Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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‘2017 will be among top 3 hottest years on record’

News: 

• Year 2017 will be one of the three hottest years on record, with many high-impact events, including catastrophic hurricanes and floods, debilitating heat waves and drought, says a provisional statement on the State of the Climate released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Beyond News:

• The average global temperature from January to September 2017 was approximately 1.1°C above the pre-industrial era.
• As a result of a powerful El Niño, 2016 is likely to remain the warmest year on record, with 2017 and 2015 being second or third.
• The WMO statement, which uses 1981-2010 as the baseline, was released on Monday at the opening day of the United Nations (UN) climate change conference in Bonn.
• Extreme events due to climate change have affected the food security of millions of people, with agriculture accounting for 26% of all the damage and loss associated with medium to large scale storms, floods and drought, says the statement, citing an FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) assessment.

Climate change talks in Bonn, other day’s news in pictures

News:

• Governments will try to bolster a 2015 pact to combat climate change at annual talks in Germany from Monday strained by President Donald Trump’s plan to pull out and instead promote the U.S. coal and oil industries.

Beyond News:

• Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who will preside over the Nov. 6-17 talks of almost 200 nations in Bonn, says he wants more urgent action to cut greenhouse gases as part of the 195-nation Paris Agreement.
• Delegates will work on a detailed “rule book” to help guide the 2015 Paris climate accord, which set a goal of ending the fossil fuel era this century by shifting to renewable energies such as wind and solar power.
• But Mr. Trump doubts that human activities are the main cause of climate change – a finding endorsed most recently by U.S. scientists in a report on Friday – and said in June that he will quit the Paris pact.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

China objects to Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh

News:

• China on Monday objected to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s first visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying her tour of the “disputed area” is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity of the region.

Beyond News:

• Ms. Sitharaman visited forward Army posts in remote Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China to take stock of the defence preparedness.
• China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of south Tibet and routinely objects to top Indian officials’ visit to the area.
• The Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China stretches to 3,488 km. Both sides have held 19 rounds of talks by the Special Representatives to resolve the dispute.
• Last month, Ms. Sitharaman visited Nathu La area on the India-China border in Sikkim and greeted the People’s Liberation Army soldiers across the border

Reduce crop wastage, urges Kovind

News:

• President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday called for a time-bound plan to reduce, if not eliminate, crop wastage in India.

Beyond News:

• President was speaking at the concluding function of the World Food India (WFI) 2017.
• President said that close to 16% of India’s guava crop is wasted, as are 10% of our mango and apple crops, the deliberations at this conference will take closer to preventing such regrettable wastage.
• Delegates from over 60 countries, including CEOs of 60 global companies, attended the WFI event, which, according to Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur, saw 50 MoUs worth $11.4 billion being signed.
• Mr. Kovind called the event “the Kumbh Mela of Indian food,” as it “helped showcase the vast and near limitless opportunities in the food industry and in food processing in India.”

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

‘Surging data volume in India to spur insights’

News:

• As chief technology officer of Teradata, Stephen Brobst’s role is to ensure the data and analytics company develops cutting-edge technologies.

Beyond News:

• This includes helping the Dayton, Ohio-based company find new customers and deploy products and services across the world faster and at a large scale.
• Indeed, the government and the Central Bank are on a mission to rapidly formalise and financialise the Indian economy, according to a report by global financial services firm Morgan Stanley.
• It said India had ‘introduced a universal biometric identification system [Aadhaar], initiated measures to boost financial inclusion [Jan Dhan], moved to a new fully online value-added goods and services tax system and implemented real-time payment systems [Unified Payments Interface and Bharat QR].
• Coupled with rising smartphone penetration, likely doubling from 300 million to almost 700 million by 2020, these changes were driving India’s digitisation, said the report.
• It said the combination of digital payments and GST would create significant big-data opportunity.

‘Note ban: firms put, drew ₹17,000 cr.’

• More than ₹17,000 crore was deposited and withdrawn post-demonetisation, by 35,000 companies, the government said on Sunday.
• 2.24 lakh companies had been struck-off till date from the Registrar of Companies for remaining inactive for a period of two years or more.
• The Corporate Affairs Ministry said in a statement that to address the criminal angle, the Director, Additional Director or Assistant Director of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) had been authorized to arrest any person believed to be guilty of any fraud punishable under the Act.

Trial run of 24×7 power to farm sector in Telangana from tonight

News: 

• The Telangana government has decided to supply 24×7 free power to agriculture sector across the State on an experimental basis from Monday night, for about five-six days to study the impact on the transmission and distribution systems and also to assess the demand since the farming operations for the ‘Yasangi or Rabi’ season have already commenced.

Why its important: 

• Although there are some States along with Telangana that are giving free power to farm sector, nowhere in the country it is being supplied 24×7, and the State’s effort is a record in itself.

Beyond News:

• Round-the-clock power supply to the agriculture sector is being given in the three erstwhile districts of Karimnagar, Medak and Nalgonda, which have now become Medak, Sangareddy, Siddipet, Karimnagar, Rajanna-Sircilla, Jagityal, Peddapalli, Nalgonda, Suryapet and Yadadri-Bhongir districts, also on experimental basis from June this year as part of the government plans to give 24×7 supply to farm sector across the State from March-April next.
• Working in tune with Chief Minister’s decision, the power utilities have been working on strengthening the transmission and distribution network by spending about ₹12,000 crore since the last year.
• Follow-up action would be taken based on the feedback after supplying 24×7 power on experimental basis.

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