiger Conservation Authority, National Board for Wildlife, NBBC (India) Limited and State government.
• The orders came while the green panel was hearing a plea which alleged that the construction of the link road would damage the ecosystem and biodiversity of the tiger reserve.
• The plea alleged that the construction of the road was in violation of previous Supreme Court orders that prohibited the construction of any road through the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

India resists lobbying by U.S. payment firms to ease local data storage rules

News

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is standing firm on a directive to compel global payment firms to store customer data in India, resisting calls from U.S. companies to dilute an order they say would cost them millions of dollars, people familiar with the matter said.

Beyond News

• The payment companies are worried India’s data onshoring move could set a precedent and nudge other major governments to implement similar rules at a time when there is heightened scrutiny on how companies globally handle their customers’ data.
• The industry’s tussle with the RBI also comes as Prime Minster aggressively pushes digital and cashless modes of payment that leave an electronic trail as part of a campaign to crack down on the black economy.
• While Mr. Modi’s administration is working on a separate data protection law, foreign companies were caught off guard in April by the RBI’s one-page directive that said all payments data should within six months be stored only in the country for “unfettered supervisory access”.
• The RBI said storing data locally would help “ensure better monitoring”.
• The card companies are nervous that the move will disrupt their investment plans, as millions of dollars are diverted from other projects in a scramble to open local data centres within six months.
• The RBI’s insistence that payments data be stored “only in India” would hamper global fraud detection and the companies should be allowed to keep a back-up, the sources said.
• Master card said it was working with the industry to engage the RBI “to understand their need for access to domestic data and work towards a solution that meets the regulatory requirements” in line with global norms.
• The move would not impact local players such as Soft bank Group-backed Indian digital payments firm Paytm, as well as homegrown card payment network RuPay, which competes with the likes of Visa and Mastercard, as they already store their data in India.

CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE CURRENT AFFAIRS.