Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Global Drug Survey set to cover Indians

News

• Now in its eighth year, the GDS for 2019 will survey, for the first time, consumption trends in alcohol, cannabis and opiates in India.

Beyond News

• The 2019 survey, which will launch in November and be available online until December 30, will investigate drug habits across 35 countries, and its findings will be translated into 20 languages.
• The GDS uses an encrypted, online platform to conduct annual anonymous surveys. No IP addresses are collected and the survey is independent of governments.
• The GDS 2019 will probe social issues, including how the police treat people who use drugs, and the complex problem of sexual assault, consent and drug use. How cannabis health warning labels might be an important part of drug regulation, how much people trust their person they get drugs from, how much do people in different countries pay for drugs and whether they think they are good value for money are among the questions that the GDS 2019 will investigate.
• A key objective of the survey is to understand how advances in technology are influencing drug use and the complexities this pose in determining the levels of harmful dosage and how those who sought to reduce drug-related harm responded.
• With countries, including Canada, legalising cannabis, the survey attempts to open doors to understanding the therapeutic potential of drugs such as MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), better known as ‘ecstasy,’ and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide).
• Few studies have looked at use of alcohol and illicit drugs and consequences faced by drug users in India. A 2004 survey by the Union Ministry of Social Justice on the extent and pattern and trends of drug abuse left out women.
• That study found the prevalence of alcohol use to be 21% and current use of cannabis at 3%. Among the alcohol and cannabis current users, 16% and 25% respectively were dependent.

Japan island feared to be ‘missing’

News

• The island, known as Esambe Hanakita Kojima was only officially surveyed and registered by Japan’s Coast Guard in 1987, who couldn’t even say exactly how big it was.

Beyond News

• Until recently, it rose 1.4-metre above sea level, and was visible from the very northern tip of Japan’s northern Hokkaido island. But now, it has disappeared.
• The disappearance of the island “may affect Japan’s territorial waters a tiny bit.
• Japan pours resources into protecting its outer islands, particularly the remote Okinotori islands in the Pacific, which secures a significant portion of the nation’s exclusive economic zone.
• Prone to earthquakes and severe weather, Japan has found itself not only losing, but sometimes gaining territory thanks to natural disasters . In 2015, a 300-metre strip of land emerged from the sea and attached itself to the coast of Hokkaido.

 ‘Firecracker smoke, noise traumatic for urban wildlife’

News

• Bursting crackers not only has an adverse effect on the health of children and the elderly, but the non-stop noise and smoke pose a danger to urban wildlife too.
• To drive home the message of making Deepavali an eco-friendly festival, People for Animals (PfA) is organising an event to discuss the ill effects of smoke and noise pollution on urban wildlife in the city.

Beyond News

• While people are becoming more aware about the discomfort crackers cause, not many are sensitive to the wildlife around them.
• By bursting a cracker near a tree one is likely to scare or injure squirrels, owls, other birds, monkeys, and other animals.
• Around Deepavali, the organisation sees an increase in cases of wildlife affected by the smoke and noise of the crackers.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Iran oil: India to get U.S. sanctions waiver

News

• Eight countries will be given exemptions and “weeks longer to wind down” their trade with Iran, once U.S. sanctions against Iran kick in.

Beyond News

• This was clarified by Secretary of State during a conference call with some members of the press.
• European Union (EU) which consists of 28 countries including the U.K. will not be one of the jurisdictions granted a temporary exemption.
• India for whom Iran is the third largest source of oil after Iraq and Saudi Arabia is expecting to be on the list .
• In terms of entities granted exemptions, there would be no exemption for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).
• SWIFT which does not hold money itself but transmits information on transactions has a network that spans 200 countries and some 11,000 financial institutions, as per the data released by the company.
• If it is sanctioned, that will have a significant impact on organisations that use it. SWIFT has been told it will have to cut off from sanctioned entities as soon as technologically feasible or could face sanctions.

TS tops in per capita energy consumption

News

• After starting its journey as a heavy energy-deficit State in 2014, Telangana has topped in the growth rate of total energy consumption and per capita consumption during 2017-18 in the country, according to the Central Electricity Authority’s (CEA) annual report for the last financial year.

Findings

• Seen among the indices of development by planners, the newest State has achieved 13.62% growth in terms of total energy consumption and 11.34% in case of per capita consumption of energy during 2017-18, compared to the previous year.
• Statistics in the CEA annual report also indicate that Telangana has achieved 11.94% growth rate in maximum demand for power (peak load).
• In terms of per capita energy consumption, Telangana has achieved 59.32% growth in five years as it reached 1,727 units in 2017-18 from 1,084 units in 2013-14.
• As against 2,82,875 new connections given from 2010 to 2014, 4,28,208 new connections were given from 2014 to 2018. The yearly average of agriculture power connections sanctions has also increased from 70,000 in four years till formation of the State in 2014 to 97,000 in four years after Telangana came into being. In the current year, 40,628 new connections have been sanctioned so far.
• The CEA report stated that Telangana has achieved maximum power demand (peak load) of 10,284 mw in 2017-18 from just over 6,660 mw when the State was formed.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

 ‘NASA’s historic Dawn mission to asteroid belt comes to end’

News

• NASA’s pioneering Dawn spacecraft which orbited the two largest objects in the asteroid belt  has run out of fuel, ending a historic 11-year mission that unravelled many mysteries of our solar system, the US space agency said.
• The USD 467 million Dawn mission, launched in 2007 to study the protoplanet Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA’s Deep Space Network on October 31 and November 1, NASA said in a statement.

Beyond News

• After the flight team eliminated other possible causes for the missed communications, mission managers concluded that the spacecraft finally ran out of hydrazine, the fuel that enables the spacecraft to control its pointing.
• It was an expected end to the mission, although the spacecraft lasted two years longer than originally planned.
• Dawn can no longer keep its antennae trained on Earth to communicate with mission control or turn its solar panels to the Sun to recharge, according to the US space agency.
• The spacecraft launched 11 years ago to visit the two largest objects in the main asteroid belt. Currently, it is in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, where it will remain for decades.
• Dawn launched in 2007 on a journey that put about 6.9 billion kilometers on its odometer. Propelled by ion engines, the spacecraft achieved many firsts along the way.
• The data Dawn beamed back to Earth from its four science experiments enabled scientists to compare two planet-like worlds that evolved very differently.
• Among its accomplishments, Dawn showed how important location was to the way objects in the early solar system formed and evolved.
• Dawn also reinforced the idea that dwarf planets could have hosted oceans over a significant part of their history and potentially still do.
• Because Ceres has conditions of interest to scientists who study chemistry that leads to the development of life, NASA follows strict planetary protection protocols for the disposal of the Dawn spacecraft.
• Dawn will remain in orbit for at least 20 years, and engineers have more than 99% confidence the orbit will last for at least 50 years.

India at UN says terrorism most serious violation of human rights, emanating from beyond its borders

News

• In a veiled attack on Pakistan, India at the U.N. said that terrorism is the most serious violation of human rights emanating from beyond its borders, urging the global community to take a resolute action against the menace in all its forms and manifestations.

Beyond News

• A lack of consensus in the Human Rights Council’s actions in situation-specific issues is a worrisome development that compromises its effectiveness and credibility, First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Paulomi Tripathi said at a General Assembly 3rd Committee session on ‘Report of the Human Rights Council’.
• India called for the Human Rights Council to continue to strengthen its adherence to the fundamental principles of universality, transparency, impartiality, objectivity, non-selectivity and constructive dialogue for retaining its relevance and efficacy.
• The diplomat stressed that the 47-member Council also has a role in building consensus around the frontier issues such as protection of human rights in the cyberspace and impact of artificial intelligence, genetics and other emerging technologies on human rights.
• India was last month elected to the Human Rights Council and remains committed to bring in pluralistic, moderate and balanced perspectives, to bridge multiple divides in human rights discourse and in action, within the Council and beyond, Ms. Tripathi added.

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