IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Arctic Ocean may be ice-free for part of year by 2044, finds study

News

• Human-caused climate change is on track to make the Arctic Ocean functionally ice-free for part of each year starting sometime between 2044 and 2067, according to a study.

Human-caused climate change

• Researchers noted that as long as humans have been on Earth, the planet has had a large cap of sea ice at the Arctic Circle that expands each winter and contracts each summer.
• Satellite observations show that since 1979, the amount of sea ice in the Arctic in September — the month when there is the least sea ice, before water starts freezing again — has declined by 13% per decade.
• The process occurs when a patch of sea ice completely melts, uncovering a seawater surface that is darker and absorbs more sunlight than ice would have.
• That change in the surface’s reflectivity of sunlight, or albedo, causes greater local warming, which in turn leads to further ice melt.
• The cycle exacerbates warming one reason the Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the globe.
• There are other environmental and economic implications to ice loss as well.
• Sea ice is critical to the Arctic ecosystem, and to the fishing industry and indigenous peoples who depend on that ecosystem.
• As Arctic ice is lost, more waters are used for commercial shipping and oil and gas exploration, which presents economic opportunity for some nations.
• This also contributes to further greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde takes oath as next CJI

News

• Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, who has decided several key cases and was part of the recent historic Ayodhya verdict, administered oath as the 47th Chief Justice of India by President Ram Nath Kovind.

47th Chief Justice of India

• Justice Bobde, 63, succeeds Justice Ranjan Gogoi who demitted office.
• Justice Bobde had said that he would prefer a conservative approach on the issue of disclosing the Collegium’s entire deliberations on rejection of names for appointment in the higher judiciary.
• A five-judge constitution Bench, of which Justice Bobde was also a part, rendered a unanimous verdict to put the curtains down on the vexatious Ayodhya land dispute which was pending in courts since 1950.
• Justice Bobde will have a tenure of over 17 months as the CJI and is due to retire on April 23, 2021.
• Born on April 24, 1956 in Nagpur, Maharashtra, Justice Bobde completed Bachelor of Arts and LLB degrees from Nagpur University. He was enrolled as an advocate of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978.
• Justice Bobde practised law at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court with appearances at Bombay before the Principal Seat and before the Supreme Court for over 21 years.
• He was designated as senior advocate in 1998.
• Justice Bobde was elevated to the Bombay High Court on March 29, 2000, as Additional Judge and sworn in as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 16, 2012.
• He was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on April 12, 2013.

India sent over 202,000 students to U.S. in 2018-19, second largest after China: report

News

• India sent more than 202,000 students to the U.S. in 2018-19, the second largest after China which for the tenth consecutive year remained the largest source of foreign students in America, according to a report released.

Second largest

• The ‘2019 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange’ said the number of foreign students in the US set an all-time high in the 2018/19 academic year, the fourth consecutive year with more than one million international students.
• The data from the US Department of Commerce stated that international students contributed $44.7 billion to the US economy in 2018, an increase of 5.5 % from the previous year.
• For the tenth consecutive year, China has remained the largest source of international students in the US in 2018-19 with 369,548 students and India with 202,014 students sends second largest number of foreign students to the United States.
• Students from India and China account for more than 50 per cent of international students.
• India (202,014, +2.9 per cent), South Korea (52,250), Saudi Arabia (37,080), and Canada (26,122, +0.8 per cent) round out the top five, the report said.
• Emerging market countries showed some of the strongest growth year over year, especially Bangladesh (+10.0 per cent), Brazil (+9.8 per cent), Nigeria (+5.8 per cent), and Pakistan (+5.6 per cent).
• According to the report, in the 2017/18 academic year, 341,751 US students participated in study abroad programmes for academic credit, a 2.7 % increase over the previous year.
• European countries remain the most popular destinations for US study abroad students with 54.9 % of study abroad students going to Europe in 2017/18.
• The United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany hosted the most US study abroad students.

Rajnath Singh hits out at countries using terrorism for political gains

News

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hit out at countries using terrorism to pursue political goals and pitched for a strong global action against terrorist safe havens and steps to choke terror financing.

ADMM Plus

• Defence Minister was address at the 6th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus) in Bangkok.
• 6th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus) is a platform comprising ASEAN and its eight dialogue partners including India.
• The grouping focusses its work on maritime security, counter-terrorism and humanitarian assistance.

Eight-member Army patrol missing after getting hit by avalanche

News

• An eight-member patrol party of the Army went missing on the Siachen glacier after being hit by an avalanche at about 20,000 feet.Search, rescue under progress.
• Army sources said the avalanche hit occurred between 19,000 and 20,000 feet as the patrol was proceeding to rescue an ill person at a post ahead.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

‘Wasteland conversion threatens livelihoods, ecological balance’

News

• India’s conversion of more than 14,000 square km of ‘wasteland’ mostly dense scrub, glacial areas, sands or marshland into productive use between 2008-09 and 2015-16, and the government’s target to restore 26 million hectares of wasteland and degraded land by 2030 risks affecting the livelihoods of pastoralists, fishermen and nomadic farmers who are often dependent on these traditional “commons” lands, caution environmental policy researchers and social activists.

Wasteland conversion

• • These ‘commons’ also act as a buffer against floods, droughts and pollution for a wider population, they point out.
  • The Wastelands Atlas, prepared in collaboration with the National Remote Sensing Centre and released recently by the Land Resources Department uses satellite data to measure the extent of 23 different types of wastelands and tracks the impact of reclamation efforts.
  • While 14,536 sq. km of wasteland were converted to productive use, the country saw a net conversion of 8,404 sq. km.
  • Over half that land lies in Rajasthan, where a net change of 4,803 sq. km was seen, with large areas of scrub and sands brought under the plough and converted to cultivated cropland.
  • The State also has extensive solar parks set up in its wastelands, thus converting them to industrial use in the production of renewable energy. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar also saw high levels of net conversion.
  • The government has been encouraging wasteland conversion, pointing out that while India has 18% of the world’s population, it only has 2.4% of the land area.
  • In southern India, these areas have traditionally been called ‘poromboke’ land which is communally owned, cannot be bought, sold or built on.
  • In Karnataka, the gomal lands are common grazing areas. In other regions, village forests and pastures, or gram panchayat lands, have played a similar role from medieval times.

Cartosat-3 slated for November 25 launch with 13 U.S. nanosatellites

News

• The space agency announced that it would send up advanced remote sensing satellite Cartosat-3 to a 509-km-high orbit on November 25. The same PSLV-C47 rocket will also launch 13 small commercial U.S. satellites.

Cartosat-3

• The Cartosat-3, weighing around 1,500 kg, will be the first of third-generation advanced high resolution earth imaging satellites. It will be placed in an orbital inclination of 97.5 degrees.
• Though Chandrayaan-2, the lunar orbiting-landing probe, was sent up on July 22, ISRO’s previous regular working satellite was RISAT-2B, launched on May 22.
• The PSLV-C47 will launch Cartosat-3 and 13 commercial nanosatellites into a sun synchronous orbit from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
• Twelve of the 13 customer satellites are expected to be from Planet Labs’s Flock 4p series.

Gurugram protests for right to clean air

News

• Mostly dressed in blacks and wearing masks, several hundred people from all walks of life, including students, activists, doctors, corporate employees, auto-rickshaw drivers and security guards, assembled at Leisure Valley Park in Sector 29 to hold a massive demonstration seeking their right to clean air.

Right to clean air

• The two-hour-long protest seemingly one of the biggest in the Millennium City so far against the air pollution was jointly organised by several private and government schools, corporate houses, non-government organisations and hospitals.
• The air quality has been mostly in the “severe” category in the city for more than 20 days since Diwali forcing the government to twice declare holidays in schools besides imposing several restrictions on vehicles movement and factories in the National Capital Region to keep it under check.

Night travel ban on NH-766 a bone of contention

News

• The night travel ban on the Kozhikode-Kollegal National Highway-766, which passes through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, connecting Kerala and Karnataka, has been a bone of contention in the past decade.
• The issue revolves around the closure of night traffic through the portion of NH that passes through the tiger reserve and the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.

Night traffic ban

• Wayanad district witnessed a series of protests and a hunger strike against the ban last month after the Supreme Court asked the Centre about possible alternatives so that traffic through NH-766 could be shut down permanently.
• The agitation hogged national headlines when Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi visited the protesters lending his support.
• The agitation concluded after the State government promised the leaders that it would effectively intervene in the issue.
• The Kerala Assembly unanimously passed a resolution recently calling for the Centre’s intervention for lifting the decade-old night traffic ban and to protect the freedom of movement of the people in Malabar.
• The length of the highway is 272 km, and 34.6 km of this passes through the protected areas in both the States. The road cuts through 19.7 km of the core zone of Bandipur and 4.5 km of its buffer zone.
• In Wayanad, it passes through 4.8 km of the core zone and 5.6 km of the buffer zone. In all, 24.2 km of the highway passes through protected areas in Karnataka and 10.4 km through such areas in Kerala.
• The core zone is the most critical part of the reserve, where tigers reside, feed and breed, and the area must be left undisturbed at all costs. In the buffer zone, meant for enhancing the conservation of the core zone, limited activities such as tourism, fishing, grazing, and research activities may be permitted.

Affidavit in SC

• The Centre filed an affidavit in the apex court in May 2019 recommending continuation of the nine-hour traffic ban on this highway. In September 2019, the apex court upheld the ban based on these inputs.
• The Supreme Court directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to suggest alternative routes so that NH-766 passing through the forest area could be shut down permanently.
• The court had allowed six weeks to the State government to submit its affidavit regarding the alternative route.

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