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IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Jaishankar at Quad meet: India committed to respecting territorial integrity

News

• Amid the border standoff with China along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, Indian External Affairs Minister said India remained committed to respecting territorial integrity, sovereignty, and peaceful resolution of disputes.

Quad grouping

• In an address at a ministerial meeting of the ‘Quad’ grouping in Tokyo, External Affairs Minister also spoke about upholding “rules-based international order.”
• The meeting of foreign ministers of the ‘Quad’ or Quadrilateral coalition comprising India, the US, Japan, and Australia is taking place in the backdrop of growing concerns over China’s military muscle-flexing in the Indo-Pacific and its months-long border standoff with India in the Ladakh region. China has denounced the Quad as an attempt to contain its development.
• Indian External Affairs Minister also met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Tokyo and spoke about various aspects of bilateral ties and ways to deepen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Indian External Affairs Minister also called on Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga along with his counterparts from the US, Japan, and Australia.
• The long-pending proposal of setting up the “Quad” was given shape by the four countries in November 2017.
• This is the second Quad foreign ministers’ meeting, as the first such meeting had taken place in New York in September last year, on the margins of the UN General Assembly.
• The meeting of the foreign ministers of the four countries is expected to collectively affirm the importance of a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

NCERT textbooks to be available in Indian sign language

News

• The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) signed an MoU with the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) to make textbooks and other educational material accessible for deaf children in sign language.

Accessible in sign language

• The availability of NCERT textbooks in Indian Sign Language (ISL) will ensure that hearing-impaired children can also now access educational resources and it will be a useful and much-needed resource for teachers, teacher educators, parents and the hearing-impaired community.
• The cognitive skills of children are developed in childhood and it is necessary to provide them with educational material in accordance with their learning needs.
• Hearing-impaired children used to study only through a verbal or written medium but after the signing of this MoU, they can study through a single Indian Sign Language also. It will not only enhance their vocabulary but also enhance their capabilities to understand concepts.
• The ISLRTC is an autonomous national institute of the social justice and empowerment ministry, which is dedicated to developing manpower for popularising the use of Indian Sign Language, teaching and conducting research.

India gives Myanmar Remdesivir drug, talks security along border

News

• A package of 3,000 vials of the antiviral Remdesivir, support for ensuring safe, sustainable and speedy return of Rohingya refugees, operationalisation of the crucial Sittwe port in Myanmar’s Rakhine state by March 2021, a liaison office in Nay Pyi Taw, a bust of Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Mandalay Jail, and a mutual commitment to not allow activities against each other.
• These are some of the key takeaways of a two-day visit by Foreign Secretary and Army chief Gen to Myanmar.

Assist Myanmar

• They presented 3,000 vials of Remdesivir to Suu Kyi, “symbolic of India’s commitment to assist Myanmar in its fight against the (Covid-19) pandemic. Shringla indicated India’s willingness to prioritise Myanmar in sharing vaccines as and when these become available”, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
• They agreed to work towards operationalisation of Sittwe port in the first quarter of 2021. The two sides also discussed progress in the ongoing Indian-assisted infrastructure projects such as the Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project.
• The two sides discussed maintenance of security and stability in their border areas and reiterated their mutual commitment not to allow their respective territories to be used for activities inimical to each other.
• On the issue of Rohingya refugees who have fled the Rakhine state, both sides noted the considerable progress made under the Rakhine State Development Programme (RSDP) and proposed finalising projects under phase-III of the programme, including setting up of a skills training centre.
• During the visit, the project agreement on upgrading of agricultural mechanisation under RSDP was signed.

In Delhi govt’s pollution plan: App to flag violations, focus on 13 hotspots

News

• The Delhi government launched a campaign against air pollution pivoted around existing policies on mechanical sweeping of roads, inspection of construction sites, tree transplantation and flagging violations such as open burning of dry waste through mobile apps.

Campaign against air pollution

• During winters, among the major sources of air pollution in Delhi are vehicular emissions, dust, stubble burning in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana, open burning of waste.
• The particulates get trapped near the surface due to fall in temperature, low wind speed and fog.
• The state government is experimenting with a stubble decomposer a product of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, made up microbial enzymes at the non-Basmati variant rice producing farms, covering 800 acres in the capital, to prevent stubble burning this year.
• Specific measures to be implemented at the hotspots were drawn up by the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority as well as the DPCC in 2019 itself. The EPCA also inspected the hotspots last month and directed the Delhi government to start night patrolling at those areas.
• The government will soon launch a ‘Green Delhi app’ where people will be able flag violations such as burning of waste or visibly polluting vehicles. EPCA launched the first such app, ‘Hawa Badlo’.
• CPCB launched the ‘Sameer’ app, which also has elaborate provisions for people to register complaints against air polluting activities and track the status of such complaints.
• The CM also announced that the government will set up a war room on pollution for constant monitoring of its anti-pollution measures.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

To curb economic losses and damage to property during cyclones, IMD to launch ‘dynamic’ warning system

News

• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will soon launch a dynamic, impact-based cyclone warning system, aimed at minimising economic losses and damage to property due to the cyclones that hit Indian coasts every year.

Impact-based cyclone warning system

• The east coast of India is particularly vulnerable to cyclones and experience three out of the four cyclones formed annually in the North Indian Ocean region (the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea).
• The post-monsoon months offer favourable sea conditions for the occurrence of cyclonic storms, which mainly affect the livelihoods of people of coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.
• Because cyclones are multi-hazardous in nature they cause heavy rain, strong winds and storm surge over the affected region simultaneously the associated property loss can be huge.
• This can be in the form of damage to houses and roads, farms and agriculture lands, public infrastructure, and power and telecommunication lines, adding to the overall economic burden for the affected families, local administrations and state governments.
• With improved technology and increased use of satellite-guided data in recent years, IMD has managed to better forecast cyclones and issue warnings.
• Advance and accurate cyclone predictions, combined with efforts from disaster management agencies, have also significantly contributed in bringing down the cyclone mortality rate to below 100 per event in the last one decade.
• As part of the new system, location or district-specific tailored warnings, which factor in the local population, infrastructure, settlements, land use and other elements, will be prepared and disseminated.
• All these agencies will make extensive use of cartographic, geological and hydrological data available for the district concerned.
• The IMD is partnering with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and the respective state governments for this newest warning system, using real-time data.

Asteroid as big the size of Boeing 747 to zoom past the Earth tomorrow

News

• NASA’s asteroid monitoring center claimed that an all-new asteroid equal to the size of an airliner Boeing 747 is set to hurtle past the Earth.
• The asteroid is named as2020 RK2 and is expected to cross the Earth’s orbit at a distance of 2,380,800 miles away from the Earth.

2020 RK2 

• The US-based space agency first discovered the asteroid in the month of September and has found its size to be from 118 feet to 265 feet wide.
• The heavenly body is slated to rush past the Earth at quite a slower pace of 6.68 km per second. In addition, astronomers have also predicted that 2020 RK2 is highly unlikely to be visible to astronomy enthusiasts and sky-observers due to its slow speed.
• Asteroid will be coming from Andromeda constellation which is 10.3 billion light years away. Along with that, the asteroid is classified into category of Apollo asteroid.
• This new asteroid is named as 2020 RR2 and is having a diameter of 26 meters.
• These asteroids are mostly found between Mars and Jupiter and often come inside the planet’s orbit due to their attractive gravitational force.
• As per NASA other planet’s gravity may pull these celestial bodies towards themselves while making them hurl the distance in vast space and avoiding their collision with the planets.

Scientists once again discover signs of water in the lakes of planet Mars

News

• The most intriguing notion of humankind of being alone in the universe might just got busted as scientists once again discovered substantial signs of water present in the Mars, where a rigorous research is going on to find life-supporting evidences.

Signs of water

• Scientists have found three more underground water lakes in the south pole of the Red planet. Besides the main lake, smaller surrounding lakes have also been discovered.
• This after the discovery of the same such lake came into being in the year 2018 which was spread across a wide-area of 20 sq.km and was 1.5 km under the Martian surface.
• Scientists have also confirmed the presence of the fourth lake and, in the hindsight, have drawn monumental significance, because of the presence of water may lead their way to find out biological processes in the future which may prove the existence of any form of living organism on the planet.
• At present, the water that has been found in the lakes is expected to be extremely salty, as a result of which it poses hazardous uncertainty for any potential life form.
• Due to extreme atmospheric conditions and the prevalence of low-pressure on the surface of Mars, the existence of liquid water is highly impossible.
• According to the researchers, the presence of a volcano beneath the polar ice-caps in Mars, might be melting them and could be accelerating the formation of such extremely saline lakes.
• The research has conclusively taken place through the detection of a single sub-surface by using 134 images captured between the year 2012-2019.

Along western Maharashtra: 3 separate incidents of successful re-wilding of Chinkara fawns reported

News

• Pune ornithologists and researchers have reported three successful incidents in which Chinkara fawns were rescued, examined, treated, and re-wilded during foaling season.

Re-Wilding

• The rescued Chinkara fawns, like other ungulates, feign limping, refuse to stand and prefer to lie on the ground in the presence of humans. This can lead to the mistaken conclusion that they are paralysed or have weak legs.
• The fawns are often erroneously “rescued” and are then inadvertently deprived of parental care. Camera trap studies reveal they walk normally when there is no human present. Due to this, the authors kept the “rescued” fawns in the same place within 12 hours and monitored the outcome using trap cameras.
• It was observed that the assumed parents approached the fawns and accepted them. The fawns were subsequently seen to be healthy.This method is cheap and avoids ex-situ care humans, allowing these fawns to get their natural lives back.
• This is a simple conservation solution for fawns rescued erroneously by well-intentioned people.

Indian Gazelle

• The Indian Gazelle, or Chinkara, is an antelope endemic to the Indian subcontinent. It is protected by the Wildlife Protection Act, and is listed under Schedule 1.
• The foaling or delivery season falls twice a year, between March and July, and September and October.
• Various threats to this antelope include habitat loss, human encroachment, getting snared in barbed wire fencing, falling in open wells, road traffic accidents, trapping, hunting, ingestion of pesticides and insecticides, and predation by stray dogs.
• Another threat is the enthusiasm in rescuing Chinkara fawns out of ignorance, when it is found on grasslands or scrublands.