IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

IASTODAY CAPSULES are available free -date wise => CLICK HERE

Quit India Movement: 8 August (August Kranti Din)

Points to recollect:

• It was in 1942 when the world was going through the havoc caused by World War II.
• India too was facing the heat and after the Cripps Mission had failed, and on 8 August 1942, Mahatma Gandhi made a Do or Die call through the Quit India movement. 
  The first half of the movement was peaceful with demonstrations and processions. The peaceful protest was carried till Mahatma Gandhi’s release.
  The second half of the movement was violent with raids and setting fire at post offices, government buildings and railway stations.

Source: The Hindu

Ocean warming, overfishing increase methylmercury toxin in fish

News

• Despite a decrease in seawater concentration of methylmercury since the late 1990s, the amount of toxin that gets accumulated in certain fish which are higher in the food chain have been found to increase.
• The amount of methylmercury in fish higher in the food chain can change due to two reasons,ocean warming and dietary shifts due to overfishing by humans.

Findings

• Based on 30 years (1970s and 2000s) of data and ecosystem modelling, researchers have found that there has been up to 23% increase in methylmercury concentration in Atlantic cod fish in the Gulf of Maine in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean.
• The increase in the methylmercury concentration in cod fish has been due to changes in diet caused by overfishing.
• As a result of diet change, cod fish in the 2000s relied more on larger herring and lobster, which have higher concentrations of the toxin than other prey fish consumed in the 1970s.
• Besides dietary changes, ocean warming too causes changes in the methylmercury accumulation in fish.
• Fish metabolism is temperature dependent. So as ocean temperature increases, fish experience higher metabolism and more energy obtained from food is spent on maintenance rather than growth, leading to more methylmercury getting concentrated in predatory fish.
• Based on modelling, the researchers predicts an estimated 56% increase in the toxin concentration in Atlantic bluefin tuna between 1970s and 2000s, which is also consistent with the 2017 observational data.
• The model predicts that a combination of three factors 20% reduction in methylmercury concentration in seawater, 1 degree C increase in ocean temperature and change in diet can either increase or decrease the amount of methylmercury present in fish.
• The researchers warn that human exposure to the toxin through fish consumption is bound to increase as a result of climate change. 

Source: The Hindu

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

News:

UNIDO and National Institute of Solar Energy to initiate a skill development programme for different levels of beneficiaries in the solar thermal energy sector.

Beyond news:

• It is the specialized agency of the United Nations that promotes industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive globalization and environmental sustainability.
• It is also a member of UNDP.
• As of 1 April 2019, 170 States are Members of UNIDO.

Source: PIB india

Pak. airspace curbs

News

• Pakistan, partially closed its airspace for all airlines till September 5.

Tension between India and Pakistan

• The development comes amid escalating tension between India and Pakistan over Article 370 concerning Jammu and Kashmir.
• Earlier, Pakistan closed its airspace to all types of civilian traffic for 15-long weeks following the Balakot IAF strikes. This was lifted and, officials said it had cost Pakistan over US $ 55 million as overflight fees.
• The move to shut its entire airspace had badly hit Indian and world airlines with the worst affected being flights from Europe and the US flying in and out of Delhi.

Source: The Hindu

Pakistan suspends Samjhauta Express service, Indian crew escorts train to Attari

News

• Pakistan stopped the Samjhauta Express at the Wagah border, citing security concerns, following which an Indian crew and guard escorted the train to Attari on the Indian side.

Tension between India and Pakistan

• A day after Islamabad downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi, Pakistan’s Federal Railways Minister told that Pakistan has closed the Samjhauta Express train service with India. However, railway officials said the train has not been suspended.
• The Samjhauta Express, named after the Hindi word for “agreement.”
• The train service was started on July 22, 1976 under the Simla Agreement that settled the 1971 war between the two nations.
• Pakistani authorities briefly suspended the train service on February 28 this year following tense bilateral ties in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

BrahMos missile 

News

• The Defenses Acquisition Council (DAC) approved the procurement of a Software Defined Radio (SDR) and the Next Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries (NGMMCB) for the Navy.

 Next Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries

• The NGMMCB will be fitted with the BrahMos surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missiles and deployed along the coast.
• The SDR will facilitate high-speed data and secure voice communication with anti-jamming capability.
• The DAC also approved amendments to the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), 2016, to improve the ease of business.
• BrahMos was jointly developed by India and Russia and has been inducted into the the Army and the Navy.
• It is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and marine targets.

Source: PIB india

Involving locals in reviving tiger population pays off in Panna Tiger Reserve

News

• In 2009, as T3 meandered almost 442 km to return to the Pench Tiger Reserve, its former home, large numbers of locals helped bring the male tiger back to the Panna Tiger Reserve, where it had been translocated.

Tiger Recovery Plan

• Foresters tracked T3’s movement using radio collar signals, locals alerted other villagers living along the trail, temporarily cut off power supply to wire fences around fields, and identified some common abodes and caves where the tiger could take shelter.
• Registering a 7% growth in its tiger population every year since, the PTR, where population stress, poaching and management gaps had caused their untimely extinction, houses 52 tigers today.
• All the seven tigers, reintroduced under the Tiger Recovery Plan, have bred cubs.
• Spread over 576 sq. km. of deciduous forests in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, PTR used to be a hunting preserve for rulers of the princely states of Panna, Chhatarpur and Bijawar. In fact, to conserve the species then, there was a ban on killing females, cubs, and tigers shorter than 9 feet.
• They devised a conservation model focused on coexistence with tigers, and involved ‘Jan samarthan se baagh samrakshan’ (tiger conservation with people’s support). 
• Under the ‘Friends of Panna’ initiative, foresters met and shared information with every local on the revival plan and their role in it.

Threats

• The threat of international poaching rackets, flourishing under mercenaries from the local Pardhi, Kanjar and Baheliya tribes, loomed large. Complacent field staff, under pressure from poachers, sometimes tried to bury evidence and even connived to organise hunts.
• To counter this, supervisors began handling confrontations with poachers.
• After T3 was brought back, it mated with T1, a tigress brought to the reserve earlier, with the help of urine-lure technique, wherein urine of a tigress is sprayed around to attract a tiger. On April 16, 2010, T1 was delivered of the first litter four cubs the first of a tigress reintroduced in the Reserve.
• The Reserve has been rated “very good” in the four evaluation cycles of the National Tiger Conservation Authority from 2006 to 2018. According to the results of the tiger census declared, Madhya Pradesh has topped the country with 526 tigers.

Source: The Hindu

Giant parrots that lived 19 million years ago

News

• The remains of a super-sized parrot that stood more than half the height of an average human and roamed the Earth 19 million years ago have been discovered in New Zealand.

Findings

• Judging by the size of the leg bones, the bird would have stood about one metre tall and weighed up to seven kg.
• The parrot has been named Heracles inexpectatusto reflect its Herculean size and strength — and the unexpected nature of the discovery. The bird was approximately the size of the giant “dodo” pigeon and twice the size of the critically endangered flightless New Zealand kakapo, previously the largest known parrot.
• New Zealand, home to the now-extinct flightless bird moa which was up to 3.6 metres tall with neck outstretched, is well known for its giant birds.

Source: The Hindu

CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE CURRENT AFFAIRS