Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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An endangered tribe

News

• The Sentinelese, a negrito tribe who live on the North Sentinel Island of the Andamans, have not faced incursions and remain hostile to outsiders.

Importance

• Based on carbon dating of kitchen middens by the Anthropological Survey of India, Sentinelese presence was confirmed in the islands to 2,000 years ago. Genome studies indicate that the Andaman tribes could have been on the islands even 30,000 years ago.
• The Govt. of India issued the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956 to declare the traditional areas occupied by the tribes as reserves, and prohibited entry of all persons except those with authorisation.
• Photographing or filming the tribe members is also an offence. The rules were amended later to enhance penalties. But restricted area permits were relaxed for some islands recently.
• The Sentinelese have been fiercely hostile to outside contact. But in 1991 they accepted some coconuts from a team of Indian anthropologists and administrators.
• Some researchers argue that the Sentinelese have been mostly left alone even from colonial times, unlike other tribes such as the Onges, Jarawas and Great Andamanese, because the land they occupy has little commercial attraction.
• From 1901 to 1921 they were estimated to be 117 people. In 1931, the number dropped to 50, a figure used for the 1961 Census too. In 1991 their head count was put at 23. Census 2001 counted 39 inhabitants.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

India, Australia ink five pacts as Kovind meets PM Morrison

News

• India and Australia signed five agreements to boost investments and enhance cooperation in key sectors like disability, agricultural research and education as President Ram Nath Kovind met Australian Prime minister Scott Morrison in Sydney.

Beyond News

• Kovind, the first-ever Indian head of state to visit Australia, arrived in Sydney on the second leg of his two nation trip.
• The first agreement was for cooperation in the area of disability and to deliver services to the differently-abled. The second one was between Invest India and Austrade to facilitate bilateral investment.
• The third agreement was signed between the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute, Ranchi, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation, Canberra, to foster scientific collaboration and innovation.
• The fourth one between the Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, and the University of Western Australia, Perth, for cooperation in agricultural research and education while the last one was between the Indraprashta Institute of Information Technology, New Delhi, and the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane for a joint Ph.D agreement.
• The fund is designed to help researchers solve challenges shared by both nations, including energy storage, marine science and plant genomics.

E-registration must for jobs in 18 countries

News

• Passport holders with “non-Emigration Check Required (non-ECR)” status will soon have to get themselves registered with the Ministry of External Affairs before taking up jobs abroad.

Beyond News

• The rule, which takes effect on January 1, is said to be aimed at the welfare of Indians going abroad. It applies to jobs in 18 countries, including the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations, which have the largest number of expats.
• The non-ECR category of passengers include Indians paying income tax and those with educational qualification above matriculation. As of now only ECR category passport holders were required to get emigration clearance from the office of the Protector of Emigrants to seek employment abroad.
• Those failing to register at least 24 hours prior to actual departure will be off-loaded at the airports.
• For all other visa categories, there is no change in existing procedures.
• Officials say the objective of the directive is to protect workers with higher educational qualification from not getting into blue collar jobs. Previously only ECR stamped passport holders had to go through the mandatory e-migrate registration since 2015.
• Statistics available with the Ministry of External Affairs showed that UAE is one of the five top destination countries for Indians taking up employment. Nearly 1.5 lakh Indians had taken up employment in that country last year. This was followed by Saudi Arabia (78,611); Kuwait (56,380); Oman (43,332) and Qatar (24,759).
• Incidentally Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the top labour-sending State with 88,450 Indian emigrants registering with the e-migrate system. This was followed by Bihar (69,426); Tamil Nadu (38,341); West Bengal (36,599) and Rajasthan (32,184).

The other countries where registration is required are Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Thailand and Yemen.

Navy makes formal request for 24 MH-60R helicopters from U.S.

News

• India made a formal request to the U.S. for the purchase of 24 MH-60R Multi-Role Helicopters (MRH) for the Navy in a deal estimated at $2 billion.

This is among a series of defence procurements and inductions from the U.S. and Russia in last two months.

Details of the deal

• India issued a Letter of Request (LoR) on November 15 for purchase of 24 MRH from the U.S. Government.
• Deal through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route of U.S. Estimated to cost around $2 billion.
• MH-60R is the mainstay of the U.S. Navy’s Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability.
• It is capable of carrying out anti-ship, anti-submarine, electronic warfare, net-centric over-the-horizon offensive and defensive roles.
• Over 300 MH-60R Seahawk helicopters worldwide with over 600,00 flight hours accumulated.

Beyond News

• The Navy is presently facing a critical shortage of helicopters with several frontline warships flying with empty helicopter decks. These helicopters are being procured as replacement for 15 Sea King ASW helicopters de-inducted from service in 1991 and one Sea King 42B MRH lost in accident. The current MRHs in service, Sea King 42Bs, were inducted in the 1980s.
• In August, ahead of the inaugural India-US 2+2 dialogue, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) accorded the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the procurement.
• Given the urgency of helicopters, the U.S. is likely to take off some MH-60R helicopters from the flight deck of their newest aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford.
• In the last two months, India signed multi-billion dollar deals with Russia for S-400 long range air defence systems and four stealth frigates while shortlisting Russia for the Army’s shoulder fired air defence missiles deal. At the same time, the Army inducted the first batch of artillery guns from the U.S. and South Korea. The deals also come in the backdrop of U.S. threatening sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) law.
• This procurement will help in partially mitigating shortage of helicopters on frontline warships and bridge the Navy’s operational void in integral air Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability, the official stated.
• The MH-60R which is in service with the U.S. is a modern and proven multi-mission platform capable of carrying out anti-ship, anti-submarine, electronic warfare, net-centric over-the-horizon offensive and defensive roles required for the Navy.

Food adulterers in Maharashtra will face life sentence

News

• Maharashtra government would make food adulteration a non-bailable offence and provide for life-term to the offenders.

Beyond News

• The government would amend the existing law, to provide for life imprisonment to offenders.
• Amendments to the Prevention of Food Adulteration (Maharashtra Amendment) Act will be tabled in the House before the ongoing winter session of State legislature ends.
• The Minister said amendments to the Prevention of Food Adulteration (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 1969 will be tabled before the end of the session.
• Apart from making the offence non-bailable, the law will also provide for life-imprisonment to the guilty.
• Earlier, those found guilty of food adulteration could face imprisonment of six months but the government now plans to amend the Act, which will provide for life imprisonment to them.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Water release from dams didn’t lead to Kerala floods: IIT-M-Purdue University study

News

• The devastation wrought by the Kerala floods of August could not be attributed to the release of water from dams, says a computer-simulation of flood storage and flow patterns by a team of researchers.

Findings

• Scientists, say that the odds of such floods were “0.06%” and no reservoir management could have considered such scenarios.
• Previous analyses of the Kerala floods had not incorporated a simulation of water flows and relied only on measurements of water levels at dam sites.
• Kerala has 39 major dams. and they are maintained by the Kerala State Electricity Board and the Water Resources Department.
• All 39 dams in the State had reached their full reservoir level, and were incapable of absorbing the torrential volumes in August leaving dam-managers with no choice but to release them.
• The scientists analysed different scenarios with combinations of reservoir storages (85%, 75%, 150% and 25%) at different time periods (end of June and end of July), along with different soil moisture conditions, which has a bearing on river flows.
• Scientists found was that in the hypothetical scenario that there were no dams in the Pamba River Basin (PRB) there are 17 dams and barrages the “peak discharge” at locations downstream of the Idukki reservoir would have been “reduced by 31%.” This, however, wasn’t a reduction enough to have prevented the inundation.
• For future planning, authorities must put in place an “integrated flow management” system, that is, view dams as critical to managing floods and not merely a fount for producing electricity.
• Additionally, weather forecasting agencies ought to be giving more quantitative forecasts of the likelihood of water volumes rather than descriptions of ‘extreme events’ regarding expected water levels during possible floods.

Human ancestor fossil discovered in Kutch

News

• Scientists have discovered a fossilised upper jaw of an eleven million-year-old human ancestor in Kutch, Gujarat.
• The find significantly extends the southern range of ancient apes in the Indian Peninsula.

Findings

• Apes, or hominoids, are a group of primates from Africa and Southeast Asia that includes the gibbons and the great apes: chimps, orangutans, gorillas, and humans.
• Ancient ape remains from Miocene deposits in the Siwaliks of India and Pakistan have been key for understanding the evolution of great apes and humans.
• Researchers, examined an ape jaw fragment excavated from the Kutch basin, in the Gujarat state of western India, about 1,000 km south of the Siwaliks deposits.
• X-ray computed-tomography revealed details of the preserved canine and cheek teeth, such as the tooth enamel and root structure.
• The ape mandible belonged to an adult individual of the Sivapithecus genus, but the species could not be identified.
• Researchers dated the specimen to the basal Late Miocene, around 11 to 10 million years ago based on previous mammalian fossil findings in the site.
• The finding is the first Miocene ape fossil to be discovered so far south in the Indian peninsula, and extends the southern range of ancient apes in the subcontinent by about 1,000 km.

Cyclone Gaja: T.N. govt seeks about ₹15,000 cr aid from Centre

News

• The Tamil Nadu government sought about ₹15,000 crore as Central assistance towards relief and rehabilitation activities in Cyclone Gaja affected districts in the State.

Beyond News

• Over one lakh electric poles had been uprooted and a significant number of power sub-stations damaged, with reports suggesting that many parts are still without power.
• Cyclone Gaja had crossed the Tamil Nadu coast early on November 16 between Nagapattinam, about 300 km from Chennai, and nearby Vedaranyam.
• It had claimed 46 lives and left a trail of destruction in over ten districts, including Nagapttinam, Thiruvarur, Puthukottai and Thanjavur which suffered severe damage.
• The Tamil Nadu government has already released a sum of ₹1,000 crore for immediate relief and rehabilitation efforts in the affected areas.

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