Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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Indo-French naval exercise enters next phase

News

• The 17th edition of Varuna, an Indo-French naval exercise, currently on off Goa coast, is the largest joint exercise undertaken by the two Navies and represents the strengthened maritime co-operation between India and France.

Beyond News

• The harbour and sea phases of the exercise aimed at honing skills for naval operations across the broad spectrum, with an increased focus on tactical scenarios.
• The second sea phase is scheduled to be held in Djibouti, located on the Horn of Africa.
• It will be the largest ever conducted Varuna exercise with 11 of India and Frances’s most modern units, including two aircraft and two submarines.

Over 100 U.S. firms to join Dept. of Commerce on trade visit to India

News

• The S. Commercial Service will bring more than 100 U.S. companies to India as part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s largest annual trade mission program, Trade Winds.

Beyond News

• Trade Winds Indo-Pacific features a three-day business forum in New Delhi, with additional trade mission stops in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Bangladesh.
• At each mission stop, the attending companies will meet directly with government leaders, market experts and pre-vetted potential business partners.
• Trade Winds, now in its 11th year, has directly supported more than $3.4 billion in U.S. exports in over 40 countries, and in 2018, U.S. exports of goods and services to the Indo-Pacific were more than $476 billion.
• Exports of U.S. goods and services to India reached $58.9 billion in 2018. I look forward to hearing of future successes from the companies taking part in Trade Winds.

US to propose hike in H-1B application fee: Labour Secretary

News

• The United States administration is proposing a hike in the H-1B visa application fee to increase funding for the expansion of apprentice programmes that train American youths in technology related activities, Labour Secretary Alexander Acosta told lawmakers.

Beyond News

• Indian IT companies, which account for a large number of H-1B applications, are likely to face the additional financial burden because of this proposed increase.
• The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
• The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China
• Arguing that foreigners hurt American workers by competing for jobs and driving down wages, the Trump administration has tightened the noose around the H-1B visa programme.
• Last year immigration officials denied nearly one out of every four requests for new visas for skilled foreign workers.
• The focus is on industries reliant on H-1B visas. It aims at expanding apprenticeships and increase the level of apprenticeship activity among a range of new employers within these industries, particularly small- and medium-sized businesses.
• In fiscal 2018, the department concluded 649 non-immigrant visa programme cases and found violations in 553 of those cases.
• Every year, more than 100,000 foreign workers were brought to the U.S. on the H-1B visa and allowed to stay for up to six years. There were about 650,000 H-1B visa foreign workers in the U.S. at any given moment.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Nests of grizzled giant squirrel spotted in Tamil Nadu

News

• For the first time, researchers have sighted nests of the grizzled giant squirrel, an endangered species listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 at Pakkamalai Reserve Forests near Gingee in the Eastern Ghats.

Beyond News

• The grizzled giant squirrel is usually known to nest in the Western Ghats in Southern India ranging from Chinnar Wildlife sanctuary in Kerala to Anamalai Tiger Reserve and Palani hills in Tamil Nadu.
• Owing to habitat loss and poaching, the species has been categorised as near threatened by the Red List and listed under Schedule II of CITES.
• A team of researchers and wildlife activists from Indigenous Biodiversity Foundation (IBF), a non-profit organisation were conducting a survey in the Pakkamalai Reserve Forests near Gingee when they spotted grizzled giant squirrels. Over 300 nests of the endangered species were spotted by the group.
• The grizzled giant squirrel have earlier been spotted in Tiruvannamalai Forest Division in 2014, which was the only recorded sighting from this region in the Eastern Ghats.

40% of amphibian species, more than a third of all marine mammals threatened: UN report

News

• Relentless pursuit of economic growth, twinned with the impact of climate change,has put an ”unprecedented” one million species at risk of extinction, scientists said in a landmark report on the damage done by modern civilisation to the natural world.

Findings

• Only a wide-ranging transformation of the global economic and financial system could pull ecosystems that are vital to the future of human communities worldwide back from the brink of collapse, concluded the report, which was endorsed by 130 countries, including the U.S., Russia and China.
• Known as the Global Assessment, the report found that up to one million of Earth’s estimated eight million plant, insect and animal species is at risk of extinction, many within decades.
• The authors identified industrial farming and fishing as major drivers with the current rate of species extinction tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the last 10 million years.
• Climate change caused by burning the coal, oil and gas produced by the fossil fuel industry is exacerbating the losses, the report found.
• The findings will also add to pressure for countries to agree bold action to protect wildlife at a major conference on biodiversity due to take place in China towards the end of next year.
• Combining wide-ranging disciplines to measure how the loss of the natural world affects human societies, the report identified a range of risks, from the disappearance of insects vital for pollinating food crops, to the destruction of coral reefs that support fish populations that sustain coastal communities, or the loss of medicinal plants.
• The report found that the average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1900.
• The threatened list includes more than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals, and more than a third of all marine mammals. The picture was less clear for insect species, but a tentative estimate suggests 10% are at risk of extinction.

Cyber centre issues ‘threat alert’

News

• The P. Cyber Security Operations Centre issued a threat advisory to all departments a couple of days ago against using private e-mails in view of their vulnerability to attacks in phishing and other forms, and blocked the said e-mails as a precautionary measure.

Beyond News

• This resulted in private e-mails not working at the Secretariat departments and other offices.
• It was not a technical snag but deliberate blocking by the IT Department of the e-mails which were susceptible to cyber-attacks.
• All departments have been alerted about it and advised to stick to official domain-based (‘ap.gov.in’) e-mails accounts to avoid potential attacks, dismissing speculation that it could be an act of mischief.
• People were excessively habituated to private e-mails which faced threat from malicious software like Ransomware, in spite of the availability of secure e-mail addresses.
• The alert was also necessitated by the need to safeguard the IT assets in the wake of the attack reported by TCS which is the service provider for AP-DISCOMs.
• Upon receiving information that the websites of Telangana DISCOMs were seized by hackers using Robinhood Ransomware (RR), the A.P. Government started taking appropriate action to thwart such attacks.

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