Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dr Kotnis and his legacy
Mains level: NA
A bronze statue of Indian doctor Dwarkanath Kotnis is set to be unveiled in China.
Try this PYQ:
Q.A recent movie titled The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on the biography of
(a) S. Ramanujan
(b) S. Chandrasekhar
(c) S. N. Bose
(d) C. V. Raman
Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis
- He is revered in China for his contributions during the Chinese revolution headed by its founder Mao Zedong and World War II.
- He hailed from Sholapur in Maharashtra came to China in 1938 as part of a five-member team of doctors sent by the Indian National Congress to help the Chinese during World War II.
- He joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1942 and died the same year at the age of 32.
- Kotnis’ medical assistance during the difficult days of the Chinese revolution was praised by Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
- His statues and memorials were also set in some of the Chinese cities in recognition of his services.
A revered personality in China
- Late Chinese leader Mao Zedong was deeply affected by his death.
- Mao wrote in his eulogy that “the army has lost a helping hand; the nation has lost a friend. Let us always bear in mind his internationalist spirit”.
- Kotnis is remembered not only as a symbol inspiring medical students to work hard, but also an eternal bond between the people of China and India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Atal Tunnel, Pir Panjal Range
Mains level: Not Much
The Atal Tunnel at Rohtang, near Manali, is almost complete in all respects and will be inaugurated very soon in September.
Tap to read more about Himalayas at:
https://www.civilsdaily.com/the-northern-and-northeastern-mountains-part-1/
Atal Tunnel
- The 9-km-long tunnel is constructed under the Pir Panjal range.
- It has been named after former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and will be the world’s longest highway tunnel above the altitude of 10,000 feet (3000 metres).
- It was scheduled to be completed by May 2020, in a revised estimate, but the Covid-19 pandemic pushed back the completion by a few months due to lockdown conditions.
- Vehicles can travel at a maximum speed of 80 km per hour. Up to 1,500 trucks and 3,000 cars are expected to use it per day when the situation gets to normal.
What is its strategic advantage?
- Cutting through the Pir Panjal range, the tunnel will reduce the distance between Manali and Leh by 46 km.
- The tunnel will provide almost all-weather connectivity to the troops stationed in Ladakh.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PVTGs in Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Mains level: Not Much
Five members of the Great Andamanese tribe, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTGs) have tested positive for COVID-19.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:
- PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
- A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.
- There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
- Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.
Which of the statements given above are correct?(CSP 2019)
(a) 1, 2 and 3
(b) 2, 3 and 4
(c) 1, 2 and 4
(d) 1, 3 and 4
PVTGs in Andaman
- Great Andamanese is one of five PVTGs that reside in Andamans archipelago.
- The Great Andamanese speak Jeru dialect among themselves and their number stands at 51 as per the last study carried out by Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti in 2012.
- The five PVTGS residing in Andamans are Great Andamanese, Jarwas, Onges, Shompens and North Sentinelese.
What are PVTGs?
- There are certain tribal communities who have declining or stagnant population, low level of literacy, pre-agricultural level of technology and are economically backward.
- They generally inhabit remote localities having poor infrastructure and administrative support.
- These groups are among the most vulnerable section of our society as they are few in numbers, have not attained any significant level of social and economic development.
- 75 such groups have been identified and categorized as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Causacus region mapping
Mains level: Not Much
Turkish President Erdogan has asserted that his country will take whatever belongs to it in the Mediterranean, as well as Aegean and the Black Sea.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Turkey is located between
(a) The Black Sea and Caspian Sea
(b) The Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea
(c) Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean Sea
(d) Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea
Assertion over the Mediterranean
- Greece and Turkey have been locked in a dispute over control of eastern Mediterranean waters.
- They are at odds over the rights to potential hydrocarbon resources, based on conflicting claims over the extent of their continental shelves.
- The Turkish navy will hold the shooting exercises in the eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Iskenderun, northeast of Cyprus.
- Cyprus was divided in 1974 following a Turkish invasion triggered by a Greek-inspired coup.
- Turkey recognizes the Turkish-populated north of Cyprus as a separate state, which is not recognised by other countries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Eat Out to Help Out Scheme
Mains level: NA
Since the lockdown began in India, different bodies representing the country’s hospitality sector have repeatedly asked the government for financial assistance to help tide over the crisis. UK’s popular Eat Out to Help Out (EOHO) Scheme can be an example of the kind of intervention in India.
Note: The ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ Scheme recently seen in news is related to Hospitality. One may get confused over Poverty and Hunger.
What is the EOHO Scheme?
- The EOHO Scheme is an economic recovery measure by the UK government to support hospitality businesses as they reopen after the lockdown.
- The scheme was announced as part of the Plans for Jobs summer economic update.
- Under the EOHO Scheme, the government would subsidise meals (food and non-alcoholic drinks only) at restaurants by 50 per cent.
- There is no minimum spending and no limit on the number of times customers can avail the offer, since the whole point of the scheme is to encourage a return to dining in restaurants.
Why was this scheme deemed necessary?
- All over the world, the food services sector is one of the worst affected by the pandemic.
- The top two concerns were customers avoiding restaurants for fear of contracting the virus and customers having less disposable income for dining out.
- Instead of delivering a financial package to operators, it makes eating out more affordable for consumers directly and helps restore demand.
- Restoring consumer demand is being seen as crucial to the UK’s economic recovery.
Can India benefit from such a scheme?
- The main problem confronting the restaurant industry, following Unlock 1.0 in June, has been consumer fear, even as the government has remained silent about specific recovery packages aimed at the hospitality industry.
- The government needs to work on the demand side.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: INS Viraat
Mains level: Not much
Decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Viraat is set to be scrapped at a ship breaking yard at Alang in Gujarat soon.
In rarest case we would see a question based on this in CSP. However, we can expect a question based on INS Viraat in the CAPF exam very well.
INS Viraat
- Viraat, a Centaur class aircraft carrier weighing 27,800 tonnes, served in the British Navy as HMS Hermes for 25 years from November 1959 to April 1984.
- It was commissioned into the Indian Navy in May 1987 after refurbishment and had operated Harrier fighter jets.
- It was decommissioned from in March 2017, and the Navy had been incurring expenditure since then on its upkeep, such as the provision of electricity and water, and repairs.
- In 2018, the Maharashtra Cabinet approved a proposal to convert the carrier into a museum and hospitality centre on a PPP basis and had invited bids. But there were no takers.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ASTROSAT; Space missions of ISRO and NASA
Mains level: NA
ASTROSAT, India’s first multi-wavelength satellite observatory, has detected an extreme ultraviolet (UV) light from a galaxy which is 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth.
Try out:
Consider the following statements regarding the AstroSat:
1)AstroSat is India’s multi-wavelength space telescope.
2)ASTROSAT mission is that enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.
3)ASTROSAT observes the universe in the optical and high energy X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Which of the following above statements is true?
a.1 and 2
b.2 and 3
c.1 and 3
d.1, 2 and 3
AUDFs01
- AstroSat has detected extreme-UV light from a galaxy, called AUDFs01, 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth.
- The galaxy is located in the Hubble Extreme Deep field, through AstroSat.
- This is a very important clue to how the dark ages of the universe ended and there was light in the universe.
About ASTROSAT
- AstroSat is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space telescope. It was launched on a PSLV-XL on 28 September 2015.
It is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously.
————–//—————-
Find some time to scroll through recent ISRO missions and discoveries.
ISRO Missions and Discoveries
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Brahmaputra Ropeway
Mains level: Not Much
India’s ‘longest’ river ropeway across the Brahmaputra River was unveiled in Guwahati.
Navigate to this page for more readings on Brahmaputra River systems:
Brahmaputra Ropeway
- The 1.82 km bi-cable jig-back ropeway connects the southern bank of the Brahmaputra and a hillock behind the Doul Govinda temple in North Guwahati on the other.
- It passes over the mid-river Peacock Island that houses Umananda, a medieval Shiva temple.
- It thus cuts travel time between the two banks to 8 minutes.
- The current travel options between the two banks are by ferry (30 minutes or more, depending on current and season) or by road through a bridge that usually takes over an hour in the traffic.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Council for Transgender Persons
Mains level: Trans-persons rights protection
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has constituted the National Council for Transgender Persons.
Try this question for mains:
Q.Discuss the salient features of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019. What are its various shortcomings?
National Council for Transgender Persons
- It has been a requirement under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
- The Social Justice Minister would be the chairperson of the Council.
- The members would include officials of the Ministries of Health, MHA, MoHUA, Minority Affairs, HRD etc. among others.
- The council also includes five nominated members from the transgender community.
Its mandate
- The council would work with States to ensure that transgender welfare boards are set up in all States and essential needs of the community, like housing, food, healthcare and education are met.
Also read:
Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nuakhai Juhar
Mains level: NA
The PM has greeted the people on the auspicious occasion of Nuakhai Juhar.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following pairs:
|
Tradition |
|
State |
| 1. |
Chapchar Kut festival |
: |
Mizoram |
| 2. |
Khongjom Parba ballad |
: |
Manipur |
| 3. |
Thang-Ta dance |
: |
Sikkim |
Which of the pairs given above is/are correct? (CSP 2018)
a) 1 only
b) 1 and 2
c) 3 only
d) 2 and 3
Nuakhai Juhar
- Nuakhai or Nuakhai is an agricultural festival mainly observed by people of Western Odisha and Southern Chhattisgarh.
- It is celebrated at the time when the newly grown Kharif crop (autumn crop) of rice started ripening.
- According to the calendar it is observed on Panchami tithi (the fifth day) of the lunar fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada or Bhadraba (August–September), the day after the Ganesh Chaturthi festival.
- This is the most important social festival of Western Odisha and adjoining areas of Simdega in Jharkhand, where Odia culture is much predominant.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indian Bison, Gorumara NP
Mains level: NA
A bison (Indian Gaur) was allegedly poached in Gorumara National Park.
Try this PYQ:
Which one of the following National Parks lies completely in the temperate alpine zone?(CSP 2019)
(a) Manas National Park
(b) Namdapha National Park
(c) Neora Valley National Park
(d) Valley of Flowers National Park
Gorumara NP
- It is located in the Eastern Himalayas’ submontane Terai belt.
- This region has rolling forests and riverine grasslands, and is known as the Dooars in West Bengal.
- The park is located on the flood plains of the Murti River and Raidak River. The major river of the park is the Jaldhaka river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra river system.
- In this regard, Gorumara is a significant watershed area between the Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems.
- The park is rich in large herbivores including Indian rhinoceros, gaur, Asian elephant, sloth bear, chital, and sambar deer. Small herbivores include barking deer, hog deer and wild boar.
About Gaur
- The Gaur called the Indian bison, is native to South and Southeast Asia and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986.
- It is the largest species among the wild cattle.
- The domesticated form of the gaur is called gayal (Bos frontalis) or mithun.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dam, river and its reservoir
Mains level: NA
The major fire accident at the Srisailam hydroelectric power station has resulted in heavy loss of lives.
Try this PYQ:
What is common to the places known as Aliyar, Isapur and Kangsabati? (CSP 2019)
(a) Recently discovered uranium deposits
(b) Tropical rain forests
(c) Underground cave systems
(d) Water reservoirs
About Srisailam Dam
- The Srisailam Dam is constructed across the Krishna River in Kurnool district, AP near Srisailam temple town.
- It is the 2nd largest capacity working hydroelectric station in the country.
- The dam was constructed in a deep gorge in the Nallamala Hills in between Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts, 300 m (980 ft) above sea level.
- It has a reservoir of 616 square kilometres.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Namath Basai Programme
Mains level: Tribal education
Namath Basai, the State government’s unique programme of teaching tribal children in their mother tongue, has become a runaway hit in Kerala’s tribal districts.
Try this MCQ:
Q. The Namath Basai Programme recently seen in news is related to:
Tribal Education/ Women SHGs/ Forest Produce/ Tribal Health
Namath Basai Programme
- The NBP is implemented by the Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK).
- It has succeeded in retaining hundreds of tribal children in their online classes by making them feel at home with the language of instruction.
- The SSK has distributed some 50 laptops exclusively for Namath Basai. Pre-recorded classes are offered through a YouTube channel.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bio-ethanol
Mains level: Ethanol blended petrol programme
The government has set targets of 10 per cent bioethanol blending of petrol by 2022 and to raise it to 20 per cent by 2030 to curb carbon emissions and reduce India’s dependence on imported crude oil.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Given below are the names of four energy crops. Which one of them can be cultivated for ethanol?(CSP 2010)
(a) Jatropha
(b) Maize
(c) Pongamia
(d) Sunflower
What is Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Program?
- Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme was launched in January 2003 for the supply of 5% ethanol blended petrol.
- The programme sought to promote the use of alternative and environment-friendly fuels and to reduce import dependency for energy requirements.
- OMCs are advised to continue according to the priority of ethanol from 1) sugarcane juice/sugar/sugar syrup, 2) B-heavy molasses 3) C-heavy molasses and 4) damaged food grains/other sources.
Bio-ethanol blend in India
- 1G and 2G bioethanol plants are set to play a key role in making bio-ethanol available for blending but face challenges in attracting investments from the private sector.
- 1G bioethanol plants utilise sugarcane juice and molasses, byproducts in the production of sugar, as raw material, while 2G plants utilise surplus biomass and agricultural waste to produce bioethanol.
- Currently, domestic production of bioethanol is not sufficient to meet the demand for bio-ethanol for blending with petrol at Indian Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
- Sugar mills, which are the key domestic suppliers of bio-ethanol to OMCs, were only able to supply 1.9 billion litres of bio-ethanol to OMCs equating to 57.6 per cent of the total demand of 3.3 billion litres.
Hurdles in meeting the demand
- Lack of infrastructure: Many sugar mills are best placed to produce bioethanol do not have the financial stability to invest in biofuel plants. There are also concerns among investors on the uncertainty over the price of bio-ethanol in the future.
- Lack of raw materials: Presently there is no mechanism for depots where farmers could drop their agricultural waste. The central government should fix a price for agricultural waste to make investments in 2G bioethanol production an attractive proposition.
- Rigid pricing mechanism: Sugars mills have to pay high prices for sugarcane set by the government even when there have been supplying gluts. The prices of both sugarcane and bio-ethanol are set by the central government.
Way ahead
- The government should provide greater visibility on the price of bioethanol that sugar mills can expect by announcing a mechanism by which the price of bio-ethanol would be decided.
- 2G bioethanol not only provided a clean source of energy but also help provide greater income to farmers and prevent them from having to burn agricultural waste which can be a major source of air pollution.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tornado, Cyclones difference
Mains level: Rising events of Tropical Cyclone in India
Babu ChunderSikur Chatterjee’s paper was the earliest record of a tornado’s dynamics in the history of meteorology, according to a study.
Try this PYQ:
Q. In the South Atlantic and South-Eastern Pacific regions in tropical latitudes, cyclone does not originate. What is the reason? (CSP 2015)
(a) Sea surface temperatures are low
(b) Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone seldom occurs
(c) Coriolis force is too weak
(d) Absence of land in those regions
What is a Tornado?
- A tornado is a rapidly rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.
- The windstorm is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone winds blow counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern.
- Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, and they are often visible in the form of a condensation funnel originating from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud, with a cloud of rotating debris and dust beneath it.
- It is generally accompanied by extreme weather such as heavy downpours, hail storms, and lightning.
Who was Babu ChunderSikur Chatterjee?
- Chatterjee was an Indian scientist employed with the Surveyor General of India during the British colonial era.
- He was likely the first person to scientifically document a tornado’s path in 1865, a study from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, has claimed.
- Chatterjee had published his findings in a journal named Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in a paper titled ‘Note on a whirlwind at Pundooah’, near Hooghly.
- The paper described a tornado’s dynamics in meticulous detail and was accompanied by a sketch that mathematically depicted its scale, track and rotation.
His work
- Chatterjee quantitatively mapped the entire trail of á tornado’s destruction.
- He benefited from the rare opportunity to observe a tornado passing through a railway track where there were conveniently placed markers at predefined locations.
- This enabled him to observe and make clear measurements of the tornado’s direction, dynamics and path.
Back2Basics
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Temple architecture in news
Mains level: Temple Architecture of India
The Odisha government has announced to give a facelift to the 11th century Lingaraj Temple, akin to its pre-350-year structural status.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Building ‘Kalyaana Mandapas’ was a notable feature in the temple construction in the kingdom of- (CSP 2019)
(a) Chalukya
(b) Chandela
(c) Rashtrakuta
(d) Vijayanagara
About Lingaraj Temple
- Lingaraja Temple is a temple dedicated to Shiva and is one of the oldest temples in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
- It represents the quintessence of the Kalinga Architecture and culminating the medieval stages of the architectural tradition at Bhubaneswar.
- The temple is believed to be built by the kings from the Somavamsi dynasty, with later additions from the Ganga rulers.
- It is built in the Deula style that has four components namely, vimana (structure containing the sanctum), jagamohana (assembly hall), natamandira (festival hall) and bhoga-mandapa (hall of offerings), each increasing in the height to its predecessor.
- Bhubaneswar is called the Ekamra Kshetra as the deity of Lingaraja was originally under a mango tree (Ekamra) as noted in Ekamra Purana, a 13th-century Sanskrit treatise.
- The temple has images of Vishnu, possibly because of the rising prominence of Jagannath sect emanating from the Ganga rulers who built the Jagannath Temple in Puri in the 12th century.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ceres and other dwarf planets
Mains level: Not Much
The dwarf planet Ceres, which lies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter now, has the status of an “ocean world”.
Note various dwarf planets and the criteria making a planet dwarf, as mentioned in the B2b section.
Ceres exploration
- The dwarf planet was first spotted by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801, who assumed that Ceres was the missing planet between Mars and Jupiter.
- It was classified as a dwarf planet in 2006 and is the first dwarf planet to be orbited by a spacecraft.
- In 2015, NASA’s Dawn reached it to study its surface, composition and history.
What does it mean to be an “ocean world”?
- With a crust that mixes ice, salts, rock-forming minerals and other materials, Ceres looks to be a remnant “ocean world,” wearing the chemistry of its Old Ocean and records of the interaction on its surface.
- The observations from Dawn suggest the presence of briny liquid (saltwater) water under Ceres’s surface.
- Scientists have determined that Ceres has a brine reservoir located about 40 km deep and which is hundreds of miles wide, making the dwarf planet, “water-rich”.
Why do researchers study Ceres?
- Scientists are interested in this dwarf planet because it hosts the possibility of having water, something that many other planets do not have.
- Therefore, scientists look for signs of life on Ceres, a possibility that has also maintained scientists’ interest in the planet Mars, whose atmosphere was once warm enough to allow water to flow through it.
- Another reason why scientists are interested in that studying it can give insights about the formation of the Solar System since it is considered to be a fossil from that time.
Back2Basics: Dwarf Planets
- As of today, there are officially five dwarf planets in our Solar System.
- The most famous is Pluto, downgraded from the status of a planet in 2006.
- The other four, in order of size, are Eris, Makemake, Haumea and Ceres. The sixth claimant for a dwarf planet is Hygiea, which so far has been taken to be an asteroid.
- These four criteria are – that the body orbits around the Sun, it is not a moon, has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit and has enough mass for its gravity to pull it into a roughly spherical shape.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bhadbhut Project, Hilsa Fish
Mains level: Not Much
The Gujarat government recently awarded the contract for a the Bhadbhut project in Bharuch, Gujarat. It has faced protests from local fishermen for its likely impact on fishing patterns, notably those of hilsa.
Make a note of major dams in India along with the rivers, terrain, major wildlife sanctuaries and national parks incident to these rivers.
What is the Bhadbhut Project?
- It is planned to be a 1.7-km causeway-cum-weir barrage with 90 gates, across the river Narmada, 5 km from Bhadbhut village, and 25 km from the mouth of the river, where it flows into the Gulf of Khambhat.
- The barrage will stop most of the excess water flowing out of the Sardar Sarovar Dam from reaching the sea and thus create a “sweet water lake” of 600 mcm (million cubic metres) on the river.
- The barrage will also have a six-lane road that will connect the left and right banks of the river and provide shorten the land distance between two large industrial estates in Surat and Bharuch.
- The project also aims to prevent flooding in years when rainfall is higher than normal.
- Embankments 22 km long will be made and will extend upstream towards Bharuch, from either side of the river.
- The project is part of the larger Kalpasar Project, which entails the construction of a 30-km dam across the Gulf of Khambhat between Bharuch and Bhavnagar districts.
- The reservoir is meant to tap the waters of the Narmada, Mahisagar and Sabarmati.
Why are fishermen upset?
- The barrage is expected to interfere with the migration and breeding cycle of hilsa.
- A marine fish, hilsa migrate upstream and arrives in the brackish water of the Narmada estuary near Bharuch for spawning usually during the monsoon months of July and August, and continue doing so till November.
- Once the barrage is built, it is expected to block its natural entry.
About Hilsa Fish
IUCN status: Least Concerned
- The Hilsa is a species of fish related to the herring, in the family Clupeidae.
- It is a very popular and sought-after food fish in the Indian Subcontinent.
- Though it’s a saltwater fish, it migrates to sweet waters.
- It is the national fish of Bangladesh and state symbol in the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura.
- The fish contributes about 12% of the total fish production and about 1.15% of GDP in Bangladesh.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Death Valley, Mojave Desert
Mains level: Not Much
California’s Death Valley registered a temperature of 54.4 degrees Celsius or 129.9 degrees Fahrenheit on August 16, 2020, which, once verified, could be the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth.
Some years back, there was a question in the mains:
Major hot deserts in the northern hemisphere are located between 20-30 degree north and on the western side of the continents. Why?
Death Valley and its location
- Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert.
- It is one of the hottest places on Earth, along with deserts in the Middle East and the Sahara.
- The valley is extremely dry because it lies in the rain shadow of four major mountain ranges (including the Sierra Nevada and the Panamint Range).
- Moisture moving inland from the Pacific Ocean must pass eastward over the mountains to reach Death Valley; as air masses are forced upward by each range, they cool and moisture condenses, to fall as rain or snow on the western slopes.
- When the air masses reach Death Valley, most of the moisture has already been lost and there is little left to fall as precipitation.
Key factors leading to its high temperature
- Solar heating: The valley’s surface (consisting of soil, rocks, sand, etc.) undergoes intense solar heating because the air is clear and dry, and the land is dark and sparsely vegetated. This is especially noticeable in summer when the sun is nearly directly overhead.
- Trapping of warm air: Warm air naturally rises and cools; in Death Valley, this air is subject to continual reheating as it is trapped by high, steep valley walls and recycled back to the valley floor.
- Migration of warm air from other areas (advection): Warm desert regions adjacent to Death Valley, especially to the south and east, often heat air before it arrives in Death Valley.
- Warm mountain winds: As winds are forced up and over mountains (e.g., the numerous ranges west of Death Valley), the winds can be warmed in several ways. The resulting dry, warm winds are known as foehn winds.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Positive Pay Mechanism
Mains level: Not Much
The new ‘Positive Pay’ mechanism was recently introduced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Try this PYQ:
With reference to digital payments, consider the following statements:
- BHIM app allows the user to transfer money to anyone with a UPI-enabled bank account.
- While a chip-pin debit card has four factors authentication, BHIM app has only two factors of authentication.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2018)
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
What is the move?
- Issuers will be able to send all details to their bank, thereby ensuring faster clearance of cheques above Rs 50,000.
- All cheques will be processed as per the information sent by the account holder at the time of issuance of cheques.
- This will cover approximately 20 per cent of transactions by volume and 80 per cent by value.
- It will make cheque payments safer and reduces instances of frauds.
What is Positive Pay Mechanism?
- Positive Pay is a fraud detection tool adopted by banks to protect customers against forged, altered or counterfeit cheques.
- It crosses verifies all details of the cheque issued before funds are encashed by the beneficiary.
- In case of a mismatch, the cheque is sent back to the issuer for examination.
- By following such a system, a bank knows of a cheque being drawn by the customer even before it is deposited by the beneficiary into his/her account.
How does the mechanism work?
- Under Positive Pay feature, the issuer will first share the details of the issued cheque like cheque number, date, name of the payee, account number, amount and the likes through his/her net banking account.
- Along with this, an image of the front and reverse side of the cheque is also required to be shared, before handing it over to the beneficiary.
- When the beneficiary submits the cheque for encashment, the details are compared with those provided to the bank through Positive Pay.
- If the details match, the cheque is honoured. However, in the case of mismatch, the cheque is referred to the issuer.
- In this way, any cheque where any sort of fraud has happened cannot be cleared at all and hence, a depositor’s money can be protected.
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