IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Research suggests how Southern Ocean could control global climate

News

• Scientists have made a new discovery challenging the previous understanding of the link between the Southern Ocean next to Antarctica and the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

Findings

• The study shows that, contrary to existing assumptions, biological processes far out at sea are the most important factors determining how the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide.
• Carbon dioxide is absorbed in the surface oceans and stored in the deep seas, gradually, over a timescale of 100s to 1,000s years.
• The Southern Ocean plays a critical role in how the carbon dioxide is taken out of the atmosphere, and knowing how it functions helps scientists understand this mechanism’s role during dramatic climate transitions in the past, such as the ice ages, and better predict the current and future climate change.
• Whether carbon is released into the atmosphere or trapped in the deep ocean, is crucially determined by the transformation of the water from light to dense which is inturn caused by cooling at the ocean’s surface.
• The data considered in this study showed unambiguously that, in the Weddell Gyre, the dominant process enabling the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and its removal to the deep ocean included the role of phytoplanktons.

Fires are not the only threat facing the Amazon

News

• Raging wildfires have drawn the world’s attention to the Amazon but immolation is just one of the dangers facing the world’s largest rain forest, environmental experts across the region say.

Amazon wildfires

• The Amazon, covering 5.5 million square km over nine countries, faces ever more serious threats from encroaching crop and livestock farming, mining, land occupations and illegal logging.
• Deforestation for farming is one of the most serious threats to the rain forest, a problem common to all nine jurisdictions: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
• A case in point is Ecuador, where agricultural land increased by 23% between 2000 and 2017 gouged from its share of the Amazon basin region.
• A practice common in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia is for farmers to set fires in the dry season to clear the undergrowth in deforested areas. However, this often leads to uncontrolled burning, which takes a greater toll on the rain forest.

Illegal mining

• Illegal mining operations being carried out in most Amazon basin region countries causes significant damage, compounded by the use of chemicals such as mercury particularly in gold mining which has contaminated soil and streams.
• Some 29,000 hectares of rainforest have been destroyed due to both legal and illegal gold panning since 2003.
• Lack of a state presence in many remote and rural areas has also contributed to the growing practice of illegal land occupation, in which landless farmers settle on land hoping to get a legal title at some point.

The Amazon’s massive timber resources long put the rainforest at risk from illegal logging concerns, particularly those trading in hardwoods like mahogany, now in danger of being wiped out from over-exploitation.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

NRIs to get Aadhaar sans 180-day wait in 3 months

News

• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has said its systems will be ready within three months to offer the facility of issuing Aadhaar cards to NRIs with Indian passports without the mandatory 180 days waiting period, as announced in the Budget.

Unique Identification Authority of India

• The UIDAI is setting up Aadhaar Seva Kendras similar to the concept of Passport Seva Kendras covering 53 cities across the country at an estimated project cost of ₹300-400 crore.
• These Aadhaar centres, meant to facilitate enrolment, updation and other activities, are UIDAI’s own and operate in addition to thousands of centres currently being run by banks and post offices, as well as in government premises (offering similar Aadhaar services).

India committed to defence ties with Japan, says Rajnath Singh

News

• Indian Defence Minister, on a two-day visit to Japan, met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo and said India was committed to enhance defence engagements between the two countries, besides strengthening bilateral arrangements.

Enhance defence engagements

• Indian Defence Minister also met Japane Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya on the first day of his visit. He is accompanied by a high-level defence ministry delegation.
• Indian Defence Minister co-chaired the Japan-India Defence Ministerial Meeting and discussed various issues of mutual concern, including new initiatives towards achieving peace and security in the region.
• Indo-Pacific vision was discussed with an expression of India’s preference for a rule-based order along with centrality of Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) and inclusiveness and security for all.

UN conference on desertification kicks off

News

• The 14th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) to combat desertification kicked off in New Delhi with India taking over the presidency of the COP for two years.

United Nations Conference of Parties

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the convention, with senior ministers from nearly 70 countries expected to participate at that session.
• The COP, which meets every two years, discusses ways and means forward to address global land degradation.
• One in four hectares of arable land is considered unusable due to unsustainable land management. These have put nearly 3.2 billion people in the world at risk.
• India had committed to rejuvenate 50 lakh hectares (5 million) of degraded land between 2021 and 2030.
• India faces a severe problem of land degradation, or soil becoming unfit for cultivation. About 29% or about 96.4 million hectares are considered degraded.
• This January, India became part of the “Bonn Challenge”, a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.

Eight Apache attack helicopters to be inducted into IAF

News

• In a major boost to the Indian Air Force’s combat capabilities, eight US-made Apache AH-64E attack helicopters are set to be inducted into the IAF.

Apache AH-64E attack helicopters

• The AH-64E Apache is one of the world’s most advanced multi-role combat helicopters and is flown by the U.S. Army.
• Eight of the Apache attack helicopters are set to be inducted into the IAF, that will enhance the force’s combat capabilities.
• The IAF had signed a multi-billion dollar contract with the U.S. government and Boeing Ltd in September 2015 for 22 Apache helicopters. The first four of the 22 helicopters was handed over to the air force by Boeing on July 27.
• It is the only available combat helicopter with a spectrum of capabilities for virtually any mission requirement. For the AH-64 E, this includes greater thrust and lift, joint digital operability, improved survivability and cognitive decision aiding.
• It is uniquely suited to meet the commander’s needs, including reconnaissance, security, peacekeeping operations, and lethal attack in both land and littoral environments all without reconfiguration.

Russia to train four Indian astronauts for Gaganyaan

News

• India and Russia are stepping up cooperation in the space sector with Moscow extending help in 4-5 critical areas of India’s ambitious manned mission to space, Gaganyaan.
• This includes training of Indian astronauts at Russian facilities beginning later this year, sources at the Indian Embassy in Moscow said.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Switzerland to share bank account information with India

News

• Banking details of Indians with accounts in Switzerland will be available to tax authorities as the automatic exchange of information regime kicks off between the two countries.

Automatic exchange of information

• The move, is a significant step in the government’s fight against black money and the era of “Swiss bank secrecy” will finally be over from September.
• The CBDT frames policy for the Income-Tax Department.
• The first automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) under the provisions common reporting standard will start from September.
• The information will include accounts that were closed during 2018.
• During the meeting, both sides discussed bilateral exchange of information matters to expedite execution of tax information sharing requests made by India in specific cases.

Moon lander separation successful, says ISRO

News

• Chandrayaan-2’s lander Vikram detached itself from atop the main spacecraft as planned, as it got ready to descend to the moon’s southern surface over the next four days.

Descend to the moon

• The lander carries small six-wheeled rover Pragyan within it; once they reach the lunar surface, the rover will get out of Vikram to physically probe moon.
• Soon after separation, the lander was in an orbit of 119 km x 127 km around moon. It will start sailing down towards its assigned lunar landing spots after two de-orbits.
• No country has soft-landed on the south polar region that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has chosen to explore.

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