IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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India, Saudi Arabia to sign Strategic Partnership Council pact

News:

India and Saudi Arabia are set to sign an agreement for creating a bilateral strategic partnership council on Tuesday during the official visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Riyadh. The council will include multiple sections involving the External Affairs Ministry and NITI Aayog and counterpart organisations from Saudi Arabia.

Beyond News:

• Formation of the Council has been under discussion for some time and found mention during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s India visit in February in the aftermath of the terror strike in Pulwama.
• Mr. Modi’s visit is significant as it comes three months after India ended the special status of Kashmir.
• Mr. Ahmad said India should go beyond the bilateral framework and seek a greater regional role to stabilise ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia as peace in the region is of utmost importance for India’s expat population and energy security.

India takes up Pakistan’s denial of airspace with world body

News: India has taken up Pakistan’s denial of use of its airspace to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flight with the International Civil Aviation Organisation, government sources said on October 28.

Beyond News:

• Mr. Modi is travelling to Saudi Arabia later in the day on a bilateral visit. India has sought overflight clearance from Pakistan for the prime minister’s aircraft to go to Saudi Arabia.
• India has taken up the issue of denial of overflight clearance with the relevant international civil aviation body.

Illegal structures cannot be rebuilt, says Supreme Court

News: The Supreme Court has directed the Maharashtra authorities to get all cities where population is 50 lakh or more to be geo-mapped to easily track and control illegal constructions in them.

Beyond News:

• A Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose ordered the Maharashtra government to release necessary funds to its municipal corporations and directed the entire exercise be completed in a year.
• The court also held that municipal corporations should not permit an illegal structure to be re-built merely because it had violated the procedure in demolishing the pre-existing illegal building .
• The court explained that it did not approve of local bodies razing down structures without following the due process of law, but “the relief which has to be given must be in accordance with law and not violative of the law”.

Microprotein malfunction may cause major diseases: Study

News:
Researchers have discovered that a microprotein called PIGBOS found in the powerhouse of the cells – mitochondria – contributes to mitigating stress happening within the cells – an advance that may lead to better understanding of disease conditions like cancer.

Beyond News:

The study, noted that PIGBOS was made of 54 amino acid molecules, and indicated that the microprotein could be a target for cell stress based human diseases like cancer and neurodegeneration.

Usually to track and find the functions of proteins, researchers attach a jelly fish derived probe called the green fluorescent protein (GFP) to them, which glows and indicates the protein’s presence in cells, the study noted.

They solved the problem using a less common approach called split GFP where they fused just a small part of GFP, called a beta strand, to PIGBOS.

As they mapped the microprotein’s location, they found that it sat on the outer membrane of the mitochondria and made contact with proteins on other organelles.

The researchers said that this may lead to the cell trying to clear out the irregular proteins, failing which it may initiate a self-destruct sequence and die.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Govt signals shift in stand, allows MEPs to visit Srinagar

News: Nearly three months after its decision on Article 370, the Union government has allowed a delegation comprising 27 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Czech Republic and Poland to travel to Srinagar on Tuesday to see the situation there.

Beyond News:

• This is the first time the government has allowed such a visit to the Kashmir Valley since August 5, when hundreds of leaders were taken into custody and communication lines cut.
• The delegation’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir was being coordinated with the NSA’s office, said officials there, as Mr. Doval has been the government’s point person on the move to dilute Article 370 and bifurcate the State into Union Territories on August 5. While in Srinagar, the MEPs are expected to visit schools, where class 10 exams begin on Tuesday, and receive briefings on the security situation.
•  The decision to allow the MEPs to visit J&K marks a significant turnaround in the government’s policy after it faced considerable criticism in the EU and in the US over the Article 370 move. The government has thus far refused permission to any foreign journalist to cover the situation in J&K post August 5, and turned down requests from diplomats based in Delhi to visit as well.

Indian Ocean Rim to get boost with UAE, Bangladesh at helm

News:

The upcoming Indian Ocean Rim Association ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi will be keenly watched as India continues to promote its official policy of “coordination, cooperation and partnership” in the regional maritime domain.

Beyond News:

• The meeting is important as two of India’s important partners, the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, will take charge as the new chair and vice-chair of one of the largest regional maritime organisations for the duration of 2019-21.
• It is expected that the rise of more partner countries in managing the crucial maritime region that connects India with the energy suppliers in the Gulf will help in greater coordination in the Indian Ocean region.
• The 19th IORA Council of Ministers (COM) meeting will be held on November 7 in Abu Dhabi with the theme of “Promoting a Shared Destiny and Path to Prosperity in the Indian Ocean”.

Donald Trump announces Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead

News: President Donald Trump announced on October 27 that fugitive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a raid by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria, in a major blow to the jihadist group.

Beyond News:

• Baghdadi killed himself during the raid by detonating a suicide vest, Mr. Trump said in a televised address from the White House.
• Baghdadi had long been sought by the United States as head of a jihadist group that at one point controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq, where it declared a caliphate. Islamic State has carried out atrocities against religious minorities and attacks on five continents in the name of a version of an ultra-fanatic Islam that horrified mainstream Muslims.

Three suspected Maoists go down in gun battle with Kerala police commandos

News: The Kerala Police said that they had either injured or killed at least three suspected Maoists in a gun battle between the armed irregulars and Thunderbolt commandos in Agali forests in Palakkad district early on Monday.

Beyond News:

• The firefight came against the backdrop of increased activity by various ‘dalams’ of the Western Ghats Zonal Committee of Maoists in Wayanad and Palakkad districts to highlight their presence and deter government agencies from operating in the tribal settlements there.
• According to initial reports, the Thunderbolts were on an area domination patrol and holding high ground when they sighted the ‘heavily armed’ irregulars.

Air quality ‘very poor’ in Delhi post Deepavali

News: The air quality of Delhi on Monday morning was “very poor”, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), but lesser than the “severe” category as predicted by government agencies.

Beyond News:

• The Air Quality Index (AQI) at 1.30 p.m. stood at 351, worst this season, with one monitoring station showing “severe” and rest of the 35 stations for which data is available showing ‘very poor’ AQI, as per CPCB data.
• IGI Airport (Terminal 3) was the most polluted with an AQI of 406 (severe), followed by Nehru Nagar (384), and Mathura Road (376) at 1.30 p.m. According to the CPCB, prolonged exposure to “very poor” air quality can lead to “respiratory illness”. The CPCB data is average of the past 24 hours.
• Meanwhile, according to government-run monitoring agency SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research), the AQI is 506 and in “severe” category.
• SAFAR has advised people to avoid all outdoor physical activity, give a miss to walk, and close room windows.
• The prediction was made with the assumption that emissions due to firecrackers will be 50% of average firecracker emission of 2017 and 2018. SAFAR had also said that higher boundary layer winds were likely to flush out the expected high impact of firecracker emissions.

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