IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Arabian Sea saw second most frequent and intense cyclones since 1902 : IMD

News

• 2019 was a year of extremes heat, cold, rain, and cyclones for India, killing a total of 1,562 people, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated in a report.
• Last year, the total number of deaths caused due to similar weather vagaries was 1,428.

Extreme weather events

• In a weather summary titled the ‘Statement on Climate of India during 2019’, IMD stated rains and floods alone took lives of 849 people, with Bihar being the worst affected Indian state.
• Death tolls, as per IMD records, was 1,592 in 2017 and 1,538 in 2016.
• The rainfall amounts during both the southwest monsoon (June to September) and northeast monsoon (October to December) remained 109 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA). That is, the country recorded excess rainfall during the entire year, making it an extremely wet year in recent times, when both monsoons reported above normal rain for the seasons.
• The mean temperatures remained 0.36 degrees above normal, making 2019 the seventh hottest year ever recorded, the report said. The decade 2011 – 2019 remained the warmest on record for the country, when the annual mean temperature remained 0.36 degree above normal.
• The report highlighted that India had warmed by 1 degree Celsius since 1901. Whereas, the rise in minimum temperature was 0.22 degrees in the century.
• While extremely heavy rain and hot days are becoming more frequent in recent years, 2019 was exceptional also for the number of cyclones that swerved India’s east and west coasts.
• An active Arabian Sea brewed more cyclonic storms than the Bay of Bengal during the year gone by. It was only for the second time in 117 years that the Arabian Sea saw such intense and frequent cyclones.
• In 2019, eight cyclonic storms formed over the north Indian Ocean. Of these, five Cyclones Vayu, Hikka, Kyarr, Maha and Pavan originated in the Arabia Sea, which is normally calmer, not seeing more than one cyclone in a year.
• On the contrary, the Bay of Bengal last year reported lesser than normal number of cyclones.
• The winter of 2018-2019 was one of the coldest in the northern hemisphere when the snowstorms penetrated into the Indian sub-continent throughout the winter months.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

China’s PLA begins major military exercises in Tibet

News

• The Chinese army has begun major military exercises in the high-altitude Tibet bordering India, deploying latest weapons including the Type 15 light battle tank and the new 155-MM vehicle-mounted howitzer.

Military exercises

• The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Tibet Military Command started its New Year exercises in which it has deployed helicopters, armoured vehicles, heavy artillery and anti-aircraft missiles across the region from Lhasa, capital of Tibet, to the border defence front lines with elevations of more than 4,000 metres.
• India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) covered 3,488 kilometres, including the border along Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
• China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet.

Alert along India-Nepal border after inputs of terrorists’ presence in UP

News

• Two suspected ISIS terrorists have entered Uttar Pradesh, following which a high alert has been sounded along the India-Nepal border in Maharajganj, Kushinagar and Siddharth Nagar districts, a top police official said.

India-Nepal border

• India and Nepal share a 1,751-km-long porous frontier which has reportedly been used by Pakistani elements and terrorists in the past. A number of such operatives have been nabbed by Indian border guarding agencies.
• Uttar Pradesh shares a 599.3-km-long open border with Nepal, touching seven districts.

Rajasthan: Crimes against women in 2019 up nearly 50 per cent

News

• Crimes against women increased nearly 50 per cent in Rajasthan in 2019 with a total of 41,155 cases being registered, which is 13,561 more than the previous year.

Crimes against women

• The maximum rise in crimes against women was in molestation (68 per cent) while rape cases too increased by 38.34 per cent as compared to the cases registered in 2018, according to the crime data released by the state’s Director General of Police.
• The cases of rape committed against minors also registered an increase of 22 per cent.
• Police have registered every FIR that has resulted in an increase in the number of registered cases in 2019.
• The overall increase in cases registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code was 31.08 per cent.
• Last year, a total of 41,155 cases of crimes against women were registered which is 49.14 per cent more than 2018 and 61.01 per cent more than 2017.
• A total of 8,802 FIRs of molestation were registered in 2019, which is 67.69 per cent more than 2018 and 80.26 per cent more than 2017.
• There were 5,997 rape cases lodged in 2019 with a jump of 38.34 per cent as compared to 2018 and 81.45 per cent more than 2017.
• The cases of rape committed against minors also increased by 22 per cent whereas the overall increase in cases against children under POCSO Act was 44 per cent in comparison to 2018.
• As per the crime data, the total number of cases registered under IPC sections is 2,25,306 in 2019, a jump of 31.08 compared to the previous year.
• As many as 1,659 cases were of murder; 1,905 of attempt to murder; 1,421 of loot; 107 of dacoity and 40,815 of theft.
• A total of 7,074 cases were registered under the Arms Act and 1,519 of them are related to illegal firearms, which is 14 per cent more than the previous year.
• Under the Arms Act, 7,595 persons were arrested with recovery of 1,757 firearms, 16,864 cartridges and 5,373 sharp-edged weapons.
• Similarly, the number of cases related to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act also saw a rise.
• The police have noted that the percentage of fake cases under the SC/ST Act too has increased.
• Lather pointed out that the personnel who performed well were motivated and awarded with cash rewards and special promotions.
• A special investigation unit for crimes against women was set up in every district and a serious frauds investigation unit along with a cyber crime unit were formed in special operations group (SOG) last year.

The nuclear deal Iran has stepped away from

News

• Iran said it would abandon limitations on enriching uranium, refusing to adhere to the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with six major powers, but would continue to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Nuclear deal

• The E3 group of countries Britain, France, and Germany have subsequently called on Tehran to resume its commitments under the deal.
• Iran’s announcement comes after its top security and intelligence commander, Major General Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US drone attack in Baghdad Friday, marking a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Tehran.
• US-Iran ties have continued to worsen since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions on Iran.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Explained: Reading the new Forest Report

News

• India’s forest cover has increased by 3,976 sq km or 0.56% since 2017.

Biennial State of Forest Report 

• For the second successive time since 2007, the biennial State of Forest Report (SFR) recorded a gain an impressive 1,275 sq km in dense forest (including Very Dense Forest with a canopy density of over 70%, and Moderately Dense Forest with a canopy density of 40-70%).
• Given the pressure on forest land and natural resources, these figures have made happy headlines. But they do not tell how India continues to lose some of its best natural forests — a reality documented in the SFR itself.

Balance sheet

• SFR data show 2,145 sq km of dense forests became non-forests since 2017. A dense forest can deteriorate into an open forest (10-40% canopy density) but conversion to non-forest signifies total destruction. This means India has lost dense forests one-and-a-half times Delhi’s expanse in just two years.
• Since 2017, plantations with high canopy density have added 2,441 sq km to the dense forest category, while 1,858 sq km of non-forests have become dense forests. These are plantations of fast-growing species since natural forests rarely grow so fast.
• Since 2003 when data on “change matrix” were first made available, 18,065 sq km more than one-third of Punjab’s landmass of dense forests have become non-forests in the country, nearly half of this (8,552 sq km) in the last four years.
• Making up for much of this destruction of quality natural forests, 10,227 sq km of non-forests (read plantations) became dense forests in successive two-year windows since 2003, over half of this (5,458 sq km) since 2015.
• While hill forests have gained in quality, large tracts of tropical forests have fallen off the “dense” category since 2017. The biggest loss 23,550 sq km is under the tropical semi-evergreen head in SFR 2019. In India, tropical semi-evergreen forests are found along the western coast, lower slopes of the eastern Himalayas, Odisha and Andamans.
• Of India’s 7.12 lakh sq km forest cover, 52,000 sq km is plantations that, in any case, cannot substitute natural forests in biodiversity or ecological services.
• Of 7,28,520 sq km recorded forest area from digitised data and the Survey of India’s topographic maps of greenwash areas (forestland), 2,15,084 sq km (nearly 30%) recorded no forest cover in SFR 2019. In other words, forestland roughly the combined area of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal holds no forests.
• There has been no recovery since 2017 as forest cover on forestland has shrunk by 330 sq km in the last two years.

Finer detail than before

• The Forest Survey of India (FSI) uses satellite images to identify greenery as forest cover. In the 1980s, satellite imagery mapped forests on a scale of 1:1 million, and missed details of land units smaller than 4 sq km.
• The 1:50,000 scale now scans patches as small as 1 hectare, and any unit that shows a 10% tree canopy density is considered “forest”.
• The SFR never segregated natural forests from thickets of weeds such as juliflora or lantana, and commercial monocultures such as palm, coconut, rubber etc, it has the capacity to identify plantations.
• That is how it classified over 52,000 sq km of “forests” as plantations while recording “Forest Type and Density-wise Carbon Stock” across the country.

Delhi gets its first smog tower: What is it and how does it work?

News

• Gautam Gambhir, former cricketer and  MP from East Delhi, inaugurated a prototype air purifier at Lajpat Nagar in the national capital.
• In November, the Supreme Court had directed the Centre and the Delhi government to prepare a plan to install ‘smog towers’ across the capital to deal with air pollution.

Smog tower

• Smog towers are structures designed to work as large-scale air purifiers. They are usually fitted with multiple layers of air filters, which clean the air of pollutants as it passes through them.
• The smog tower installed at Lajpat Nagar is capable of treating 6,00,000 cubic metres of air per day and can collect more than 75 per cent of particulate matters (PM) 2.5 and 10, PTI reported. After the cleaning, the tower releases clean air.
• Besides the tower that Gambhir has installed, the Delhi government is planning to install a smog tower at Central Park in Connaught Place. The 20-metre (65 feet) high tower will trap particulate matter of all sizes suspended in the air.
• Large-scale air filters shall draw in the air through fans installed at the top before passing it through the filters and releasing it near the ground.
• The filters installed in the tower will use carbon nanofibres as a major component and will be fitted along its peripheries. The tower will focus on reducing particulate matter load.
• The project is a collaboration between the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT-Delhi and the University of Minnesota, the latter having helped design a similar tower of over 100 metres in China’s Xi’an city.
• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will also be involved with the project.

Explained: What carbon numbers mean for climate target

News

• The State of Forest Report (SFR) 2019, while showing an increase in the carbon stock trapped in Indian forests in the last two years, also shows why it is going to be an uphill task for India in meeting one of its international obligations on climate change.

Increase in the carbon stock

• India, as part of its contribution to the global fight against climate change, has committed itself to creating an “additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent” by 2030.
• That is one of the three targets India has set for itself in its climate action plan, called Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, that every country has to submit under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
• The other two relate to an improvement in emissions intensity, and an increase in renewable energy deployment. India has said it would reduce its emissions intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) by 33% to 35% by 2030 compared to 2005.
• It has also promised to ensure that at least 40% of its cumulative electricity generation in 2030 would be done through renewable energy.

Relationship between forests and carbon

• Forests, by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for the process of photosynthesis, act as a natural sink of carbon. Together with oceans, forests absorb nearly half of global annual carbon dioxide emissions. In fact, the carbon currently stored in the forests exceeds all the carbon emitted in the atmosphere since the start of the industrial age.
• An increase in the forest area is thus one of the most effective ways of reducing the emissions that accumulate in the atmosphere every year.
• The latest forest survey shows that the carbon stock in India’s forests (not including tree cover outside of forest areas) have increased from 7.08 billion tonnes in 2017, when the last such exercise had been done, to 7.124 billion tonnes now. This translates into 26.14 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent as of now.
• It is estimated that India’s tree cover outside of forests would contribute another couple of billion of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Challenges

• • An assessment by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) last year had projected that, by 2030, the carbon stock in forests as well as tree cover was likely to reach 31.87 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in the business as usual scenario.
  • An additional 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of sink, as India has promised to do, would mean taking the size of the sink close to 35 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
  • Considering the rate of growth of the carbon sink in the last few years, that is quite a stiff target India has set for itself. In the last two years, the carbon sink has grown by just about 0.6%%. To meet its NDC target, even with most optimistic estimates of carbon stock trapped in trees outside of forest areas, the sink has to grow by at least 15% to 20% over the next ten-year period.

DGFT asked to tighten norms for accrediting exporters with ‘star’ tag

News

• The Revenue Department has asked the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to make the system of accrediting exporters with ‘star’ tag more robust as such exporters enjoy many facilities, including reduced customs inspections.

Exporters

• The department based its advice on preliminary findings that some ‘star’ exporters were fraudulently availing IGST refunds.
• The department said there was a strong case for DGFT to continuously (or annually) seek a compliance and verification report from other regulators or obligate exporters to produce statutory records of compliance, including certifications from banks of “no NPAs”.
• Star Export House exporters are certified on the basis of export performance (Rs 15 crore to Rs 5,000 crore FOB in the current and three preceding years). They are extended certain benefits including customs clearance on self-certification basis and exemption from furnishing bank guarantee under certain schemes.
• Of the 241 cases taken up for detailed scrutiny, data of 82 star exporters show that declarations before income tax and GST are at significant variance.
• Data matching between income tax and GST of the star exporters has also shown that 40 out of 241 entities have declared turnover from business ranging from nil to less than Rs 1 crore in FY18 and FY19, whereas it is understood that an exporter must maintain exports of $3 million in a year to be eligible for the status.

India’s service sector activity growth hits 5-month high in December: PMI

News

• India’s services sector activity gained momentum and touched a five-month high in December, supported by uptick in new business orders that boosted output as well as employment, a monthly survey showed.

IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index

• The IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index improved from 52.7 in November to 53.3 in December, highlighting the second-strongest rate of increase in output in over a year, after July.
• Survey members linked the rise to better market conditions and new business growth. Moreover, total sales expanded for the third consecutive month at the end of the year, and at the quickest pace since October 2016.
• On the prices front, input costs increased further in December, with monitored firms citing higher charges for food, fuel, medical products and transport.
• On the employment front, driven by rise in new business orders, service providers continued to hire extra staff in December and employment increased for the 28th month in succession.
• The survey further noted that Indian services firms expect marketing efforts and favourable economic conditions to boost business activity during 2020. However, the overall level of positive sentiment remained below its long-run average.
• Meanwhile, the Composite PMI Output Index that maps both the manufacturing and services sector, rose from 52.7 in November to 53.7, reflecting stronger rates of expansion in both the manufacturing and service sectors.

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