IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Fifth phase of excavation reveals discoveries unique to Keeladi

News

• The recently-concluded fifth phase of archaeological excavation at Keeladi has unearthed a new find of terracotta pipes which are unique among all terracotta pipes found at other excavation sites in Tamil Nadu.

New findings

• Among the new findings are two different terracotta pipes found horizontally decked one above the other.
• During the course of 5th excavation in a particular trench (YD 6/3), the workers found some terracotta structure with a few projections of rim portion at a regular gap of 6 cm. This structure was found at a depth of 0.47 metres. Careful digging at this north eastern corner of the quadrant resulted in unearthing of roofing tiles arranged vertically at a depth of 0.52 metres.
• Further, it revealed that the terracotta structure was a series of 10 terracotta pipes that were firmly fitted one into other to form a pipeline.
• This lid that was fitted to the mouth of the barrel-shaped pipeline could have been used as a filtering device of water or some other liquid.
• These terracotta pipelines were found closer to the spot where the Archaeological Survey of India had found some structural activity with bricks, tubs and water chute (open channel) during its second phase of excavation in 2016.
• Different types of water channels, brick construction, evidence of trade relations with other domestic and foreign places, sign and letter usages only revealed that the civilization along the Vaigai river was much matured and had adopted advanced technologies.

Coral colonies found off Kovalam coast

News

• Coral colonies have been newly discovered in two locations in the sea off southern Thiruvananthapuram coast, Friends of Marine Life (FML).

Coral colonies

• FML scuba divers encountered the colonies at depths of one and four metres off tourist hub Kovalam and at a 20-metre depth off St. Andrews beach.
• The group identified the nine coral types.
• The corals include Favites flexuosa, Goniastrea retiformis, Montipora digitata, Montipora hispida, Pavona varians, Acropora digitifera, Favites, Pavona venosa and Porites lichen.

Protect colonies

• FML has also called for steps to protect the colonies from harm. Corals are generally found in locations that boast a wealth of marine biodiversity.
• But at the same time, the dumping of trash in the sea would pose a grave threat to these colonies.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Indians travelling to Turkey told to exercise ‘utmost caution’

News

• The Indian Embassy in Turkey issued a travel advisory for Indian citizens urging “utmost caution” while visiting the country because of Ankara’s ongoing military campaign in northeastern Syria.
• The public notice was issued even as the Indian envoy posted messages on social media in support of greater India-Turkey people-to-people contact.

Travel advisory

• Official sources said there were a number of queries from Indian tourists in Turkey indicating that they were alarmed over the deteriorating security situation in the country after the Turkish government launched a cross-border military operation in Syrian territory. India has been urging Ankara to respect the “territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria”.
• The officials pointed out that other countries had also issued similar advisories regarding travelling to Turkey.
• The announcement came in the backdrop of reports that Indian Prime Minister has postponed his visit to Ankara and Turkey is set to lose out on Indian military contracts because of comments on Kashmir by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Assam expands Atal Amrit benefits to Japanese Encephalitis, trauma, ICU care

News

• The Assam government has expanded the scope of the Atal Amrit Abhiyan, a health assurance scheme launched in December 2016, to cover six diseases and critical care such as Japanese Encephalitis (JE), non-cancer bone marrow transplantation and admission in intensive care unit (ICU).

Atal Amrit Abhiyan

• Prior to and after being made cashless in April 2018, the scheme for below poverty line (BPL) and above poverty line (APL) people entailing benefit of up to ₹2 lakh covered 438 diseases under six broader categories cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, neurological condition, burns, cancer, kidney, and neonatal diseases.
• Six more “diseases and scenarios” have been added to the Extended Atal Amrit Abhiyan are ICU packages, trauma, critical care paediatrics and paediatric surgery, bone marrow transplantation, JE and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome.
• JE is a major killer in Assam, particularly during the monsoon season. Till September this year, 154 people died due to this disease caused by mosquito bite.
• 61 crore people have in the past 18 months enrolled under the Atal Amrit scheme so far but 57,257 received cashless treatment.
• Cancer patients accounted for 27,424 out of the total cashless beneficiaries followed by kidney patients at 20,263 and heart patients 6,470. The cashless treatment involved a total of ₹136.99 crore.

U.S. lawmakers grill State Department officials on extended curbs in Kashmir

News

• More than a week after India eased some communications restrictions in Kashmir , S. lawmakers grilled the State Department’s top South diplomat Alice Wells and its Assistant Secretary for Human Rights , Robert Destro, on the continuing restrictions in Kashmir and whether and how the U.S. is leveraging its relationship with India on easing up those restrictions that remain.

Human rights issues

• The hearing, organized by the Asia Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), is one of a series of hearings on human rights issues across the continent.
• While Indian officials had, in the run-up, played up the fact that hearing would focus not just on Kashmir but also on other South Asian human rights issues including Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Chairman Brad Sherman said during his opening remarks that the focus would be Kashmir – and so it was, at least in the first half of the session.
• Lawmakers also questioned the State Department officials on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and albeit to a significantly less extent – questions about Pakistan’s human rights record and support for terror.
• Kashmir being off limits to foreign journalists and U.S. lawmakers and officials was a recurring theme during the morning session of the hearing.
• Lawmakers also repeatedly returned to the issue of Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen being denied permission to visit Kashmir while on a trip to India a few weeks ago.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

14 small foreign satellites to launch on next 3 PSLVs

News

• The PSLV, the Indian space vehicle for light satellites, has bagged new rides for 14 small spacecraft of four international customers.

International customers

• All 14 are being accommodated as minor secondary passengers on the next three successive PSLV flights, according to Spaceflight, the U.S. company that arranges such flights for agencies seeking to put their spacecraft in orbits.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will have one of its earth observation satellites as the larger primary payload on each of the three PSLV flights.
• The customer satellites will be sent to their respective orbits on the PSLV-C47 (where ISRO’s own Cartosat-3 is the main payload), C48 & C-49.
• In all, the PSLV has launched around 300 mostly small (1kg-100kg) satellites to low-earth orbits for many foreign customers.
• Globally there are not enough launch vehicles suited to take a growing number of small satellites to space when they need to go. Satellite operators say a timely and dependable launch vehicle is important to try out a new technology or continue ongoing missions.
• Analytical Space Inc.’s spacecraft Meshbed is due to ride PSLV- C47 next month. It is aimed at proving an antenna technology that will enable faster access to satellite data, including for strategic communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Chennai city has a poor record on road safety

News

• The National Crime Records Bureau statistics for 2017 have ranked the city second in terms of road accident deaths due to negligence and first in causing grievous hurt by rash and negligent driving.

Road accident 

• While Delhi stood first with 1,451 victims in 1,317 accidents caused due to negligence, Chennai was in second place with 1,404 victims in 1,312 road accidents. Of these, 176 were hit-and-run cases and the vehicles that caused the accidents could not be traced.
• The city also ranked second in rash driving on a public way, with 6,204 cases and 7,420 victims . Of these, 4,295 persons sustained grievous injuries in 3,578 cases, and this is the highest among cities. Besides, 2,609 persons also got hurt in 2,163 incidents of reckless driving.
• Experts attribute rash and negligent driving due to wide roads and stressed that safe design of streets is very important to prevent accidents.
• To curb rash driving, the police will be empowering Special Sub-Inspectors to register cases and they will be provided e-challan machines.
• Apart from this, the police are also conducting regular checks on roads that have been identified as accident-prone.
• Officials from the Transport Department pointed out that they were making the licensing system stricter to ensure only deserving candidates got a licence.

IAF carries out twin firings of BrahMos

News

• Two BrahMos Surface-to-Surface missile tests were conducted at Trak Island in the Andaman Nicobar group of islands over the last two days, the Indian Air Force (IAF) said.

Missile tests

• The missile engaged the designated mock targets close to 300 km away and a direct hit on the target was achieved in both the cases.
• This has enhanced IAF’s capability to engage grounds targets with pin-point accuracy from a mobile platform.
• BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia.

Latest Moon flyby finds no trace of India’s Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander: NASA

News

• NASA has found no evidence of Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram landerin the images captured during a latest flyby of its Moon orbiter of the lunar region where India’s ambitious mission attempted a soft landing.

Vikram lander 

• On September 7, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) attempted a soft landing of Vikram on the uncharted lunar south pole, before losing communication with the lander.
• The camera team carefully examined the images and employed the change detection technique using a ratio of an image from prior to the landing attempt to the one acquired on October 14.
• This approach is used for finding new meteorite impacts on the Moon that also helped locate the recent Beresheet lander.
• Vikram attempted landing on a small patch of lunar highland smooth plains between Simpelius N and Manzinus C craters before losing communication with ISRO.

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