Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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India, Japan, U.S. plan joint air exercise

News

• India, Japan and the U.S. are set to elevate the bilateral ‘Cope India’ air exercise to a trilateral format. The three countries already conduct naval war games under the expanded Malabar naval exercise.

Beyond News

• The U.S. had proposed a trilateral air exercise between India, Japan and the U.S. For this, the Cope India exercise will be elevated to a trilateral level in phases, two official sources independently confirmed on condition of anonymity.
• At the annual Defence Ministerial Meeting between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera, it was agreed that Japan will send observers for the next round of Cope India exercises between India and U.S. to be hosted by the Indian Air Force.
• Cope India was first conducted in 2004 and has grown in scope with the involvement of fighter aircraft and force multipliers such as Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS), but has been held only intermittently.
• The level of interoperability in the exercises, both bilateral and trilateral, is expected to go up with India recently signing the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) with the U.S.. In addition, there is also commonality of platforms, for instance, all the three Air Forces operate the C-130 transport aircraft.
• This elevation of the air exercise is similar to the Malabar naval exercise. Malabar began in 1992 as a bilateral naval exercise between India and the U.S. and has over time grown in scope and complexity. In 2015, it was expanded into a trilateral format with the inclusion of Japan. With increased focus on the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. has been keen on increased engagement in a trilateral format.

Modi, Ranil Wickremesingle discuss India assisted development projects in Sri Lanka

News

• Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe held talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in New Delhi on a range of issues related to bilateral ties, including the progress of India assisted development projects in the island nation.

Beyond News

• The talks at the Hyderabad House came on the third and final day of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s India visit.
• During the visit, the two sides reviewed the status of the India assisted housing projects in Jaffna. They were also expected to deliberate on the Tamil issue the reconciliation process and devolution of powers in the Tamil-dominated areas.
• Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s India visit comes in the backdrop of controversial media reports stating that Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, at a Cabinet meeting, allegedly accused Indian intelligence agency RAW of plotting his assassination. But this claim was firmly rejected as “false” by the Sri Lankan government.
• Earlier in the day, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister separately called on the visiting Sri Lankan leader.
• Sri Lankan Prime Minister and Home Minister discussed issues related to security and anti-terror cooperation between India and Sri Lanka.
• Sri Lankan Prime Minister arrived to boost ties in a range of areas, including trade, investment and maritime security.

Dengue claimed 80 lives, affected 40,000 Indians till Sept’18: Health ministry

News:

• Dengue has claimed the lives of over 80 people and affected around 40,000 people across the country till September this year, the Union Health Ministry has said.

Beyond News:

• According to figures of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) under the Health Ministry, the disease has claimed the lives of 83 people till September 30, while 40,868 persons were affected by it.
• Last year, the mosquito-borne tropical disease had killed 325 people and affected around 1,88,401 people, it said.
• According to a municipal report released recently in Delhi, 830 people had been diagnosed with the vector-borne disease this season.

‘50,000 Indians took U.S. citizenship in 2017’

News

• Over 50,000 Indians were granted the American citizenship in 2017, four thousand more than the previous year, according to a latest official report.

Beyond News

• The Department of Homeland Security, in its latest annual immigration report, said that in 2017, as many as 50,802 Indians took citizenship of the United States.
• This is four thousand more than 2016’s figure of 46,188 cases, and eight thousand more than 2015’s figure of 42,213 cases.
• India was a distant second, followed by China (37,674); the Philippines (36,828); Dominican Republic (29,734) and Cuba (25,961).
• Figures indicated that more females (3,96,234) took American citizenship than males (3,10,987).
• The report indicated that as many as 12,000 newly naturalised American citizens from India settled in California, followed by New Jersey (5,900), and Texas (3,700).

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Europe, Japan send spacecraft on 7-year journey to Mercury

News

• European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit for a joint mission to Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.

Beyond News

• The European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft successfully separated and was sent into orbit from French Guiana as planned to begin a seven-year journey to Mercury.
• They said the spacecraft, named after Italian scientist Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, was in the right orbit and has sent the first signal after the liftoff.
• ESA says the 1.3 billion-euro (USD 1.5 billion) mission is one of the most challenging in its history.
• Mercury’s extreme temperatures, the intense gravity pull of the sun and blistering solar radiation make for hellish conditions.
• The BepiColombo spacecraft will have to follow an elliptical path that involves a fly-by of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury itself so it can slow down before arriving at its destination in December 2025.
• When it arrives, BepiColombo will release two probes Bepi and Mio that will independently investigate the surface and magnetic field of Mercury.
• The probes are designed to cope with temperatures varying from 430 degrees Celsius (806 F) on the side facing the sun, and -180 degrees Celsius (-292 F) in Mercury’s shadow.
• The ESA-developed Bepi will operate in Mercury’s inner orbit, and JAXA’s Mio will be in the outer orbit to gather data that would reveal the internal structure of the planet, its surface and geological evolution.
• Mercury, which is only slightly larger than Earth’s moon, has a massive iron core about which little is known. Researchers are also hoping to learn more about the formation of the solar system from the data gathered by the BepiColombo mission.

A saviour that helps shrink power bills

News

• Simple interventions such as these can go a long way in combating the rising electricity bills, which have been compounded not just by an increasing number of electrical appliances, but also annual hikes in tariff.
• It is with this aim that the Vidyut Rakshaka (VR), an easy-to-enforce behaviour and energy efficiency initiative, was started in 2015.

Beyond News

• Since its implementation, those who have stuck to the recommendations have reported energy savings of around 23% in two-and-a-half years.
• Conceptualised and led by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE), the results of the initiative for 1,280 valid participants showed total savings of 4%.
• The category that followed the recommendations termed the ‘savers’ (701) reported savings of 23%, while those who did not ‘spenders’ (579) showed an increase of 34% in energy consumption.

China to launch ‘man-made moons’ to lower electricity costs

News:

• China is planning to launch its own ‘artificial moon’ by 2020 to replace streetlamps and lower electricity costs in urban areas, state media reported.

Beyond News:

Chengdu, a city in southwestern Sichuan province, is developing “illumination satellites” which will shine in tandem with the real moon, but are eight times brighter, according to China Daily.

• The first man-made moon will launch from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan, with three more to follow in 2022 if the first test goes well.
• By reflecting light from the sun, the satellites could replace streetlamps in urban areas, saving an estimated 1.2 billion yuan (USD 170 million) a year in electricity costs for Chengdu, if the man-made moons illuminate an area of 50 square kilometers.
• AFP was not able to contact Wu nor the Tian Fu New Area Science Society to confirm the reports.
• China is not the first country to try beaming sunlight back to Earth. In the 1990s, Russian scientists reportedly used giant mirrors to reflect light from space in an experimental project called Znamya or Banner.

Superflares from young stars may imperil planets: NASA

News:

• Violent flares from the host star may make planets orbiting it uninhabitable by affecting their atmospheres, scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found.

Beyond News

• Hubble is observing such stars through a large programme called HAZMAT Habitable Zones and M dwarf Activity across Time.
• “M dwarf” is the astronomical term for a red dwarf star the smallest, most abundant and longest-lived type of star in our galaxy, according to the study published in The Astrophysical Journal.
• The HAZMAT programme is an ultraviolet survey of red dwarfs at three different ages: young, intermediate, and old.
• Stellar flares from red dwarfs are particularly bright in ultraviolet wavelengths, compared with Sun-like stars, according to NASA.
• Hubble’s ultraviolet sensitivity makes the telescope very valuable for observing these flares.
• The team has found that the flares from the youngest red dwarfs they surveyed just about 40 million years old are 100 to 1,000 times more energetic than when the stars are older.
• This younger age is when terrestrial planets are forming around their stars, NASA said.
• About three-quarters of the stars in our galaxy are red dwarfs.
• Most of the galaxy’s “habitable-zone” planets planets orbiting their stars at a distance where temperatures are moderate enough for liquid water to exist on their surface likely orbit red dwarfs.
• In fact, the nearest star to our Sun, a red dwarf named Proxima Centauri, has an Earth-size planet in its habitable zone.
• However, young red dwarfs are active stars, producing ultraviolet flares that blast out so much energy that they could influence atmospheric chemistry and possibly strip off the atmospheres of these fledgling planets.
• The study examined the flare frequency of 12 young red dwarfs. The observing programme detected one of the most intense stellar flares ever observed in ultraviolet light.
• Dubbed the “Hazflare,” this event was more energetic than the most powerful flare from our Sun ever recorded.

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