IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Climate change: data show increasing emissions, soaring temperatures

News

• The UN’sclimate change summit was held at a time greenhouse gas emissions and variations in global temperatures are at record highs.

Climate change summit

• National leaders took to the podium, but failed to announce concrete plans.
• India is the third largest contributor to emissions after the U.S. and China. Meanwhile, a survey on attitudes to climate change shows that about 6% of U.S. respondents were in denial about climate change.

Big polluters

• While India is among the top Carbon Dioxide (CO2 ) emitters (as of 2017), its share of emissions (2,467 MT) was lower compared to other big emitters like China and the U.S. China’s in particular has risen significantly in the last 30 years.
• India’s emissions per capita is lower compared to other nations. The below table shows that West Asian countries and the United States have higher emissions per capita.
• An increase in CO2 emissions has contributed to an increase in global temperature anomalies, which indicate how much warmer or colder it is than normal (The average over the 30-year period 1951-1980) for a particular place and time.
• The Sense Climate Index is a composite index of climate quantities. Positive values refer to warming, while negative values refer to changes associated with cooling.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

India accepts RCEP tips on investments

News

• While India has not yet signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, it has accepted suggestions of other countries regarding rules on investments.

RCEP countries

• India and the other RCEP countries are currently in the final phase of negotiations in Vietnam.
• India has so far agreed to several provisions that bring it in line with the investment rules applicable in most comparable countries, including banning host countries from mandating that the investing companies transfer technology and training to their domestic partners, and removing the cap on the quantum of royalties domestic companies can pay their foreign partners.
• If the RCEP agreement is signed, these rules are expected to attract greater investment in India from the other 15 RCEP countries (the 10 ASEAN countries, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand).
• Indian laws currently have the provision wherein companies investing in the country can be made to transfer technology or know-hows to their domestic counterparts.
• The government and Reserve Bank of India also currently impose a cap on the royalties a domestic company can pay to its foreign parent or partner, for certain kinds of investments.
• These restrictions have been seen as major hindrances to investing in India, and other RCEP countries have argued strongly for their removal.

Trump announces trade deal with India, urges talks with Pakistan 

News

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session and discussed with him bilateral ties.

Bilateral ties

• The meeting comes two days after both leaders were together at the ‘Howdy, Modi’ mega event in Houston during which they addressed over 50,000 Indian-Americans.
• The two leaders met for the fourth time in as many months.
• India and the United States will sign a trade deal, announced President Donald Trump at the beginning of a bilateral meeting with Indian team led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Data show disparity in MGNREGA wages across States

News

• With the Centre’s plan to peg MGNREGA wages to inflation, a look at the current wages shows a wide disparity in the notified wages among States.

MGNREGA

• National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005(or, NREGA No 42, later renamed as the “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act”, MGNREGA), is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘right to work’.

Aim: to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Disparity

• Some States notified relatively higher wages, they paid out lesser than that amount on average during all months in FY19, while some States which notified lesser wages paid out that wage (or higher) consistently.
• The total MGNREGA expenditure reported by States has risen, but the year-on-year growth has fallen below 5%.
• Many central and northern States have relatively lower notified wages; Haryana (the highest among States) is an exception.

Modi holds series of bilateral meetings on sidelines of UNGA session

News

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of bilateral meetings with several world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

Bilateral meetings

• Prime Minister interacted with a number of heads of state.
• The Emir of Qatar expressed his gratitude to the Indian diaspora for the role in supporting the economy of the country. The two sides also discussed cooperation in counter-terrorism against the backdrop of the situation in the region.
• India has granted assistance of $35 million for the construction of the Mahatma Gandhi International Convention Centre in Niger and the project is nearing completion.
• Niger President Mahamadou also raised the issue of cooperation in agriculture sector and solar energy.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

ISRO initiates ‘Project NETRA’ to safeguard Indian space assets from debris and other harm

News

• In the middle of its two-month Chandrayaan-2 campaign, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) last month quietly initiated ‘Project NETRA’ an early warning system in space to detect debris and other hazards to Indian satellites.

Project NETRA

• NETRA’s eventual goal is to capture the GEO, or geostationary orbit, scene at 36,000 km where communication satellites operate.
• The project estimated to cost ₹400 crore, when in place, will give India its own capability in space situational awareness (SSA) like the other space powers which is used to ‘predict’ threats from debris to Indian satellites.
• It also goes so far as to serve as an unstated warning against missile or space attack for the country.
• SSA will first be for low-earth orbits or LEO which have remote-sensing spacecraft.
• Under NETRA, or Network for space object Tracking and Analysis, the ISRO plans to put up many observational facilities: connected radars, telescopes; data processing units and a control centre.
• They can, among others, spot, track and catalogue objects as small as 10 cm, up to a range of 3,400 km and equal to a space orbit of around 2,000 km.
• With this the ISRO, which has placed satellites to track the earth from above, will also start training its eyes on space from earth.
• Space debris could be floating particles from dead satellites or rocket parts that stay in orbit for many years.
• Satellite agencies agonise over even a speck of paint or fragment floating towards their spacecraft: it disables onboard electronics and cripples the satellite worth several hundred crore rupees besides many services that run on it.
• Agencies constantly look for debris at the time of a launch and through the life of a satellite.
• Currently there are 15 functional Indian communication satellites in the geostationary orbit of 36,000 km; 13 remote sensing satellites in LEO of up to 2,000 km; and eight navigation satellites in medium earth orbits.
• More importantly, the SSA also has a military quotient to it and adds a new ring to the country’s overall security.

Planned for six months, India’s Mars mission Mangalyaan completes five years

News

• The Mangalyaan mission, which was initially meant to last six months, completed five years of orbiting Mars and is likely to continue for some more time.

Mangalyaan mission

• Mangalyaan is India’s first endeavour to cross the earth’s orbit successfully. The launch vehicle, spacecraft and ground segment cost ₹450 crore.
• In the past five years, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India’s first interplanetary endeavour, helped India’s space agency prepare a Martian Atlas based on the images provided by the orbiter.
• The Mars orbiter has sent thousands of pictures totalling two terabytes.
• Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars, were also imaged from close distances by the Mars Colour Camera (MCC). The MOM is the only Martian artificial satellite that could image the full disc of Mars in one view frame and also image the far side of Deimos.
• The data from MOM has helped produced 23 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
• An important conclusion of the mission has been the finding that dust storms on the Martian can rise up to hundreds of kilometres.

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