IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Amazon rainforest is reaching a dangerous tipping point

News

• The Amazon basin is the world’s largest repository of biodiversity and produces about 20 per cent of the world’s flow of freshwater into the oceans.

Threats from deforestation and burning

• In the recent few years, the rainforest has been under threat from deforestation and burning. Earlier this year, fires in the Amazon that were visible from space made headlines.
• According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), forest fires in the Brazilian part of the rainforests have doubled since 2013. It estimates an increase of over 84 per cent since last year.
• Until August this year, over 72,000 fires were recorded. June to December is considered to be burning season when farmers want to clear land for farming.
• Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, which comprises about two-thirds of the area of the rainforest, started in the 1970s and 1980s when large-scale forest conversion for cattle ranching and soy cultivation began.
• NASA’s Earth Observatory notes that state policies that encourage economic development, such as railway and road expansion projects have led to “unintentional deforestation” in the Amazon and Central America.
• Furthermore, forest clearing has been encouraged by agricultural subsidies, timber concessions and tax breaks have encouraged forest clearing in the Amazon.

Dieback

• When the Amazon rainforest reaches its tipping point, which is to say when the level of deforestation has led to there not being enough water for recycling and as result, moisture to induce rainfall, the rainforests will be unable to sustain themselves. This will lead to a situation when the trees, and in turn, the forest will start to “dieback”.
• In other words, some trees and eventually the forests will reach the physiological limits of dryness probably induced by droughts and heat stress. Because of this dehydration, the affected trees will begin to die from the tip of their leaves or roots backwards.

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India, Iran agree to speed up work on Chabahar

News

• India and Iran agreed to accelerate work on the strategic Chabahar project as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held wide-ranging talks with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on regional and global issues of mutual interest.

Chabahar project

• The Chabahar port jointly being developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan is considered a gateway to golden opportunities for trade with central Asian nations by the three countries. It is located on the Indian Ocean in the Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran.
• External Affairs Minister, is on a two-day visit to Iran, co-chaired the 19th Joint Commission Meeting with Zarif.
• The meeting comes after the US provided a rare exemption to India from sanctions on the Chabahar port in Iran as Washington said it recognised that the strategic project was a lifeline for war-torn Afghanistan to get humanitarian supplies from India.

India-China border talks: ‘Each side to respect other’s concerns’

News

• Days after China’s second bid to discuss Kashmir at the United Nations Security Council was thwarted, India said that there was a consensus that both sides should respect each other’s sensitivities and concerns in order to build mutual trust.

India-China border talks

• Unlike last year, this is something new and is part of the Ministry of External Affairs statement after the 22nd round of border talks between the Special Representatives National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and visiting Chinese State Councillor and Foreign minister Wang Yi.
• An attempt by China to get the Kashmir issue on the agenda for consultations in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was thwarted by other members, led by the US and France, earlier this week.
• China had earlier managed to hold informal closed-door consultations on Kashmir in the UNSC on August 16, 11 days after India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 on August 5.
• On the boundary question, there was reiteration of the same principles indicating no progress in the talks.

Delhi govt passes electric vehicle policy to tackle air pollution, 5 lakh EVs to be registered in 5 years

News

• In a bid to curb severe air pollution in the national capital region, the Delhi cabinet passed an electric vehicle policy. The government will provide subsidy to promote e-vehicles, an electric vehicle board would be formed to implement the policy.

Electric vehicle policy

• One of the key highlight areas of the policy is on electric two-wheelers, shared transport vehicles (three-wheelers/buses) and goods carriers/freight vehicles since they contribute to the majority of the vehicular pollution.
• The Delhi government, as part of the goal and impact of the EV policy, is targeting to induct at least 35,000 electric vehicles, 1,000 EVs for last-mile deliveries and 250 public charging/swapping stations in the national capital within a year.
• The EV policy further states that over the next five years, the government will likely register at least 5 lakh new EVs in Delhi.
• The government estimates that this “EV policy will avoid approximately Rs 6,000 crores in oil and liquid natural gas imports and 4.8 million tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, equivalent to avoiding CO2 emissions from nearly 1 lakh petrol cars over their lifetime.”
• The government plans to establish a “dedicated EV cell within the Transport Department for effective day-to-day implementation. The funding aspect of the project will be taken from various sources such as Pollution/Diesel Cess, Road Tax, Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) etc. using the ‘Feebate’ concept. Under the Feebate concept, polluting vehicles will incur a surcharge (fee) while efficient ones receive a rebate (bate). “All this will be aggregated under an umbrella, non-lapsable ‘State EV Fund’,” stated the policy statement.
• Most importantly, a State EV Board shall be constituted as the apex body for effective monitoring and implementation of the policy.
• The Delhi EV Policy 2019 will be valid for three years from the date of notification and the financial incentives and subsidies will come into effect from the date of notification of the policy and will be provided directly to buyers of electric vehicles after the purchase is made. Till then, the present subsidies being offered under Air Ambience Fund of DPCC shall continue.

Maharashtra legislature passes Bill to scrap four corporators per ward system

News

• The state legislature passed the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2019, to do away with the existing system of electing four corporators from every ward.

Municipal Corporation Bill

• The review of the existing system showed the each municipal ward should have one corporator for fast development in municipal corporations.
• The Bill was cleared by both the Houses of state legislature.

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‘Direct threat to space, security’: China responds to newly-created US Space Force

News

• Slamming the newly-created US Space Force as a ‘direct threat to outer space and security’, China’s Foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Beijing is “deeply concerned about it and resolutely opposed to it”.

Space Force

• Just like the US, China’s space program has also advanced leaps and bounds ever since its first crewed mission in 2003. Last February, the Pentagon said that Russia and China are ramping up efforts to develop technologies that could potentially allow them to disrupt or destroy American and allied satellites in a crisis or conflict, reported AFP.
• The US Space Force is primarily viewed by the US military as a recognition of the need to organise US interests in space especially satellites for navigation and communication.
• The Space Force will be the sixth formal force of the US Military after the Army, Air Force, Navy Marines, and Coast Guard.
• It will comprise of about 16,000 air force and civil personnel, according to Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett. It will have its own uniform, shoulder patches and even, eventually, its own song, just as the US Army and Navy have their own.

Road accidents leading cause of death in young Indian males

News

• With 2 lakh deaths in India in 2017, road injury was the leading cause of premature death among young males in India that year.

Leading cause of premature death

• • Pedestrians and motorcyclists accounted for more than half of all road injury deaths in India, higher than the global average, found the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative.
  • Road injury was the leading cause of death in India among 15-39-year-old males in 2017 and was the second leading cause for both sexes combined. More than half of all road injury deaths in India in 2017 were among pedestrians and motorcyclists.
  • Of the total 219,000 road injury deaths in India in 2017, 77% were in males with the death rate three times higher compared to females. Road Injury death rate in males varied 3 fold across the states of India with the highest rates in the states of Uttarakhand, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
  • The highest road injury death rates among females were in the states of Manipur, Jharkhand and Punjab.
  • Motorcyclist and cyclist road injury death rates were 69% and 33% higher in India compared to the global average. Pedestrian road injury deaths were highest among older adults in India.
  • The road traffic injury death rate was relatively higher in the less developed states compared to more developed states. This rate reduced significantly in more developed states from 1990 to 2017 but did not change in the less developed states.
  • The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative is a collaborative effort between the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and a number of other key stakeholders in India, including academic experts and institutions, government agencies and other organizations, under the aegis of the ministry of health & family welfare.

Year’s last solar eclipse

News

• This year’s final solar eclipse will occur on December 26.

Solar eclipse

• The annular solar eclipse is expected to be visible from most parts of south India and some parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Besides, it will also be visible from Indonesia, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
• A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon aligns itself in between the Earth and the Sun. In an annular solar eclipse, the Moon is located at the farthest distance from the Earth and it is unable to block the Sun completely. As a result, a ring of fire is observed.
• This eclipse will be the third solar eclipse of 2019. A partial eclipse was observed on January 6 followed by total eclipse on July 2.

Panchkula pollution control board seals eight screening plants found violating norms

News

• The pollution control board of Panchkula in Haryana, sealed eight screening plants, that were discharging untreated effluent water into nearby rivers.
• The inspection of the eight plants had been conducted and all were found violating norms.

Violation of Norms

• Of the eight plants sealed, seven plants are based in Raipur Rani, and one in the Kalka area.
• Another five screening plants in the Raipur Rani area were given show-cause notices in this week. The area has as many as 30 plants.
• The sealed plants were discharging untreated effluent into the river. The samples collected were found exceeding prescribed limits and polluting the nearby water bodies.
• These screening plants basically use tonnes of water to wash off various stones. The stones are sieved using this water. The water discharged is extremely muddy. Now, according to the notification of 2016, this water needs to be re-circulated via three tanks where the mud is left in the tank, while the water seeps downward.
• These plants basically, do not have the permission to discharge this muddy water outside the plant premises.
• During the inspection, muddy water was found to be flowing into the rivers through ‘kuccha’ channels made from the plants to the rivers.

Ahmedabad’s treated sewage to feed Fatehwadi canal

News

• Around 400 million litres per day (MLD) of treated sewage water from Ahmedabad city will now irrigate the neighbouring rural areas in the district through the Fatehwadi canal network.

Treated sewage for irrigation

• The treated water will be reused for irrigation in the villages of Daskroi, Sanand, Bavla and Dholka, stated an official release from the state government. This treated water will irrigated 12,000 hectares of agricultural land, which till now, was given Narmada waters.
• The state government had told the farmers in the region last year that they will not be given Narmada waters in the future for irrigation as the Fatehwadi canal is not part of the Narmada Command Area. Farmers in this region largely grow paddy and wheat.

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