Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Climate change causing sea snail shells to dissolve: study

News

• Shelled marine creatures living in increasingly acidified oceans face a fight for survival as the impacts of climate change spread, a study suggests.

Findings

• Researchers assessed the impact of rising carbon dioxide levels on the large predatory “triton shell” gastropod. They found those living in regions with predicted future levels of CO2 were on average around a third smaller than counterparts living in conditions seen throughout the world’s oceans today.
• However there was also a noticeable negative impact on the thickness, density, and structure of their shells, causing visible deterioration to the shell surface.
• The study found that the effects are down to the increased stresses placed on the species in waters where the pH is lower, which reduce their ability to control the calcification process. The researchers have warned other shellfish are likely to be impacted in the same way, threatening their survival and that of other species that rely on them for food.
• The research was conducted at a marine volcanic seep off the coast of Shikine-jima in Japan where carbon dioxide bubbling up through the seabed lowers seawater pH from present-day levels to future predicted levels.
• Using computed tomography (CT) scanning, the scientists measured the thickness, density and structure of the shells, with shell thickness halved in areas with raised CO2 while average shell length was reduced from 178mm in sites with present day levels to 112mm.
• In some cases, these negative effects left body tissue exposed and the shell casing dissolved, with the corrosive effects of acidification far more pronounced around the oldest parts of the shell.

Korean war memorial to be built in Delhi

News

• A Korean War memorial will be built in New Delhi to commemorate India’s role in the war which ended in an armistice in 1953.

Beyond News

• Proposal was initiated by the Indian Korean War Veterans Association and the Delhi government had already designated a place to build the memorial.
• There were 21 countries which participated in the Korean War from 1950-53 of which 16 countries had sent combat troops. India sent medical teams and a custodian force to deal with the Prisoners of War (PoW).
• As of now, there are Korean War memorials in about 20 countries around the world which had played a role in the war.

Ancient rocks in India give clues to early life

News

• Researchers have found the oldest clue yet to the mystery of animal life in ancient rocks and oils, including those from India, dating back at least 100 million years before the famous Cambrian explosion of animal fossils.

Findings

• Researchers tracked molecular signs of animal life, called biomarkers, as far back as 660-635 million years ago during the Neoproterozoic era.
• In ancient rocks and oils from India, Oman, Siberia, they found a steroid compound produced only by sponges, which are among the earliest forms of animal life.
• The “Cambrian Explosion” refers to the sudden appearance in the fossil record of complex animals with mineralised skeletal remains 541 million years ago.
• The biomarker they identified, a steroid compound named 26-methylstigmastane (26-mes), has a unique structure that is currently only known to be synthesised by certain species of modern sponges called demosponges.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

India, France in talks to conduct tri-service exercise

News

• India and France are in discussions for a bilateral tri-service military exercise to take forward the strategic cooperation while also exploring ways to operationalise the logistics agreement.
• These issues were discussed during the visit of Defence Minister to Paris last week.

Beyond News

• This will be India’s third such joint exercise.
• India and France currently hold bilateral exercises between individual services Shakti, Varuna and Garuda respectively for the Army, Navy and Air Force.
• India and France signed a logistics pact in March this year which gives access to their militaries to each other’s bases for logistics support.
• While the agreement gives India access to French military bases all over the world on a “reciprocal basis,” of particular interest for New Delhi are the three French bases in the Indian Ocean Reunion Island, Djibouti and Abu Dhabi.
• These three bases would give the Indian Navy and the Air Force operational turnaround to the far end of the Indian Ocean, improving its monitoring and surveillance of the region, in the backdrop of increased Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

IT companies file lawsuit against U.S. immigration agency for issuing shorter duration H-1B visas

News

• An information technology (IT) advocacy group representing more than 1,000 small companies mostly run by Indian-Americans has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for issuing shorter period H-1B visas.

Beyond News

• The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. 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.
• These visas are typically issued for three to six years to employers to hire a foreign worker.
• Based out of Dallas in Texas, the ITServe Alliance, in its 43-page lawsuit filed last week, alleged that the USCIS has recently begun a practice of approving H-1B petitions for shorter than three-year duration.
• The USCIS had no authority to misinterpret the existing regulations and shorten the approval durations. In fact, Congress had specifically granted power to the Department of Labour and DOL’s regulations grant three-year approvals. The the itinerary requirement put forth by the USCIS was also unlawful, the lawsuit said.
• This is the second lawsuit filed by ITServe against the USCIS. In the first one filed in July 2018, ITServe demanded the USCIS to remove language from their website prohibiting F-1 STEM OPT students working at the third part client locations.

India, China to sign internal security cooperation agreement on Oct 22

News

• For the first time, India and China will sign an internal security cooperation agreement next week, marking a new beginning in bilateral relations.

 Beyond News

• China’s Minister of Public Security, who is set to visit India on October 22, will hold meetings with Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The duo is slated to discuss various aspects of security cooperation between the two countries.
• During the visit, an agreement on internal security cooperation between the two countries will be signed.
• The proposed pact is expected to cover areas of intelligence sharing, exchange programme, sharing of best practices, cooperation in disaster mitigation besides others, an official said.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held an informal summit in Wuhan, China, in April this year, which helped repair bilateral ties.
• A Chinese delegation met an Indian team to hold discussions on the forthcoming visit of the Chinese Minister of Public Security and the proposed pact on security cooperation between the two countries.
• This will be the first such agreement between the authorities that look after internal security of the two countries.
• The scheduled meeting may lead to a future India-China agreement on exchange of sentenced prisoners.
• Currently, India does not have an extradition treaty with China, nor a pact to exchange each other’s sentenced prisoners.
• There are at least 10 Indians in Chinese prisons and an equal number of Chinese citizens in Indian prisons.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Centre unveils pollution forecast system for Capital

News

• The Central government on announced a pollution forecast system that can alert, three days in advance, about the likelihood of extreme pollution events and dust storms.

Beyond News

• Though unveiled by Union Environment Minister, the system is yet to go live but is expected to be made available “in the next two days” to the public via the Central Pollution Control Board and the Environment Pollution Control Authority.
• The National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune all MoES organisations  are involved with developing the application.
• The system works like a weather model that will assimilate data from satellites on dust aerosols, particulate matter from stubble burning and other air pollutants like SO2 and NO2.
• It will account for background aerosols and pollutants and forecast how the dust is likely to travel over long distances.

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