IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Fact check: A Giant fish is declared extinct — how do scientists conclude that?

News

• One of the largest freshwater fish has been declared extinct in a study.

Beyond News:

• The Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) was an iconic species, measuring up to 7 m in length, dating back from 200 million years ago, and therefore swimming the rivers when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Its ancestral home was the Yangtze River.
• Chinese researchers made this conclusion based on the Red List criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Red List-categories

• The Red List has several categories for extinction, or for how endangered a species is.
• “Extinct in the wild” means a species survives only in a captive environment while “locally extinct” means a species has ceased to exist in a particular area but may exist in other areas. Then there is “functionally extinct”, which means the species continues to exist but it has too few members to enable to reproduce meaningfully enough to ensure survival. To be “globally extinct”, it means a species has no surviving member anywhere.
• Such a conclusion is reached when there is no reasonable doubt left that its last member has died.
• Declaring a species extinct is an elaborate process. It involves a series of exhaustive surveys, which need to be taken at appropriate times, throughout the species’ historic range and over a time-frame that is appropriate to the species’ life cycle and form.
• When these surveys fail to record the existence of any individuals belonging to that species, a species may be presumed to be extinct. Once declared extinct, a species is not eligible for protective measures and conservation funding; therefore, the declaration has significant consequences.

Reasons

• It was once common in the Yangtze, before overfishing and habitat fragmentation including dam building caused its population to dwindle from the 1970s onwards.
• Between 1981 and 2003, there were just around 210 sightings of the fish. The researchers estimate that it became functionally extinct by 1993, and extinct sometime between 2005-2010.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

National Clean Air Programme

News

• Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) on January 10, 2019.

Reduce PM

• The NCAP has identified 122 non-attainment cities in the country that did not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the period of 2011-15 under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP).

Aim: The programme aims to reduce 20-30 per cent PM 2.5 and 10 levels across the 122 cities by 2024, taking levels in 2017 as the base year.

• For at least 28 cities, where PM 10 level is more than 90 ug/m3, the Union Environment Ministry has allocated Rs 10 crore for two years. The cities include Pune, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad among others.
• According to a statement released by the news aggregator, the initial data on the NCAP tracker is based on responses received under Right to Information Act, 2005 from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on budget disbursed to 28 non-attainment cities so far and the breakdown of expenses.
• Based on the list of actions each city is undertaking to meet its NCAP goals, the dashboard has identified five metrics monitoring coverage, pollution mitigation, pollution clean-up, public engagement and awareness, and miscellaneous activities.
• Hyderabad has spent the maximum of Rs 7.8 crore on increased monitoring efforts among all 28 cities, Ahmedabad is trailing at Rs 80 lakh on installation and commissioning of CAAQMs.
• Meanwhile, Raipur is leading the way with green paving activities worth Rs 4.2 crore, while Surat has spent Rs 50 lakh on this activity so far, the statement added.

UN thanks India for paying regular budget assessments within specified timeframe

News

• The UN has thanked India for paying its regular budget assessments, only the fourth nation to make full contributions within the specified timeframe of the 193-member world body.

Budget assessments

• India paid USD 23,396,496 net assessment on January 10, becoming only the fourth country to have paid its regular budget assessments in full by February 1, 2020, within the 30 day due period specified in the Financial Regulation.
• The UN closed out 2019 with 146 member states having paid their dues in full for the 2019 budget. 10 member states were in arrears – Central African Republic, Comoros, Gambia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Tonga, Venezuela and Yemen.
• The UN General Assembly last month adopted a budget of USD three billion for the United Nations to cover the year 2020, an increase of approximately USD 8 million on what was initially requested by Secretary-General António Guterres. It also marked the first time since 1973 that the UN adopted an annual budget instead of a two-year one.
• Last year also, India was among the handful of only 34 UN member states that had paid their regular budget dues in full and on time to the world organisation.
• India had paid USD 23.25 million in regular budget assessments by January 31, 2019, the 30-day due period specified as per the UN’s Financial Regulation rules.
• Subsequent to the end of the 30 day due period (January 31), 95 additional member states paid their 2019 regular budget assessment in full.

NCRB report 2018: Himachal low on crimes, but ranks third in NDPS cases

News

• Himachal Pradesh has comparatively low rate of most cognizable crimes in 2018, it figures among states with the highest rate for certain crimes – especially those related to narcotic drugs, forest laws, and crimes committed by foreigners, according to latest data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Crimes

• With a total of 1,342 cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in 2018 at a rate of 18.5 per lakh of population, Himachal has the third-highest crime rate under NDPS cases after Punjab (39.2) and Kerala (24.9).
• While several states have higher rates of crimes related to possession of drugs for personal consumption, Himachal has the third-highest crime rate of 12.8 when it comes to possession of drugs for trafficking, after Punjab (19.3) and Chandigarh (15.2).
• According to Himachal Pradesh police records, the number of NDPS cases increased further by 7.2 percent in 2019, while around 12 percent more criminals were arrested as compared to the previous year.
• At 147, Himachal recorded the third-highest number of crimes committed by foreigners after West Bengal and Karnataka in 2018. According to state police officials, in 2018 and 2019, a total of 22 foreigners were been arrested in NDPS cases alone.
• Himachal also has the highest rate of crimes under forest laws. As many as 240 cases were registered in the state under the Forest Act and the Forest Conservation Act at a rate of 3.3. No other state or UT in the country recorded a rate of more than 0.6 under these laws.
• Around 66.5 per cent of the geographical area of the state comes under recorded forest area, while 27.7 percent of the total area lies under forest cover.
• After Telangana, it has the second-highest crime rate of abetment to suicide of women (section 305/306 of the IPC), and 74 such cases were registered in 2018. With 202 cases of kidnapping and abduction of a woman to compel her for marriage, the state witnessed the second-highest rate of such crimes under Section 366 of the IPC, after Punjab where 956 such cases were registered.
• Himachal Pradesh also saw comparatively high rates of stalking (Section 354D of the IPC) and women-centric cyber crimes (IT Act).
• The data shows that a total of 19,594 cognizable crime cases were registered in Himachal Pradesh in 2018 at a rate of 269.6 per lakh of population.
• The percentage share of the state in the total crimes across the country was 0.4. A total of 925 victims died in road accidents while 101 persons in the state were murdered, said the report.

Gujarat: 1,895 persons sought religious conversion in 5 years, 53% in Surat

News

• In the past five years, 1,895 applications seeking religious conversion have been filed in Gujarat, of which 53% were from Surat. While more than 94% of the applicants were Hindus, about four percent were Muslims and a little over one percent were Christians.

Religious conversion

• A total of 1,003 applications were received from the diamond and textile hub of Surat during the period between July, 2014 and June, 2019. This was revealed in data tabled by the state government in the Gujarat Assembly.
• Compared to a total of 1,789 Hindu applicants between July 1, 2014 and June 20, 2019, 82 applicants were Muslims and 22 were Christians. There was only one Sikh applicant and one Ismali Khoja applicant during the five-year period. Most of the Muslims who applied for conversions in Gujarat were from Surat (20), Vadodara (12), Rajkot (10) and Ahmedabad (8), while Christians applicants were largely from Vadodara (5), Anand (4) and Kheda (5).
• During this five-year period, the number of Hindu applicants wanting to change their religion went up by 34% in comparison to the 2014-’15 period, with the highest number of applicants (735) being registered during the year between July, 2018 and June, 2019.
• The highest number of Muslim applicants (24) was between July, 2017 and June, 2018, while the highest number of Christians (7) applied between July, 2016 and June, 2017.

Kerala’s Maradu building comes crashing down in demolition drive

News

• H20 Holy Faith apartment became the first of the four residential apartments in Maradu, a neighborhood in Kerala’s Kochi, to be demolished.

Violating the Coastal Regulation Zone norms

• The apartment, which was razed as per a Supreme Court order passed last year, was brought down through controlled implosion.
• The 60-meter high 19-storey building was levelled in seconds in a spectacular implosion.
• After the H20 Holy Faith apartment, the twin towers of Alfa Serene was brought down.
• A total of 343 waterfront flats were built in the complexes, violating the Coastal Regulation Zone norms. The Apex Court had in September 2019 directed demolition of the apartment complexes within 138 days, a time line given by the Kerala government.
• Section 144 of the CrPc has been imposed on the land, air and water of the area. It will be lifted only after the Fire and Rescue Services department gives the all-clear sign.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Naval version of Tejas lands successfully on aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya

News

• In a major milestone, the naval version of indigenously built Tejas aircraft made its first landing on the deck of the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.

Major milestone

• • The successful test has put India among a select group of nations having the capability to design a jet that can land on an aircraft carrier.
  • The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is involved in the development of the naval variant of Tejas along with Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Aircraft Research and Design Centre of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and CSIR among others.
  • The successful “arrested landing” of the prototype of the naval version of Tejas on the deck of INS Vikramaditya is expected to speed up development of the jet for the Indian Navy.
  • A similar test was carried out at a shore-based test facility in Goa in September last year.
  • The IAF has already inducted a batch of Tejas aircraft. Initially, the IAF had placed an order with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for 40 Tejas aircraft.
  • Last year, the IAF issued the request for proposal (RFP) to HAL for the procurement of another batch of 83 Tejas at a cost of over Rs 50,000 crore.

China launches gigantic telescope in hunt for life beyond earth

News

• China officially opened operations of the world’s largest radio telescope, which it will use for space research and help in the hunt for extraterrestrial life, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

World’s largest radio telescope

• The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, is the size of 30 football fields and has been hewed out of a mountain in the southwestern province of Guizhou. It is also known by the name “Sky Eye” in China.
• The telescope had received national approval to start operations. It finished construction in 2016 and has been undergoing debugging and tests in the years since.
• The telescope’s trial operations had so far been reliable and stable, and that its sensitivity was more than 2.5 times that of the world’s second-largest telescope.
• The project has also obtained some valuable scientific data over that time and is expected to help lead to some breakthroughs in areas such as low-frequency gravitational wave detection and interstellar molecules in the next three to five years.
• Advancing China’s space programme is a priority for Beijing, and the country has set a target to catch up with Russia and the United States and become a major space power by 2030.

Local pollutants major contributor to Delhi’s foul air: Study

News

• Local sources of pollution such as traffic, construction, and domestic heating contribute significantly to the Delhi National Capital Region’s high concentrations of harmful air pollutants, a new comprehensive study suggests.

Local sources of pollution

• Researchers noted that given the dominance of local sources, efforts to control pollution are needed throughout the year, not just during winters, when the problem reaches its peak.
• According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution is estimated to cause nearly 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2016.
• In India, around 600,000 deaths annually are attributed to air pollution, and some of the world’s highest levels can be found in Delhi city.
• The study gathered four years of pollution data from 12 sites across Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
• The researchers analysed how particulate matter PM2.5 and PM10 and gases such as oxides of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone impact this region of the country.
• They found a clear trend with significantly higher levels of air pollutants in winter months than in summer or monsoon periods, with the exception of ozone levels.
• The high levels of fine and coarse particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM2.5-10) in winter months were attributed to fumes from crop burning upwind of Delhi, and a likely increase in biomass burning for residential heating because most parts of the region do not have central heating systems.
• The weather during winter months particularly reduced precipitation and low wind speeds is also thought to play a significant role in raising pollutant levels.
• The team also obtained meteorological data from each station for the duration of the study, allowing the examination of wind speeds and the direction of particulate matter.
• The analysis suggests that local sources of pollution, such as traffic, construction and domestic heating, influenced pollutant levels more than regional sources like air pollution from long-range traffic coming from outside the region.

New border fences in works, BSF pushes for tech to disable drones

News

• Amid the heightened threat of infiltration from Pakistan following the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, the BSF is acquiring state-of-the-art fences that cannot be cut.

Infiltration

• BSF sources said there are intelligence inputs about Pakistan preparing Afghan militants to push them into India after the snow melts.
• Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs is working on acquiring technology to disable drones.
• Under a pilot project, new fences have been set up at the Indo-Pak border in Amritsar and the Indo-Bangladesh border in Silchar, Assam. Sources said the cost of erecting such a fence would be around Rs 2 crore per km.
• Besides this, the BSF is pushing the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to get the latest technology to disable drones.

Maharashtra set to auction iron ore, bauxite dumps

News

• The Uddhav Thackeray-led government has given mining activity in the state a push by issuing fresh guidelines for the auction of tonnes of mining dumps.

New policy guidelines

• Maharashtra has huge dumps of bauxite, iron and manganese. According to new policy guidelines issued by the industries department, the dumps are proposed to be auctioned on “as is where is” basis. The norms will be applied for disposal of mining dumps of major mineral outside the “legal mining areas”.
• The new guidelines, come even as uncertainty continues over fresh extraction of ore in the country.
• Apart from the disposal of low grade ores and overburdened dumps on government and private land and forest areas, the guidelines are also meant to give the mining industry a push, said sources.
• The dumps have also impacted the fertility of the surrounding soil, most date back to the period when no technology for mining of the dumps was available.
• As far as mining dumps on private land is concerned, the landowners will get the first right to dispose of the dump at the highest bid accepted in the auction process. If the owner fails to deposit the equivalent amount within a week, the right of disposal will go to the highest bidder.
• While requiring bidders to deposit 25 per cent of the offset price as security deposit, the government has said that the winning bidder will be required to obtain prior permission from the Union environment ministry and other departments before starting disposal work.
• Penalties have been prescribed if excavation of more than the prescribed depth and width is carried out, in which case it would be construed as “illegal excavation”.

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