IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Newly-discovered lake in Nepal likely to become world’s highest

News

• A newly-discovered lake in Nepal is likely to set a new record of being the world’s highest lake replacing Tilicho, which is situated at an altitude of 4,919 metres in the Himalayan nation and currently holding the title.

World’s highest lake

• The Kajin Sara lake in Manang district was discovered about a few months ago by a team of mountaineers.
• It is located at Singarkharka area of Chame rural municipality.
• As per the measurement of the lake taken by the team, it is located at an altitude of 5,200 metres, which is yet to be officially verified. It is estimated to be 1,500-metre-long and 600-metre-wide.
• The Tilicho lake, situated at an altitude of 4,919 metres, is 4 km long, 1.2 km wide and around 200 metres deep.

Source: The Hindu

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Code of Conduct for MPs and MLAs

News: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu has sought a consensus on a Code of Conduct for MPs and MLAs

Beyond News:

• Code of Conduct for members of Rajya Sabha has been in force since 2005; there is no such code for Lok Sabha
• With aim to oversee the moral and ethical conduct of the Members and to examine the cases referred to it with reference to ethical and other misconduct of Members”
• There’s a lot more that the Election Commission ought to do to make it difficult for the errant politicians.
• Its responsibility doesn’t ends with the filing of an FIR against a candidate who is violating code of conduct. 
• It should direct political parties to withdraw such candidates.

Source: PIB india

First case against Triple Talaq registered in Delhi

News

• The first case under the new triple talaq law was registered in New Delhi against a man who allegedly gave talaq to his wife through WhatsApp at Bara Hindu Rao police station.

Triple talaq law

• A case under section 4 of The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019 is registered and the husband has been arrested.
• Under section 4 of the new act passed by Parliament a Muslim husband who pronounces triple talaq is liable to be punished by imprisonment up to three years and fine.

Source: The Hindu

Pakistan suspends Delhi-Lahore bus service

News

• Pakistan has suspended the Lahore-Delhi friendship bus service, after suspending two cross-border trains, in the wake of India’s decision regarding Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcation of the State into two Union Territories.

Beyond News:

• The bus service was first started in February 1999 but suspended after the 2001 Parliament attack. It was restarted in July 2003.
• The move is in line with the decisions taken during a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC).
• The Lahore-Delhi bus service is operated from Ambedkar Stadium terminal near Delhi Gate.
• Pakistan Minister of Railways had announced that Pakistan would suspend the Thar Express train service with India which links the two countries across the Rajasthan border, a day after it stopped the Samjhauta Express following its decision to downgrade bilateral ties.
• The Thar Express has been running between Jodhpur’s Bhagat ki Kothi station to Karachi every Friday night since services resumed on February 18, 2006 after a 41-year suspension.

Source: The Hindu

Moscow for resolving issue in accordance with Shimla, Lahore pacts

News

• Russia has called upon both India and Pakistan to save the situation in Kashmir from spiralling out of control and carry out the changes in the region within the constitutional parameters of India.
• Moscow has underlined that it seeks normalisation of ties between India and Pakistan and bilateral dialogue.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Irrigation, agriculture shift rainfall to northwestern India.

News

• For the first time, researchers have found that even a change in irrigation policy has the potential to shift monsoon rainfall and intensify extreme rainfall in India through its feedback to atmosphere.
• They have further found the reason behind the shift in the summer monsoon rainfall towards northwestern India and intensification of extreme rainfall over central India during the month of September.

Findings

• It became possible to understand what causes the monsoon to shift and the role of irrigation as the researchers developed a module of land-surface model that takes into account the actual soil irrigation and agriculture pattern seen in India.
• During the month of September, agriculture lands are highly irrigated and the crops are matured. As a result, there is maximum evapotranspiration taking place leading to highest contribution of moisture from the land to the atmosphere.
• There is uncontrolled irrigation in India. And nearly 50% of crop area is covered by paddy where the fields are kept in submerged conditions.
• As a result, the contribution of moisture from the land to the atmosphere is very different from what is followed in the West, which is what the models used so far took into account.

Irrigation management

• Researchers have shown that whenever there is a change in the irrigation management, there is a change in the moisture feedback to the atmosphere.
• The researchers considered three scenarios no irrigation, irrigation that is based on soil moisture deficit h, and finally uncontrolled irrigation as seen in India.
• The researchers found that as a result of excess irrigation over northern India, the summer monsoon rainfall in September shifts towards the northwestern part of the country. There is also intensification of extreme rainfall over central India during September.
• Land-surface processes including irrigation affect the heat fluxes temperature related and evapotranspiration. Modified heat fluxes along with changes in atmosphere moisture content and distribution result in a shift in rainfall towards northwestern part of the country and increased extreme rainfall over central India during September.

Source: The Hindu

Chinese space firm revs up for reusable rocket race

News

• Chinese startup LinkSpace completed its third test of a reusable rocket in five months, stepping up the pace in the race to develop a technology key to cheap space launches in an expected global boom in satellite deployment.

RLV-T5 rocket

• LinkSpace’s RLV-T5 rocket blasted off and flew as high as 300 metres before returning to the launchpad on its own after 50 seconds.
• China envisions constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed Internet for aircraft and rural areas to tracking coal shipments and commuter traffic.
• Reliable, low-cost and frequent launches will be key, with recoverable or partially recoverable rockets like the Falcon 9 from Elon Musk’s SpaceX one way to eventually affordable satellite deployment missions.
• The reusable design of its next-generation rocket could lead to a predicted cost reduction of 70%.

Source: The Hindu

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