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IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

Study shows how climate change impacts crops

News

• Two research groups at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) studying the physical and molecular manifestations of increasing carbon dioxide (CO 2) on certain crops have found that the gas significantly and negatively alters chickpea under stressed conditions.

Climate change impact

• Chickpea or channa, is an important legume crop and a staple protein source in India and many other parts of the world.
• Researchers, cultivated two popular varieties of chickpea (desi chickpea JG 11 and kabuli chickpea KAK 2) in ambient conditions (380 ppm, the current ambient CO 2 level) and under two higher levels of 550 ppm and 700 ppm to stress the plants and mimic rising levels in the world.
• Following the early impressive growth, the scientists observed that the plants started to demonstrate negative effects as they aged.
• The changes in the stressed plants made for a stark contrast with those of the same age that were grown in ambient conditions, they observed. The leaves, roots and shoots of plants grew faster under stressed conditions but quickly lost green-ness and shed leaves.
• This also meant that the crop lost its chlorophyll content sooner, implying lesser yield and lesser food.
• They found that the expression of as many as 18,644 genes in the stressed plants was different compared to the normal expression of these genes in plants grown under ambient conditions.
• These different expressions, referred to scientifically as Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs), suggested that several important metabolic pathways related to sugar metabolism, chlorophyll metabolism and the plant’s defence mechanism were adversely affected in ways that accelerated senescence or aging.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Haryana to set up 2 control rooms on curbing pollution

News

• In a bid to reduce the increasing pollution levels in the National Capital Region of Haryana, two control rooms will be set up by the state government in Gurugram and Faridabad districts which will be functioning round the clock. For this, special training will be imparted to the employees concerned.

Control rooms

• The directions of Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) ordered a ban on the use of diesel generator sets (other than essential/emergency services) in Faridabad and Gurugram.
• Directed the officers that large construction projects, including highways and metro, should provide an undertaking to the State Pollution Control Boards or Pollution Control Committees that they will assure adherence to the prescribed norms and guidelines for dust management.
• Along with this, industries, particularly in the red and orange category, will provide an undertaking to the State Pollution Control Boards or Pollution Control Committees that they will use only authorised fuel.
• Ensure enforcement and full compliance with the action plan on the identified pollution hot spots through ground-level surveillance; (carry out) night patrolling so as to ensure zero tolerance for all sources of pollution.
• Control of air pollution during winter will require greatly enhanced vigilance on ground so that sources, such as industrial stacks and garbage dumping and use of illegal fuel are checked. The use of all technologies for dust management, including smog-guns, should be extensively used during this period.
• The Chief Secretary directed the officers concerned to specifically set up pollution control rooms in Gurugram and Faridabad.

Delhi: Smog tower at CP, policy for tree transplantation get govt go-ahead

News

• The Delhi government approved a tree transplantation policy and sanctioned funds to construct a smog tower at Connaught Place as part of its efforts to combat air pollution.

Combat air pollution

• While the tree transplantation policy had first figured in the Delhi government’s annual budget for 2019-20, two smog towers, including the proposed structure at Connaught Place, are being constructed following a order of the Supreme Court to the Delhi government and the Central Pollution Control Board.
• Under the tree transplantation policy, agencies or institutions behind any project will not only have to transplant at least 80 per cent of affected trees, they will have to ensure survival of at least 80 per cent of transplanted trees.
• The smog tower will act like a mega air purifier, will come up in the next 10 months, a deadline also set by the Supreme Court last month. The cost of the project has been pegged at Rs 20 crore.
• The other proposed smog tower at East Delhi’s Anand Vihar, a pollution hotspot, will be built by the Union government.
• The smog tower at CP will work in accordance with a technology which is different from the one in China. The proposed structure will suck in air from the top and release purified air near the ground.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Export of essential agri commodities for the period April-September, 2020 increases by 43.4% as compared to the same period last year

Source: PIB india

News

• The consistent and concerted efforts of the Government to boost agricultural exports are bearing fruit as despite of the on-going Covid-19 crisis, the export of essential agri commodities for the cumulative period of April-September, 2020 has increased by 43.4% to Rs 53626.6 crore as compared to Rs 37397.3 crore in the same period last year.

Agricultural exports

• Furthermore, balance of trade during April-September 2020 has been significantly positive at Rs 9002 Crore as against trade deficit of Rs. 2133 during the same period in 2019.
• In order to boost agri exports, the Government announced Agriculture Export Policy, 2018 which inter-alia provides for cluster-based approach for export-centric farming of cash crops like fruits, vegetables, spices, etc. whereby clusters for specific agri products are identified across the country and focused interventions are carried out in these clusters.
• Eight Export Promotion Forums have been set up under the aegis of APEDA to boost export of agriculture/ horticulture products.
• The EPF are making concerted efforts to identify, document particulars of, and reach out to stakeholders across the entire production/ supply chain of export for increasing these exports significantly to the global market, through various interventions.
• Recently, the Government has also announced Agri Infra Fund of Rs. 1 lakh crore to improve agri business environment which shall promote agri export in due course.
• DAC&FW has also prepared a comprehensive action plan/strategy towards promotion of agri trade envisaging twofold approach viz. to boost Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and a detailed action plan for Import Substitution.

China has deployed 60,000 soldiers at LAC… India needs US in this fight: Mike Pompeo

News

• Addressing the “threat” China poses to the Quad nations, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the country has deployed 60,000 soldiers at its border with India. He also said India “absolutely need the United States to be their ally and partner in this fight”.

Quad countries

• Foreign ministers from the Quad countries the US, India, Australia and Japan met in Tokyo for the first in-person talks since the pandemic began.
• On his return to the US, Pompeo gave three interviews during which he spoke of China’s “bad behaviour”, and said the “tide’s begun to turn”.

India and China have been locked in a border standoff in eastern Ladakh for over five months. The two sides have been holding talks in order to de-escalate the situation.

Himachal: Born in captivity, six Western tragopans released into the wild

News

• Six Western tragopans raised in captivity were released into the Daranghati Wildlife Sanctuary by Himachal Pradesh wildlife officials.

Vulnerable pheasant species

• Western tragopan is the state bird, and a vulnerable pheasant species with an estimated global population of less than 3,500.
• The released birds, comprising two pairs and two chicks, were raised in a conservation breeding centre at Sarahan in Shimla district. Around a month ago, they were shifted from the centre into the adjoining wildlife sanctuary, and released into temporary enclosures called soft pens to help them adapt to their new environment. They were let out of the enclosures and into the wild.
• The Daranghati Wildlife Sanctuary is part of the tragopan’s natural habitat, and the site of release is at an altitude of around 3,200 metres above mean sea level.
• According to wildlife officials, the site is a five-hour trek from the breeding centre, and was being developed for the past six months by building soft pens and monitoring predators in the area.
• This is the first such reintroduction of Western tragopans anywhere in the world.
• Himachal Pradesh has seven different species of pheasants, of which the Western tragopan is the most elusive one.
• Locally called Jujurana, it is endemic to the northwest Himalaya and found in North Pakistan, Kashmir, Himachal and possibly Uttarakhand.
• In 2017, Bird Life International estimated that there are less than 3,500 western tragopans left in the wild. The pheasantry in Sarahan is the bird’s only conservation breeding centre in the world, and currently has around 45 birds.