IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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World sees hottest July ever in 2019

News:

• July 2019 was the joint-hottest month on Earth (July 2016 was equally hot), according to the United Nations.

Rise in global temperature

• Due to the rise in global temperature, in 2019, the extent of sea ice in the polar regions has dropped well below the average levels seen in past three decades.
• This is expected to add to the increasing sea levels, which have been steadily rising in the recent years.
• According to the Paris Agreement 2015, the objective was to restrict global temperature rise to about 1°C in the first 30-year period, compared to the pre-industrial average. The target has been missed every year since then.
• Both the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents dropped to their lowest at various points of time in 2019.
• Since 1993, global sea level has risen by an average of 3.3 mm per year. This increase is usually caused by water from melting ice sheets and glaciers and the expansion of sea water as it warms.

Once the language of masses, Urdu is dying a slow death

News

• From its glorious status during the Nizami Deccan, Urdu has few takers today. With the status of official language for all communication during the Nizam period, the language had come to settle down as second language for those willing to learn it in select schools.

Official language

• Though Urdu has been the language of masses for long, its rise as official language started in the late 19th century with Salar Jung II, Mir Laiq Ali Khan, allowing it to replace Persian as official mode of correspondence.
• Urdu was introduced as language of court proceedings in 1884 during Laiq Ali Khan’s period and the language went on to become the official language of the State in 1886. Soon, it gained prominence entering revenue and other areas till it was made the official language of the Mutamdeen, the Secretariat.
• While its ubiquity in use as the local tongue was one reason behind the rise of Urdu, shortage of professionals, who could translate the local proceedings into Persian, and issuing farmans(orders) or official gazettes was said to be another.
• The poetic language saw its peak later when it became the medium of instruction in the Osmania University, started in 1917. Majority of communication continued in Urdu till the merger of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union in 1948, marking the beginning of its decline.
• The language suffered a setback since then with English gaining prominence. There were instances of gazettes being issued in Urdu till 1951, but records show that issuance of official gazettes in Urdu was completely done away with in December 1951.
• The language lost its charm further in the aftermath of the States Reorganisation in 1956 with the formation of Andhra Pradesh, and gradually slipped to become the second language in less than a dozen districts.

Attempt to revive the language

• The incumbent TRS government has made an attempt to revive the language with the introduction of residential schools and other institutions exclusively with Urdu as the medium of instruction, but it is a slow read for mainstreaming it as a language of communication.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

• Pakistan seeks emergency meeting of UN Security Council over Kashmir

News

• Pakistan has formally called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to discuss India’s move to revoke the special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
• India has categorically told the international community that its move to scrap Article 370 of the Constitution removing the special status to Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter and has also advised Pakistan to “accept the reality”.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Chandrayaan-2 leaves Earth’s orbit, moving towards moon

News

• India’s lunar lander- orbiter craft ‘Chandrayaan-2’was put in the path of moon, some 3.84 lakh km away.

The mission objective of Chandrayaan-2: To develop and demonstrate the key technologies for end-to-end lunar mission capability, including soft-landing and roving on the lunar surface.

 Aim: To further expand the knowledge about the moon through a detailed study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics and atmosphere, leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon.

Chandrayaan-2

• Its orbit was raised for the sixth and last time on the earth side from ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru.
• Post operation, the spacecraft is functioning normally, ISRO said.
• It will travel for the next seven days and get close to moon on August 20, when its orbit will be altered frequently to make it revolve around moon. The spacecraft carries lander Vikram and rover Pragyan on it. The mission is the country’s first lunar soft-landing attempt. The landing itself is slated for September 7.
• The Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said it has carried out a manoeuvre called ‘Trans Lunar Insertion’ (TLI) following which the spacecraft has successfully entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory.
• If successful, the mission will make India the fourth country after Russia, the U.S. and China to pull off a soft landing on the Moon.
• The orbiter carries eight scientific payloads for mapping the lunar surface and study the exosphere (outer atmosphere) of the Moon while the lander carries three scientific payloads to conduct surface and subsurface science experiments.
• The rover carries two payloads to enhance the understanding of the lunar surface. A passive experiment from NASA will also be carried onboard Chandrayaan-2.
• Following the landing, the rover will roll out from the lander and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days. The mission life of the lander is also one lunar day, while the orbiter will continue its mission for a year.

CORAS: Indian Railways’ commando unit

News

• The first deployment of the Railway’s commando unit CORAS will be in the Naxal-hit areas of Chhattisgarh.

CORAS

• A new state-of-the-art facility will be built in Haryana’s Jagadhari city to train CORAS commandos.
• Railway Minister Piyush Goyal approved the setting up of the institute and instructed the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to provide them with training of international standards.
• The unit is being envisaged as a responder for any situation pertaining to damage, disturbance, disruption of train operations, attack/hostage/hijack, disaster situations in railway areas.
• Comprising RPF and Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF) personnel, the CORAS is headed by the RPF DG and is armed with special uniforms with bullet-proof jackets, helmets and sophisticated weapons.
• There are 14 battalions of the RPSF and one of its battalion had been converted into CORAS. The men of CORAS have been trained in the NSG academy and Greyhounds, he said.
• Greyhounds specialises in anti-insurgency operations against Naxalites. CORAS commandos will be undergoing training programmes, including basic and advanced commando courses with specialisation in handling landmines and improvised explosive devices, hostage rescue, sniping and breaching.

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