Disasters and Disaster Management – Sendai Framework, Floods, Cyclones, etc.

In news: Mauritius Oil Spill

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Disaster Management

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Mauritius oil spill
Mains level: Chemical disasters these days
A Japanese ship recently struck a coral reef resulting in an oil spill of over 1,000 tonnes into the Indian Ocean near Mauritius.

Try this PYQ:

Q.Recently, “oil zapper’’ was in the news. What is it? (CSP 2011)

(a) It is an eco-friendly technology for the remediation of oily sludge and oil spills.

(b) It is the latest technology developed for undersea oil exploration.

(c) It is a genetically engineered high biofuel-yielding maize variety.

(d) It is the latest technology to control the accidentally caused flames from oil wells.

What caused the Mauritius oil spill?
- A Japanese vessel struck a coral reef resulting in an oil spill of over 1,000 tonnes into the Indian Ocean.
- The ship was carrying an estimated 4,000 tonnes of oil.
- The accident had taken place near two environmentally protected marine ecosystems and the Blue Bay Marine Park Reserve, which is a wetland of international importance.
How dangerous are oil spills?
- Oil spills affect marine life by exposing them to harsh elements and destroying their sources of food and habitat.
- Further, both birds and mammals can die from hypothermia as a result of oil spills.
- For instance, oil destroys the insulating ability of fur-bearing mammals, such as sea otters.
- It also decreases the water repellency of birds’ feathers, without which they lose their ability to repel cold water.
Some major incidents
- Some of the world’s largest oil spills include the Persian Gulf War oil spill of 1991 when more than 380 million gallons of oil was poured into the northern Persian Gulf by Iraq’s forces.
- The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is also considered to be among the largest known accidental oil spills in history.
- Starting April 20, 2010, over 4 million barrels of oil flowed over a period of 87 days into the Gulf of Mexico.
How is the oil spill cleaned?
- There are a few ways to clean up oil spills including skimming, in situ burning and by releasing chemical dispersants.
- Skimming involves removing oil from the sea surface before it is able to reach the sensitive areas along the coastline.
- In situ burning means burning a particular patch of oil after it has concentrated in one area.
- Releasing chemical dispersants helps break down oil into smaller droplets, making it easier for microbes to consume, and further break it down into less harmful compounds.
- Natural actions in aquatic environments such as weathering, evaporation, emulsification, biodegradation and oxidation can also accelerate the recovery of an affected area. But these occur differently in freshwater and marine environments.
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Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

Story of our National Flag

Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: National flag
Mains level: NA
The final design of the Indian National Flag, hoisted by PM Nehru on August 16, 1947, at Red Fort, had a history of several decades preceding independence.

Note various personalities involved in the development of our National flag. It may be no wonder to accept a personality-based question on such topics.

Story of our National Flag: A timeline

(1) Public display for first time
- Arguably the first national flag of India is said to have been hoisted on August 7, 1906, in Kolkata at the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park).
- It comprised three horizontal stripes of red, yellow and green, with Vande Mataram written in the middle.
- Believed to have been designed by freedom activists Sachindra Prasad Bose and Hemchandra Kanungo, the red stripe on the flag had symbols of the sun and a crescent moon, and the green strip had eight half-open lotuses.
(2) In Germany
- In 1907, Madame Cama and her group of exiled revolutionaries hoisted an Indian flag in Germany in 1907 — this was the first Indian flag to be hoisted in a foreign land.
(3) During the Home Rule Movement
- In 1917, Dr Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak adopted a new flag as part of the Home Rule Movement.
- It had five alternate red and four green horizontal stripes, and seven stars in the saptarishi configuration.
- A white crescent and star occupied one top corner, and the other had Union Jack.
(4) Final version by Pingali Venkayya
- The design of the present-day Indian tricolour is largely attributed to Pingali Venkayya, an Indian freedom fighter.
- He reportedly first met Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa during the second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), when he was posted there as part of the British Indian Army.
- Years of research went into designing the national flag. In 1916, he even published a book with possible designs of Indian flags.
- At the All India Congress Committee in Bezwada in 1921, Venkayya again met Gandhi and proposed a basic design of the flag, consisting of two red and green bands to symbolise the two major communities, Hindus and Muslims.
(5) During Constituent Assembly
- On July 22, 1947, when members of the Constituent Assembly of India, the first item on the agenda was reportedly a motion by Pandit Nehru, about adopting a national flag for free India.
- It was proposed that “the National Flag of India shall be horizontal tricolour of deep saffron (Kesari), white and dark green in equal proportion.”
- The white band was to have a wheel in navy blue (the charkha being replaced by the chakra), which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka.
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Indian Ocean Power Competition

Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP)

Prelims Only | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood – Relations

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Greater Male Connectivity Project
Mains level: India-Maldives Relations
India will fund the implementation of the Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP) in the Maldives with $500 mn packages.

Try this question from 2014:

Which one of the following pairs of islands is separated from each other by the ‘Ten Degree Channel’?

(a) Andaman and Nicobar

(b) Nicobar and Sumatra

(c) Maldives and Lakshadweep

(d) Sumatra and Java

About Greater Male Connectivity Project
- The GMCP will consist of a number of bridges and causeways to connect Male to Villingili, Thilafushi and Gulhifahu islands that span 6.7 km.
- It would ease much of the pressure of the main capital island of Male for commercial and residential purposes.
- When completed, the project would render the Chinese built Sinamale Friendship bridge connecting Male to two other islands, thus far the most visible infrastructure project in the islands.
- At present, India-assisted projects in the region include water and sewerage projects on 34 islands, reclamation project for the Addl island, a port on Gulhifalhu, airport redevelopment at Hanimadhoo, and a hospital and a cricket stadium in Hulhumale.
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Capital Markets: Challenges and Developments

What is the Business Responsibility Report?

Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Effects Of Liberalization On The Economy, Changes In Industrial Policy and their effects on Industrial Growth

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: BRR
Mains level: Not Much
In efforts to have a single source for all non-financial disclosures by corporates, a government-appointed panel has made various proposals on business responsibility reporting, including putting in place two formats for disclosing information.

Try this PYQ:

Which one of the following is not a feature of Limited Liability Partnership firm? (CSP 2010)

(a) Partners should be less than 20

(b) Partnership and management need not be separate

(c) Internal governance may be decided by mutual agreement among partners

(d) It is corporate body with perpetual succession

What is the Business Responsibility Report (BRR)?
- Business Responsibility Report is a disclosure of the adoption of responsible business practices by a listed company to all its stakeholders.
- This is important considering the fact that these companies have accessed funds from the public, have an element of public interest involved, and are obligated to make exhaustive disclosures on a regular basis.
- BSR is to be submitted as a part of the Annual Report.
- It contains a standardized format for companies to report the actions undertaken by them towards the adoption of responsible business practices.
- It has been designed to provide basic information about the company, information related to its performance and processes, and information on principles and core elements of the BSR.
SEBI recommendations for BSR
- As per the report, reporting may be done by top 1,000 listed companies in terms of their market capitalization or as prescribed by markets regulator SEBI.
- The reporting requirement may be extended by MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) to unlisted companies above specified thresholds of turnover and/ or paid-up capital.
- The panel has suggested two formats for disclosures — a comprehensive format and a “lite version” — and also called for the implementation of the reporting requirements in a gradual and phased manner.
- Smaller unlisted companies may adopt a lite version of the format, on a voluntary basis.
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Seeds, Pesticides and Mechanization – HYV, Indian Seed Congress, etc.

abscisic acid (ABA)

Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

Prelims level: Plant growth hormones

Mains level: Not Much

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal, has conducted a study on seed germination that could have a major impact on agriculture.

What is the study about?

The study aims to determine the optimum timing of seed germination and thus ensure high plant yields.
It focused on the interplay between plant hormones like abscisic acid (ABA) which inhibit the sprouting of the seed and environmental cues like light (which promotes the sprouting process) and darkness.

Note the following plant hormones and their functions:

*Hormone*	*Function*
Ethylene	Fruit ripening and abscission
Gibberellins	Break the dormancy of seeds and buds; promote growth
Cytokinins	Promote cell division; prevent senescence
Abscisic Acid	Close the stomata; maintain dormancy
Auxins	Involved in tropisms and apical dominance

What is Abscisic Acid?

Humans have glands that secrete hormones at different times to stimulate body processes such as growth, development, and the breaking down of sugars.
Plants also have hormones that stimulate processes that are necessary for them to live.
Abscisic acid is a plant hormone involved in many developmental plant processes, such as dormancy and environmental stress response.
Abscisic acid is produced in the roots of the plant as well as the terminal buds at the top of the plant.

Function of Abscisic Acid

Abscisic acid is involved in several plant functions.

Plants have openings on the bottom side of their leaves, known as stomata. Stomata take in carbon dioxide and regulate water content. Abscisic acid has been found to function in the closing of these stomata during times when the plant does not require as much carbon dioxide or during times of drought when the plant cannot afford to lose much water through transpiration.
One of the crucial functions of abscisic acid is to inhibit seed germination. Abscisic acid has been found to stop a seed from immediately germinating once it has been placed in the soil. It actually causes the seed to enter a period of dormancy.
This is of great benefit to the plants because most seeds are formed at the end of the growing season, when conditions would not be favorable for a new plant to sprout. The abscisic acid causes the seed to wait until the time when conditions are more favorable to grow. This ensures greater success in the plant’s ability to grow and reproduce successfully.
ABA functions in many plant developmental processes, including seed and bud dormancy, the control of organ size and stomatal closure. It is especially important for plants in the response to environmental stresses, including drought, soil salinity, cold tolerance, freezing tolerance, heat stress and heavy metal ion tolerance.

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International Space Agencies – Missions and Discoveries

SPT0418-47: The Baby Milky Way

Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Galaxies, Milky Way
Mains level: Not Much
SPT0418-47, a golden halo glinting 12 billion light-years away is the farthest galaxy resembling our Milky Way was recently spotted by astronomers.
Try this PYQ:

Which of the statements about black holes in space is/are correct? (CSP 2016)
1. It is a region in space where the pulling force of gravity is so strong that light is not able to escape.
2. It can result from the dying stars.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2
SPT0418-47
- The galaxy, called SPT0418-47, is so far away that it took billions of years for its light to reach Earth and so our image of it is from deep in the past.
- It was picked up by the powerful Alma radio telescope in Chile using a technique called gravitational lensing, where a nearby galaxy acts as a powerful magnifying glass.
- This was when the Universe was 1.4 billion years old — just 10% of its current age — and galaxies were still forming.
- It has features similar to our Milky Way — a rotating disc and a bulge, which is the high density of stars packed tightly around the galactic centre.
What makes it special?
- This is the first time a bulge has been seen this early in the history of the Universe, making SPT0418-47 the most distant Milky Way look-alike.
- Thus the infant star system challenges our understanding of the early years of the Universe.
- Researchers expect these young star systems to be chaotic and without the distinct structures typical of mature galaxies like our Galaxy.
- This unexpected discovery suggests the early Universe may not be as chaotic as once believed and raises many questions on how a well-ordered galaxy could have formed so soon after the Big Bang.
Back2Basics: Milky Way
- The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy’s appearance from Earth.
- It appears like a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye.
- From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within.
- Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610.
- Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe.
- Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.
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Wildlife Conservation Efforts

Species in news: Great Indian Hornbill

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Hornbill
Mains level: NA
A study based on satellite data has flagged a high rate of deforestation in a major hornbill habitat in Arunachal Pradesh.

Try this PYQ:

Q. In which of the following regions of India are you most likely to come across the ‘Great Indian Hornbill’ in its natural habitat? (CSP 2016)

(a) Sand deserts of northwest India

(b) Higher Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir

(c) Salt marshes of western Gujarat

(d) Western Ghats

About Great Indian Hornbill

IUCN status: Vulnerable (uplisted from Near Threatened in 2018), CITES: Appendix I
- The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) also known as the great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill, is one of the larger members of the hornbill family.
- The great hornbill is long-lived, living for nearly 50 years in captivity.
- It is predominantly fruit-eating, but is an opportunist and preys on small mammals, reptiles and birds.
- Its impressive size and colour have made it important in many tribal cultures and rituals.
- A large majority of their population is found in India with a significant proportion in the Western Ghats and the Nilgiris.
- The nesting grounds of the birds in the Nilgiris North Eastern Range are also believed to support some of their highest densities.
Their ecological significance
- Referred to as ‘forest engineers’ or ‘farmers of the forest’ for playing a key role in dispersing seeds of tropical trees, hornbills indicate the prosperity and balance of the forest they build nests in.
Threats
- Hornbills used to be hunted for their casques — upper beak — and feathers for adorning headgear despite being cultural symbols of some ethnic communities in the northeast, specifically the Nyishi of Arunachal Pradesh.
- Illegal logging has led to fewer tall trees where the bird’s nest.
Back2Basics: Hornbill Festival
- The Hornbill Festival is a celebration held every year from 1 – 10 December, in Kohima, Nagaland.
- The festival was first held in the year 2000.
- It is named after the Indian hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird which is displayed in the folklore of most of the state’s tribes.
- Festival highlights include the traditional Naga Morungs exhibition and the sale of arts and crafts, food stalls, herbal medicine stalls, flower shows and sales, cultural medley – songs and dances, fashion shows etc.
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Global Geological And Climatic Events

Perseids Meteor Shower

Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Meteor terminology
Mains level: Not Much
The Perseids meteor shower is going to be active from August 17-26.

Try this question from CSP 2014:

Q.What is a coma, in the content of astronomy?

(a) Bright half of material on the comet

(b) Long tail of dust

(c) Two asteroids orbiting each other

(d) Two planets orbiting each other

What is the Perseids meteor shower?
- The Perseids meteor shower peaks every year in mid-August. It was first observed over 2,000 years ago.
- The Perseids occur as the Earth runs into pieces of cosmic debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
- The cloud of debris is about 27 km wide, and at the peak of the display, between 160 and 200 meteors streak through the Earth’s atmosphere every hour as the pieces of debris.
- They travel at the speed of some 2.14 lakh km per hour; burn up a little less than 100 km above the Earth’s surface.
What are Meteor Showers?
- Meteors are bits of rock and ice that are ejected from comets as they manoeuvre around their orbits around the sun.
- As meteors fall towards the Earth, the resistance makes the space rocks extremely hot and, as meteorites pass through the atmosphere, they leave behind streaks of glowing gas that are visible to the observers and not the rock itself.
- Meteor showers, on the other hand, are witnessed when Earth passes through the trail of debris left behind by a comet or an asteroid.
- When a meteor reaches the Earth, it is called a meteorite and a series of meteorites, when encountered at once, is termed as a meteor shower.
- According to NASA, over 30 meteor showers occur annually and are observable from the Earth.
Where do the Perseids come from?
- The comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862 by Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle, takes 133 years to complete one rotation around the sun.
- The last time it reached its closest approach to the sun was in 1992 and will do so again in 2125.
- Every time comets come close to the sun, they leave behind dust that is essentially the debris trail, which the Earth passes through every year as it orbits around the Sun.
Back2Basics:
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Global Geological And Climatic Events

In news: Mount Sinabung

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Mount Sinabung
Mains level: Not Much
The Mount Sinabung volcano in Indonesia has erupted spouting ash at least 5,000 metres high into the sky.
In the Philippines, a volcano called Taal on the island of Luzon; 50 km from Manila has recently erupted in January. Note all such recent eruption in news.

Also, try this PYQ:

Consider the following statements:
1. The Barren Island volcano is an active volcano located in the Indian Territory.
2. Barren Island lies about 140 km east of Great Nicobar
3. The last time the Barren Island volcano erupted was in 1991 and it has remained inactive since then.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2018)

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 1 and 3
Mount Sinabung
- It is a Pleistocene-to-Holocene stratovolcano in the Karo plateau of Karo Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia.
- It is created by the subduction of the Indo-Australian Plate under the Eurasian Plate.
- It erupted in 2010 after a 400-year-long hiatus and has been continuously active since September 2013.
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Monsoon Updates

Boreal Summer Intra-Seasonal Oscillation (BSISO)

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: BSISO
Mains level: Indian monsoon and its prediction
Researchers at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad have reportedly found a way to better forecast the Boreal Summer Intra-Seasonal Oscillation (BSISO).
Try this PYQ:

Q.With reference to ‘Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)’ sometimes mentioned in the news while forecasting Indian monsoon, which of the following statements is/are correct? (CSP 2017)
1. IOD phenomenon is characterized by a difference in sea surface temperature between tropical Western Indian Ocean and tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean.
2. An IOD phenomenon can influence an El Nino’s impact on the monsoon.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2
What is BSISO?
- The BSISO of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) is one of the most prominent sources of short-term climate variability in the global monsoon system.
- It is the movement of convection (heat) from the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific Ocean roughly every 10-50 days during the monsoon (June-September).
- Compared with the related Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) it is more complex in nature, with prominent northward propagation and variability extending much further from the equator.
- It represents the monsoon’s ‘active’ and ‘break’ periods, in which weeks of heavy rainfall give way to brilliant sunshine before starting all over again.
- The active phase also enhances monsoon winds and hence the surface waves.
Why predict BSISO behaviour?
- Some phases of boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation or BSISO induce high wave activity in the north Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, the researchers claimed.
- Wave forecast advisories based on the BSISO would be more useful for efficient coastal and marine management.
- This finding has a great significance in developing seasonal and climate forecast service for waves and coastal erosion for India.
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