Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

Editorials are covered separately. HINDU NOTES are available free date wise| CLICK HERE

Migratory birds start arriving at Chilika, numbers are down

News

• Migratory birds have started arriving at the wetlands of Odisha’s Chilika Lake one of the largest wintering grounds in Asia, but not in their usual numbers this year.

Beyond News

• The arrival of migratory birds is awaited with the onset of winter every year. This year, however, fewer winged visitors have descended on the mudflats of the lake.
• Close to one million birds congregate on the mudflats of the lake during winter. The lake, spread over 1,000 sq km, is home to 230 bird species, out of which 97 are intercontinental migrants from the Artic and Eurasian regions.
• The lake has been a designated Ramsar site (a wetland of international importance) since 1981.

The Nalabana Bird Sanctuary and Mangalajodi, the two major places where the birds congregate, also have not received the usual numbers.

One of the reasons behind the low turnout is the flooding after incessant rain triggered by cyclone Titli that hit the Odisha coast in the second week of October.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Govt. notifies rules on granting citizenship

News

• The Union Home Ministry has empowered the Collectors in seven States to accept online applications to grant citizenship to “persecuted minorities” from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh living in India.

Beyond News

• A parliamentary committee has been examining the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which proposes to grant citizenship to six persecuted minorities: Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2014.
• As the Bill is pending, the Home Ministry gave powers to the Collectors in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to grant citizenship and naturalisation certificates to the non-Muslim migrants from these countries under Sections 5 and 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955. No such power has been delegated to Assam officials.
• Under the new rules, notified on October 24, the migrants can apply online, and the verification reports or the security clearance reports of the applicants shall be made available to the Centre through an online portal.

Citizenship is granted after the verification reports are received from the States and the Centre.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

PHWRs: Kaiga station’s Unit-1 creates world record

News

• The Kaiga Generating Station, which is already on India’s Nuclear Power Programme, has created a world record for the longest uninterrupted operation of units having pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs).

Beyond News

• The earlier record for PHWRs was held by Unit-7 of Pickering Nuclear Generating Station at Ontario, Canada, which operated continuously for 894 days and a few hours. That record was set on October 7, 1994.
• In an official release, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCL) announced that Unit-1 of Kaiga Generating Station (KGS-1) completed 895 days of continuous operation.
• Kaiga now stands first in the world for continuous operation with regard to PHWRs and second among all nuclear power reactors. The Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (AGR), Heysham II-8 of the United Kingdom, holds the overall record of 940 days of continuous operation.
• KGS-1 in Kaiga, located at a distance of 56 km from Karwar, has been generating electricity continuously since May 13, 2016. KGS-1, an indigenously built pressurised heavy water reactor run by domestic fuel (uranium), began its commercial operation on November 16, 2000.
• NPCL has 22 reactors across the country with a total capacity of 6,780 MW in operation and eight reactors with a capacity of 6,200 MW under construction.

Small flying robots can haul heavy loads

News

• Scientists have developed small flying robots that can carry objects up to 40 times their weight, and even heave open closed doors, making them useful for search and rescue operations.

Beyond News

• The micro air vehicles, called FlyCroTugs, can anchor themselves to various surfaces using adhesives inspired by the feet of geckos and insects.
• With these attachment mechanisms, FlyCroTugs can pull objects up to 40 times their weight, like door handles in one scenario, or cameras and water bottles in a rescue situation.
• Similar vehicles can only lift objects about twice their own weight using aerodynamic forces.
• The researchers say the FlyCroTugs’ small size means they can navigate through snug spaces and fairly close to people, making them useful for search and rescue.
• Holding tightly to surfaces as they tug, the tiny robots could potentially move pieces of debris or position a camera to evaluate a treacherous area.
• The researchers also opened a door with just two FlyCroTugs.

Scaled down test for safe landing of Chandrayaan-2 lander

News

• Scaled down test for safe landing of Chandrayaan-2 lander  conducted successfully.

Beyond News

• Indian Space Research Organisation said it has successfully conducted a scaled-down test for the soft and safe landing of its Chandrayaan-2 lander for India’s second Moon mission.
• The moon lander, Vikram, named after the father of Indian space programme Vikram Sarabhai, is crucial to carry out various tests on the moon surface.
• The LAPT test was meant for compensating the effect of earth’s gravity as compared to moon’s gravity and to match the thrust generation of sea level liquid engines as compared to flight engines, which will operate in vacuum environment.
• The module was tied to a crane hook for conducting the test at a special test facility at ISRO Propulsion Complex in Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu.
• It was the third and final test to demonstrate retargeting in a parabolic tragectory.
• The LAPT demonstrated the capability of the NGC system of’Vikram’ to meet the mission requirement of safe, soft and precise landing on the lunar surface by steering the module horizontally as well as vertically down to a pre-defined target.
• India’s first lunar mission Chandrayaan 1 was successfully launched in October 2008.

IAF gets first overhauled Sukhoi

News

• In a major step towards improving the availability rate of the backbone of the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter fleet, the IAF’s Base Repair Depot (BRD), in Ojhar, Maharashtra has successfully overhauled a Su-30 MKI aircraft.

Beyond News

• The first overhauled aircraft was handed over to Air Marshal HS Arora, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of South Western Air Command in a ceremony at Air Force Station, Ojhar .
• The statement added that 11 BRD is the only fighter aircraft repair depot of the force and undertakes repair and overhaul of frontline fighters such as MIG-29 and Sukhoi-30 MKI.
• The Su-30MKI procured from Russia and licence manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is the mainstay of the IAF’s fighter squadron. India has contracted 272 aircraft of which over 240 have been inducted into service.
• However, the availability rate of the Sukhoi fleet has been below 50% for a long time and over the last couple of years it has gone up close to 60% by various measures like local stocking of spares.
• Indigenous overhauling in-house within the IAF, will significantly reduce the time and improve the availability rate of the overall fleet at a time when the service is a facing a drop in its fighter squadron strength.

Army set to create new positions as part of overhaul

News

• The Army’s biggest reform exercise since independence to rightsize the force and reduce mounting revenue expenditure is likely to see creation of new positions of a third Deputy Chief of Army Staff and a Director General of Strategic Communications, among other measures.

Beyond News

• The Army currently has two Deputy Chiefs, one for information systems and training and another for planning and systems.
• The four studies are for restructuring of Army Headquarters (HQ), restructuring which includes cutting down the strength, cadre review of officers and review of terms and conditions of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Other Ranks (OR).
• Apart from the new vacancies, other big changes in the offing include having Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs); shifting the Director General Military Training in the Army HQ to the Army’s Training Command at Shimla; reorganising several overlapping divisions at the Army HQ and rightsizing the force over the next 6-8 years.
• In the next step, all the points made at the Commanders conference will be integrated into the study.
• While finalising the reorganisation of the Army HQ is likely to take 2-3 months, the concept of Integrated Battle Groups is expected to be finalised in 6-8 months.

Aim, shoot for a citizen-science repository of Indian mammals

News

• Scientists and researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore have come up with a new citizen-science repository on Indian mammals, called Mammals of India (MaOI), which is an online, peer- reviewed, freely-accessible portal that was launched.
• As many as 768 images, of 161 species of mammals, were uploaded.

Beyond News

• The photographs will not only help gather information on the distribution of the various species but also interactions between different species of mammals, like predation and mutualism.
• The website aims to develop individual species pages for all Indian mammals with information on identification, variation, distribution, breeding and non-breeding ecology and species conservation.
• As per current estimates, 426 species of mammals are found in India; of them 47 species are endemic to the Indian subcontinent. Along with well known species, the mammals of 100 species of rats and 126 species of bats and 24 species of whales of dolphins.
• Researchers said that this initiative will also make more information available about lesser known mammals of the country.
• The website provides an opportunity to any person to upload geotagged photographic observations about mammals with information on habitat age of the observed individual. Over time, these observations will be reviewed by subject experts and uploaded on the website.
• Under the same project websites dedicated Moths of India, Cicacds of India, Odonatas of India (dragonflies and damselflies) , Reptiles of India, Amphibians of India and Birds of India are operational.

CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE CURRENT AFFAIRS