Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Fragile climate puts food security at risk, UN report

News

• Feeding a hungry planet is growing increasingly difficult as climate change and depletion of land and other resources undermine food systems, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization said.

Findings

• Population growth requires supplies of more nutritious food at affordable prices, but increasing farm output is hard given the “fragility of the natural resource base” since humans have outstripped Earth’s carrying capacity in terms of land, water and climate change.
• About 820 million people are malnourished. The FAO and International Food Policy Research Institute released the report at the outset of a global conference aimed at speeding up efforts to achieve zero hunger around the world.
• Food security remains tenuous for many millions of people who lack access to affordable, adequately nourishing diets for a variety of reasons, the most common being poverty. But it’s also endangered by civil strife and other conflicts.
• In Yemen, where thousands of civilians have died in airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition, the aid group Save the Children says 85,000 children under 5 may have died of hunger or disease in the civil war.
• The FAO estimates that global demand for food will jump by half from 2013 to 2050. Farmers can expand land use to help make up some of the difference, but that option is constrained in places like Asia and the Pacific and urbanisation is eating up still more land that once may have been used for agriculture.
• Increasing farm output beyond sustainable levels can cause permanent damage to ecosystems, , it often causes soil erosion, pollution with plastic mulching, pesticides and fertilizers, and a loss of biodiversity.
• China destroys 12 million tons of tainted grain each year, at a loss of nearly $2.6 billion, the report said.

Global warming increasing death, disease risk: Study

News

• Climate change is putting an increasing proportion of the global population at risk of heat-related death and diseases, and causing significant loss of work hours in vulnerable areas like India, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America, according to a study.

Findings

• The rising vulnerability to the heat-related risks of climate change is mirrored by increased exposure to higher temperatures.
• Researchers also note promising trends in key areas for health, including the phase-out of coal, the deployment of healthier, cleaner modes of transport, and health system adaptation.
• Present day changes in heat waves and labour capacity provide early warning of the compounded and overwhelming impact on public health that is expected if temperatures continue to rise.
• As a result of increasing temperatures caused by climate change, vulnerable populations (adults over 65 years old, people living in cities, and people with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases) are exposed to heat stress, increasing their risk of cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease.
• Rising temperatures are a risk in occupational health, and as temperatures regularly increase above physiological limits, sustained work becomes more difficult or impossible.
• In 2017, 153 billion hours of labour were lost due to heat exposure, an increase of 62 billion hours relative to 2000.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

UAE following Indian laws to provide aid to Kerala: Ambassador

News

• India has laws to accept foreign aid and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is working to fulfil the regulations to deliver assistance to the floods-hit Kerala, according to UAE Ambassador.

Beyond News

• In August, a reported ₹700 crore UAE government aid to Kerala for flood reliefled to a  controversy after the Ministry of External Affairs said the Centre would not allow any financial assistance from foreign governments in line with an existing policy.
• There is a legal system. There are agreements signed between the UAE and India. And there is a legal system and we believe in our judicial system. They trust our judicial system and they leave it up to them to decide what to do what not to do.
• On the fluctuating global oil prices, UAE Ambassador said the price was determined by international demand and by different markets, and dispelled India’s concerns over fuel shortages.
• Modi, who is in Argentina for a G20 summit, is expected to raise the issue of oil price volatility. India imports $16 bn worth of oil from the UAE of the total bilateral trade of $53 bn.
• The two countries have significantly expanded bilateral engagement in recent years and India is the first country with which the UAE has signed a strategic partnership agreement.

Maharashtra Assembly approves 16% quota for Marathas

News

• The Maharashtra Assembly unanimously passed a Bill proposing 16% reservation for Marathas in government jobs and education.
• With this, 85% of the State’s population will be entitled to constitutional benefits under Article 15(4), 16 (4) of the Constitution.

Beyond News

• The approval of the Bill will also see the reservation limit go up from the current 52%to 68%, thus crossing the 50% ceiling set by Supreme Court.
• This is a compelling extraordinary situation demanding extraordinary solutions within the constitutional framework, suggesting it “expedient” to provide for 16% reservation to the Marathas.
• Members of both Houses, cutting across party lines, walked up to the Chief Minster and thanked him for the decision.
• The Government of Maharashtra has considered the report of the commission. On the basis of exhaustive study of the Commission, including employment, education, social status, economical status, living conditions, the government is of the opinion declaring Marathas SEBC.
• While retaining the principle of creamy layer for the purpose of reservation to the Socially Economically Backward Class under the Act, the Bill urged that reservation be made available to only those persons found “below” the layer.
• The draft Bill while giving a backdrop for the community, which constitutes 30% of state’s population, said the presence of Marathas in position of academic excellence is “very marginal”. On an average 4.30% academic and teaching posts are occupied by persons of Maratha community, and lack of conventional degree is keeping them in employments such as mathadis, hamals, dabbawallas, etc.
• Around 70% are residing in kuchha homes, only 35.39% o them have personal tap water, 31.79% rely on traditional sources of firewood. While 2,152 Maratha farmers have committed suicide as against total suicides numbered 13,368 between 2013-18.

44 violations by foreigners in Andamans: Home Ministry

News

• As many as 44 violations by foreigners have taken place in recent past in restricted areas of Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Beyond News

• The Restricted Area Permit (RAP), which allows people from visiting certain locations with permission, may be reimposed in the Andamansfollowing the recent killing of an American by inhabitants on North Sentinel Island, a highly reclusive and protected tribe.
• The RAP for foreigners and Indians was recently liberalised by the Centre.
• A delegation of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) will visit Andamans and Nicobar Island, a Union Territory, , to assess the situation arising after the killing of American John Allen Chau by the Sentinelese tribes a couple of weeks ago.
• The Home Ministry submitted a report to the NCST, where it said there were 44 violations by foreigners in the Islands, other than RAP violations.
• Government was considering reimposing RAP in the island. The official said the North Sentinel Island is a prohibited zone and Chau had gone there illegally.
• Though RAP was withdrawn in 29 islands, any tourist is required to take permission from the Forest Department and the administration of the Andamans as it is protected under two other Acts protection of aboriginal people and forest Acts.

U.S. suspended a total of $3 billion in security assistance to Pakistan this year: sources

News

• The U.S. has suspended $3 billion in security assistance to Pakistan this year after it failed to rein in terrorist groups, a figure which is much higher than the $1.3 billion quoted by the Trump administration earlier, according to sources.

Beyond News

• The $3 billion amount was calculated in the latest compilation of all figures coming from various funding streams from different fiscal years, PTI has learnt.
• Not been made public yet, the suspended figure of $3 billion is much higher than the $1.3 billion quoted by President Donald Trump this month and $ 1.66 billion reported by the Pentagon last week.
• The U.S. President this month said that Pakistan did not “do a damn thing” for the U.S. despite billions of dollars in American aid for the South Asian nation.
• Over the past several years, senior U.S. officials had been accusing Pakistan of playing a double game with the U.S. and not taking satisfactory action against terrorist groups like Haqqani networks, the Taliban and Lashkar-a-Taiba.
• Since then, senior administration officials assert no security aid has been given to Pakistan. Among this also includes the coalition support fund.

Early this month, Mr. Trump charged Pakistan of harbouring Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda leader, and asserted that his country will not give any financial aid to Pakistan.

• Trump told White House reporters last week that he wants to have a better relationship with Pakistan, but would not revoke suspension of aid unless he sees changes in the approach of Pakistan towards terrorist organisations.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

ISRO’s PSLV-C43 successfully places HysIS, 30 foreign satellites in respective orbits

News

• Nearly three minutes after its lift-off, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) workhorse, the PSLV, carrying 31 satellites, soared in a trajectory crossing the path of the Sun and sped to inject the country’s Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), dubbed ‘Sharp Eye’, in its intended orbit.

Beyond News

• In the course of the next one hour, the team at the Mission Control waited for the PSLV C-43 to come up on the other side of the Equator to insert 30 small commercial satellites from various countries into the orbits requested by the customers.
• The HysIS is is an Earth observation satellite primarily to assist in a wide range of applications in agriculture, forestry, geological environments, coastal zones, among others.
• The 30 satellites are one each from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Malaysia, Netherlands and Spain, and 23 from the USA.
• The heart of the system required for the HysIS satellite is basically an optical imaging detector chip. This chip has been indigenously designed by the Space Application Centre of the ISRO and fabricated at semi-conductor lab at Chandigarh.
• Once the second firing of the engine was completed, the 30 satellites were injected into an orbit between 504.19 km and 506.55 km. The final separation sequence started at 1 hour and 49 minutes and ended 1 hour 53 minutes after the lift-off. This was the ISRO’s third longest mission that lasted nearly two hours. Two earlier missions crossed the two-hour mark.
• This is the 13th flight of the core-alone version and 45th launch of the PSLV.

Brazil loses ‘1 mn football pitches’ worth of forest

News

• Deforestation in Brazil has reached such epic proportions that an area equivalent to one million football pitches was lost in just one year.
• Between August 2017 and July 2018, deforestation increased by almost 14%, with an area of 7, 900 sq km of forest cleared, according to the governmental institution of special investigations.

Beyond News

• The Amazon rainforest represents more than half of Earth’s remaining rainforest and covers an area of 5.5 million sq km, about 60% of which is in Brazil.
• But it is under threat from illegal logging as well as farming, in particular from soybean plantations and pasture land for cattle.
• Between 2004 and 2012, deforestation in Brazil was slowed through controls imposed at a government level as well as by the private sector.

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