Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Indonesia quake-tsunami death toll jumps to 384

News

• Nearly 400 people were killed in the earthquake and the tsunami it caused barrelling into the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, officials said.

Beyond News

• Hospitals struggled to cope with hundreds of injured and rescuers scrambled to reach the stricken region.
• The national disaster agency put the official death toll so far at 384, all of them in the tsunami-struck city of Palu, but warned the figure was likely to rise.
• The tsunami was triggered by a strong quake that brought down buildings and sent locals fleeing for higher ground as a churning wall of water crashed into Palu, where there were widespread power blackouts.
• Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on the Earth. It lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

 ‘Illegal Indian migration into U.S. on the rise’

News

• The number of Indians arrested for illegally entering the U.S. has nearly tripled so far in 2018, making them one of the largest groups of illegal aliens apprehended, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said.

Beyond News

• Paying smuggling rings between $25,000-$50,000 per person, a growing number of Indians are illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and claiming asylum for persecution, CBP spokesman said.
• Many present viable claims, but a large number are economic migrants with fraudulent petitions that swamp the system and can cause legitimate cases to be “washed out” in the high volume of fraud.
• Asylum seekers range from lower caste people facing death threats for marrying outside their class to Sikhs claiming political persecution, immigration lawyers said.
• After Mexicans, citizens of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were most likely to enter the U.S. illegally in 2018, according to Border Patrol data.

Pakistan continues to pursue terror as an instrument of official policy: Swaraj

News

• In a strong attack against Pakistan, India told the United Nations General Assembly that its neighbour’s commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit.

Beyond News

• In General Debate of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, External Affairs Minister described terrorism as an “existential threat” to humanity.
• Even as the perpetrators of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York met their fate, External Affairs Minister said the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack Hafiz Saeed still roams the streets of Pakistanwith impunity.
• External Affairs Minister said the demon of terrorism now stalks the world, at a faster pace somewhere, a slower pace elsewhere, but life-threatening everywhere.
• The Indian leader told the world leaders at the General Assembly that the most startling evidence of Pakistan’s duplicity was the fact that Osama Bin Laden, the architect and ideologue of 9/11 terror attack was given safe haven in the country.
• Even after the world’s most wanted terrorist was killed by American special forces, “Pakistan continued to behave as if nothing had happened,” External Affairs Minister said.

Charminar declared Swachh Iconic Place

News

• The Central government has announced Charminar as ‘Swachh Iconic Place’, in recognition of efforts towards its renovation and development and also historical monuments close by.

Beyond News

• The award has been declared by the Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry.
• Along with Charminar, Chudi Bazar, Murgi Chowk, Clock Tower, Zulfikan Kaman, and Moazzamjahi Market too were being renovated, by allotting special funds for the same.
• The letter acknowledged implementation of sanitation programmes and efforts to make the sites tourist-friendly. The award would be presented at the fourth annual celebration of Swachh Bharat Mission in New Delhi on October 2.

India to gift Mig-21 fighter jets to Russia

News

• A highlight on the sidelines of the upcoming India-Russia bilateral summit is likely to be the gifting of three MiG-21 fighter jets to Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin will be in New Delhi on October 4 and 5 for the annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Beyond News

• The aircraft to be gifted are in flight-worthy condition and the cost of crating and transportation will be borne by the Russians, another official said.
• This will be major symbolic gesture to showcase the all-weather friendship and deep strategic partnership between India and Russia, which has been put to test in recent times due to changing geopolitical conditions.
• The aircraft will get new registration numbers and may be adopted for vintage flight. However, it is not clear how the Russians intend to use them.
• The MiG-21 has more of emotional value for Russia, as it has the distinction of being the most produced supersonic fighter in history.
• The MiG-21, a product of the Soviet Union, was designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the 1950s. It made first flight in 1956 and entered service in 1959. However, Russia stopped producing the aircraft in 1985, while India continued operating the upgraded variants.
• India inducted the MiG-21s in 1963 and got full technology transfer and rights to license-build the aircraft in the country. It is the first supersonic fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The IAF still has about 120 MiG-21s in service which will all be phased out of service by 2021-22.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Treated water at Fukushima nuclear plant still radioactive

News

• The operator of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant said that much of the radioactive water stored at the plant isn’t clean enough and needs further treatment if it is to be released into the ocean.
• Tokyo Electric Power Co and the government had said that treatment of the water had removed all radioactive elements except tritium, which experts say is safe in small amounts.

Beyond News

• TEPCO said that studies found the water still contains other elements, including radioactive iodine, cesium and strontium.
• It said more than 80% of the 900,000 tons of water stored in large, densely packed tanks contains radioactivity exceeding limits for release into the environment.
• About 161,000 tons of the treated water has 10 to 100 times the limit for release into the environment, and another 65,200 tons has up to nearly 20,000 times the limit, TEPCO said.
• More than 7 ½ years since a massive March 2011 earthquake and tsunami destroyed three reactors at the plant, Japan has yet to reach a consensus on what to do with the radioactive water.
• Fishermen and residents oppose its release into the ocean. Nuclear experts have recommended the controlled release of the water into the Pacific as the only realistic option.
• TEPCO only says it has the capacity to store up to 1.37 million tons of water through 2020 and that it cannot stay at the plant forever.

12 satellite-tagged vultures take wing from Nepal

News

• In a first for Asia, Nepal released 12 satellite-tagged white-rumped vultures, eight of which are captive-bred chicks born to vultures in captivity.

Beyond News

• This signifies a huge step for the vulture breeding and recovery programme in not just Nepal but the entire subcontinent, as India’s captive-bred vultures too await their turn.
• This is Nepal’s second vulture release; last year, it released six captive-reared (wild chicks reared in captivity) satellite-tagged white-rumped vultures.
• Eliminating the illegal use of diclofenac (its consumption through cattle carcasses is lethal to vultures) is crucial to complement conservation measures, including the breeding programme (where vultures are reared and bred in captivity, and released in the wild to prevent species extinction). Before release, the birds are fitted with satellite and wing tags; these are now providing interesting information about the movement of Nepal’s vultures.
• Eleven wild birds tagged in Nepal have visited India’s Uttar Pradesh (in 2017, the birds were released just 15 km from the India-Nepal border).
• Of these, one has been particularly adventurous: it flew twice to Shimla in Himachal Pradesh and back, and is currently in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The Indian government has granted permission to satellite-tag captive-bred white-rumped vultures in Haryana’s Pinjore, one of the conservation breeding centres in India. Here, as the vultures await their satellite tags from the government, survey teams monitor availability of diclofenac in local pharmacies and test for its residue in cattle carcasses.
• Of India’s nine vulture species, four (including the white-rumped) are categorised as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Facebook says 50 million user accounts affected by major security breach

News

• Facebook reported a major security breach in which 50 million user accounts were accessed by unknown attackers.

Beyond News

• The stolen data allowed the attackers to “seize control” of those user accounts, Facebook said.
• Facebook has logged out the 50 million breached users plus another 40 million who were vulnerable to the attack. Users don’t need to change their Facebook passwords.
• Facebook says it doesn’t know who is behind the attacks or where they’re based. In a call with reporters on Friday, CEO said that the company doesn’t know yet if any of the accounts that were hacked were misused.
• The hack is the latest setback for Facebook during a tumultuous year of security problems and privacy issues . So far, though, none have significantly shaken the confidence of the company’s 2 billion global users.
• This latest hack involved a bug in Facebook’s “View As” feature, the company said in a blog post. That feature lets people see how their profiles appear to others. The attackers used that vulnerability to steal “access tokens,” which are digital keys that Facebook uses to keep people logged in. Possession of those tokens would allow attackers to control those accounts.

India sees highest seizure of black spotted turtles

News

• India accounts for 29% of black spotted turtles (Geoclemys hamiltonii) seized from across seven countries in South Asia, states a recent report by TRAFFIC, an international network monitoring trade in wildlife.

Findings

• Classified as vulnerable by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of threatened species, the black spotted turtle or spotted pond turtle is native to South Asia, and a heavily trafficked chelonian. The medium-sized freshwater turtle has a black shell with yellow streaks. The species was once smuggled for its meat and is now sought after as an exotic pet.
• The highest number of seizures occurred in India, accounting for a total of 3,001 (29.33%) specimens. Of the 53 seizures across these seven countries, 38% (or 20) seizures were from India.
• In India, the species is distributed across the north, northeast and a few parts of central India in States such as West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and parts of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Meghalaya. But an analysis of the trade route places Chennai as an important centre for the trade.
• The report describes the India-Bangladesh border, part of the species’ natural range, as another hotspot for trade in the black soft-shelled turtle.
• Bangladesh capital Dhaka “is in closer proximity to the Indian Black Spotted Turtle trade hotspots than most large Indian cities and may therefore function as a regional collection centre,” the publication states.
• The report also highlights that 47% of the seizures involved smuggling via commercial flights. Of the 55 suspects arrested for smuggling black spotted turtles, the number of known convictions were only 20, a phenomenon that experts described as lacunae in the preparation of cases, and in procedural lapses in prosecution.
• Apart from increasing public awareness, the report emphasises the need for better law enforcement and cooperation among international authorities.

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