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 MAY 1 2018
General Studies-01
The Red Fort is merely one of the 90-odd tourist attractions in
India that is up for corporate adoption
News: The adoption of the iconic Red Fort by the private entity Dalmia Bharat under the
Centre‟s „Adopt a Heritage‟ Project has kicked up a storm with many in the Opposition terming
it as an attack on the idea of India and comparing it to pawning off of the family jewels.

Beyond News:

 The Dalmia Group was chosen over InterGlobe Foundation, the parent company of
IndiGo Airlines, and the GMR group, who had also expressed interest in adopting the
„Laal Quila‟.
 On April 24, the Group announced that it signed
a Memorandum of Understanding under which
it committed Rs. 25 crore over a five-year-
period for the upkeep of the national treasure.
 The „Adopt a Heritage‟ project, brainchild of
Ministry of Tourism, along with the Ministry of
Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India,
was launched on World Tourism Day 2017 by
President Ram Nath Kovind.
 It aims to develop the monuments, heritage and tourist sites across India by inviting
corporate entities, public sector companies or individuals to „adopt‟ them for a period of
five years.
 The process of monument adoption begins with the interested entity selecting any of the
numerous featured heritage sites according to the guidelines.
 The monuments are separated into three categories – Green, Blue and Orange –
depending on tourist footfall and visibility.
 Iconic sites like the Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Konark Temple and Red Fort, among
others, are categorized as „Green‟ while Purana Quila and Jantar Mantar fall in the „Blue‟
category.
 The Sanchi Stupa and Tipu Palace are a few of the popular sites in the „Orange‟ category.
 Entities are encouraged to adopt from the Blue and Orange category, or a mix of the three
– adoption of only „Green‟ category monuments is not permitted.
  In the past seven months, Letters of Intent were handed over to 33 agencies for 98
monuments – including the Jantar Mantar, Konark Sun Temple and the Ajanta Caves – in
four phases.

General Studies-02
Schools now have to pass the safety test
News: As directed by the High Court, all schools across the Tamil Nadu State, both government
and private institutions affiliated to different boards, will be inspected to ensure compliance with
building regulations and safety norms ahead of the upcoming academic year.

Beyond News

 Principal Secretary, School Education Department, said that all District Collectors had
been informed about the order and instructed to form a committee.
 The committees have been inspecting
schools in their respective districts for
the last one week. They have been given
an exhaustive checklist that includes
building specifications from the School
Safety Policy and other important
specifications from government orders
and policy notes.
 The committees will be armed with a
mobile app, which will have the
checklist as well and use it during the
inspection process.
 The checklist features „Yes‟ or „No‟
questions for the committee and focusses on the infrastructure of the school as well as the
facilities on offer for students such as labs. Access to the school buildings for the disabled
is also verified.
 Apart from infrastructure, the committees will also examine the implementation of the
RTE Act, the Fee Regulation Act and the health status of the students in the schools.
 The High Court order came after a PIL was filed by Change India, an NGO, which had
sought a direction to the government to ensure that school buildings complied with norms
set under the National Buildings Code.

Power ministry feels no need to change electrification definition

News The government is not considering modifying the current much-criticised definition of
an electrified village, which counts a village as electrified if at least 10% of its households
have an electricity connection, according to a senior official in the Ministry of Power.
Beyond News

 According to the definition, in place

since October 1997, a village is deemed
to be electrified if basic infrastructure
such as a distribution transformer and
distribution lines are in place in the
inhabited locality, electricity is provided
to public places like schools, panchayat
office, health centres, dispensaries,
community centres, and at least 10% of the households in the village are electrified.
 Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Power told that,as of today in India, the rural household
electrification is about 83%. From State to State, it ranges from 47% to 100%, but on
average about 83% of households are electrified. So, to say that electrification means
only 10% households, that‟s no longer an issue.
 The government had in September 2017 launched the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har
Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya), aimed at covering the last-mile connectivity of taking
electricity to the household level. The target for the scheme is March 31, 2019.
 According to data from the Ministry of Power and the Central Electricity Authority, so
far 84.3% of households have been electrified. The Saubhagya scheme defines the
electrification of a household as including a service line cable, energy meter, and single
point wiring.
 For unelectrified households in remote areas, electrification will involve the provision of
power packs of 200 to 300 W (with battery bank) with a maximum of 5 LED lights, 1 DC
Fan, and 1 DC power plug.
 According to Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Power, 15% of the villages so far
electrified have been done so using off-grid solutions such as solar, while the remaining
85% are connected to the grid.

Trump hails Kalpana Chawla as American hero

News: S. President Donald Trump has hailed Indian-origin Kalpana Chawla as an American hero for
devoting her life to the space programme and inspiring millions of girls to become astronauts.

Beyond News:

 Trump‘s remarks came as he issued a proclamation declaring May as ‗Asian American

and Pacific Islander Heritage Month‘.
 Chawla was the first woman of Indian-origin in space. She was one of the seven crew
members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 when the craft
disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth‘s atmosphere.
 For her achievements, the Congress posthumously awarded her the Congressional
Space Medal of Honour, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
 posthumously awarded her the NASA Space Flight Medal and the NASA Distinguished
Service Medal.
 The proclamation noted that during Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month,
the Mr. Trump administration recognises their tremendous contributions.

General Studies-03
World’ s first floating nuclear plant put to sea by Russia
News: Akademik Lomonosov, the world‘s first ―floating‖ nuclear power plant (FNPP) for
installation in remote areas, has headed out on its first sea voyage from this Baltic shipyard,
Russian state-run atomic energy corporation Rosatom said.

Beyond News

 A statement said the FNPP was towed out of the St. Petersburg shipyard for travel to its
final destination to the port of Pevek in Russia‘s extreme northeastern region of
Chukotka.
 It is to be towed through the Baltic Sea and around the northern tip of Norway to
Murmansk, where its reactors will be loaded with nuclear fuel, said Rosatom, who are
the equipment suppliers and consultants for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project.
 The Lomonosov is expected to be put into service in early 2019.

Waterholes created to protect wildlife

News: With streams and natural water sources fast drying up in the wild as blistering heat
wave conditions building up in the early summer, the Telangana Forest Department has
focussed its attention on making drinking water available for the wild animals in the forest.

Beyond News

 The timely initiative is also intended to prevent incidents of straying of wild animals into
human habitations in search of water thereby avoiding human-animal conflict.
 A contingency plan to meet the drinking water needs of the wild animals has already
been initiated in the erstwhile undivided Khammam district region encompassing large
tracts of forest area.
 The department has created waterholes at 400 places in strategic locations across the
forest area spread over 10 lakh hectares in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district.
Arrangements have been made to fill the artificial water storage points on a regular basis
through water tankers.
 In addition to the existing three solar-
powered borewells in
Kinnerasani wildlife sanctuary, three more
solar-powered borewells have been installed
one each at Markodu, Gattumalla and
Regalla forest beats under the wildlife
sanctuary limits.
 In Khammam, the water body at Chintapalli
the famous nesting spot for the migratory
 birds has been replenished by filling the tank with water drawn from an irrigation canal,
sources said.
 The Forest Department has appointed a watcher to oversee the efforts to promote
awareness on the winged visitors and ensure their safety at the water bodies around the
village.
 As many as 32 camera traps are in place at vantage points in the Kinnerasani wildlife
sanctuary to monitor the movement of wild animals and ensure their safety at the
drinking water points in the wild.

MAY 2
General Studies-01
Taj Mahal turning brown and green, says worried Supreme
Court.
News: The Taj Mahal was yellow and now turning brown and green, a Supreme Court
Bench of Justices found from photographs handed over to them by noted environmental
lawyer M.C. Mehta in open court.

Beyond News:

 Mehta said that,the upkeep of the UNESCO

World Heritage sitewas in a shambles. River
Yamuna, which used to flow nearby, has dried
up. Encroachments and industries have cropped
up in the neighbourhood of the white marble
mausoleum. CCTVs hardly work. The government merely views the Taj as a money-
making venture.
 Looking at the photographs repeatedly, Justice wondered whether the Taj Mahal in its
present discoloured form would end being the “eighth wonder of the world.” Justice
asked the government whether it has or not the expertise to conserve the 17th century
monument.
 It urged the government to get help from international conservation experts, if required,
to restore the monument to its pristine glory.
 The court observed that foreign dignitaries are still given a tour of the Taj Mahal. This
would surely mean that the government is interested in its preservation.
 Additional Solicitor General submitted that the maintenance is done by the
Archaeological Survey of India. He said there were also expert bodies like the Indian
National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), which has worked to preserve
an ancient fort in Goa.
 General Studies-02
Supreme Court wants trials in child sexual abuse cases to be fast-
tracked
News: Shocked by the high rate of pendency of child sexual assault cases, the Supreme
Court directed High Courts to set up panels of its judges to regulate and monitor trials under
the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Beyond News:

 The Supreme Court, which had ordered a review of the backlog under POCSO, found
that States such as Uttar Pradesh have over 30,000 cases pending despite the child
protection law coming into existence as early as 2012.
 Many States have not yet even set up Special Courts to try POCSO cases as mandated by
the law.
 In February, a three-judge Bench found the implementation of POCSO in a shambles and
decided to review the issue. The Bench was hearing the case of rape of an eight-month-
old child in the National Capital.
 Additional Solicitor General submitted that it warrants investigation to be completed in
two months and courts to dispose of appeals in six months, ensuring speedy justice to
victims. But the court said the POCSO statistics showed that children and victims in
many States were still waiting in the corridors of courts for justice.
 The Bench, issued a series of directions which supplement the ordinance. These include:
the State police chiefs should constitute special task forces to investigate cases, High
Courts should ensure that they are tried and disposed of by the designated Special Courts
under the Act; POCSO judges will give no adjournments and make every effort to fast-
track trial, witnesses should be produced in court on the day of the hearing and high
courts should make every effort to provide a child-friendly atmosphere in tune with the
spirit of the Act.

General Studies-03
Telecom Commission approves proposal by TRAI
News: Flyers on board an aircraft will be able to make calls and remain connected to the
Internet while travelling through the Indian airspace in the next three to four months.

Beyond News:

 The Telecom Commission, which is the highest decision-making body in the Department
of Telecommunications (DoT), gave its nod to a proposal by regulator TRAI.
 This will also be applicable to communication on ships.
 It was decided to accept the TRAI‘s views except that the satellites used for providing
services should be the Department of Space-approved satellites and the gateway should
be in India.
 The government will not intervene with the pricing mechanisms used by the operators.
Globally, the Internet services on board aircraft are available for a premium.
 The regulator had suggested that mobile communication on aircraft (MCA) systems be
operated once the plane reached an altitude of 3,000 metres to avoid causing harmful
interference to ground-based mobile networks.
 However, the flyer will be able to access Internet through onboard Wi-Fi when electronic
devices are permitted to be used only in flight/airplane mode.

14 out of world’s 20 most polluted cities in India: WHO

News: Delhi and Varanasi are among the 14 Indian cities that figured in a list of 20 most
polluted cities in the world in terms of PM2.5 levels in 2016, data released by the WHO
showed.

Beyond News

 The WHO data also said that nine out of 10 people in the world breathe air containing
high levels of pollutants.
 Other Indian cities that registered very high levels of PM2.5 pollutants were Kanpur,
Faridabad, Gaya, Patna, Agra,
Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur,
Patiala and Jodhpur followed by Ali
Subah Al-Salem in Kuwait and a few
cities in China and Mongolia.
 In terms of PM10 levels, 13 cities in
India figured among the 20 most-
polluted cities of the world in 2016.
 The World Health Organisation has
called upon member-countries in its
Southeast Asia region to aggressively address the double burden of household and
ambient (outdoor) air pollution, saying the region, which comprises India, accounts for
34% or 2.4 million of the seven million premature deaths caused by household and
ambient air pollution together globally every year.
 Of the 3.8 million deaths caused by household air pollution globally, the region accounts
for 1.5 million or 40% deaths, and of the 4.2 million global deaths due to ambient air
pollution, 1.3 million or 30% are reported from the region, it said.
 The PM2.5 includes pollutants like sulfate, nitrate and black carbon, which pose the
greatest risk to human health.
 According to the report, more than 90% of air pollution-related deaths occur in low- and
middle-income countries (including India), mainly in Asia and Africa, followed by low-
and middle-income countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region, Europe and the
Americas.
  It said the WHO recognises air pollution is a critical risk factor for non-communicable
diseases (NCDs), causing an estimated 24% of all adult deaths from heart disease, 25%
from stroke, 43% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 29% from lung cancer.

Major sources of air pollution from particulate matter include inefficient use of energy by
households, industry, agriculture and transport sectors, and coal-fired power plants. In
some regions, sand and desert dust, waste burning and deforestation are additional
sources of air pollution.

MAY 3
General Studies-01
‘Glow-in-the-dark algae may be sign of global warming’
News: The phenomenon of Mumbai‘s beaches glowing in the dark maybe a consequence
of global warming and not industrial pollution, according to a year-long investigation by
Indian and American scientists.

Beyond News

 The Noctilucaalgae, commonly known as sea tinkle, is a parasite and occurs in patches or
„blooms‟ in the Northern Arabian Sea. They glow at night due bioluminescence, and have
earned them the nickname „sea sparkle‟.
 However, these patches are a sign of decline because they compete with fish for food and
choke their supply. Noctilucadevours one of the most important planktonic organisms at
the base of the fish-food chain, namely diatoms, and also excretes large amounts of
ammonia, which is linked with massive fish mortalities.
 Earlier, the increase in algal patches was linked to coastal pollution from major Indian
cities along west coast.
 However, say researchers from the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information
Services (INCOIS) a Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) bodyand the US‟ National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “global warming conditions” may be
instead be responsible.
 A warming ocean means greater temperature differences among layers of the sea
water and this slows the upward transport of nutrients like silicate from the ocean bottom,
lowering its concentration at the surface.
 Intensifying global-warming conditions, thus may be expected to disrupt the fish-food
chain and cause a decline of fisheries in the region.
 General Studies-02
WHO polluted cities list: Government claims pollution dipped in
2017
News : Responding to the air pollutiondata released by the World Health Organisation
(WHO) , the government claimed that various measures have led to pollution levels actually
falling in 2017.

Beyond News

 At 143 microgrammes/cubic metre, Delhi‟s PM (2.5) levels in 2016 as reported by the

WHO made it the sixth most polluted city in the world.
 The government, citing Central Pollution Control Board data, said it was 134
microgrammes/cubic metre in 2016 and 125 microgrammes/cubic metre in 2017.
 The government has made serious efforts to deal with air pollution. Data for the year
2017 for PM 2.5 shows an improvement
over 2016 and so far in 2018, it shows a
further improvement, as compared to 2017,
said a statement from the Environment
Ministry.
 The CPCB data based on Continuous
Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations
(CAAQMS) also noted that PM (10) figures
were 289 microgrammes per cubic metre in
the year 2016 and 268 microgrammes per
cubic metre in the year 2017.
 Therefore, even PM 10 levels have come
down in the year 2017 against 2016,the statement added.

The WHO had cited numbers from CPCB, along with other peer-reviewed sources, to
assess pollution levels in Delhi in 2016.

54 lakh power consumers refuse to give cell nos.

News: The Tamil Nadu State, having topped in registering the highest number of
consumers under the Urja Mitra
scheme, has been unable to
complete 100% registration owing to
consumers‘ unwillingness to share
their mobile numbers.

Urja Mitra scheme: The Urja

Mitra scheme was part of the
initiative of Ministry of Power to
provide scheduled and unscheduled
outages to electricity consumers through push notifications/Short Messaging Service (SMS)
throughout the country.

Beyond News

 The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) had been involved
in indexing of mobile numbers and mapping of distribution transformers for
implementing the Outage Managing System.
 Tangedco was finding it difficult as only 81% of the total consumers comprising
domestic, huts, industries, agriculture and commercial supplies had been mapped with the
concerned distribution network of the locality.
 Under the project the Tangedco officials had compiled a list of the entire State‟s
electricity distribution network of substations, feeders numbering 7,065, and 2,35,396
transformers and fed in to the computer.
 The electricity distribution network provided with codes was then linked with the unique
consumer numbers which then would be linked to the mobile numbers for providing SMS
notifications of scheduled power cuts in their locality if any.

General Studies-03
Chennai Corporation puts up 206 polluted water bodies for
adoption
News: The Chennai Corporation will remove municipal solid waste from 206 water bodies,
remove encroachments and permit local communities and corporates to adopt and maintain
them.

Beyond News

 The corporates or the communities can adopt any of the 206 water bodies, develop and
maintain them. They can own it for a specified period of time. The local residents will
benefit from the initiative, said an official.
 The civic body will also develop a portal to facilitate the adoption of the water bodies by
corporates or local communities, who will have to fund the project for eco-restoration.
 The corporation will come up with a Special Officer‘s Council resolution to hand over the
water bodies for adoption and maintenance.
 The corporation has started clearing solid waste
from Oma Kulam in Madhavaram zone using its
own funds. We will develop walkways near the 3.66
acre pond.
 Zonal officials said they have already removed
12,000 tonnes of garbage and 6,000 tonnes of silt
from Oma Kulam.
 The water quality has improved. They have
increased the depth of the pond to 8 feet. They will
 deepen it by another 6 feet. About 70% of the work has been completed.
 Bunds, walkers path, high mast lamp, park and children‘s play area will be developed in
all the water bodies. Already 93 of the 563 parks in the city have been given up for
adoption and maintenance.

Cybersecurity: NCERT issues guidelines

News: Allowing only authorised people to access computer labs, banning use of USBs, blocking
pop ups and keeping a check on appearance of new and unfamiliar icons on desktop are among
the cyber security and safety guidelines issued to schools and parents by the NCERT.

Beyond News

 The National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) has sent the detailed
guidelines to schools defining the role of teachers as well as parents in promoting safe,
legal, and ethical use of internet by students.
 The teachers have been advised to monitor students for behavioural changes and
difference in their attitude.
 The Council has asked schools to introduce courses and activities for students and
teachers on major aspects of cyber security.

MAY 4
General Studies-01
Western Ghats forest cover vital for Tamil Nadu’s South-West
monsoon rainfall
News: Researchers have found one more reason why urgent steps have to be taken to
stop deforestation in the Western Ghats.

Findings

 The dense vegetation in the Western Ghats determines the amount of rainfall that Tamil
Nadu gets during the summer monsoon.
 A team from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT) Bombay has found that dense forests of the Western Ghats contribute as much as
40% of moisture to the southwest monsoon rainfall over Tamil Nadu during normal
monsoon years.
 The average contribution is 25-30%. But during monsoon deficit years, the contribution
increases to as high as 50%.
 The study found the forests of Western Ghats contribute as much as 3 mm per day of
rainfall during August and September over a ―majority of locations‖ in Tamil Nadu and 1
mm per day during June and July.
 The study also found that deforestation of the Ghats led to 0.25 degree C increase in
surface temperature across the State.
During the break period during the monsoon season when there is sharp decrease or no
rainfall for three consecutive days, the impacts of deforestation in the Ghats on the rainfall
over Tamil Nadu is higher compared with the wet spell of the monsoon period.

Cyclonic circulation in Haryana could have set off dust storms

News: A cyclonic circulation over Haryana was the trigger for the deadly dust storm that
swept parts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, weather experts said , estimating that the
wind speed during the storm might have gone up to 100 kms per hour.

Beyond News:

 The winds were so violent that a number of houses collapsed and electricity poles and
trees got uprooted, as the severe dust storm swept parts of these states.
 The phenomenon was restricted to these two states, largely because of external and
domestic reasons, experts said.
 There were primarily four reasons that lead to the thunderstorm — excessive heating,
availability of moisture, instability in atmosphere and a trigger for the storm, India
Meteorological Department (IMD) Additional Director said.
 The cold winds from the western disturbance was making atmosphere unstable.
 This led to the formation of two cloud patches.
 One patch moved to north of Delhi, while another patch moved over the Alwar, Agra, and
Dholpur belt, which was more deadly.
 In Delhi, where a milder version of the dust storm and thunderstorm struck, the wind
speed was recorded as 69 kmph.
 However, Palawat estimated that the wind speed would have been more than 100 kmph.
 In case of a dust storm, due to excessive heating, the water from the clouds evaporates
before it could land. So soil is dry and the severe winds lift up this soil up to 500 metres
above the land.

Hawaii volcano erupts; county issues evacuation orders for

10,000 people
News: Up to 10,000 people have been asked to leave their homes on Hawaii‘s Big Island
following the eruption of the Kilauea volcano that came after a series of recent earthquakes.

 County, state and federal officials had been warning residents all week that they should
be prepared to evacuate, as an eruption would give little warning.

Hawaii

 Hawaiiis the 50th and most recent state to have joined the
United States of America, having received statehood on
August 21, 1959. Hawaii is the only U.S. state located in
Oceania and the only one composed entirely of islands. It is
the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most
of an archipelago in the central.
Beyond News

 The eruption comes after days of earthquakes rattled the area‘s Puna district.
 The Puu Oo crater floor began to collapse, triggering a series of earthquakes and
pushing the lava into new underground chambers.
 The collapse caused magma to push more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) downslope
toward the populated southeast coastline of the island.
 USGS geologist said the magma crossed under Highway 130, which leads to a popular
volcano access point.
 Most of Kilauea‘s activity has been non-explosive, but a 1924 eruption spewed ash and
10-ton (9-metric ton) rocks into the sky, leaving one man dead.
 Puu Oo‘s 1983 eruption resulted in lava fountains soaring over 1,500 feet high. In the
decades since, the lava flow has buried dozens of square miles (kilometers) of land and
destroyed many homes.

General Studies-02
Preliminary enquiry not a must for every complaint under SC/ST
Act, says Supreme Court
News: Only anti-Dalit atrocities‘ complaints which are felt ―absurd‖ or ―absolutely‖ frivolous
need to be probed by the police before proceeding to arrest the perpetrator, Justice
qualified the apex court‘s March 20 judgment which led to widespread unrest and violence
across the country.

Beyond News

 Preliminary enquiry is not a ―must‖ in the case of every complaint under the anti-Dalit
atrocities law Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of
1989.
 The March 20 judgment by the Supreme Courthad banned immediate arrest on the
basis of complaints of atrocities committed on Dalits. The court had ordered that a
preliminary enquiry should be conducted before such arrests.
 The judgment further required prior sanction to be procured from appointing authority
before arrest if the suspect is a government servant and permission of Deputy
Commissioner if the accused is a private individual.

Justice Lalit reasoned that the court‘s judgment does not ban the police from registering an
FIR, nor does it impose a particular line of action and nor does it say that an accused, if
guilty, should not be punished.

U.S. warns of consequences for China’s SCS militarisation

News: The United States had raised concerns with China about its latest militarisation of
the South China Sea (SCS) and there would be near-term and long-term consequences,
the White House said.
Beyond News

 S. news network CNBC reported that China

had installed anti-ship cruise missiles and
surface-to-air missile systems on three
outposts in the SCS. It cited sources with
direct knowledge of U.S. intelligence.
 A U.S. official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said U.S. intelligence had seen
some signs that China had moved some weapons systems to the Spratly Islands in the
past month or so, but offered no details.
 CNBC quoted unnamed sources as saying that according to U.S. intelligence
assessments, the missiles were moved to Fiery Cross Reef, Subi Reef and Mischief Reef
in the Spratly Islands within the past 30 days.
 They would be the first Chinese missile deployments in the Spratlys, where several Asian
countries including Vietnam and Taiwan have rival claims.
 Foreign Minister of U.S. ally Australia, said the reports, if accurate, would be a concern
as the actions would be contrary to China‟s stated aspiration not to militarize the features.
 CNBC said the YJ-12B anti-ship cruise missiles allowed China to strike vessels within
295 nautical miles. It said the HQ-9B long-range, surface-to-air missiles could target
aircraft, drones and cruise missiles within 160 nautical miles.

General Studies-03
Maharashtra to float multi-billion dollar fund for defence units
News: The state government is looking to float a multi-billion dollar fund to provide
assistance to units looking to manufacture indigenously-built defence products.

Beyond News

 The government is looking to scale up the already announced corpus of ₹1,000 crore
following positive response from the investors
to its defence and aerospace policy, senior
officials said.
 The Centre is also likely to contribute. The
government is in talks with financial institutions
such as IDBI Bank, SBI Caps, Maharashtra
Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) for
financial assistance.
 Maharashtra‘s Space and Defence Production
Policy is aimed at empowering the MSMEs and
help them ―create competitive international
standard skilled manpower‖.
 Last year the then defence minister had directed the state to declare the defence
industry as an essential service under the Maharastra Essential Services and
Maintenance Act.
 Much of the funding, officials confirmed, will be directed towards defence R&D,
innovation, and testing centres.
 The centres will be used to impart training and create jobs. Research and development
(R&D) will also get a boost with assistance up to 50% of the project cost, excluding land
and building, subject to a maximum of ₹10 crore. Additional FSI of 0.5 will be provided to
eligible R&D units.

New snake found in Western Ghats

News: Just 40 cm long and iridescent brown, Bhupathy‘s shieldtail is the latest addition to
the snake fauna of the Western Ghats.

Beyond News

 The snake, currently observed only in the forests of the Anaikatty hills in Tamil Nadu‘s
Coimbatore district, has been named Uropeltis bhupathyi, after the late herpetologist S.
Bhupathy, for his contributions to the field.
 The reptile belongs to a family of snakes found only in
peninsular India and Sri Lanka. They are non-
venomous, burrowing and mostly earthworm-eating,
and are called shieldtails after the large, flat tips of their
tails, which make them appear almost sliced off.
 Compared their specimens with those in museums and
collections across both Europe and India, and analysed
the new shieldtail‘s DNA, which confirmed that it was a
hitherto unknown species.
 The discovery takes the number of known species of
shieldtails in India to 41. The country is home to more than 300 snake species.

MAY 5
General Studies-01
Digging into ancient know-how of building temple.
News: Adopting the use of organic matter, the Sri Kailasa Prastara Mahmeru
Panchamukha Umamaheswari temple, being constructed by Jyothirvastu Vidya Peetham a
spiritual charity organisation based in Sangareddy , is coming up on the outskirts of the
district headquarters.
Beyond News: The land was dug seven
feet into the ground and the construction
commenced using sand and stones. One
layer of sand was laid at the bottom, then
stones cut in rectangular shape were
placed, framed in a symmetric system. The
sand and stone were placed alternately
and the action repeated over and over.
It was stated that this was an age-old
method, going back to thousands of years,
applied for huge constructions, particularly
temples, to give them strength and a long-
standing life.

 The temple is being constructed in Thri-bandhanam, using the three materials such as
sand, lime and jaggery for the construction, and Ashta-bandhanam, using sand, lime,
jaggery, aloe vera pulp, lakka, liquid form of bael, honey and wax. Sometimes, instead of
honey and wax, jute fibre and Haritaki is used to prepare the mix. It being a mix of
natural ingredients, it was stated to offer longer life to the structure.
 The adherence to both Thri-bandhanam and Ashta-bandhanam is being called Sri-
bandhanam.
 The zero base of the sanctum sanctorum will be 28 feet from the ground level. The base
part of the temple will be in tortuous shape floating on a lotus. Dawadasha Jyotirlingams
(12 lingas of Lord Shiva) will be erected around the temple. Similarly, thoranams (entry
points) will also be established.
 This will be the unique temple with devotees getting a chance to offer prayer to Maha
Meru, a form of Goddess Durga.

General Studies-02
Jaipur Foot to be exhibited at the U.N.
News: The world-famous and most widely used artificial limb, Jaipur Foot, will be exhibited
at the United Nations headquarters in New York from May 15 to 18.

Beyond News

 An exclusive seminar on Jaipur Foot and an exhibition have been organised at the U.N.
Gallery at the initiative of India‘s permanent representative Syed Akbaruddin.
 The event will be the first of its kind in the U.N., D.R. Mehta, founder and chief patron of
Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), the makers of Jaipur Foot, said.

The seminar and exhibition will highlight India‘s contribution in providing mobility and
dignity to the differently abled, with the BMVSS giving aids and appliances free of cost to
the beneficiaries.
The Jaipur Foot has benefited 17 lakh people across the world and has its presence in 29
countries. The BMVSS has recently entered into an agreement with the Ministry of External
Affairs for holding camps abroad.

General Studies-03
Bacteria isolated from domestic sewage remove
organophosphorous pesticide
News: Using three bacterial species isolated from domestic sewage, researchers from India
have successfully removed chloropyrifos pesticide from both water and soil.

Chloropyrifos: Chloropyrifos is an organophosphorous pesticide and is moderately toxic to

humans. Poisoning from chlorpyrifos may affect the central nervous system, the
cardiovascular system and the respiratory system.

Beyond News

 The highlight of the work is the wholesome removal of the pesticide by the three species
of bacteria, without leaving behind any toxic metabolites that persist in the soil for a long
time. This was because, unlike other studies, none of the three bacteria used by the team
from Haldia Institute of Technology, Haldia, degraded the pesticide.
 Bacteria found in domestic sewage are quite regularly exposed to low levels of this
pesticide. So the bacteria adapt themselves to pesticide exposure for survival.
 To isolate the bacteria that can absorb the pesticide, the researchers exposed the bacteria
found in sewage to different concentrations of pesticide along with nutrient media. The
next day, seven bacteria that showed tolerance to 50 mg/ml of pesticide were isolated.
 The next step was to check whether the isolated bacteria species could coexist with each
other or displayed antagonism. Only three bacteria species were found to coexist without
any antagonism.
 The ability of the bacteria to remove the pesticide was then tested by using very high
concentration of 500 mg/l of the pesticide. In the case of pesticide added to water, all the
three bacteria both individually as well in a mixed culture were able to remove over 90%
of the pesticide in three days.
 In the case of soil containing 300 mg/kg of pesticide, the mixed culture of bacteria could
remove up to 50% in 30 days. The mixed culture comprising all three bacteria showed
better uptake of pesticide compared with individual species.
 The greater ability of the bacteria to absorb the pesticide arises from their ability to
reduce the hydrophobic nature of the pesticide through the production of biosurfactants.
 Since the bacteria multiply in the soil or water, the pesticide released from the dead
microbes will be absorbed by the newly formed ones. So it is quite possible that the soil
or water will be free of the pesticide.
NASA launches InSight spacecraft to Mars to study Red Planet’s
quakes
News: NASA blasted off its latest Mars lander, InSight, designed to perch on the surface
and listen for ―Marsquakes‖ ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet.

Beyond News

 The $993 million project aims to expand human knowledge of interior conditions on
Mars, inform efforts to send human explorers there, and reveal how rocky planets
like the Earth formed billions of years ago.

 If all goes as planned, the lander should settle on the Red Planet on November 26.
Its name, InSight, is short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations,
Geodesy and Heat Transport.

 The key instrument on board is a seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for
Interior Structure, made by the French Space Agency. After the lander settles on the
Martian surface, a robotic arm is supposed to emerge and place the seismometer
directly on the ground.

 The second main instrument is a self-hammering probe that will monitor the flow of
heat in the planet‘s subsurface. Called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties
Package, it was made by the German Space Agency with the participation of the
Polish Space Agency.

 The probe will bore down 10 to 16 feet (3 to 5 metres), NASA said, 15 times deeper
than any previous Mars mission. Understanding the temperature on Mars is crucial
to NASA‘s efforts to send people there by the 2030s, and how much a human habitat
might need to be heated under frigid conditions, said Mr. Green.

 Daytime summer temperatures near the Martian equator may reach 70°F (20°C), but
then plunge by night to -100°F (-73°C). It is an important part of knowledge of how
this planet is evolving.

 The solar and battery-powered lander is designed to operate for 26 Earth months, or
one year on Mars, a period in which it is expected to pick up as many as 100
quakes.

A RAT that spies on computers

News: GravityRAT, a malware allegedly designed by Pakistani hackers, has recently been
updated further and equipped with anti-malware evasion capabilites, Maharashtra
cybercrime officials said.

Beyond News

 The RAT was first detected by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team,
CERT-In, on various computers in 2017.
  It is designed to infliltrate computers and steal the data of users, and relay the stolen
data to Command and Control centres in other countries. The ‗RAT‘ in its name
stands for Remote Access Trojan, which is a program capable of being controlled
remotely and thus difficult to trace.

 Maharashtra cybercrime department officials said that the latest update to the
program by its developers is part of GravityRAT‘s function as an Advanced
Persistent Threat (APT), which, once it infiltrates a system, silently evolves and does
long-term damage.

 GravityRAT is unlike most malware, which are designed to inflict short term damage.
It lies hidden in the system that it takes over and keeps penetrating deeper.
According to latest inputs, GravityRAT has now become self aware and is capable of
evading several commonly used malware detection techniques.

 One such technique is ‗sandboxing‘, to isolate malware from critical programs on

infected devices and provide an extra layer of security.

 Officials said that GravityRAT infiltrates a system in the form of an innocuous looking
email attachment, which can be in any format, including MS Word, MS Excel, MS
Powerpoint, Adobe Acrobat or even audio and video files.

 The other concern is that the Command and Control servers are based in several
countries. The data is sent in an encrypted format, making it difficult to detect exactly
what is leaked.

 CERT-In had issued an alert for it last year, with an advisory asking users to review
cybersecurity measures and update anti-malware tools.

MAY 6 & 7
General Studies-02
Supreme Court quashes U.P. law allowing ex-CMs to retain
official bungalows
News: The Supreme Courtrejected an Uttar Pradesh law which allowed former Chief
Ministers use of the State official bungalows and comforts on taxpayers‘ expense as
―unconstitutional.‖

Beyond News

 A Bench did not buy the justification made by government in Uttar Pradeshthat its
former Chief Ministers are considered a privileged class who deserve to enjoy certain
benefits even after demitting office.
 The Supreme Court‘s verdict came on a petition filed by NGO Lok Prahari
against laws enacted by the U.P. State Assembly which allows former CMs and
ministers official bungalows and staff at public expense.
 The petition filed by the NGO challenged the constitutional validity of the Uttar Pradesh
Ministers (Salaries and Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act of
2016 and The Allotment of Houses under Control of the Estate Department of 2016.
 The NGO had sought action against the State authorities for acting in contempt of a
Supreme Court verdict in August 2016, directing them to ensure that the former chief
ministers vacate the bungalows.
 Amicus curiae and senior advocate had submitted that it was a violation of Article 14
(fundamental right to equality) of the Constitution to allow former Chief Ministers to retain
their official bungalows indefinitely. Once they demit office, they are just ordinary citizens
not eligible for special privileges of office.

Inter-country child abduction: Central panel questions key

principle of Hague Convention
News: A committee set up by the Centre to prepare a report on the issue of inter-country
parental child abduction has questioned one of the basic principles of the Hague
Convention by arguing that the return of the child to his or her habitual residence may not
necessarily be in the best interest of the child.

Beyond News

 There is immense pressure on India from the U.S. to accede to the Hague Convention on
the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which is a multi-national treaty that
seeks to protect children wrongfully removed by one of the parents from the custody of
the other parent.
 At the heart of this treaty is the criterion of “habitual residence” of the child, which is
used to determine whether the child was wrongfully removed by a parent as well as to
seek the return of the child.
 The Committee feels that the concept of habitual residence is not synchronous with the
best interest of the child, says a report by the Justice Rajesh Bindal Committee.
 It adds that returning a child to the place of habitual residence may result in sending the
child to an inharmonious set-up as well as overlook the fact that a mother is the primary
caregiver of the child.
 The panel has also prepared a draft law to safeguard the interest of the children, as well
as those of the parents, particularly mothers.

Important conditions

 The important conditions under which a child‘s return can be refused are — best interest
of the child, domestic violence or mental or physical cruelty or harassment against the
parent who fled with the child, the parent claiming the return of the child was not
exercising the custody rights at the time of removal, and if there is a grave risk that the
child would be exposed to physical or psychological harm.
 The panel has also emphasised the importance of the ―Indian family system‖ in ensuring
the best interest of the child, seemingly to question the logic behind returning the child to
a place of habitual residence outside India.
 The report also requires the setting up of an Inter-Country Parental Child Removal
Disputes Resolution Authority, which will be the nodal body to decide on the custody of
the child, mediate between the warring parties, as well as order the return of the child to
the country of habitual residence.
 The Justice Rajesh Bindal Committee was set up last year to suggest a model legislation
to safeguard the interest of the child as well those of the parents when an NRI (Non
Resident Indian) marriage goes sour and one of the parents flees from one country to
another with the child.

Road safety proposal suggests aptitude test for cab drivers

News: A new policy proposed to enhance the safety of road users across various
categories in the Capital seeks to ensure not just safer roads but also ―Safe Drivers‖ behind
the wheels of commercial vehicles such as cabs, autorickshaws and trucks to address the
issue of drivers‘ error, one of the obvious, but significant, causes of road accidents in the
city.

Beyond News

 If passed in its current form, the draft Delhi Road Safety Policy which, according to a
government source was similar to its national counterpart, will ensure that the driver of
the cab or autorickshaw which you take is not only behaviourally fit but also possesses
the aptitude to be behind the wheels of a commercial vehicle.
 In addition to designing and enforcing “a comprehensive and standardised driver training
curriculum” the policy seeks to include “behavioural education and psychometric
analysis” as part of the training curriculum of “all commercial drivers”.
 It also recommends training them in first-aid.
 Noting that the year 2016 saw as many as 7,375 road accidents in Delhi in which 7,175
people were injured and 1,591 lives were lost, the policy envisioned to affect a reduction
in road accidents and fatalities by 30% between 2018 and 2020 and a reduction of 80% in
such cases between 2018 and 2025.
 While the draft policy proposes Star Ratings for Delhi‟s streets based on safety
parameters and reconsideration of existing speed limits on all roads based on experts‟
recommendations it also recognises that “national highways and major roads of the city
are more accident prone due to heavy movement of commercial as well as other
vehicles”.

From seeking to undertake ―measures for fatigue management of heavy motor vehicle
drivers‖ who use these highways, the policy also recommends the placement of ambulance
on both national and state highways ―in every reasonable distance between two identified
trauma care units‖ to aid emergency medical care to victims of road accidents.
 General Studies-03
Australia pledges US$34-million to
help save the koala
News: Australia unveiled a US$34-million plan to
help bring its koala population back from the brink,
following a rapid decline in the furry marsupial‘s
fortunes.

Beyond News

 The Australian Koala Foundation estimates there may be as few as 43,000 koalas left in
the wild, down from a population believed to number more than 10 million prior to
European settlement of the continent in 1788.
 Studies show a 26 per cent decline in the koala population in New South Wales over the
last 15-20 years. The state lists the species as “vulnerable,” while in other parts of the
country they are effectively extinct.
 Under the Aus$45 million plan, thousands of hectares will be set aside to preserve the
marsupial‟s natural habitat.
 Funds will be used to tackle diseases ravaging koala populations, including chlamydia
which causes blindness, infertility and death in the species.
 Cash has also been earmarked for research, roadkill hotspot upgrades and a new hospital
to care for sick and injured koalas. A hotline will also be set up to report koalas in
trouble.

Water ice hidden on the moon

News: Scientists have found a mineral in a lunar meteorite that points to the presence of
abundant hidden reserves of water ice under the surface of the moon, which could be
potentially useful for future human exploration.

Beyond News:

 A team from the Tohoku University in Japan found the mineral, called moganite, in a
lunar meteorite discovered in a desert in northwest Africa.
 Moganite, a crystal of silicon dioxide, is known to form on the earth in specific
circumstances in sedimentary settings from alkaline fluids. It has never before been
detected in samples of lunar rock.
 Researchers believe the mineral formed on the surface of the moon in the area called
Procellarum Terrane, as water originally present in lunar dirt evaporated due to exposure
to strong sunlight. In the subsurface, water remains as ice.

Early bird had teeth: study

News: A gull lookalike with teeth: scientists refined their description of a fascinating fowl at
the evolutionary junction between dinosaur and modern bird – with skull features of both.
Beyond News

 Newly-discovered fossils show the extinct Icthyornis dispar, or ―fish bird‖, had a mouth
filled with sharp, curved teeth like those of a dinosaur, a team wrote in the scientific
journal Nature.
 But the tip had been transformed into a sharp, toothless, ―pincer-like‖ instrument – the
original bird beak.
 This was likely used for preening and handling objects after reptile arms turned into
wings.
 The newly-modelled skull, reconstructed from the fossil remains of several fish birds,
lifted the veil on ―what the bird beak looked like as it first appeared in nature,‖ said study.
 The remainder of the jaw was filled with teeth. At its origin, the beak was a precision
grasping mechanism that served as a surrogate hand.
 The results showed that bird beaks started evolving earlier than thought, the team
concluded.
 The fish bird‘s so-called ―transitional‖ beak was attached to a skull with an enlarged
cavity for its evolving, more modern brain, it said.
 But bones in the cheek region more dinosaur-like, with large chambers for stronger jaw-
snapping muscles.
 This indicated that in bird evolution, ―the
brain transformed first while the remainder
of the skull remained more primitive and
dinosaur-like,‖ the researchers said.

‘Helium gas detected around

exoplanet for first time’
News: In a first, astronomers have detected
helium gas in the atmosphere of a planet that
orbits a star far beyond the solar system.

Beyond News

 University of Exeter in the U.K., scientists have found evidence of the inert gas on
exoplanet WASP-107b, 200 light years from the earth.
 Helium is the second most common element in the universe and it has long-since been
predicted to be one of the most readily-detectable gases on giant exoplanets.
 However, this is the first time that the gas has been successfully found, researchers said.
 The team believes that the study could pave the way for scientists to discover more
atmospheres around Earth-sized exoplanets across the galaxy.

New technology purifies water using sunlight

News: Scientists have developed a new technology that uses the sunlight to purify water
with near-perfect efficiency.

Beyond News: The idea of using energy from the sun to evaporate and purify water was
reportedly described by Greek philosopher Aristotle over 2,000 years ago.
 By draping black, carbon-dipped paper in a triangular shape and using it to both absorb
and vaporise water, researchers have developed a method for using sunlight to generate
clean water with near-perfect efficiency.
 Usually, when solar energy is used to evaporate water, some of the energy is wasted as
heat is lost to the surrounding environment. This makes the process less than 100 per
cent efficient.
 New system has a way of drawing heat in from the surrounding environment, allowing us
to achieve near-perfect efficiency, said the associate professor.
 The low-cost technology, could provide drinking water in regions where resources are
scarce, or where natural disasters have struck.
 Solar stills have been around for a long time. These devices use the sun‘s heat to
evaporate water, leaving salt, bacteria and dirt behind.
 Then, the water vapour cools and returns to a liquid state, at which point it‘s collected in
a clean container.

Advantages

 The technique has many advantages. It is simple, and the power source the sun is
available just about everywhere. However, even the latest solar still models are
somewhat inefficient at vaporizing water.
 Researchers addressed this challenge by increasing the efficiency of their evaporation
system by cooling it down.
 The bottom edges of the paper hang in a pool of water, soaking up the fluid like a
napkin. At the same time, the carbon coating absorbs solar energy and transforms it into
heat for evaporation.

MAY 8
General Studies-02

India inks $200 mn. WB loan for

nutrition mission
News: India signed an agreement with the World
Bank for a $200 million loan for implementing the
National Nutrition Mission across 315 districts of
the country.

Beyond News: Approved by the Union Cabinet

last year, the mission aims at reaching 10 crore
beneficiaries, mainly children upto the age of six
years, pregnant women and lactating mothers and
adolescent girls.
 The programme will be implemented in three phases between 2017 and 2020 across all
districts of the country.
 The mission targets a 2% reduction in both under-nutrition and low birth weight per
annum. It also aims to bring down anaemia among young children, women and
adolescent girls by 3% per year until 2020.
 The government will also strive to reduce the prevalence of stunting from the current
level of 38.4% (as per the National Family Health Survey 4) to 25% by 2022.
 The National Nutrition Mission has an approved budget of ₹9046.17 crore. The total
contribution of the Centre will be ₹2,849.54 crore and nearly ₹1,700 crore will be
contributed by the State governments. The remaining amount will be funded through the
government‘s tie-up with multilateral agencies such as the World Bank.
 At the current rates of exchange, the loan translates to ₹1,344.6 crore 14% of the total
budget approved by the government and 30% of the amount it plans to borrow.
 The project will include investments in improving the skills and capacities of ICDS staff
and community nutrition workers, an official statement said.

Indians accounted for more

than 74% of H-1B visas in 2016,
2017: USCIS report
News: In 2016 technology professionals from
India accounted for 74.2% of the total number
of H-1B visas issued by the U.S. and the next
year the figure increased to 75.6%, a
government report said in Washington on
Monday.

H-1B visas: The H–1Bis a visa in the United

States under the Immigration and Nationality
Act, section 101(a)(15)(H) which allows U.S.
employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.

Beyond News

 However there has been a drop in the number of new H-1B beneficiaries from India, the
official report has said.
 China with a little over 9%, comes a distant second after India in terms of number of H-
1B visas. The figures for China were 9.3% and 9.4% respectively for 2016 and 2017.
 Continuing employment petitions refer to extensions, sequential employment and
concurrent employment, which are filed for foreigners already in the U.S.
 While the number of H-1B petitions filed increased 1.24% from 398,718 in 2016 to
403,675 in 2017, the number of H-1B petitions approved increased 5.9% from 345,262 in
2016 to 365,682 in 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS)said in its latest report titled ‗Characteristics of H-1B Specialty Occupation
Workers‘.
 According to the report the number of H-1B petitions approved in 2017 for workers
between the ages of 25 and 34 was 66.2%, the number of H-1B petitions approved in
2017 for workers with a bachelor‘s degree was 45.2%.
 In addition, 44.5% of approved petitions were for workers with a master‘s degree, 6.8%
had a doctorate, and 3.3% were for workers with a professional degree. The number of
H-1B petitions approved in 2017 for workers in computer-related occupations was
69.8%, it said.
 The number of H-1B petitions approved for workers in computer-related occupations
increased by 6.6% from 237,837 in 2016 to 254,592 in 2017. The number of H-1B
petitions for all other occupation groups increased by 3.4% from 106,418 in 2016 to
110,009 in 2017, the report said.

New norms for labelling food planned

News: All packaged food with at least 5% content from genetically engineered sources
need to be labelled so.

Beyond News

 Moreover, foods that exceed norms of sugar and fat should carry ‗red‘ and ‗green‘ labels
specifying the extent to which they do so, according to draft regulations by the Food
Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
 This is the first time that the Central government has laid down guidelines for labelling
genetically modified (GM) food. Officials say they are awaiting public comments.
 FSSAI CEO said, ―This isn‘t the final draft. There will be one more version and that will
be reviewed for 30 days.‖
 The government has been contemplating a system for labelling GM foods for at least two
years.
 Current laws prohibit any GM food unless cleared by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal
Committee, a Environment Ministry body from being sold in the country.
 The draft also defines the safe levels of fat, sugar and salt in processed food.
 Food packs would have a designated space coloured RED in case the value of energy
from total sugar was more than 10 per cent of the total energy (kcal) provided by the 100
g/100 ml of the product; the value of energy (kcal) from trans-fat is more than 1 per cent
of the total energy (kcal) provided by the 100 g/100 ml of the product; and total fat or
sodium content provided by the 100 g/100 ml of the product is more than certain
specified threshold values.

General Studies-03
No to new borewells in 230 villages
News: Drilling of new borewells has been prohibited in 230 villages in erstwhile Warangal
district in Telangana indicating the alarming rate of depletion of ground water levels.

Beyond News
 The increased temperature has forced the farmers to dig more borewells to wet their
standing crops. If the temperature continues to rise at the current pace the situation in
mid May and June is likely to be worse.
 The groundwater levels have declined sharply by March itself when compared to
February this year. The officials of the Groundwater Department fear the situation might
worsen.
 The district officials have been urging farmers not to wet their crops by canal method and
instead adopt sprinkler or drip irrigation systems to conserve water and to save the
standing crops.

Portable 3D skin printer to heal wounds

News: In a first, researchers have developed a portable 3D skin printer that deposits even
layers of tissue to cover and heal deep wounds within minutes.

Beyond News

 For patients with deep skin wounds, all three skin layers; the epidermis, dermis and
hypodermis — may be heavily damaged.
 Although a large number of tissue-engineered skin substitutes exist, they are not yet
widely used in clinical settings.
 The team believes their in-situ skin printer is a platform technology that can overcome
these barriers, while improving the skin-healing process – a major step forward.
 The handheld skin printer resembles a white-out tape dispenser, except the tape roll is
replaced by a microdevice that forms tissue sheets.
 Vertical stripes of ―bio ink,‖ made up of protein-based biomaterials including collagen, the
most abundant protein in the dermis, and fibrin, a protein involved in wound healing, run
along the inside of each tissue sheet.

MAY 9
General Studies-02
India urges dialogue after US withdraws from Iran n-deal
News:India called for ―diplomacy and dialogue‖ to resolve the Iran nuclear issue and asked
for recognising the country‘s right to produce nuclear energy.

Beyond News

 The External Affairs Ministry issued a statement in this matter after U.S. President
Donald Trump of the United States withdrew from the multiparty nuclear deal, also
known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that was signed during the
previous Obama administration.
 The statement reflects India‘s traditional concern for resolving the nuclear issue with Iran
peacefully without letting it spiral out of control because of regional rivalries in the Gulf
among the major powers.
 India‘s statement however, does not refer to Mr. Trump‘s announcement on re-imposing
sanctions on Iran.
 India had welcomed the conclusion of the deal in 2015 as a ‗success of diplomacy‘.
 Urging for a cooperative approach, the Official Spokesperson said, ―All parties should
engage constructively to address and resolve issues that have arisen with respect to the
JCPOA.‖

Even so, India could face the impact of the U.S. decision on the deal as well as instituting
the ―highest level of economic sanctions‖ in several ways:

 Oil prices: The impact on world oil prices will be the immediately visible impact of the
U.S. decision. Iran is presently India‘s third biggest supplier (after Iraq and Saudi Arabia),
and any increase in prices will hit both inflation levels as well as the Indian rupee, which
breached ₹67 to the U.S. dollar this week. In the past week alone, crude prices have
crossed $70/bbl (barrel) level, touching a four-year high.
 Chabahar:India‘s moves over the last few years to develop berths at the Shahid
Beheshti port in Chabahar was a key part of its plans to circumvent Pakistan‘s blocks on
trade with Afghanistan, and the new U.S. sanctions could slow or even bring those plans
to a halt depending on how strictly they are implemented. India has already committed
about $85 million to Chabahar development with plans for a total of $500 million on the
port, while a railway line to Afghanistan could cost as much as $1.6 billion.
 INSTC: Beyond Chabahar, India has been a founder of the International North South
Transport Corridor (INSTC) since it was ratified in 2002. It starts from Iran and aims to
cut right across Central Asia to Russia over a 7,200-km multi-mode network, cutting
down transportation and time taken by trade by about 30%. New U.S. sanctions will
affect these plans immediately, especially if any of the countries along the route or
banking and insurance companies dealing with the INSTC plan also decide to adhere to
U.S. restrictions on trade with Iran.
 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: India joined the SCO along with Pakistan last
year, and both will be formally admitted in June 2018. This year, Chinese officials say
they will consider inducting Iran into the 8-member Eurasian security organisation. If the
proposal is accepted by the SCO, which is led by China and Russia, India will become a
member of a bloc that will be seen as anti-American, and will run counter to some of the
government‘s other initiatives, for eg. the Indo-Pacific quadrilateral with the U.S.,
Australia and Japan. The move may also rile other adversaries of Iran, like Saudi Arabia,
UAE and Israel, with whom the government has strengthened ties in an effort to balance
its West Asia policy.

Rules-based order: India has long been a proponent of a ―rules-based order‖ that depends
on multilateral consensus and an adherence to commitments made by countries on the
international stage. By walking out of the JCPOA that was signed by the Obama
administration, the U.S. government has overturned the precept that such international
agreements are made by ―States‖ not just with prevailing governments or regimes. This
could also impact all agreements India is negotiating both bilaterally and multilaterally with
the U.S., and the government will have to choose its future course factoring in the new U.S.
behaviour, especially after Mr. Trump withdrew from the U.N. Climate Change treaty (Paris
Accord), and the Trans-Pacific Partnership with East Asian trading partners.
SC pulls up ASI for failing to take steps
to protect Taj Mahal
News:The Supreme Court came down heavily on the
Archeological Survey of India (ASI) for its failure to
take appropriate steps to protect and preserve the
iconic Taj Mahal.

Beyond News:

 The court also expressed concern over Taj Mahal being infected by insects, and asked
the authorities, including the ASI, what steps they had taken to prevent this.
 Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) was considering the court‘s suggestion to
appoint international experts to look into the issue of protection and preservation of Taj
Mahal.
 Counsel for ASI told the court that the problem of insects was due to stagnation of water
of the Yamuna.
 In March this year, the court asked the Uttar Pradesh government to place before it a
draft of vision document on protection and preservation of the Taj and the environment in
the Taj Trapezium Zone, which is an area of about 10,400 sq km spread over the
districts of Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Hathras and Etah in Uttar Pradesh and Bharatpur
in Rajasthan.

Higher fine, prison term for minimum wage denial

News: Employers who fail to pay the minimum wage to their workers will now face a fine of
up to ₹50,000 as well as a three-year prison term, with the Delhi government‘s long-
pending proposal for enhanced punishments being notified recently.

Beyond News:

 The Minimum Wages (Delhi) Amendment Act, 2017, which was passed by the Delhi
Assembly on August 10, 2017, was notified on May 4 after President Ram Nath Kovind
gave his assent to the Bill on April 26, according to the gazette notification.
 The Delhi government had first passed a Bill
to increase penalties for denial of minimum
wages on December 3, 2015. However, the
legislation went back and forth between the
Centre and the State.
 Finally, after some changes, including the
definition of the term Delhi government, the
Bill was again introduced and passed in
2017.
 With the amendment notified, the punishment
under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for
failure to pay minimum wages was increased
from a fine of ₹500 to ₹50,000 and/or a
prison term of six months to three years.
 The punishment for other offences under the Act were enhanced from a fine of ₹500 to
₹20,000 and/or one-year imprisonment.
 With several Bills of the Delhi Assembly pending final approval from the Centre, the
notification of the minimum wages amendment was welcomed by the government.

Govt approves green licence plates for e-vehicles

News:To promote electric vehicles in India, the government has approved green licence
plates bearing numbers in white fonts for private e-vehicles and yellow for taxis, Union
Minister said .

Beyond News:

 The government also plans to allow youth in the age bracket of 16-18 years to drive
electric scooters, besides mandating taxi aggregators to have a certain percentage of e-
vehicle fleet.
 The purpose behind distinctive number plates is their easy identification for preferential
treatment in parking, free entry in congested zones besides other proposed benefits like
concessional toll.
 The measure is aimed at promoting e-vehicle‘s use and the government is considering
exemption from permits for such vehicles.
 E-rickshaw growth is attributable to the permit exemption and there is scope to extend
the exemption to the e-buses, e-taxis, e-autos and e-bikes. E-auto and e-buses may
have a big impact since getting a new permit is extremely difficult, the minister said.
 The proposals include bringing down the GST on batteries to 12 per cent at par with the
GST on EVs.
 As per an estimate, India at present has 1 to 1.5 lakh electric vehicles and it is projected
to grow to about 5 per cent of the total vehicles in the next five years, an official said.
 Of the about 24 million vehicles sold in India in 2017-18, electric vehicles accounted for
barely about 1 per cent, the official added.
 India, currently, has four kinds of number plates white licence plates with numbers on
black font for private cars, yellow plates with fonts in black for commercial vehicles, black
plates with yellow font letters for self-driven rental vehicles and blue plates with white
font letters for Embassies and High Commissions.
 Army vehicles on the other hand follow a different registration system given by the
Defence Ministry, while vehicles of the President and governors have red licence plates
with the national emblem.

General Studies-03
Commission approves modern animal-free testing for drugs
News: In a step that would spare animals from suffering due to drug experiments,
the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission has approved modern, animal-free tests for drug
manufacturers.

Beyond News: In the 2018 edition of Indian Pharmacopoeia, that provides guidelines on
tests for drugs manufactured and marketed in India, the IPC has replaced the pyrogen test
carried out on rabbits and the abnormal toxicity test carried out on guinea pigs and mice
with tests that can be done in test tubes.
 The guidelines in the edition will come into
effect from July 1.
 The pyrogen test is carried out to check
impurity or substance that can can cause
adverse side-effects. For the test, the drug is
injected into a rabbit and the animal is closely
observed for feverish symptoms.
 This batch test is done before the product is
approved for marketing. In this, mice or guinea
pigs are injected with the vaccine. The
scientists observe if there is death of any
animal.
 With the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission‘s new mandate, the pyrogen test will be
replaced by a bacterial endotoxin test or a monocyte activation test which can be carried
out in test tubes. Vaccine manufacturers can apply for waiver for the abnormal toxicity
test by getting a compliance certificate from the National Control Laboratory instead.
 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has been pushing for doing
away with the cruel methods of testing on animals for the past several years.

Only 20% of Clean Ganga Mission funds spent till March 2018
News

 Only about a fifth of ₹20,000 crore allotted for the National Clean Ganga Mission
(NCGM) have been utilised till March 2018.

Beyond News

 That is roughly the same proportion of the sanctioned money utilised the same time last
year.
 A financial account from the NCGM says that as of March 2018, ₹20,601 crore had been
sanctioned for 193 projects. So far, only ₹4,254 crore had actually been spent on their
implementation.
 About half the money, or ₹2,814 crore, had been spent on establishing sewage
infrastructure. Only 24 of the 65 ‗entry-level‘ projects meant for cleaning the ghats and
establishing new ones and cleaning the river front and the river surface had been
completed. They had been allotted ₹492 crore.
 About 12,000 MLD of sewage is emptied into the Ganga across 11 States, from
Uttarakhand to West Bengal. At present, the capacity for sewage treatment is just 4,000
MLD; of this, 1,000 MLD is functional.
 Coursing 2,500 km, the Ganga is the longest river within India‘s borders. Its basin
constitutes 26% of the country‘s land mass (8,61,404 sq. km.) and supports 43% of its
population.
 Even as the basin spreads across 11 States, five
States are located along the river‘s main stem:
Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar
and West Bengal. Much of the river‘s pollution
load chemical effluents, sewage, dead bodies,
and excreta comes from these States. Though
 the industrial pollution, volume-wise, accounts for about 20%, its toxic and non-
biodegradable nature has a disproportionate impact.
 The municipal sewage, at a billion litres a day, accounts for 80% of the pollution load.

MAY 10
General Studies-01
‘Climate change may lead to rise in temperature’
News: The average global surface temperature will increase between 1.5 degree Celsius
and 4.5 degree Celsius by the end of this century due to climate change, according to a
government report, said Siddhanta Das, Director General of Forests and Special Secretary,
Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change.

Beyond News

 India had declared a voluntary goal of reducing the emission intensity by 33 % to 35 %

over the 2005 levels by 2030.
 Das explained that there were plans to raise trees outside the forests and in catchment
area of rivers.
 Director General, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), expressed
concern that deforestation and degradation resulted in the reduction of carbon stocks.
 Climate change impact and vulnerability assessment at national, state and regional
levels are necessary to develop adaptation strategies for forests.
 Deputy Director General (Research) of ICFRE, said that all the major forests, ranging
from the coastal belts to alpine forests to desert areas, with its characteristic species,
were likely to be impacted by climate change.

22 babies died daily within 28 days of birth: RTI reply

News: As many as 13,541 children under the
age of five died in the State Maharashtra in a
span of 11 months, a Right to Information
(RTI) application has revealed.

Beyond News

 While infant mortality (28 days to one year)

and child mortality (ages one to five) rates
have dipped in the Maharashtra, data
obtained by RTI activist, which only
focuses on the 11-month period, reveals
the alarming number of deaths within the
first month of birth.
 Avasthi said newborn intensive care has to be protocolised just like adult intensive care
has been over the years. Newborn intensive care units require trained doctors, nurses
who can monitor them round the clock. Besides the government, private practitioners,
NGOs and big philanthropic organisations should step in to save the babies.
 Head of the State Directorate of Health Services, said several measures are being
implemented to bring down child mortality.
 They are focusing on special newborn care units in hospitals and making other changes.
 This year, the data from the Registrar General of India‘s sample registration system had
said child mortality had gone down to 21 deaths per 1,000 children in the State in 2016,
as compared to 23 in 2014 and 24 in 2015. Officials hope the statistics for 2018 will
reflect improvement.

General Studies-02
Railways liable to pay compensation for deaths caused while
boarding train: SC
News: Death or injury caused while boarding or de-boarding a train will entitle a person to
compensation from the railways, the Supreme Court has
held.

Beyond News

 In a significant ruling which will help decide

thousands of railway compensation cases and bring
relief to families of victims, a Bench held that death
or injury caused while getting onto a train or
alighting from it cannot be classified as a “self-
inflicted injury” and used by the railways as a reason to deny compensation to victims.
 The railways cannot plead negligence on the part of the victims. Such deaths or injuries
caused would be classified as “untoward incidents”, the court said.
 The judgment also held that mere presence of a body on the railway premises would
not be conclusive to hold that the injured or deceased was a bona fide passenger for
which a claim for compensation could be maintained.
 However, mere absence of ticket with such injured or deceased would not negate the
claim that he or she was a bona fide passenger.
 The railways had argued that it was already paying approximately ₹350 crore as
compensation. There are 68,000 km of railway tracks which are porous/unmanned,
resulting in untoward incidents for which liability ought not to be fastened on the
railways without valid proof of its liability.
Dirty socks, algae behind Taj discolouration, ASI tells SC
News: Unwashed socks worn by visitors and rampant algae seem to turn the Taj Mahal
from its natural white to yellow, brown and green, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI),
charged with the maintenance of the historic monument, told the Supreme Court.

Beyond News

 But a Bench of Justices was not convinced, asking the ASI how algae managed to reach
the top parts of the mausoleum where patches of discolouration were seen.
 The court said the problem was not with algae but the fact that the ASI was unwilling to
accept that they were not doing enough to conserve the monument.
 The ASI said the numerous footfalls everyday had taken a toll on the Taj. It was not
possible to distribute socks to all visitors. Many went wearing their own socks. The
discussion in the court ranged from the commitment or the lack of it on the part of the
authorities to protect the monument to getting disposable socks from abroad.
 On May 1, petitioner and environmental lawyer handed over to the Bench photographs
showing the discolouration on the pristine white of the Taj Mahal. He told the court that
the upkeep of the UNESCO World Heritage site was in shambles.
 River Yamuna, which used to flow nearby, had dried up. Encroachments and industries
have cropped up in the neighbourhood of the white marble mausoleum.

General Studies-03
Telangana CM to launch Rythu Bandhu
News: Unprecedented arrangements have been made for the launch of the ambitious
Rythu Bandhu scheme (farmers‘ investment support scheme) and distribution of pattadar
passbooks by Chief Minister between Shalapalli and Indiranagar villages of Huzurabad
mandal in Telangana .

Beyond News: Stated to be first-of-its-kind scheme in the country the distribution of

financial assistance of Rs. 8,000 per acre per annum to the farmer the ‗Rythu Bandhu‘
lauch will see the district administration according a grand welcome to the Chief Minister.

World’s second oldest rock is from Odisha

News: A rock sample recovered nearly eight years ago from Champua in Odisha‘s
Kendujhar district has put India at the forefront of geological research in the world.

Beyond News

 Scientists have found in the rock a grain of magmatic zircon (a mineral that contains
traces of radioactive isotopes) that is an estimated 4,240 million years old a discovery of
great promise to study the earth‘s early years.
 Geologists said that the only instance of zircon older than this discovery was the one
found in Jack Hill, Western Australia, which was 4,400 million years old and is the oldest
known rock sample.
 But the zircon in this case was from metamorphosed sedimentary rock, unlike the
Singhbhum one, which was formed from magma.
 The analyses confirmed the presence of two
zircon grains that were 4,240 million and
4,030 million years old.

Importance

 The study of these zircons will add valuable

information about the presence of water in
the first few hundred million years of the
Earth‘s history.
 It will also give us more clues to when plate
tectonics began, adding to the speculation
stemming from the Jack Hill Zircons of
Western Australia.
 The study suggests that the Earth‘s primitive
crust was mafic (rich in iron and
magnesium).

General Studies-04
Spy case cost scientist his reputation: Supreme Court
News: The Supreme Court remarked that former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan faced a
dent in his reputation in the espionage case and the Kerala government cannot evade
liability to compensate him for the loss of reputation.

Beyond News

 A Bench said it could direct the recovery of the compensation either from the officers
who were involved in the probe or the State government.
 The Bench is also looking at a possible re-investigation into the role of the then SIT
officers who had framed the former scientist.
 The court also said the officers involved in the investigation had to pay from their
pocket.
 While working as scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, Mr. Narayanan
was arrested on November 30, 1994, for alleged espionage.

MAY 11
General Studies-01
Tiny fossil shells unveil details about ancient Earth’s climate
News: Scientists have discovered tiny fossil shells that unveil details about the Earth‘s
climate over half a billion years ago.
Beyond News

 The research, suggests that early animals diversified within a climate similar to that in
which the dinosaurs lived.
 An international collaboration of scientists, led by the University of Leicester in the UK,
has investigated by combining climate models and chemical analyses of fossil shells
about 1mm long.
 This interval in time is known for the ‗Cambrian explosion‘, the time during which
representatives of most of the major animal groups first appear in the fossil record.
 These include the first animals to produce shells, and it is these shelly fossils that the
scientists used.
 Data from the tiny fossil shells, and data from new climate model runs, show that high
latitude ( about 65 degree South) sea temperatures were in excess of 20 degrees C.
 Careful examination of these tiny fossils revealed that some of them have exceptionally
well-preserved shell chemistry which has not changed since they grew on the Cambrian
sea floor.
 Analyses of the oxygen isotopes of these fossils suggested very warm temperatures for
high latitude seas, probably between 20 to 25 degree Celsius.
 To see if these were feasible sea temperatures, the scientists then ran climate model
simulations for the early Cambrian. The climate model simulations also suggest that
Earth‘s climate was in a ‗typical‘ greenhouse state, with temperatures similar to more
recent, and better understood, greenhouse intervals in Earth‘s climate history, like the
late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic eras.

Importance

 Ultimately, these findings help to expand our knowledge of the early animals of the
period and the environment in which they lived.
 They hope that this approach can be used by other researchers to build up a clearer
picture of ancient climates where conventional climate proxy data are not available.

Indonesia evacuates residents, shuts airport after volcano erupts

News: Indonesian authorities ordered people living near a volcano to leave their homes on
Friday and a major city closed its airport after the 5,500 metre (18,000 ft) peak sent a
column of steam and ash into the sky.

Beyond News

 The Mount Merapi volcano on the densely-

populated Java island is one of the most
active volcanoes in Indonesia and a series
of eruptions in 2010 killed more than 350
people.
 A disaster mitigation agency told residents
living within a 5 km (3 mile) radius of the
mountain to move to shelters, agency
spokesman said in a statement.
 He said that 120 people who had been hiking up Merapi were safe.
 The disaster agency described Merapi‘s latest eruption as phreatic, which means
magma heats up ground water and vapour is released under pressure.

Indonesia: the world’s volcanic hotspot

 The airport in Yogyakarta, the nearest big city to the volcano, shut because of the threat
from the ash, the state-owned aviation agency AirNav said in a statement.

General Studies-02
Supreme Court asks HCs to form anti-sexual harassment panels
in all courts
News: The Supreme Court asked chief justices or acting chief justices of all high courts to
set up anti-sexual harassment committees in courts across the country within two months in
accordance with a 2013 law.

Beyond News:

 It also requested Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal of the Delhi High Court to constitute the
panel in the high court and in all district courts in the national capital within a week.
 A bench was hearing a petition filed by a practising woman advocate who alleged that
she had been assaulted by some lawyers observing a strike at the Tis Hazari district
court complex in New Delhi.
 The bench asked the woman lawyer and the Bar leaders to amicably settle their disputes
and directed that advocates from both sides should not be arrested in connection with
the two cross FIRs filed by them against each other.
 The bench asked the crime branch of Delhi Police to investigate the cross complaints
filed by the lawyers.
 The bench then disposed of a writ petition filed by the lady lawyer against the advocates
and some members of Delhi Bar Association for allegedly assaulting her.
 The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Act of 2013 requires every workplace to set up committees to probe sexual
harassment complaints.

Pawan Kalyan unfurls ‘largest’ Indian flag

News: The largest Indian flag was unfurled at NTR Stadium here coinciding with the
anniversary of India‘s First War of Independence of 1857.

Beyond News: The flag, measuring 183 feet in length and 122 feet in breadth, was
unfurled by Pawan Kalyan, at an event organised by Vibrants of Kalam, an organisation
spreading the ideals and vision of former
President Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam.
 General Studies-03
Power generation accounts for highest
emissions in State
News: The energy sectors account for the highest amount of
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Andhra Pradesh State
with emissions touching 82.79 million tons of CO2 equivalent
(eq) in 2013-14.

Beyond News

 Of this, 37.026 million tons of CO2 eq were emitted from electricity generation. In fact,
the GHG emissions were mere 43.31 million tons of CO2 in 2005-06.
 The per capita GHG emissions were a mere 1.16 MT CO2 in 2005. In less than a
decade, they touched 2.06 MT. Also, the CO2 eq emissions surpassed the national per
capita of 2.28 MT in 2014.
 In comparison, the per capita GHG emissions at all India were 1.07 tones in 2005 and
1.73 tonnes in 2014. Also, the emissions‘ intensity has increased to 10% in the State,
while it has been decreasing at the national level.
 These facts came to light in an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions for Andhra
Pradesh prepared by the Vision Management Unit, the AP State Development Planning
Society (APSDPS) of the Planning Department in association with the The Energy and
Resources Institute (TERI).
 The highest contribution to the emissions were from electricity generation 31.25%, while
the cement production accounted for 11.45%. The manufacturing industries‘ share was
10.35%. Replacing coal-based generation with natural gas, promoting renewable energy
up to maximum potential were some of the strategies being planned to bring down the
emissions.
 In fact, the State witnessed a significant reduction in dependence/supply on thermal
power supply. It has come down to 72% of the supply in 2017 compared to 84% in 2016.
Likewise, the renewable and hydel power supply increased.
 Also, 12% increase in renewable energy has helped in the reduction of 8.5 million tons of
GHG emissions.

Hot-money risks seen rising as India courts ‘bond tourists’

News: A series of measures from the central bank to lure foreign buyers into the country‘s
short-term debt market could easily backfire, investors fear, exposing the economy to
volatile ―hot money‖ flows.

Beyond News

 The Reserve Bank of India lifted (RBI) a

restriction limiting foreign investors to
buying bonds with three years or more to
maturity and also gave them access to
short-term sovereign treasury bills.
 The RBI‘s lifting of the maturity restriction came after government bonds tanked when
sovereign bond auctions failed to attract many buyers, followed by a spike in yields when
surprisingly hawkish minutes of a monetary policy meeting raised fears of the RBI hiking
interest rates.
 The new rules have stoked fears of an influx of ―bond tourists‖ and the associated rapid-
fire switching in and out of short-term debt by foreign traders.
 Such volatile flows could make India‘s financial markets more vulnerable at a time when
the rupee has been the worst performer in the region, high oil prices are driving up the
current account deficit, and interest rates could soon rise on heightened inflation risks,
investors said.
 The immediate reaction to the lifting of maturity curbs on overseas buyers was less than
inspirational, with foreigners selling a net $240.92 million of bonds on May 2 – a day after
the RBI‘s announcement.

Astronomers find first carbon rich asteroid in Kuiper Belt

News: Astronomers have discovered an unusual carbon-rich asteroid in the Kuiper Belt the
first of its kind to be confirmed in the cold outer reaches of the solar system.

Beyond News

 This object, designated 2004 EW95, likely formed in the asteroid belt between Mars and
Jupiter and has been flung billions of kilometres from its origin to its current home in the
Kuiper Belt, the study said.
 The researchers found that the asteroid‘s reflectance spectrum the specific pattern of
wavelengths of light reflected from an object was different to that of similar small Kuiper
Belt Objects (KBOs), which typically have uninteresting, featureless spectra that reveal
little information about their composition.

MAY 12
General Studies-02
Beti Bachao scheme extended to 10 districts in Tamil Nadu
News: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP), a Central scheme aimed at arresting and
reversing the decline in Child Sex Ratio (CSR), has been extended to 10 more districts in
Tamil Nadu.

Beyond News

 Launched in January 2015, the scheme, at present, covers only Cuddalore.

 These10 districts districts, which will see multi-sectoral intervention in the coming
months, will get ₹50 lakh each for the implementation of the scheme.
 Even though the State average of CSR of 943 girl children to 1000 boy children at the
age group of 0 to 6 is higher than the all-India figure of 918 as per the 2011 Census, six
districts have figures below the national average.
 With the extension of the scheme to 10 districts, all the six have been covered. The
Central government has advised the State to conduct media advocacy and outreach in
the remaining 21 districts also.
 The BBBP scheme, essentially envisaging awareness generation, has stipulated targets
that can be monitored.
 Among the targets of relevance to Tamil Nadu are improvement in the Sex Ratio at Birth
(SRB) by two points in a year; increase in the nutrition status of girls by reducing the
number of underweight and anaemic girls under 5 years of age; training elected
representatives/ grassroots functionaries as community champions to mobilise
communities to improve CSR; and providing functional toilets for girls in every school in
selected districts.
 The scheme has to be carried out through the involvement of other departments and
agencies such as health, school education and local bodies. A task force, which consists
of government officials without any non-official representative, is in place to monitor the
progress of the scheme.

Nepal tops in India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy: Modi

News” Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured Nepal that it is at the top of India‘s
‖Neighbourhood First‖ policy as he announced a ₹ 100 crore package to develop Janakpur
– a sacred city for Hindus – while invoking mythological links between the two countries.

Beyond News

 Janakpur is believed to be the birth place of Sita, Lord Rama’s consort.

 Modi, who earlier with his Nepalese counterpart K.P. Sharma Oli jointly inaugurated a
direct bus service between Janakpur and Ayodhya — the two sacred cities for Hindus,
said he was happy to link Janakpur with the Ramayan Circuit.
 This circuit will develop religious tourism. It also will strengthen connectivity between
the two nations.
 Prime Minister announced that two other circuits would also be developed for the
promotion of the areas related to Buddhism and Jain religion in both Nepal and India,
which would be instrumental in generating employment for the youths.
 Prime Minister also said Nepal and India could benefit if they cooperated and worked
together for the promotion of five Ts: Tradition, Trade, Tourism, Technology and
Transport. He underlined the need for linking Nepal and India through highway, I- way
or Information, Railway, Trans way or electric connectivity, waterway and airway.
 Prime Minister said India would build a railway link between Raxaul in Bihar and
Kathmandu to facilitate people-to-people contact and movement of goods.
 General Studies-03
Navy to opt for Big Data, AI in operational
functioning
News: At the biannual Naval Commanders‘ Conference, the Navy
has finalised plans to incorporate Big Data Analytics and Artificial
Intelligence into its operational functioning.

Beyond News

 The conference also saw the inauguration of a new digital library available across the
Navy for ―knowledge management and retrieval including archiving of critical data and
information.‖
 Besides, senior Admirals also discussed the issues of ―security and hardening of naval
data networks in keeping with contemporary cybersecurity practices.‖
 The conference was inaugurated by Defence Minister, who said the Indian Navy was a
―force to reckon with in the Indo-Pacific region.‖
 Defence Minister also assured the naval leadership that efforts to bridge critical
capability gaps in ship-borne helicopters, fleet support ships and submarines would be
progressed by the government.
 The spokesperson said the need for approval of the second indigenous aircraft carrier for
the Navy was discussed at the conference.
 This project, along with the other shipbuilding projects already under way or in the
pipeline including mine counter measure vessels, landing platform dock, anti-submarine
shallow water craft, diving support vessels and survey vessels, are expected to provide a
major thrust to the ‗Make-in-India‘ initiative of the government, the Navy said.

Machine to keep harvested liver alive longer

News: Replacing the cold preservation technique and keeping the organ (liver) alive up to
24 hours after it has been removed from the donor, OrganOx, a company spun out of the
University of Oxford and its partner in India, Duraent Lifesciences have come up with a new
state-of-the-art liver transplant technology.

Beyond News

 The procedure is called Normothermic Machine Perfusion (NMP), which pumps

oxygenated blood and nutrients into the
liver and helps in overcoming the risk of
graft injuries associated with preservation
in ice.
 Being deployed for the first time in India
and Asia, the machine will help livers
donated by brain-dead people survive
longer and enable doctors to test how well
they function while on the machine prior to
transplant, thereby boosting the chances
of successful transplantations.
 The first transplant in India took place last month at Aster CMI Hospital, Bengaluru. The
patient (56) made a quick recovery and was discharged in a couple of weeks.
 Earlier, the harvested livers were flushed with preservation fluid and then stored on ice,
at times resulting in damage of the cells, especially when preserved for more than 10-12
hours.
 With this new technology doctors will get livers for transplantation without damage [of
cells].

Cyber security tools developer to hire 500

News: Cyber security tools developer BluSapphire set up an Advanced Threat Research
Centre (ATRC) and Security Operation Centre (SOC) facility in Hyderabad.

Beyond News

 The ATRC and SOC facility would ―actively test latest malware techniques used by
attackers and develop defence techniques using Advanced Machine Learning models‖.
 The company, with offices in the U.S. and Hyderabad, has a headcount of 40 at present
in India, which includes 10 at the new facility.
 With the new facility‘s opening, the company is well placed to consolidate its
technological capabilities and build more vertical-based research teams to augment
product development for companies in the fields of defence, finance, manufacturing,
pharma and education as well as for SMEs.

MAY 13 & 14
General Studies-01
Multiple threats to Himalayan biodiversity
News: The Indian Himalayas, which constitute about 12% of the country‘s landmass, is
home to about 30.16% of its fauna, says a new publication from the Zoological Survey of
India (ZSI).

Beyond News

 The publication, Faunal Diversity of Indian

Himalaya, lists 30,377 species/subspecies in
the region with the entire identified fauna in the
country adding up to 1,00,762.
 Spread across six States from Jammu and
Kashmir in the west through Himachal
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and West
Bengal‘s Darjeeling to Arunachal Pradesh in
the far east the Indian Himalayas are divided
into two bio-geographic zones the Trans-
Himalaya and the Himalaya, based on
 physiographic, climatic and eco-biological attributes.
 The entire region, spread over 3.95 lakh sq. km., is home to 280 species of mammals,
940 species of birds, 316 species of fishes, 200 species of reptiles and 80 species of
amphibians. This put together accounts for 27.6% of the total vertebrate diversity of the
country.
 The central Himalayas are the most rich in faunal diversity with 14,183 species, followed
by the west Himalayas, which is home to 12,022 species.
 The Indian Himalayas also have 131 protected areas, which cover 9.6% of the entire
protected area of the country, almost the same as the Western Ghats (10% of protected
areas), another biodiversity hotspot in the country. The protected areas include 20
national parks, 71 wildlife sanctuaries, five tiger reserves, four biosphere reserves and
seven Ramsar Wetland sites.
 The publication lists 133 vertebrate species of the region cited as threatened in the IUCN
Red List.

Reasons

 Climate change is the major threat as far as mammals and birds are concerned. The
impact is visible in the shifting distribution of sensitive species like the Asiatic Black
Bear, the Snow leopard, and the Himalayan Marmot.
 Habitat loss due to land use change, illegal wildlife trade, forest fires and increasing
anthropogenic activities pose threats to this Himayalan biodiversity, the publication
underlines.

General Studies-02
Don’t get into tusk trouble, says SC
News: The Supreme Court has ruled that tusks are the property of the government. A
three-judge Bench filled a half-a-century vacuum in law, with its interpretation that ―there
cannot be an iota of doubt‖ about government having the right.

Beyond News:

 The court was examining the Kerala Forests Act of 1961 and the Wildlife (Protection) Act
of 1972 in a case dealing with the alleged unauthorised collection and storage of
elephant tusks, possession of an unlicensed gun and other accessories by an individual
in Wayanad two decades ago.
 The Supreme Court observed that there is
a clear ―declaration‖ in the 1972 Act on
elephant tusks being government property.
 Conservationists campaigning to curb
ivory-trafficking and poaching got a boost
with the order. India prohibits import and
export of ivory.
 The ruling, however, would not affect
individuals who have ownership
certificates for declared ivory. Even in the
 case of captive elephants, either the government keeps custody of tusks or owners are
permitted to retain them if they give an undertaking that they would not be traded.
 The Supreme Court said, It is quite clear that ivory imported into India and an article
made from such ivory in respect of which any offence against this Act (1961 Act) or any
rule or order made thereunder has been committed, shall be deemed to be the property
of the State Government.

Domestic Violence Act for divorced women too: Supreme Court

News: The Domestic Violence Act meant to punish men who abuse women in a
relationship extends to all man-woman relationships, and also protects divorced women
from their former husbands, the Supreme Court has upheld.

Beyond News

 A three-judge Bench confirmed a Rajasthan High Court ruling of 2013 that the term „domestic
violence‟ cannot be restrained to marital relations alone.
 The Supreme Court‟s recent order, based on a question of law raised by advocate Dushyant
Parashar, found no reason to differ with the High Court‟s conclusion that „domestic relationship‟
includes “consanguinity, marriage, a relationship in the nature of marriage, adoption or as family
members living together as a joint family”.
 The apex court did not intervene with the interpretation that „domestic relationship‟ is not
confined to the “relationship as husband and wife or a relationship in the nature of marriage, but it
includes other relationship as well such as sisters, mother, etc.”
 The court held that domestic violence can continue even after divorce and the reach of the Act
should not be shackled by confining only for the protection of women living in marriage.
 It illustrated how a divorcee husband could resort to violence by entering the workplace of his
former wife to commit an act of violence, or even attempt to communicate with her, or threaten or
cause violence to her relatives or dependants or any other person.
 It amounts to domestic violence if the former husband tried to dispossess the woman from a
jointly-owned property or refuse to return her „stridhan‟ or valuable security or other property.
The Act brings all these acts of violence within its ambit.

General Studies-03
ISRO making green propellant
News: Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have reported
progress in the development of an environment-friendly propellant to power satellites and
spacecraft.

Beyond News

 The effort is to replace the conventional

hydrazine rocket fuel, a highly toxic and
carcinogenic chemical, with a greener propellant
for future missions.
 Initial tests by a research team at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) here
have shown promising results in the formulation and associated tests of a propellant
blend based on hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN).
 Due to its high performance characteristics, hydrazine has dominated the space industry
as the choice of propellant for over six decades, despite its environment and health
hazards and the challenges faced in its manufacturing, storage, ground handling and
transportation.
 The LPSC team formulated the HAN-based monopropellant and carried out a variety of
tests to investigate its characteristics, like thermal and catalytic decomposition and
compatibility with different materials.
 A monopropellant is a chemical propulsion fuel which does not require a separate
oxidizer. It is used extensively in satellite thrusters for orbital correction and orientation
control.
 The in-house formulation consists of HAN, ammonium nitrate, methanol and water.
While methanol was added to reduce combustion instability, the choice of AN was
dictated by its capacity to control the burn rate and lower the freezing point of the
propellant.

Gene editing can make ‘chocolate trees’ disease resistant

News: Scientists are using a powerful gene-editing tool to grow cacao trees that are more
resistant to diseases, an advance that could help boost the production of chocolates all over
the world.

Beyond News

 The cacao tree, which grows in tropical regions, produces the cocoa beans that are the
raw material of chocolate. Reliable productivity from cacao plants is essential to the
multibillion-dollar chocolate industry, the economies of producing countries and the
livelihoods of millions of smallholder cacao farmers.
 However, each year, several plant diseases severely limit global production, with 20-30
% of cocoa pods destroyed preharvest.
 The study, is the first to demonstrate the feasibility of using CRISPR technology to
improve Theobroma cacao. CRISPR stands for clustered regularly interspaced short
palindromic repeats.
 It is a way to modify an organism‘s genome by precisely delivering a DNA-cutting
enzyme, Cas9, to a targeted region of DNA. The resulting change can delete or replace
specific DNA pieces, thereby promoting or disabling certain traits.
 Previous work in cacao identified a gene, known as TcNPR3, that suppresses the plant‘s
disease response. The researchers hypothesised that using CRISPR-Cas9 to knock out
this gene would result in enhanced disease resistance.
 The researchers also created CRISPR gene-edited cacao embryos, which they will grow
into mature trees to test the effectiveness of this approach at a whole-plant level. This
research builds on more than 30 years of biotechnology research aimed at building a
better cacao tree.
New therapy for drug resistant skin cancer
News: A team of researchers has managed to exploit a vulnerability in melanoma or skin
cancer that develops resistance to a targeted therapy, providing a potential new therapeutic
strategy to selectively kill the drug-resistant cancer cells.

Beyond News:

 The study has shown that when cancer cells develop drug resistance, they also acquire a
new vulnerability.
 The researchers, however, found that the hyperactive resistant melanoma cells
produced large amounts of reactive oxygen species, but cancer cells still sensitive to the
drug did not do so.
 The study, published in the journal Cell, found that the abundance of free radicals
caused the resistant melanoma cells to stop dividing, but they did not die.
 When tested on mice along with an existing drug, vorinostat, which is known to
stimulate the production of free oxygen radicals, the researchers saw tumours shrinking
under the influence of the drug, the report said.
 This laid the foundation for a new therapeutic strategy: Treating patients with BRAF-
mutated melanoma, as usual, with signal pathway inhibitors.
 When the tumour becomes resistant, stop giving those inhibitors and immediately treat
the patients with vorinostat to kill the resistant cancer cells.

MAY 15
General Studies-01
Gender bias caused ‘excess’ deaths of girls under 5: Lancet study
News: There have been 2,39,000 ―excess deaths‖ per year of girls under the age of five in
India, and 29 out of 35 States contributed
to this mortality, according to a study.

Beyond News

 That works out to about 2.4 million

deaths in a decade, and the additional
deaths were found in 90% of districts in
the country.
 Excess mortality is the difference
between observed and expected
mortality rates in both genders.
 The National Family Health Survey in
2017 said that India‘s sex ratio at birth
 has increased to 919 in 2015-16 from 914 in 2004-05.
 This study, however, focuses on mortality after birth and says that the problem is most
pronounced in northern India, where the four largest States in the region, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, accounted for two thirds of the total excess
deaths of females under five.
 In Uttar Pradesh, excess female mortality was calculated at 30.5. In Bihar, the rate was
28.5, in Rajasthan it was 25.4, and in Madhya Pradesh, it was 22.1.
 The worst affected areas were all rural, agricultural areas with lower levels of education,
high population densities, low socio-economic development and high levels of fertility.
 Many deaths of females under five are partly due to unwanted child bearing and
subsequent neglect.

General Studies-02
Two more child welfare committees sought
News: The Department of Social Defence has submitted a proposal to the State
government to constitute two more Child Welfare Committees (CWC) in Chennai.

Beyond News

 The officials said that having two more CWCs, apart from the one already existing in the city,
would help in better discharge of duties related to children in need of care and protection, and
help in their successful rehabilitation.
 According to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) 2015 Act, every State government shall
constitute one or more Child Welfare Committees for exercising powers and to discharge duties
in relation to children in need of care and protection and also ensure that induction training and
sensitisation of all members of the committee is provided within two months from the date of
notification.
 According to the Department officials, they have proposed a plan where one CWC each can be
constituted in north, south and central Chennai.
 The city currently has only one such committee, that too without a chairperson and only three
members. The committee has weekly hearings; two at the Royapuram Government Children’s
Home for Boys and one at the Kellys Government Children’s Home for Girls.

Adding to this ,director, CHANGE india, said that,Chennai has over 70 lakh population and
children constitute at least 43% of it. Having more CWCs would also help in speedy
disposal of cases and avoid overcrowding in government homes.‖

State increases environmental fee for infrastructure projects

News: The Maharashtra government has substantially increased the processing fee,
effective Monday, for major infrastructure projects seeking environmental clearances.

Beyond News

 The 50% hike and over will be implemented in five categories. The hike is co-related to
the cost of projects starting at ₹1 crore and reaching up to over ₹1,000 crore.
 The environmental clearance fee was introduced in the State after Gujarat and Tamil
Nadu implemented it in 2014. The minimum fee, which was restricted to the range of ₹1
lakh to ₹15 lakh, has now reached the range of ₹1.5 lakh to ₹20 lakh in all categories.
 The fee is imposed by the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) and the State
Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), both dealing with smaller projects
not making it to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
 The new hike has been effected as per the directive of the State finance ministry, which
had asked all departments to increase their revenue collections. The fee is also used to
pay for the administrative expenses of the SEAC and the SEIAA, members of the
committee said.
 The hike is based on a Central directive-2000, which allows charge of the fee for giving
clearances of the coastal regulation zone permissions, and carrying out the
environmental impact assessment. This is in addition to the Supreme Court judgement
on polluters to pay principle, an official said.

Anti-waste drive begins in Sakinaka

News: The Tata Trusts launched its ‗Karenge to Hoga‘ campaign in Tunga village,
Sakinaka in Maharashtra.

Beyond News

 The campaign aims to create awareness and train families in waste segregation.
 They will be distributing bins for waste segregation in the area.
 Under the ‗Karenge to Hoga‘ campaign, groups of up to five local youths will be created
and trained in educating, mobilising and monitoring households in their area.
 Each team will be responsible for 150 families.
 The campaign aims to cover 5,000 families in the next two months. The project is part of
Tata Trusts‘s larger Mission Garima, an initiative that works for the dignity of human
scavengers.

General Studies-03
Jupiter’s moon Europa shows evidence of water plumes
News: A new look at old data is giving scientists a fresh reason to view Europa, a moon of
Jupiter, as a leading candidate in the search for life beyond Earth, with evidence of water
plumes shooting into space.

Beyond News

 A bend in Europa‘s magnetic field observed by NASA‘s Galileo spacecraft during a 1997
flyby appears to have been caused by a geyser gushing through its frozen crust from a
subsurface ocean, researchers who reexamined the Galileo data reported.
 Galileo was passing some 124 miles (200 kilometers) above Europa‘s surface when it
apparently flew through the plume.
 The findings support other evidence of plumes from Europa, whose ocean may contain
twice the volume of all Earth‘s oceans. NASA‘s Hubble Space Telescope in 2012
collected ultraviolet data suggestive of a plume.
 NASA will get a close-up look from a new spacecraft during its Europa Clipper mission
that could launch as soon as June 2022, providing a possible opportunity to sample
plumes for signs of life, perhaps microbial, from its ocean.
 Europa is considered among the prime candidates for life in our solar system, but is not
the only one. NASA‘s Cassini spacecraft sampled plumes from Saturn‘s ocean-bearing
moon Enceladus that contained hydrogen from hydrothermal vents, an environment that
may have given rise to life on Earth.
 A bit smaller that Earth‘s moon, Europa‘s ocean resides under an ice layer 10 to 15 miles
(15 to 25 km) thick, with an estimated depth of 40 to 100 miles (60 to 150 km).

Mission Kakatiya best water management practice: NITI Aayog

News: A report prepared by NITI Aayog with the support of TERI School of Advanced
Studies, New Delhi, has recognised the restoration and revival of minor irrigation tanks
taken up by the Telangana government as one of the best practices in irrigation water
management.

Beyond News

 The report observed ―public participation

will lead to ownership and help in long-
term sustainability of the interventions‖ and
suggested ―restoration and maintenance of
water resources should be a continual
process and locals should be trained to
manage their resources‖.
 The report prepared in August last was
kept in the public domain by NITI Aayog
recently.
 The report comes as a breather of fresh air
for the Irrigation Department, the
implementing agency of Mission Kakatiya, after the Comptroller and Auditor General
(CAG) report found shortcomings in the implementation including unrealistic targets,
skewed prioritisation and meeting the intended targets such as silt removal, for the year
ending March 2017.
 Complimenting the objective of the intervention, the report stated that the government
aims restoration of minor irrigation sources such as ponds and tanks to enhance
development of minor irrigation infrastructure, strengthening community-based irrigation
management in a decentralised manner for utilising 265 tmc ft water allocated for minor
irrigation in the Godavari and Krishna river basins.
 The report said de-siltation of tanks, restoration of feeder channels, re-sectioning of
irrigation channels, repairs to tank bunds, weirs and sluices and raising of full tank level
(FTL) are being carried out wherever required.
 Further, the intervention had helped in increasing the storage capacity of tanks and other
water bodies, made available water accessible to small and medium farmers, increased
water retention capacity of the sources and improved on-farm moisture retention
capacity.
 The intervention has bridged 63% ayacut gap and also helped stabilisation of ayacut.
Steps such as mixing of silt on farm land reduced use of chemical fertilizers and
 improved water retention capacity of the soil. An appreciable change was also observed
in the nutritive values of the soil, development of fisheries and livestock and rise in the
groundwater table in those area, the report said.

MAY 16
General Studies-02
Aadhaar not mandatory for getting pension: Govt
News: The Aadhaar card is not mandatory for central government employees to get their
pension, Minister of State for Personnel said.

Beyond News:

 In 30th meeting of the Standing Committee of Voluntary Agencies here recently, the
Aadhaar was an additional facility to enable the use of technology for submission of life
certificate without the need for visiting banks, Minister said.
 His assertion assumes significance as there were reports of some retired employees
facing difficulty in getting the pension in the absence of Aadhaar linkage with their bank
accounts.
 The minister clarified that Aadhaar has not been made mandatory for getting pension
for government employees, according to the minutes of the meeting.
 Aadhaar is a 12-digit number, issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI), that acts as identification and address proof.
 There are about 48.41 lakh central government employees and 61.17 lakh pensioners.
 Minister cited various initiatives started by the central government for the welfare of its
employees and pensioners.
 For instance, minimum pension has been increased to ₹9,000, ceiling of gratuity has
been increased to ₹20 lakh, fixed medical allowance has been increased to ₹1,000 per
month,the minister said.

V.K. Singh makes surprise visit to North Korea

News: Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. (Retd.) V.K.Singh has reached Pyongyang
for talks with the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea (North Korea) government, the
official Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported.

Beyond News:

 During the visit on May 15-16, that was previously unannounced, Mr. Singh met with
DPRK Vice President Kim Yong Dae, and the Foreign and Culture ministers on ―a
range of issues covering political, regional, economic, educational and cultural
cooperation between the two countries,‖ a statement from the MEA said.
  According to the statement, DPRK officials discussed recent peace initiatives with the
Republic of Korea (South Korea) as well as proposed talks with the United States. Mr.
Singh raised the issue of DPRK links with Pakistan.
 Minister highlighted the threat from nuclear proliferation, in particular India’s concerns
in the context of the proliferation linkages with India’s neighbourhood. The DPRK side
emphasized that as a friendly country DPRK will never allow any action that would
create concerns for India’s security,” the statement added.
 The visit by Gen. Singh, and the secrecy surrounding it suggests that India is trying to
quietly rebuild ties with the reclusive regime, ostracised by most of the world due to its
defiance of UNSC norms on nuclear weapons. In the past year, India had joined the U.S.
and allies in statements “deploring” nuclear tests and ballistic missile tests by the DPRK,
although it had earlier refrained from similarly strong language.
 In March 2017, the government even issued a gazette notification instituting major
restrictions on any trade with North Korea other than essentials like food and
medicines.

Railways to install ‘panic button’ in trains for women safety

News: With a view to strengthen security of women passengers in trains, the North
Eastern Railway (NER) plans to deploy women police personnel on trains during night
hours as well as install ‗panic buttons‘ in coaches.

Beyond News:

 Currently, women passengers have to depend on either on helpline numbers by call or SMS, or on
chain-pulling in emergency situation, but with this system immediate action can be taken, he said.
 Among the other measures proposed to ensure women safety are having a different colour on the
coaches earmarked for women for easy identification, wire mesh in windows of ladies coaches.
 Railways also proposes month-wise calendar of activities with focus on women security and
gender sensitisation and upgradation of all-India security helpline.
 It also proposes CCTV cameras in women coaches of sub-urban trains with live feed if
possible, CCTV cameras on platforms to cover ladies coaches during halt of trains,
amendment in the Railways Act to
ensure enhanced punishment for
offences pertaining to women, he said.
 It also intend special drive under the
Railways Act to prosecute offenders.
 General Studies-03
Scientists have developed a flexible, honey-comb like material
could eliminate pollution
News: Scientists have developed a flexible, 3D porous material that mimics the shape of a
honeycomb and could help filtering air to remove pollutants or viruses.

Beyond News:

 Both the lattice of a honeycomb and the symmetry of a diatom are complex living
structures comprising patterns and shapes that have long provided inspiration for
scientists.

 One recent application is to develop artificial hierarchical porous materials that are
stable, yet have a large surface area and the ability to selectively extract materials. It
has been difficult however to build these structures at the nano scale due to their
complexity and pattern repeatability across scales from the individual compartments
to the whole structure.

 A team from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi
Arabia, has proposed a simple method that, in just five minutes, can produce a
flexible film with a complex hierarchical structure that has repeating patterns of
interconnected, regularly shaped pores.

 By using this method they create an important platform to design artificial porous
materials that replicate highly ordered porous and complex systems mimicking
nature.

 These have potential use for separations, such as virus filtration, and for biological
scaffolds, such as those used for bone regeneration.

In search of a threatened species

1. Desert National Park, Thar Desert, Rajasthan

 Covering an area of more than 3,000 sq.km., the Desert National Park is spread across Jaisalmer
and Barmer districts of Rajasthan.
 Forming a part of the great Thar Desert, this Park has a good number of Indian bustards, among
the largest numbers in the country. And for this reason, it has become the most important site
for the long-term survival of this threatened species. The Park also welcomes the migrant
Houbara Bustard and several other bird species.

2. Kutch Bustard Sanctuary, Gujarat

  Spreading across two sq.km. in the Abdusa Taluka near Nalia in Kutch, the
sanctuary is dominated by vast swathes of grasslands, making it an ideal habitat for
this critically endangered species.

 Declared a sanctuary way back in 1992, it is one of the few places today in the
country to spot the bird. The region is home to several other endangered animals
and birds.

3. Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary, Maharashtra

 Also known as the Jawaharlal Nehru Bustard Sanctuary of Maharashtra, this

sanctuary is located in Ninnaj, over 20 km from the city of Solapur.

 The sanctuary was established in 1979, after conservationists who spotted these
birds in large numbers in the region called for the need to conserve them. However,
it has been felt that after the formation of the sanctuary – sprawling over 8,000
sq.km. dominated by grasslands – not much has been done to preserve the bird. As
if proof of this, as recent as late 2016, only one bird remained in the sanctuary, and
unconfirmed reports suggest that today those sprawling grasslands are home to
perhaps not a single bustard.

Threats for Indian Bustard

 The bustard numbers earlier reduced drastically due to hunting, both in India and
Pakistan.
 However, over the years the mortality due to hunting has reduced, but the birds face
other severe threats – habitat loss and degradation.
 Both these occur predominantly due to agricultural expansion, infrastructure
development and ill-informed habitat management.

MAY 17
General Studies-02
US accuses India of non-adherence to parental child abduction
protocols
News: The United States accused India of not adhering to any protocol with respect to
international parental child abduction, claiming 90 per cent of requests for the return of
―abducted children‖ remained unresolved for over a year.

Beyond News

 International Parental Child Abduction (IPCA) generally refers to the “wrongful removal” or
“wrongful retention” to another country of a child by the child’s parent or guardian.
  The State Department in its latest Annual Report on IPCA described India as a “non-compliant
country,” a tag the country carries since 2014 when the first report came out.
 The 2017 annual report cites countries such as Argentina, Brazil, China, Japan, Jordan, Morocco,
Peru, United Arab Emirates, Columbia, Egypt, Panama, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tunisia and
Ukraine.
 As a Party to the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International
Child Abduction (Convention), the US believes that the courts in a child’s place of habitual
residence should resolve matters of custody, and that abducted children should be promptly
returned to their country of habitual residence.
 In 2017, the competent authorities in India demonstrated a pattern of non-compliance by
regularly declining to work with the Department of State toward the resolution of pending
abduction cases. Moreover, the competent authorities have failed to resolve cases, the State
Department said.
 It said the Indian government failed to take “concrete” steps to resolve pending cases despite
repeatedly meeting with US officials to discuss abduction cases.
 In 2017, the State Department reported 104 cases of abduction of US children in India. This
includes 20 new cases and 84 from the previous years.
 Notably, almost all such cases are results of marital disputes in which one of the parents lives in
India with their children and mostly obtains court order to take custody of their kids. The other
parent, an American citizen approaches the US court and seeks governmental intervention to
obtain custody of their children. In American legal parlance, officials describe this as “abduction
of US children.
 In 2017, the State Department received 11 initial inquiries from parents regarding possible
abductions to India in which no additional assistance was requested or necessary
documentation was not received as of December 31, 2017, the report said.
 According to the State Department, in 2017, seven abduction cases were resolved through
voluntary means.
 Without the Hague Abduction Convention or any other protocols intended to resolve abduction
cases, parents generally must pursue custody of abducted children in Indian courts.
 The State Department said that, it will continue to encourage India to accede to the Convention
and expand public diplomacy activities related to the Convention.

Swachh rankings are out, Indore gets cleanest city tag

News: Jharkhand has emerged as the best-performing State in terms of cleanliness, while
Indore in Madhya Pradesh was adjudged the cleanest city in the country, according to the
government swachhta survey released.

Beyond News

 Maharashtra stood second behind Jharkhand, while Chhattisgarh was at the third
position in the category of ‗best-performing States‘ in the ‗Swachh Survekshan 2018‘
released by Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri here.
 As far as cities are concerned, table-topper Indore is followed by Madhya Pradesh
capital Bhopal, while Union Territory of Chandigarh stands at the third place in the
national-level category.
 Indore and Bhopal have retained their respective positions from the last year survey. But
this year, the survey has covered 4,203 cities while in 2017 only 434 cities were
surveyed.
 State ranking was introduced in this year‘s survey, which was conducted between
January 4 and March 10.
 The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) got the tag of India‘s ‗cleanest small city‘
(urban local body) with population between 1 lakh and 3 lakh in the 2018 survey.
 In the ‗cantonment‘ category, the Delhi Cantonment has emerged as the cleanest,
followed by Almora, Ranikhet and Nainital (all three in Uttarakhand).
 Uttar Pradesh‘s Ghaziabad was adjudged the ―fastest mover big city‖ in this survey.
 Mysuru has been ranked the cleanest medium-sized city in the country. Mysuru has
been ranked the cleanest among cities with a population of between 3 lakh and one
million.

Mangaluru has been ranked the best city in solid waste management.

Cabinet approves new biofuels policy

News: The Union Cabinet approved a national policy on biofuels that seeks to not only help
farmers dispose of their surplus stock in an economic manner but also reduce India‘s oil-
import dependence.

Beyond News

 The policy expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing use of
sugarcane juice, sugar containing materials like sugar beet, sweet sorghum, starch
containing materials like corn, cassava, damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice,
rotten potatoes [that are] unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.
 Farmers are at a risk of not getting appropriate price for their produce during the surplus
production phase.
 Taking this into account, the policy allows use of surplus food grains for production of
ethanol for blending with petrol with the approval of National Biofuel Coordination
Committee.
 The policy also provides for a viability gap funding scheme of ₹5,000 crore in six years
for second generation (more advanced) ethanol bio-refineries in addition to tax
incentives and a higher purchase price as compared to first generation biofuels.
 One crore litres of E10 [petrol with 9-10% ethanol blended in it] saves ₹28 crore of forex
at current rates.
 The ethanol supply year 2017-18 is likely to see a supply of around 150 crore litres of
ethanol which will result in savings of over ₹4,000 crore of forex.
 The release added that one crore litres of E10 saves reduces carbon dioxide emissions
by about 20,000 tonnes.
 By reducing crop burning and conversion of agricultural residues/wastes to biofuels there
will be further reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.‖
 General Studies-03
Cliff habitat needs a vulture safe zone
News: The Long-billed vulture or Indian vulture (gyps indicus) is critically endangered.
According to conservationists, the way to conserve its present population and increase it is
to step up conservation efforts at the Palarapu cliff vulture habitat in Kumram Bheem
Asifabad.

Beyond News

 A team of Forest Department officials connected with conservation of vultures at

Palarapu habitat the only one in Telangana State recently visited the Jatayu
Conservation Breeding Centre (JCBC), Pinjore, Haryana, to study the methods and
status of conservation.
 According to them, the Vulture Safe Zone (VSZ) initiative of the Pinjore JCBC needs to
be implemented in Telangana too to make it safer for the scavenger birds here.
 The JCBC has launched the initiative to protect three species of vultures including the
Long-billed vulture, but its efforts are concentrated in North Indian States only.
 The team will submit its report to the authorities soon which will discuss the VSZ.
 The project envisages elimination of the probability of consumption of the drug
Diclofenac through animal carcasses by the vultures within a radius of 100 km which is
considered to be the range of the habitat.
 The VSZ will need the cooperation of Forest, Food and Drug Administration and Animal
Husbandry departments to control the supply of Diclofenac.
 As the zone will encompass 32,000 sq km in Telangana, Maharashtra and Chattisgarh,
the involvement of the governments of these States is also essential.
 The initiative involves massive awareness on the issue of Diclofenac not only among
people but other stakeholders like the government departments.
 The effort in establishment of VSZ will also benefit vulture habitats in Maharashtra and
Chattisgarh.

Fastest growing blackhole of the universe discovered

News: Scientists have discovered the fastest-growing black hole known in the universe,
describing it as a monster that devours a mass equivalent to our Sun every two days.

Beyond News

 The astronomers Australian National University have looked back more than 12 billion
years, when this supermassive black hole was estimated to be the size of about 20
billion suns.
 This black hole is growing so rapidly that it‘s shining
thousands of times more brightly than an entire galaxy.

Banned ozone-destroying chemical on rise:

scientists
News: The decline in the atmosphere of an ozone-depleting
chemical banned by the Montreal Protocol has recently
slowed by half, suggesting a serious violation of the 196-nation treaty, researchers
revealed.

Beyond News

 Measurements at remote sites, including the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, of the
chemical, known as CFC-11, point to East Asia as the source or renewed production.
 They show that the rate of decline of atmospheric CFC-11 was constant from 2002 to
2012, and then slowed by about 50% after 2012.
 This evidence strongly suggests increased CFC-11 emissions from eastern Asia after
2012.
 The ozone layer in the stratosphere, 10-to-40 kilometres above Earth‘s surface, protects
life on the planet from deadly ultraviolet radiation.
 The 1987 Montreal Protocol banned industrial aerosols such as chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) that were chemically dissolving ozone, especially above Antarctica.
 The findings, reported in Nature, also have implications for the fight against climate
change.
 Perhaps even more serious is the role of CFCs as long-lived greenhouse gases.
 Two decades ago, CFCs accounted for around 10% of human-induced global warming.

MAY 18
General Studies-02
Section 144 in Assam district after clash over building toilet
News: Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was promulgated in southern
Assam‘s Hailakandi district after a clash over the construction of a pay-and-use toilet.

Nb: Section 144 restricts unlawful assembly of people.

Beyond News

 Trouble started when members of the Congress and the All India United Democratic
Front (AIUDF) clashed near the toilet‘s construction site – a garden outside the
government-run district hospital in Hailakandi town, about 310 km south of Guwahati.
 The toilet was being constructed by the State‘s Public Health Engineering (PHE)
department.
 The district hospital was named after former Congress MLA Santosh Kumar Roy. The
Congress and the BJP were opposed to the toilet as it is very close to a statue of Roy.
 But AIUDF legislator, who wanted the toilet there started helping the labourers engaged
in the construction work. This resulted in a clash between supporters of the Congress
and the BJP.
Maharashtra State brings in 29 amendments to CrPC
News: The Maharashtra government has made major changes to the Code of Criminal
Procedure (CrPC), 1973, decentralising the government and police power to appoint special
public prosecutors, simplifying procedures, allowing for the digital serving of summons,
among others.

Beyond News

 A total of 29 amendments were approved by Chief Minister and will be placed before the
State Cabinet in a fortnight for approval. The changes have been necessitated following
a backlog of cases and complaints of public prosecutors (PPs) acting like a ‗post office‘
for the government in many cases.
 Both the Centre and the State can amend the CrPC as the procedural law falls in the
Concurrent List.
 Among the key changes are amendment to Section 24 (8-A), related to the appointment
of the special public prosecutor (SPP). District Magistrates will now be allowed to
approve appointment of the SPP on the recommendation of the Superintendent of Police
or Commissioner of Police.
 The powers have so far remained with the State government, District Magistrate and
various higher courts. Under the section, public prosecutors in high courts and district
courts are appointed by the Central or State government.
 Another significant amendment is to Section 244, which allows courts to initiate a
preliminary inquiry of prosecution in warrant cases [tried by a magistrate] based on
―otherwise than a police report‖. This can now also be done on the basis of ―a complaint
filed by a public servant of Central or State investigating agencies‖.
 Several other sections related to punitive fines, seizure of properties and maintenance
benefits have been changed to increase the fine and charges.

To simplify the trial procedures, Section 126 has been amended to allow digital
transmission of summons and documents, allowing the accused to appear before the court
through an electronic video linkage.

General Studies-03
We are battling terrorists: Pakistan Army
News: Long under fire for backing the Taliban
and the Haqqani network, the Pakistan Army
is pitching the North Waziristan tribal agency,
which borders Afghanistan, as a showcase of
success for its anti-terror operations.

Beyond News

 A spanking new complex with 1,300 shops

in Miranshah, the main town in North
Waziristan, is waiting to be handed over as
 new hospitals, water supply schemes and micro-hydel projects have been built in the
region.
 There have been several American drone strikes in and around Miranshah, but none in
the last few years since the Pakistan Army began conducting its own anti-terrorist
operations.
 The Pakistan Army has even built a special facility or ―terrorist markaz (centre)‖ in
Miranshah, putting on display seized arms and ammunition, suicide jackets, myriad types
of improvised explosive devices and underground tunnels, similar to the ones the
terrorists used.
 There is also a room apparently used to ―prepare‖ suicide bombers replete with pictures
of young women, including a photograph of popular Bollywood star Rani Mukerji, that
were to be available in ―heaven‖ to the jihadi strikers.
 In giving this unusual access on Monday to visiting journalists, including four Indians, the
Pakistan Army wanted to send out a signal that it was battling hard against the terrorists.

Flood risk persists in many areas in Chennai

News: At least 50 civic issues caused by faulty infrastructure and delayed civic projects
continue to be major factors behind keeping the city at flood risk, three years after flood
monitoring officers spotted them and
recorded them, following the 2015 floods.

Beyond News

 Inadequate stormwater drains, retaining

walls along rivers, and lack of shutters with
facilities to regulate water flow at 19
locations are issues that have the potential
to cause flooding in many
neighbourhoods.
 These would be the responsibility of the Water Resources Department. The delay in the
commissioning of drains across highways, within the purview of the Highways
Department, has increased flood risks in five locations.
 The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has delayed the commissioning of
stormwater drains in Madhavaram junction and Manali Express Road. Railways are yet
to develop stormwater drains at two locations in the city and Metrowater has not
commissioned facilities in five areas, increasing flood risk, officials listed.
 The initiative begun immediately after the big floods in Chennai by the Chennai
Corporation to develop civic infrastructure, such as shutters along canals and pumps to
bail out water, has not taken off in most of the localities.
 The agency implemented the concept of developing shutters in canals along the 100
Feet Road and managed to reduce flooding a few years ago. But at least 50 areas are
yet to get such facilities.
 For instance, a proposal to develop shutters for the anti-malaria drain near GMR Power
House and pumps of 100 hp to pump water to Otteri Nullah to reduce flooding in Choolai,
Thana Street in Purasawalkam, Kosapet and Pulianthope, has remained a non-starter.
 Disaster Management Expert said coordination among line agencies has always been a
challenge, but was felt intensely after the 2015 floods.
 This is the first time the civic body is conducting monsoon preparedness meetings
several months ahead of the onset of the northeast monsoon.
 The flood monitoring officers have proposed the development of civic infrastructure
estimated at ₹204 crore for flood risk reduction across the city. Similarly, Tamil Nadu
Urban Infrastructure Financial Services has proposed the development of missing links
at 150 locations.
 On its part, the Chennai Corporation has planned to use capital funds to reduce flooding
in a few localities .

Kochi all set to welcome an intelligent transportation system

News: The installation of GPS and finalisation of passenger information system for around
1,000 private buses will be in place by month-end, for their integration with the Kochi metro
and ferries in Kerala.

Beyond News

 The GPS equipment has been fitted in 700

buses that are operated in the Greater Kochi
area, though all buses were to have been GPS-
enabled by mid-April.
 Being very sensitive machines, a few [GPS
equipment] have to be reconfigured since they
work on the basis of sensors. They are tamper-
proof and help identify the precise location of
each bus.
 Besides, GPS equipment helps in keeping track
of buses that do not operate the scheduled trips
and curtail the last trip as is a common practice
now.
 They will also be able to identify buses which
halt unnecessarily at bus stops and instances of
over-speeding. The primary purpose will be to
keep passengers informed of the location of
buses on each route. Rule enforcement comes next.
 This will be an apt example of intelligent transportation system (ITS) being used to
streamline traffic and enforce rules.
 The KMRL initiative will shortly be extended to around 400 KSRTC buses being operated
in the Greater Kochi area, as a pilot project. Technicalities are being sorted out to retrofit
GPS in 15 metro trains as well. Nine SWTD ferries in Kochi are already GPS-enabled.
 The readying of GPS and passenger information system will be followed by the
introduction of journey planner and an app that will provide a wide choice of multimodal
commuting options to people, furthering the cause of public transport.

Arunachal expels 297 ‘illegal’ migrants

News: Arunachal Pradesh has expelled 297 people without valid papers in a drive against
‗illegal‘ migrants launched amid reports that the ongoing exercise to upgrade the National
Register of Citizens in Assam could push those of doubtful citizenship into the frontier State.
Beyond News

 Officials in Arunachal districts bordering Assam have also warned contractors and
agencies involved in construction projects of punitive action if they do not ensure that
labourers brought from outside the State have valid documents such as the inner line
permit (ILP).
 The ILP is an official travel document that allows entry for an Indian citizen into a
protected or restricted area for a limited period.
 Apart from Arunachal Pradesh, the ILP is also needed to enter Mizoram and Nagaland.
 The district administration has instructed the police to intensify checking of documents at
entry gates to keep out illegal migrants who may create law and order problems and
disturb peace and tranquility.
 The police in Capital Complex it encompasses twin cities of Itanagar and
Naharlagun rounded up 135 people without valid documents and expelled them to
Assam.
 The drive had started with south-eastern Arunachal Pradesh‘s Longding district from
where 101 people were expelled.

MAY 19
General Studies-01
Urbanisation on the rise in India
News: About 34% of India‘s population now lives in urban areas, the N. World Urbanization
Prospects 2018 reporthas said.

Beyond News

 This is an increase of about three percentage points since the 2011 Census.
 One way to look at the growth in urbanisation is by studying the size of urban
agglomeration, which denotes contiguous territories with an urban population density.
 The number of megasized urban clusters (above 50 lakh population) has remained
almost constant over the years. However, the number of smaller urban clusters has been
increasing rapidly.
 The chart shows the number of urban agglomeration clusters of varying population over
the years.

General Studies-02
‘Clean air policy needs more focus on health’
News: Twenty-four Indian healthcare professionals, including two who are currently posted
at the Indian research station in Antartica, have told the Ministry of Environment, Forest and
Climate Change (MoEFCC) that the draft policy for the National Clean Air Programme
(NCAP) falls short of their expectations.
Beyond News

 They recommend two measures to mitigate adverse health impacts of air pollution and
make provisions for the betterment of affected populations.
 Air pollution is commonly linked only with respiratory diseases but it also contributes to
non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular ailments.
 The doctors cited a report that stated that household air pollution was responsible for 5%
of the total disease burden in India in 2016, and outdoor air pollution for 6%.
 The contribution of air pollution to the disease burden remained high in India between
1990 and 2016, with levels of exposure among the highest in the world.
 The Clean Air Collective, a group of activists and citizens, has also sent its
recommendations for the NCAP draft policy, demanding that it should cover emission
targets, waste management, strengthening of non-motorised transport, among others.
 MoEFCC should incorporate 35% reduction in three years and 50% reduction in five
years as targets to make NCAP effective and impactful. It must have a holistic approach
to tackle the issue of stubble management.
 To decongest the traffic more emphasis must be given on promoting/strengthening the
Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) and public transportation, which are long term
sustainable solutions highlighted under the National Urban Transport Policy.

General Studies-03
Western Ghats need more attention: IUCN
News: Western Ghats and Manas Wildlife Sanctuary face ‗significant concern,‘ says the
IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2 report, putting them in the second highest risk category in
the global assessment.

Beyond News

 The IUCN considered the status of 241 natural world heritage sites. The two Indian
areas were so classified based on their values being ―threatened‖ or showing signs of
deterioration.
 The report called for ―significant additional conservation measures‖ to maintain and/or
restore values over the medium to long term.
 The Kaziranga and Sundarbans National Parks were classified as good, with some
concerns. There were no Indian sites in the critical category.
 Many factors severely threatened the Outstanding Universal Value of the region and
required coordinated conservation.
 The 39 serial sites of the Ghats were
―under increasing population and
developmental pressure‖ that required
intensive and targeted management to
conserve existing values and remedy past
damage, it said.
 Grazing, massive pilgrimage tourism and
mining are among the identified threats.
 The report noted that about 50 million
people live in the Western Ghats Region,
 resulting in greater pressures than many
protected areas around the world.‖ Forest
loss, encroachment and conversion affected
the ghats.
 In Manas, the threat, although low, came from
unsustainable and illegal logging. Monitoring
operations by staff was being done. In recent
years the level of poaching here had again
increased. Recent cases of rhino poaching
were linked to the activity of insurgent groups.
 These groups also reportedly poached deer
and buffalo.

‘India’s freshwater stocks in danger’

News: India is among the hotspots where overuse of water resources has caused a sharp
decline in the availability of freshwater, according to a first-of-its-kind study using an array of
NASA satellite observations of the earth.

Beyond News

 Scientists led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the U.S. used data on human activities
to map locations where the availability of freshwater is rapidly changing.
 The study found that wetter parts of the earth’s were getting wetter and dry areas getting drier
due to a variety of factors, including human water use, climate change and natural cycles.
 Areas in northern and eastern India, West Asia, California and Australia are among the hotspots
where overuse of water resources has caused a serious decline in the availability of freshwater.
 In northern India, groundwater extraction for irrigation of wheat and rice crops has led to
depletion, despite rainfall being normal throughout the period studied.
 The fact that extractions already exceed recharge during normal precipitation does not bode
well for the availability of groundwater during future droughts, the researchers said.
 The team used 14 years of observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
(GRACE) spacecraft mission, a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, to track
global trends in freshwater in 34 regions around the world.
 Scientists noted that while water loss in some regions, like the melting ice sheets and alpine
glaciers, is clearly driven by warming climate, it will require more time and data to determine
the driving forces behind other patterns of
freshwater change.

Creating a comfort zone for

spotted deer
News: The deer park, presently spread over
25 acres abutting the scenic Kinnerasani dam
in Palvancha mandal of Telangana State, is
all set to be expanded into 625 acres facility
for creating ample space for deer to move
around freely as well as to transform the picturesque site into a major eco-tourism hotspot.

Beyond News

 The expansion of the park has become imperative to overcome space and resource constraints
in the wake of multiplying population of spotted deer.
 Over 100 spotted deer are presently housed in the park, which is part of the Kinnerasani Wildlife
Sanctuary.
 With the release of several rescued deer from various parts of the erstwhile Khammam district
into the park in the recent past, their population has reportedly reached the saturation level,
sources said.
 As part of the ambitious expansion plan, the Forest Department has embarked on civil work to
expand the area of the park, erect new fencing and develop grasslands.
 The Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) has initiated a grand plan to
develop facilities at Kinnerasani dam site to turn the spot into a major tourism destination in the
State.
 Work is under way to construct nine cottages, a food court and a glass house at an estimated
cost of ₹23 crore at the Kinnerasani project site, the sources added.
 The Forest Department has also mooted a plan to develop a safari park at the site which is part
of the wildlife sanctuary.
 The existing deer park would be expanded at an estimated cost of ₹1.10 crore.

A master plan is being prepared to develop a safari park and run battery-operated vehicles
by involving the local unemployed tribal youths to transform the spot into an eco-tourism
hub.

MAY 20 & 21
General Studies-02
India-China ties: Gold mine may become flashpoint
News: China has begun large-scale mining operations on its side of the border with
Arunachal Pradesh, where gold, silver and other precious minerals valued at about $60
billion have been found, a media report said.

Beyond News:

 The mine project is being undertaken in the Lhunze county adjacent to the Indian border,
which is under Chinese control, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post
 Projecting the mining operations as part of China‘s move to take over Arunachal
Pradesh, the report said, ―people familiar with the project say the mines are part of an
ambitious plan by Beijing to reclaim south Tibet.‖
 China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet.
 China‘s moves to lay claim to the region‘s natural resources while rapidly building up
infrastructure could turn it into ‗another South China Sea‘ they said, it said.
 The South China Morning Postreport, which features inputs from local officials, Chinese
geologists as well as strategic experts, comes less than a month after the first ever
informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping.
 The meeting was aimed at cooling tensions to avert incidents like the 73-day Doklam
military stand-off last year, a new low in bilateral ties.

Confident talks will strengthen India-Russia partnership: Modi

News: Prime Minister Narendra Modi voiced the hope his talks with President Vladimir
Putin would further strengthen the ―special and privileged‖ strategic partnership
between India and Russia.

Beyond News

 During their informal summit in the Russian city of Sochi, the two leaders will primarily
focus on global and regional issues, including the impact of the U.S. decision to withdraw
from a nuclear deal with Iran.
 Official sources said the two leaders would meet for 4-6 hours for the ―agendaless‖ talks
where deliberations on bilateral issues were likely to be limited.
 They said the issues on the table might include the economic impact on India and Russia
in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the situation in Afghanistan and
Syria, the threat of terrorism and matters relating to the upcoming SCO (Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation) and BRICS summits.
 The sources said the possible impact of the US sanctions against Russia under the
Countering America‘s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on Indo-
Russia defiance cooperation may also figure during the talks between Modi and Putin.
 India is not going to allow its defence engagement with Russia to be dictated by any
other country, New Delhi has been lobbying with the Trump administration on the issue.
 The aim of the informal summit is to use the friendship and trust between the two
countries to create convergence on key global and regional issues, the sources said.
 The two leaders may also deliberate on extending the Indo-Russia civil nuclear
cooperation to third countries, possible areas for cooperation for the International North-
South Transport Corridor project, India‘s engagement with the five-nation Eurasian
Economic Union and the situation in the Korean peninsula.

PMO seeks change in UPSC allocation

News: The Centre is considering a major change in the allocation of services to successful
candidates of the civil services examination.

Beyond News:

 The Prime Minister‘s Office (PMO) asked the department concerned to examine if the
services can be allocated after the completion of the foundation course, according to an
official communiqué.
 The duration of the foundation course for officers of almost all the services is three
months.
 At present, service allocation to the
candidates selected on the basis of the
civil services examination, conducted
by the Union Public Service
Commission (UPSC), is made well
before the commencement of the
foundation course.
 The PMO has desired to examine if
service allocation/cadre allocation to
probationers selected can be made
after the foundation course, as per the
communication sent by the Personnel
Ministry to different cadre-controlling
authorities.
 The departments have asked to
examine the feasibility of giving due weightage to the performance in the foundation
course, and making service allocation as well as cadre allocation to all-India services
officers based on the combined score obtained in the exam and the foundation course.
 The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) are all-India
services.
 The departments have asked to give their feedback on the proposal to allocate other
Central services such as the Indian Revenue Service and Indian Telecommunications
Services, a Ministry official said.

Foreign investors cold to Permanent Residency Status scheme

News: Two years after it was launched by the Union government, the Permanent
Residency Status (PRS) scheme providing a host of facilities for foreigners who invest at
least ₹10 crore under the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) route is yet to find a single
applicant.

Beyond News

 A senior Home Ministry official said no foreigner had applied, but cautioned that the lack
of applicants should not be seen as ―no foreign investment‖.
 Except Pakistani citizens or third-country nationals of Pakistani origin, the scheme is
open for citizens of every country.
 Most European Union countries, the U.S., Canada and others offer permanent residency
to foreign investors.
 The U.S. offers the EB-5 visa programme where foreigners could apply for permanent
residency if they created employment opportunities for 10 people with a minimum
investment of ₹6.5 crore.
 An official said this was not a ―citizenship‖ that was being offered to foreigners and was
subject to review every 10 years.
 The Union Cabinet had cleared the PRS in 2016 to boost its ―Make in India‖ policy. The
scheme is open for foreign investors who invest a minimum of ₹10 crore within 18
months or ₹25 crore in 36 months.
 The PRS card holders are also eligible to buy residential property in India.
 Among foreign countries, the maximum investment proposals in critical sectors such as
telecom and defence that was cleared by Home Ministry in 2017, were from China, the
U.K., the U.S. and Mauritius.
 Last year, the Ministry gave security clearance to more than 1,071 proposals in 11
critical sectors like defence, telecommunications, information and broadcasting.
 Over 90% of the FDI proposals have come through the automatic route.
 Among the foreign countries, the U.S., China (including Hong Kong), Mauritius and the
U.K. have received the green signal for the most number of projects at 10 each, followed
by Germany at six, Bangladesh at three and Italy, Israel, Netherlands and Switzerland at
two each.

General Studies-03
India gears up for AI-driven wars
News: In an ambitious defence project, the government has started work on incorporating
artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the operational preparedness of the armed forcesin a
significant way, which would include equipping them with unmanned tanks, vessels, aerial
vehicles and robotic weaponry.

Beyond News

 The move, part of a broader policy

initiative to prepare the Army, Navy and
the Air Force for next-generation warfare,
comes amid rising Chinese investments in
AI an area of computer science devoted to
creating intelligent machines for its
military.
 Secretary, Defence Production, said the
government had decided to introduce AI in
all the three forces as it would be a ―big area‖ considering the requirements of future
warfare.
 Like many other world powers, India had also started work on the application of AI to
boost the capabilities of its armed forces, unmanned aerial vehicles, naval vessels, tanks
and automatic robotic rifles as weapon systems would have an extensive use in future
wars.
 Military sources said the application of AI in border surveillance could significantly ease
the pressure on armed forces personnel guarding the sensitive frontiers with China and
Pakistan.
 China has been pouring billions of dollars into AI research and machine learning. The
U.S., Britain, France and the European Union are also investing significantly in AI. The
U.S. has been carrying out successful operations targeting terrorist hideouts in
Afghanistan and Northwest Pakistan using drones which operate with the help of artificial
intelligence.
A high-tech tiger census in Andhra Pradesh
News: Amid signs of the proliferation of the big cats in Andhra Pradesh, the third phase of
the fourth All-India Tiger Estimation (AITE) is being taken up in full swing in the vast tiger
landscape spread over 3,728 sq. km. in the mighty Nallamala hills.

Beyond News

 Indications are there that the big cats have also spread to the region south of the
Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) in the forest up to the Penna river,
says Chief Conservator of Forests and Project Tiger Field Director.
 This is the maiden tiger estimation in the new State.
 During the last estimation in the united State, the count was put at 68, four fewer than
the figure arrived at during the second AITE in 2010 due to the biodiversity loss. It was
95 in the first AITE in 2006.
 Sophisticated cameras with infrared sensors put in pairs at every two-sq. km. grid would
help not only identify the individual big cats through stripe pattern and other physical
features but also arrive at their count in a more accurate manner.
 The authorities have for the first time used a new app Tigers Intensive Protection and
Ecological Status (M-StrIPES) to avoid human error in the traditional recording of the
pugmarks and other signs during the carnivore sign survey.
 The department has engaged about 250 members of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal
Group (PVTG) of Chenchus as trackers for protecting and monitoring the tigers.
 They have been trained to handle the GPS-fitted equipment while moving in different
directions from the base camp to capture evidence such as pug marks, droppings etc.

Hussainsagar’s toxic levels raise a stink

News: Hussainsagar is dead,rather, it cannot support any aquatic life. A recent Telangana State
Pollution Control Board analysis
of its waters revealed that the lake
has no dissolved oxygen.

Hussainsagar: Hussain Sagar is

a heart shaped lake in Hyderabad
built by Nizam of Hyderabad It‟s
chief engineer was Nawab Khan
Bahadur Mirza Akbar Baig. It is
spread across an area of 5.7 square
kilometers and is fed by River
Musi.

Beyond News

 For any water body to

sustain life, it should have
dissolved oxygen of 4 mg or
more. We recorded zero
findings in all the seven
locations from where water
 samples were collected and analysed.
 Officials of the department collected samples from seven locations where water enters or exits
the lake and subjected it to a battery of tests. Over the last eight years, the dissolved oxygen
reached the threshold 4mg/l only in 2011 and 2015.
 The other parameters of pollution in Hussainsagar are also off the charts, according to the water
analysis.
 The water meets the lowest standard of category ‘E’ of Central Pollution Control Board’s
‘Irrigation, industrial cooling, controlled waste disposal’ requirement.
 The samples barely made it to E category due to lower electrical conductivity than the
benchmark parameter of 2250 µs/cm. Higher electrical conductivity indicates higher presence of
metal ions in water. A higher number will lead to a situation where reverse osmosis will take
place, draining fluids from aquatic life.
 At the two inlet channels of Sanjeevaiah Park and Necklace Road, the total coliform count was
5850 Most Probable Number/per 100ml and 5800 MPN/100ml respectively. Coliform is a rod
shaped bacteria that occurs in human and animal waste, and is considered dangerous to human
health.
 Restaurants abutting Hussainsagar are also victims of the foul smell emanating from the lake.
The stench is so high that restaurants on Eat Street have fewer visitors even during summer.

The water analysis spotlights the functioning of multiple Sewage Treatment Plants.

Royal Bengal tiger genome sequenced

News: For the first time, the genome of the Royal Bengal tiger, an endangered big cat, has
been sequenced as part of plans to generate a high-quality draft genome sequence of the
animal.

Beyond News

 Although endangered and threatened by various extinction risks, this tiger subspecies is the
most populous one with the highest genetic diversity and the strongest chance of survival in the
wild.
 The high coverage genome sequencing and identification of genome variants in Bengal tiger
(Panthera tigris tigris) were carried out by scientists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular
Biology (CSIR-CCMB) and a Hyderabad-based private company.
 This genome was compared with the genome of Amur or Siberian tiger. These two subspecies
occur in diverse environments and the new
data also reveals major variations between
the two.
 While Amur tiger occurs exclusively in sub-
temperate and snow-covered habitats, the
Bengal tiger occupies diverse tropical
habitats ranging from Himalayan foothills to
 Central India plateau and the Western Ghats.
 Genome data provides an insight into the genetic differences at individual level ranging from
single nucleotide variations to large structural variants.
 It also provides a better understanding of how the gene variants play a role in adaptation to the
environment and disease susceptibility.
 In other words, it will reveal the changes triggered in the genes due to the adaptability to
different environments in the evolutionary time scale.
 The researchers claim that this is the first report on the discovery of copy number variants and
large structural variants in the genome of a wild, endangered species.
 The identification of numerous Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) will help in gaining a better
insight into population genetics and gene flow.
 Such studies will also help in improving conservation management as authorities attempting to
relocate an endangered animal will have a better understanding of its adaptability to the new
environment.
 Genome sequencing will help in precise understanding of the evolutionary linkage of the
organism. Besides, epigenetic analysis becomes possible once the genome is available.

Australia to ban wild horses cull in reserve

News: Australia said that the culling of wild horses in a unique national park would be
banned despite fears the animals were threatening native species.

Beyond News

 An estimated 6,000 feral horses, known locally as ―brumbies‖, live in Kosciuszko

National Park, a UNESCO-recognised biosphere reserve some 470 kilometres south of
Sydney that has plant species found nowhere else in the world.
 Conservationists have called for the brumbies to be culled, saying the introduced
animals were causing environmental damage and that their rising numbers were posing
a growing threat.
 In 2016, the New South Wales State government released a plan to cull 90% of
brumbies at Kosciuszko. But they have since made a u-turn, deciding that the horses are
part of the ―cultural fabric‖ of the region and should be protected instead.
 Wild brumbies have been roaming the Australian alps for almost 200 years and are part
of the cultural fabric and folklore of the high country.
 The heritage management plan will specifically prohibit lethal culling of the brumby,
aerial or otherwise, and will identify those areas in the park where brumbies can roam
without causing significant environmental harm.
 Brumbies found roaming in parts of the park where they could destroy native wildlife
would be relocated or re-homed.
 The horses were introduced to Kosciuszko, which spans 6,900 square km and is home
to the famous Snowy River, in the 19th century.
 The new plan, to be introduced as a bill before the end of May, came just weeks after the
NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee recommended that habitat loss caused
by brumbies be deemed a ―key threatening process‖.
 Millions of non-indigenous feral animals roam Australia‘s vast continent including horses,
camels, donkeys, pigs, rabbits, foxes, cats and goats.
 With few natural predators and vast sparsely-populated areas in which to live, their
populations have soared, putting pressure on native species by preying on them,
competing for food, destroying habitats and spreading disease.

MAY 22
General Studies-01
Indonesia’s most active volcano rumbles, public ordered to stay
News: Indonesia‘s most active volcano, Mount Merapi on densely populated Java island,
has shown danger signs with a series of small eruptions, and authorities have ordered
villagers living on its slopes to leave and hikers to stay clear.

Beyond News

 A series of eruptions at Mount Merapi in 2010 killed more than 350 people and
authorities are taking no chances after plumes of smoke and ash billowed into the sky
late.
 There can be no public activity within a 3 km
radius. Hiking is also temporarily prohibited, a
spokesman for the national disaster mitigation
agency said.
 The agency raised the alert level a notch.
 Through the ages, Indonesians have tilled the
fertile volcanic soil on the mountain‘s slopes and
more recently the volcano has become a tourist
site.
 The disaster agency described Merapi‘s eruptions as phreatic, which means magma
heats up ground water and vapour is released under pressure.
 This month, the airport in Yogyakarta, the closest city to the volcano, was briefly shut
down because of the eruptions.

General Studies-02
Kerala may seek WHO help to battle Nipah
News: A day after it was confirmed that the Nipah
virusinfection had caused the death of three members
of a family in Kerala‘s Kozhikode district, a team from
the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has
termed the incidence the ―third major outbreak in the
country.‖

Beyond News: One more person died of suspected

infection of the virus. The laboratory result of another
person who died has confirmed the presence of the
virus. The State governmentis considering seeking the help of the World Health
Organisation. A team of experts of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences is expected to
visit the district.

 The illness was transmitted from animals to humans and bats were the carriers.
 Detailed tests would have to be conducted, in coordination with the Animal Husbandry
Ministry. Only then could the complete cycle of infection be understood.
 Circumstantial evidence indicated that the deaths were among family members, the first
level of contact, and healthcare workers who had got in touch with them. Secondary
contacts were under observation.

World Bank listens to Pak’s grievances on Indus Waters Treaty

News: A Pakistani delegation raised the issue of India‘s alleged violation of the Indus
Waters Treaty with the World Bank which discussed opportunities within the treaty to seek
an amicable resolution, officials said.

Beyond News

 Meeting took place days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 330 MW
Kishanganga hydroelectric project in Jammu and Kashmir, amid protests from Pakistan
which claims that the project on a river flowing into Pakistan will disrupt water supplies.
 Pakistan‘s Foreign Office had voiced concern over the inauguration of the hydroelectric
project, saying inauguration without resolution of dispute between the two countries will
tantamount to violation of the Indus Waters 1960 that regulates the use of waters in the
shared rivers.
 Islamabad had been raising objections over the design of the hydel project, saying it is
not in line with the criteria laid down under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between the
two countries.
 The project was started in 2007, located at Bandipore in North Kashmir, envisages
diversion of water of Kishan Ganga river to underground power house through a 23.25-
km-long head race tunnel to generate 1713 million units per annum.
 On May 17, 2010, Pakistan moved for international arbitration against India under the
provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty.
 The Hague-based International Court of Arbitration allowed India in 2013 to go ahead
with construction of the project in North Kashmir and upheld Indias right under the
bilateral Indus Waters Treaty to divert waters from the Kishanganga for power generation
in Jammu and Kashmir.
 The international court, however, decided that India shall release a minimum flow of nine
cubic metres per second into the Kishanganga river (known as Neelam in Pakistan) at all
times to maintain environmental flows.
 Pakistan is building a 969 MW Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project downstream.
 The Pak Foreign Office in a statement in Islamabad last week said it was seriously
concerned about the inauguration of the hydroelectric project.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear dispute over power plant in Gujarat

News: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up an appeal by Indian villagers against
a power plant in Gujarat, funded by U.S.-based International Finance Corporation (IFC),
which has allegedly resulted in environmental damages.
Beyond News

 The villagers along with several other farmers

and fishermen, allege that coal-fired Tata
Mundra Power Plant has resulted in widespread
environmental damages.
 Washington DC-based IFC, the financing wing of
the World Bank, has provided $450 million in
financial assistance to the project.
 The Supreme Court said it would decide whether
the IFC enjoyed immunity under the 1945 International Organisations Immunity Act.
 Petitioners knocked the door of the Supreme Court this year after lower courts dismissed
their petitions arguing that the IFC enjoyed immunity, like other foreign countries, under
the 1945 International Organisations Immunity Act.
 In their petition, the villagers argued that the Tata Mundra Power Plant has failed to
comply with international environmental standards. This has resulted in devastation of
local environment.
 In 2015, the applicants Indian farmers, fishermen, a trade union of fishworkers, and a
local government entity sued the IFC in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia. They brought claims for negligence, negligent supervision, public nuisance,
private nuisance, trespass, and breach of contract.
 The petitioners lost the case before a district court in 2016 and the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia in 2017. Both the courts argued that IFC enjoys immunity.

Visa-for-money racket exposed in Rajasthan; Home Ministry

orders probe
News: The Home Ministry said that it was reviewing its internal processes after a Ministry
official was arrested by the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for allegedly extorting
money from Hindu migrants from Pakistan.

Beyond News

 A senior secretariat assistant in the Home Ministry was arrested last week, along with
three middlemen, as he was caught accepting money from them at a hotel in Jodhpur.
 The official visited the city regularly to attend hearings on writ petitions from Pakistani
Hindu migrants in the Rajasthan High Court.
 The Special Court (Anti-Corruption Cases) in Jodhpur has remanded the four accused,
to the ACB‘s custody.
 The three men who were allegedly operating as agents, have identified themselves as
Pakistani migrants who have been granted Indian citizenship.
 Superintendent of Police (ACB-Jodhpur) said the probe had revealed that they had
demanded and accepted bribes from about 3,000 Pakistani migrants in 2017 alone.
 The ACB officials have also questioned four other middlemen while collecting evidence
of extortion from Pakistani migrants who had applied for visa extension, visa transfer and
grant of citizenship.
 The ACB, which has registered the case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
 Long Term Visa (LTV) applications of more than 80% of the 20,000 Pakistani Hindu
migrants in western Rajasthan were still pending.
 According to a Home Ministry official, 12,100 Hindu immigrants from Pakistan have been
granted LTVs since 2012. LTVs are a precursor to citizenship based on reports
submitted by respective State governments.
 Government had in 2015 exempted Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Afghanistan nationals,
belonging to Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Christian and Jain communities who entered India on
or before December 31, 2014, in respect of their entry and stay in India without proper
documents or after the expiry of relevant documents. Since 2015, around 150
Bangladeshi Hindus were also granted LTVs.
 There are 400 Pakistani Hindu refugee settlements in cities like Jodhpur, Jaisalmer,
Bikaner and Jaipur. Hindu refugees from Bangladesh mostly live in West Bengal and
northeastern States.

General Studies-03
Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos tested successfully to
validate new features
News: Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was successfully fired from a test range along
the Odisha coast to validate some new features.

Beyond News

 The missile, an Indo-Russian joint venture, was tested from a mobile launcher at Launch
Pad 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasore.
 The trial was conducted to validate its ―life extension‖ technologies developed for the first
time by DRDO and team BrahMos, said an official of the ITR.
 The successful test will result in huge savings of replacement cost of missiles held in the
inventory of the armed forces.
 The two-stage missile first being solid and the second one, a ramjet liquid propellant has
already been introduced in the Army and the Navy, while the Air Force version had
witnessed asuccessful trial, the DRDO scientists said.
 BrahMos variants can be launched from land, air, sea and under water.
 India successfully launched the world‘s fastest supersonic cruise missile from a Sukhoi-
30 MKI combat jet for the first time against a target in the Bay of Bengal in November,
2017.
 At least two Su-30 squadrons with 20 planes each are planned to be equipped with the
missile, which will be 500 kg lighter than the land/naval variants.
 According to the scientists, increasing the missile‘s range from 400 km to further 800 km
is now possible after India‘s induction into
the Missile Technology Control Regime in
June 2016. Prior to that, India was bound
by restrictions that limited the range of the
missile, to less than 300 km.
 Currently, the Army is equipped with three
regiments of Block 111 version of the
missile.
 After two successful tests of the missile
from INS Kolkata in June 2014 and
 February 2015, the test-firing from INS Kochi on September 30, 2015, validated the
newly commissioned ship‘s systems. The air launch version and the submarine launch
version of the missile system are in progress.
 So far, the Army has placed orders for the missile which are to be deployed by three
regiments.

Giant Chinese salamander speeding towards extinction, says

study
News: The world‘s largest amphibians, giant Chinese salamanders, were once thought to
be widespread but now face imminent extinction due to illegal poaching and hunting as a
luxury food, researchers said.

Beyond News

 The over exploitation of these incredible animals for human consumption has had a catastrophic
effect on their numbers in the wild over an amazingly short time span.
 Unless coordinated conservation measures are put in place as a matter of urgency, the future of
the world’s largest amphibian is in serious jeopardy.
 Vast surveys were conducted in 2013 and 2016 at river sites where the critically endangered
salamanders the size of small alligators and weighing some 64 kg are known to live.
 China has a programme in place to breed and release giant salamanders back into the wild. At
the few sites where salamanders were seen, researchers could not confirm whether they were
wild or farmed.
 Field surveys and interviews indicate the species has experienced catastrophic range-wide
decline apparently driven by overexploitation.
 The status of wild populations may be even worse than data suggest.
 Conservation strategies for the salamander require urgent updating.

MAY 23
General Studies-01
Graffiti taking its toll on prehistoric rock paintings.
News; Like many important monuments across India, the prehistoric rock paintings in
Telangana‘s Jayashankar Bhupalpally district are prey to confessions of undying love and
names etched for posterity.

Beyond News

 Increasing defacement, including instances of scraped graffiti and smeared oil paints,
are a cause for grave concern at the millennia-old rock paintings of Pandavulagutta,
which trace the evolution of human knowledge.
 Pandavulagutta is home to painted rock shelters
dating to 10000 BC-8000 BC, an 8th century
inscription of the Rashtrakuta period, and painted
frescoes from the 12th century Kakatiya empire.
 The pre-historic rock paintings resemble those at
Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh, with flora, fauna
and human figures seen in red ochre.
 The Kakatiya artists, on the other hand, painted
scenes from the Mahabharata and of the elephant-
headed Ganesha.
 Paintings from three different time periods have
coexisted admirably down the ages, but they have not been protected or preserved since
their discovery in 1990. They have been damaged because they are easily accessible to
the public.
 If something drastic is not done to stop it, the defacement will destroy the original
paintings rendered with natural colours.
 For instance, figures of magnificent beauty in a mural frieze, set against a background of
thick lime plaster that projects them as if in an open-air theatre, have been ruined by
graffiti, with the frescoes scraped from the plaster and the storytelling disrupted.

General Studies-02
Adivasis likely to adopt ‘self-rule’ declaration
News: As June 2, the date on which Telangana Adivasis are slated to adopt ‗self-rule‘ in
their habitations, comes closer, curious developments have started taking shape with
respect to the demand of the aboriginal people to remove Lambada tribe from the list of
Scheduled Tribes.

Beyond News

 Six Adivasi organisations have issued guidelines through a hand bill for the ethnic
villagers to follow in order to intensify the movement starting June 2, which also happens
to be the State Formation Day.
 The ethnic tribes have been demanding expulsion of the Lambada tribe since the last
quarter of 2017, alleging that the latter had gained entry into the list through a process
which remained incomplete.
 Also, they are accused of usurping all government benefits meant for the aboriginal
people. The movement saw a couple of violent incidents but peace had been restored.
 Contending that the 17,352 sq. km of Scheduled Area is
governed by the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled
Area Act, 1996 under the Fifth Schedule of Indian
Constitution, the Adivasi organisations will declare
establishment Maa oollo, maa rajyam(my rule in my
village) on that day.
 The PESA Act, according to the leader of the Adivasi
party, has provision for grama sabhas to resolve issues
which are to be conducted either by the government or
elders in given villages.
 The organisations, Tudum Debba, Adivasi Teachers Federation, Adivasi Vidyarthi
Sangham, Adivasi Mahila Sangham, Adivasi Rythu Sangham and Adivasi Yuvajana
Sangham, have issued a set of six guidelines for the aboriginal people to follow in the
villages.
 The grama sabhas in respective villages are expected to pass resolutions on these.
 The guildelines include a demand for formation of ‗my village my rule‘ committees,
seeking removal of Lambada employees from 29 government departments, not to allow
any resource out of villages, rejection of government schemes and loans by ethnic
people, not to permit government officials into villages and demand for scrapping
holidays declared by the government.

General Studies-03
China launches relay satellite to explore far side of moon
News: China launched a relay satellite as part of a groundbreaking programme to be the
first to land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon later this year.

Beyond News

 The satellite, lofted into space aboard a Long March-4C rocket, will facilitate
communication between controllers on Earth and the Chang‘e 4 mission.
 China hopes to become the first country to soft-land a probe on the moon‘s far side, also
known as the dark side because it faces away from the earth and is comparatively
unknown.
 The satellite, named Queqiao, or ―Magpie Bridge,‖ after an ancient Chinese folk tale, was
launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the southwestern province of
Sichuan.
 The launch is a ―key step,‖ but the satellite‘s mission must still overcome challenges,
including making multiple adjustments to its orbit, ―braking‖ near the moon and using
lunar gravity to its advantage.
 According to the administration and website, Queqiao was expected to arrive shortly at
the Earth-moon Lagrange point 2, a gravitationally stable spot located 64,000 km beyond
the far side of the moon.
 Without such a communications relay link, spacecraft on the far side would have to ―send
their signals through the moon‘s rocky bulk‖.
 China previously landed its Jade Rabbit rover on the moon and plans to land its Chang‘e
5 probe there next year.
 China conducted its first crewed space
mission in 2003, making it only the third
country after Russia and the U.S. to do so
and has put a pair of space stations into
orbit.
 Upcoming missions include the launch of
the 20-ton core module for the still orbiting
Tiangong 2 station, along with components
for a 60-ton station that is due to come
 online in 2022 and a Mars rover planned for mid 2020s.

Humans causing cancer in wild animals: study

News: Human activities are changing the environment in a way that causes cancer in wild
animal populations, according to a study.

Beyond News:

 Some viruses can cause cancer in humans by changing the environment that they live in
in their case, human cells to make it more suitable for themselves.
 We are changing the environment to be more suitable for ourselves, while these
changes are having a negative impact on many species on many different levels,
including the probability of developing cancer.

Findings:

 In the study, the researchers point out many pathways and previous scientific studies
that show where human activities are already taking a toll on animals.
 These include chemical and physical pollution in our oceans and waterways, release of
radiation into the atmosphere from nuclear plants, and the accumulation of microplastics
in both land- and water-based environments.
 In addition, exposure to pesticides and herbicides on farmlands, artificial light pollution,
loss of genetic diversity and animals eating human food are known to cause health
problems, researchers said.
 Cancer has been found in all species where scientists have looked for it and human
activities are known to strongly influence cancer rate in humans.
 This human impact on wild environments might strongly influence the prevalence of
cancer in wild populations with additional consequences on ecosystem functioning.

International Biodiversity Day 2018: tracking new species

discovered in India
News:From the Bhupathi frog to the Kalam plant, new species discovered in India during
2017-18.

Beyond News

 Every year May 22 is observed as The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) to
increase awareness on various biodiversity issues such as habitat destruction, marine
pollution and climate change.
 It was first observed in 1993 by the Second
Committee of the UN General Assembly.
 In 2000, May 22 was chosen as the The
International Day for Biological Diversity to
commemorate the Adoption of the Agreed Text of
the Convention on Biological Diversity.
 It is an international legal agreement ratified by
196 nations for ―the conservation of biological
 diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the
benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources‖.
 The theme for 2018 is ―Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity.‖

New satellites to keep track of earth’s water

News:The reason we know today just how much ice is melting in Greenland and Antarctica
is because of a pair of satellites, launched in 2002 by NASA and the German Research
Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).

 Now, they are set to be replaced by a more modern duo.

Beyond News

 A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket hoisting into orbit the spacecraft known as GRACE-FO, a
follow-on to the prior, 15-year mission known as the Gravity Recovery and Climate
Experiment (GRACE).
 Two satellites, each the size of a car, will circle the Earth at a distance of 220 km from
each other. They will be flying about 490 km above the Earth for the next five years.
 The satellites will use a monthly reference point. When ice melts, the oceans‘ mass
rises. When it rains a lot in a certain region, the volume of the aquifers mounts. The
satellites will pick this up, and the data will show that the mass in a certain area was
higher than it was in the prior month, or year.
 That is how the GRACE-FO satellites will establish a map of the water on Earth, every
30 days, showing which areas have more and which have less, whether above or below
ground. They will operate with a precision equivalent to a change of 0.4 inches (one cm)
in water height across areas of about 340 km in diameter.
 The prior mission, GRACE, allowed scientists to gain an understanding of how much ice
Greenland was losing. It was more than they thought, based on ground-observations.
 The satellites were also able to track just how much ice Antarctica was losing, and
produced colourful maps that showed losses in red and gains in blue.
 Renewing the mission will allow scientists to continue to track trends in sea level rise,
glacial and ice melt, and the drying up of certain aquifers.

Solar system’s first interstellar immigrant discovered

News: Scientists have discovered the first known permanent immigrant to the solar system
an asteroid, nestling in Jupiter‘s orbit, that migrated from another star system.

Beyond News

 All the planets in the solar system travel around the Sun.
 But this asteroid, named (514107) 2015 BZ509, moves in
the opposite direction, referred to as ‗retrograde‘ orbit.
 MAY 24
General Studies-02
EC to launch app to help voters share malpractice proof
News: The Election Commission will launch a multi-lingual mobile application empowering
people across the country to share evidence of malpractice by political parties, their
candidates and activists ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, directly with the electoral body.

Beyond News

 Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat told that such an application, called Model Code of
Conduct Violation Reporting App, was made available for the first time in Bengaluru in the run-
up to the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly polls.
 The application registered a total of 780 downloads and complaints were received from the
users. Accordingly, action was taken by the officials concerned in all the cases. Through this
mechanism, they intend to encourage larger public participation in checking corrupt practices
and ensuring a free and fair election process.
 The application, part of the steps taken by the Commission to prevent abuse of money and
muscle power, allows for sharing of photos and short audio and video clips from the spot itself.
 Geo-location of the reported incidents will also get recorded and the officials concerned will
immediately receive the alerts. This will ensure an effective response.
 As part of the implementation, the application will also be made operational in the coming
Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
 The growing abuse of social media bots for influencing public opinion has emerged as another
major challenge for the Election Commission and plans are on to devise a counter mechanism.
 In order to address such challenges in the cyber world, an entire floor at the EC headquarters
has been dedicated to the development of an independent and advanced computer operations
infrastructure having full access control. A social media cell is already functional.
 These bots are automated accounts often active on popular social media platforms like Twitter
and Facebook, which use Artificial Intelligence to trigger and influence political debates with an
objective to shape public opinion.
 Experts have found evidence that bots are also programmed for spreading fake news on the
Internet.

Habitat loss may have triggered Nipah outbreak

News: According to a report by the World Health Organization, there is ―strong evidence‖
that the emergence of bat-related viral infections can be attributed to the loss of the animal‘s
natural habitats.

Beyond News: As the flying fox [fruit bat] habitat is destroyed by human activity, the bats
get stressed and hungry, their immune system gets weaker, their virus load goes up and a
lot of virus spills out in their urine and saliva,the report adds.
 There are studies on Hendra and Nipah viruses that hint at reproductive and nutritional
stress [fewer food resources] as potential role players in virus spillover.
 In the case of the Hendra virus the Nipah equivalent in Australia scientists found that
when fruit bats are stressed (through habitat fragmentation, habitat reduction and
physiological stress), the percentage of bats infected with the virus increases drastically,
increasing the likelihood of passing it to humans through horses.
 Nutritional stress through the loss of food resources a direct consequence of habitat loss
and climate change brings bats closer to urban areas.
 Forest fragmentation and hunting bats for food also bring them closer to humans and is
often an important cause of disease transmission.
 Conservationists worry that the recent Nipah outbreak could cause a knee-jerk reaction
of calls for bat culling. Culling bat populations may seem like an easy solution and has
been tried in Australia but studies warn that instead of reducing the outbreak of such
zoonotic diseases, it could cause even more damage, chiefly ecological.
 That‘s because about a quarter of the more than 1,300 bat species seen worldwide feed
on fruit and nectar and are crucial pollinators (of fruit trees, including mango, guava and
banana), helping maintain genetic diversity in agricultural systems. They are also
important seed dispersers; other bat species help bring rodent and insect numbers under
control.

China wants Pakistan to relocate Hafiz Saeed to a West Asian

country
News: China has asked Pakistan to explore ways of relocating Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD)
chief Hafiz Saeed to a West Asian country in response to mounting international pressure to
act against him for his links with terror groups.

Beyond News

 Chinese President suggested this course of action allowing Saeed to live a quiet life in a
West Asian country to Pakistan Prime Minister on the sidelines of the Boao Forum in
China last month.
 Abbasi has consulted the government‘s legal team, which is yet to come up with a
solution. The issue is expected to be referred to the next government as the Prime
Minister will leave office on May 31 after completion of his tenure. The general election
will be held at July-end.
 The JuD has been accusing the government of taking action against Saeed at the
instance of the U.S. and India.
 Saeed, who has been declared a global terrorist by the United Nations, the U.S. and
India, carries a reward of $5 million on his head for his alleged involvement in the 2008
Mumbai attacks.
 Pakistani authorities last year put him under house arrest for almost nine months but
were forced to release him on the orders of the Lahore High Court.
 Earlier this year, the JuD was put on the list of banned organisations just before the
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in Paris.
 Following the meeting, it was decided to put Pakistan on the grey list for its failure to
prevent terror financing.
 A Presidential Ordinance was issued to freeze all assets of Hafiz Saeed, linked to the
JuD and its charity arm, Falah-i-Insaaniyat Foundation.
 Interestingly, the JuD was not put in Schedule 1 of the Anti Terrorism Act under which
the leaders of a banned organisation must be arrested.
 An Interior Ministry source said a formal notification of its placement on Schedule I was
held back.
 Another clue that the JuD and the FIF were not banned as claimed by the government is
the list of banned organisations by the National Counter Terrorism Authority.
 The JuD has a network of over 150 ambulances, six hospitals, 60 schools and scores of
madrassas across Punjab and the Pakistan-administered Kashmir and northern areas.
 In January this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan issued a
circular to all companies barring them from donating money to those entities put on the
UNSC sanctioned list. The government also tabled a Bill to formalise the ban on the JuD
but it has not been passed so far.

US disinvites China from multinational military exercise

News: The Pentagon said it has withdrawn an invitation for China to participate in a
multinational naval exercise the U.S. is hosting this summer, a sign of fresh tension
between Pacific powers.

Beyond News

 The move comes amid high-stakes maneuvering over North Korea‘s nuclear
programme, which is scheduled to be the subject of a meeting in June between
President Donald Trump and the North‘s leader, Kim Jong Un.
 Washington also is engaged in a sprawling trade dispute with China over U.S.
complaints about market access and technology policy.
 The U.S. had included China the past two years in the large-scale exercise known as
Rim of the Pacific, or RimPac, as part of an effort during the Obama administration to
stabilize military relations with Beijing, which have been disrupted many times by China‘s
objections to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
 A Pentagon statement said the decision to disinvite the Chinese navy was ―an initial
response‖ to what it called China‘s militarization of the South China Sea.
 China‘s Defense Ministry had said in January that it was consulting with the U.S. over an
invitation to take part in RimPac.
 The Pentagon cited what it called strong evidence that China has deployed anti-ship
missiles, surface-to-air missile systems and electronic jammers to contested areas in the
Spratly Island region of the South China Sea. It called on China to remove these
systems.
 The Pentagon also cited its objections to China‘s recent landing of bomber aircraft at
Woody Island.
 China maintains that the South China Sea is its sovereign
territory.

India moves WTO over U.S. steel tariffs

News: India has launched a complaint against the United
States to challenge U.S. President Donald Trump‘s tariffs on
steel and aluminium, a filing published by the World Trade
Organization showed.
Beyond News

 Indian officials told Reuters last month that their government would open a WTO dispute
if the country‘s firms were not granted an exemption.
 Trump imposed the tariffs in March, levying 25 % on steel imports and 10 % on
aluminium. He said they were justified by national security concerns and therefore
outside the WTO‘s remit.
 India, China, Russia, Japan, Turkey and the European Union have all dismissed that
claim, regarding the U.S. tariffs as ‖safeguards‖ under the WTO rules, entitling them to a
combined $3.5 billion in annual compensation.
 India‘s retaliation claim seeks to recoup a cost of $31 million levied on its aluminium
exports and $134 million on steel, and it has said it could target U.S. exports of soya oil,
palmolein and cashew nuts in its retaliation.
 Its latest legal challenge seeks to force the U.S. to scrap the tariffs entirely. It follows a
similar move last month by China, which Washington called ―completely baseless‖.
 Under WTO rules, the U.S. has 60 days to settle the complaint, after which India could
ask the WTO to set up an expert panel to adjudicate.
 In its complaint, India listed a string of ways the U.S. tariffs violated the WTO rules and
unfairly damaged India‘s interests.
 It said they broke the WTO‘s safeguards agreement and the U.S.was trying to use its
tariffs to get other countries to agree to ―voluntary export restraints‖.
 The U.S. had also exceeded the maximum import tariff allowed by the WTO and the
tariffs were not applied uniformly to steel and aluminium imports from all suppliers,
breaking a core principle of the WTO rulebook.

General Studies-03
Trade in tokay geckos continues in Bengal
News: Even as the International Day for Biological Diversity was celebrated , the Border
Security Force (BSF) seized three tokay geckos from West Bengal‘s Malda and
Murshidabad districts.

Tokay gecko

 The tokay gecko or gekko gecko, a lizard species with orange-spotted blue-grey skin, is
protected under the Schedule III of the
Indian Wildlife Protection Act.
 Data made available by the SSB says
more than 100 tokay geckos were seized
between 2014 and 2017 across its
different frontiers.
 Smugglers raised false hype about the
medicinal value of these wildlife species to
create a demand for them both within and
outside India.
Beyond News

 The smugglers were carrying the geckos in wire mesh cages concealed in nylon
carrybags when they were intercepted by a BSF patrol party and handed over to the
Divisional Forest Officer.
 While six tokay geckos have been seized by the South Bengal Frontier of the BSF in
2018, the Siliguri Frontier of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in north Bengal seized 24
tokay geckos between November 2017 and April 2018.
 Agni Mitra, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, a statutory government body, said that it was
because of the spurt in smuggling that tokay geckos were brought under the Schedule
III.

Geckos above 13 cm in length and over 350 grams in weight fetch exorbitantly high prices
in China and parts of South Asia.

MAY 25

General Studies-01
Global warming may have
‘devastating’ effects on rice.
News: As carbon dioxide rises due to the
burning of fossil fuels, rice will lose some of
its protein and vitamin content, putting
millions of people at risk of malnutrition,
scientists warned.

Beyond News

 The change could be particularly dire in southeast Asia where rice is a major part of the
daily diet.
 They are showing that global warming, climate change and particularly greenhouse
gases carbon dioxide can have an impact on the nutrient content of plants we eat.
 This can have devastating effects on the rice-consuming countries where about 70% of
the calories and most of the nutrients come from rice.
 Protein and vitamin deficiencies can lead to growth-stunting, birth defects, diarrhoea,
infections and early death.
 Countries at most risk include those that consume the most rice and have the lowest
gross domestic product (GDP), such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.
 The findings were based on field studies in Japan and China, simulating the amount of
CO2 expected in the atmosphere by the second half of this century 568 to 590 parts per
million. Current levels are just over 400 ppm.
 For the experiments, 18 different strains of rice were planted in open fields, surrounded
in certain areas by 56-foot wide octagons of plastic piping that released extra CO2.
 Researchers found that iron, zinc, protein,
and vitamins B1, B2, B5, and B9 which help
the body convert food to energy were all
reduced in the rice grown under higher CO2
conditions.
 Vitamin B1 (thiamine) levels decreased by
17.1%; average Vitamin B2 by 16.6%.

General Studies-02
Govt. divides Telangana into 7
zones, 2 multi-zones
News: The State government formed the new
zonal system which would have seven zones
and two multi-zones to facilitate recruitment
and transfer of employees.

Beyond News

 The new zonal system is aimed at avoiding

injustices done to employees in the
combined Andhra Pradesh.
 It will also ensure adequate benefits to those
living in local areas following reorganisation
of districts.
 Revising the zonal system had become necessary following the formation of Telangana
State and the subsequent reorganisation of districts increasing their number to 31 from
the initial 10.
 Chief Minister said he would personally monitor the entire process and would see to it
that the new zonal and multi-zonal system comes into effect at the earliest.
 Telangana Employees‘ Union president welcomed the decision and felt the proposed
system would ―prevent recurrence of injustices‖ done to employees in the past.

India, Netherlands condemn terrorism

News: India and the Netherlands condemned international terrorism and deplored violence
by Pakistan-based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e- Mohammed.

Beyond News:

 The common position on terrorism apart, both sides also signed 51 agreements covering
government and private sectors.
 The leaders agreed that terrorist and extremist
organisations need to be denied space to radicalise,
recruit, and conduct attacks on innocent people.
 They deplored the violence caused by the al-Qaeda,
Daesh/IS, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen,
Lashkar-e-Taiba, and their affiliates as well as
 terrorist groups threatening peace and security in South Asia and Europe.
 Both sides called upon the international community to destroy safe havens and halt
cross-border terrorism and prevent movement of foreign fighters.
 Both sides signed 51 agreements covering subjects like water, sanitation, scientific
research and cybersecurity.
 Prime Minister of Netherlands also launched the ‗Clean Air India Initiative‘ in the national
capital .
 The campaign aims to curb air pollutionin Indian cities by promoting partnerships
between Indian start-ups and Dutch companies and build a network of entrepreneurs
working on business solutions for cleaner air.
 The Clean Air India Initiative is a collaborative project between Get In The Ring, a
platform for start-ups, the government of the Netherlands, Start-up India, and INDUS
Forum, an online matchmaking platform of Indian and Dutch businesses.

Assam district clamps Section 144 for trucks

News: The Goalpara district in western Assam is used to the imposition of Section 144 of
the Code of Criminal Procedure because of ethnic and communal flare-ups.

Beyond News

 Officials have now used the Section,

primarily used to prohibit people from
assembling in public places, to stop trucks
from parking along a national highway
bypassing district headquarters Goalpara,
about 160 km west of Guwahati.
 Apart from preventing unlawful assembly,
Section 144 can be imposed to meet any
emergency requirements.
 In this case, the order has been promulgated to prevent trucks from parking along the
highway and causing inconvenience to the local people.
 The order, issued was based on complaints from people residing along two stretches of
the highway.
 District officials said imposing Section 144 specifically for trucks is not common, though
the authorities in adjoining Meghalaya had once used the Section to stop overloading of
trucks.

General Studies-03
Indonesia passes new terror law after attacks using children.
News: Indonesia‘s parliament unanimously approved a strengthened anti-terrorism law,
expanding the definition of terror and lengthening detention periods, spurred into action by
bombings less than two weeks ago that involved children as perpetrators.

Beyond News: Rights groups have criticised the revisions passed as overly broad and
vague and warned against rushing them into law.
 A divisive provision in the law provides scope for the military to become involved in
counter-terrorism policing, until now the domain of civilian authorities.
 Police have killed 14 suspected militants and arrested 60 since the suicide bombings in
Indonesia‘s second-largest city, Surabaya, that were carried out by radicalized families,
who involved their children, as young as 7, in the attacks.

Loss of habitat forcing deer on to roads: activists

News: The shrinking forest space in and around the Guindy National Park, IIT-Madras, and
Anna University, and the dumping of garbage in the area, are major causes of worry for
free-ranging deer, according to animal welfare activists.

Beyond News

 Nine deer rescued from Taramani and neighbouring areas by the Forest Department last
month died at the Guindy National Park (GNP) over a period of two weeks.
 Officials said most of them died due to shock following the rescue efforts.
 Activists said that the Forest department alone could not be faulted, and the fact that
almost 30 deer out of 39 rescued have survived is a good sign.
 An animal welfare activist, said the
shrinking forest cover in the area is a
major concern for wildlife.
 Catching and moving the deer is not the
ideal solution. There is a large number of
construction activity, inside and outside
IIT.
 According to animal welfare activists,there
is a need to ensure the forest space
remains untouched as it affects the habitat
of the animals.
 The loss of habitat is a big problem for
animals. The government should step in and ensure that there is no more cutting of
trees,said animal welfare activists.
MAY 26
 General Studies-03
Joint disaster management drill conducted at railway yard
News: A joint disaster management and recovery exercise was conducted at the
Ernakulam marshalling yard in Kerala, jointly by Southern Railway and National Disaster
Response Force‘s Arakkonam battalion.

Objective: The objective of the exercise was to strengthen the disaster response
mechanism. This exercise helped to assess the disaster response and frame coordinated
procedures for rescue operations during railway accidents, sources said.

Beyond News

 The drill scenario was ―Fire in railway coach due to inflammable materials‖. A
condemned second-class sleeper coach was used for the mock drill. A telephone
message was received at the Traffic Control Office, Thiruvananthapuram (Now a days
Locations are also important for upsc , Last year kottayam from kerala asked.), that a
passenger coach had derailed and caught fire at the Ernakulam marshalling yard.
 Control office personnel relayed the message to the police, Fire and Rescue and
Railway Disaster Management teams comprising medical, mechanical, electrical, traction
distribution, operations, engineering, signal and telecommunications departments. They
led the ―rescue operations‖.
 Four fire tenders brought the fire under control. Sophisticated pieces of equipment were
used for breaking open the window and coach body for performing an evacuation drill.

Drones to keep eye on wildlife in Aravallis

News: The Haryana Forest Department inducted two drones to help in monitoring wildlife
and prevent illegal activities such as cutting of trees, encroachment and building of roads in
the Aravalli Range.

Beyond News

 The project was launched with a demonstration of the drones to the Minister of Forest
and Wildlife, at Tau Devi Lal Biodiversity Park in Sector 52.
 Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife) said that the drones were sourced from the United
States .
 Drones will help in gathering data on forest health, monitor encroachments, and identify
areas for management intervention.
 Drones could take pictures and videos that
were better than satellite images and could be
used to make 3D models of the area.
 With the induction of the drones, Haryana has
joined a select list of pioneer States to use the
technology for conservation and management
of forest and wildlife areas.
 Divisional Forest Officer said that the drones
would be helpful in combing forest areas for
illicit wildlife/forestry activities, registering and
 monitoring wildlife, early fire detection, and wildlife rescue.
 Use of drones in management and conservation of forest and wildlife areas is
increasingly being adopted worldwide.

5 leopards from SGNP to be attached with radio collars.

News: In a first, five leopards from Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) will be attached
with radio collars to study more about the animal‘s behaviour and habits.

What is Radio Collars? Radio collars, also known as tracking collars, are devices that
relay information about the animal‘s movement and actions. These collars are also GPS-
enabled.

Beyond News

 The SGNP has signed an MOU with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) that will
carry out the study spanning over two years.
 In 2009, the WCS had received permission to collar six leopards. While five were from
Ahmednagar division, one was collared in
Himachal Pradesh. One of the five
leopards was Ajoba, who became an
instant hero when stories about him
walking 125 km from Malshej Ghat to
Mumbai appeared in the media.
 In the epic journey, the leopard walked
through highways, crossed railway tracks,
swam through a creek, and walked
through busy civilization, including
Ghodbunder Road. That was the first time
that a leopard‘s movement was observed
so closely. The WCS hopes that the
leopards from the Mumbai landscape will
also yield exciting findings.
 SGNP director said the study is also part of their mandate to have a science-based
management of the park.
 The collar sends a signal to a satellite, which obtains the time and date the signal sent
from the collar, and then the information is transmitted to researchers who can
investigate where the animal is and what it
is doing.

Unique telescope link offers

new view of stars
News: Scientists in South Africa on Friday
launched the world‘s first optical telescope
linked to a radio telescope, combining ―eyes
and ears‖ to try to unravel the secrets of the
universe.
Beyond News:

 The device forms part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project in the remote Karoo
desert, which will be the world‘s most powerful radio telescope system.
 The latest move combines the new optical telescope MeerLITCH Dutch for ‘more
light’ with the recently-completed 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, located 200
kilometres away.
 Astronomers have previously had to wait for a cosmic incident to be picked up by a radio
telescope and then carry out optic observations afterwards.
 But combining MeerLITCH, in the small town of Sutherland, with MeerKAT, also in the
sparsely-populated North Cape province, will allow simultaneous study of cosmic events
as they occur.
 The project has been six years in the making by a joint-team of South African, Dutch and
British scientists.
 The optical telescope, built in the Netherlands and shipped to South Africa, uses a main
mirror just 65 cm in diameter and a single 100 megapixel detector measuring 10 cm x 10
cm.
 It is housed in a white dome-shaped building made of carbon fibre to protect it against
temperature fluctuations in the Karoo desert, which was chosen for its clear skies, dry
climate and lack of pollution.
 Among the priorities for MeerLICHT, which cost about $1.1 million, is the study of black
holes, neutron stars and stellar explosions, which must be scrutinised quickly before they
fade away.
 MeerLICHT boasts of a huge field of view that allows astronomers to see an area 13
times the size of the full moon in exquisite detail, and pick up objects one million times
fainter than is possible with the human eye.
 When fully operational in the 2020s, the SKA will comprise a forest of 3,000 dishes
spread over an area of a square kilometre across remote terrain in several countries to
allow astronomers to peer into space to an unparallelled depth.

MAY 27 & 28
General Studies-01
Buddha’s teachings shine in golden manuscript
News: A trove of more than 600 pages of rare Tibetan manuscripts with his teachings
written in gold letters has been restored at a 100-year-old monastery in Alubari in West
Bengal‘s Darjeeling district.

Beyond News

 Restoration of the gold-inlaid manuscripts

in two volumes at the Mak Dhog
Monastery started earlier this year.
 Manuscripts contain the ancient Tibetan
text called Gyetongba, which contains
 teachings of Buddhism. The manuscripts are in the Tibetan script Sambhota, named
after its inventor.
 While the Association could restore the damage suffered by the monastery in the 2011
Sikkim Earthquake, external help was required to restore the manuscripts, which are
centuries older than the monastery itself.
 The restoration work is being done by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural
Heritage (INTACH).
 Experts who worked on the restoration said that while one volume contained 322 pages,
the other had 296 pages. They fumigated using anti-fungal chemicals, stitched and used
adhesives on the frayed pages.
 Both the volumes are similar and a few pages are missing from the 296-page volume.
Each volume contains 8,000 verses.
 Manuscripts brought to Darjeeling from Helambu in Nepal in the early 18th century.
When the monastery was built in 1914 to foster peace, the manuscripts were kept there.
 Gyetongbais as important to Tibetans as the Gita is to Hindus.

General Studies-02
India protests Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan order
News: India summoned the Pakistan‘s Deputy High Commissioner to protest Islamabad‘s
order to integrate the region of Gilgit-Baltistan into the federal structure of the country.

Beyond News

 An official press release from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the region
belongs to India and that Pakistan‘s action has no legal support.
 It was clearly conveyed that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir which also includes
the so-called ‗Gilgit-Baltistan‘ areas is an integral part of India by virtue of its accession in
1947. Any action to alter the status of any part of the territory under forcible and illegal
occupation of Pakistan has no legal basis whatsoever, and is completely unacceptable,
the official press release said.
 India‘s response came in the backdrop of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi‘s
speech to the Joint Session of the Gilgit-Baltistan Council and Legislative Assembly .
 The executive order from Prime Minister Abbasi intends to begin legislative, judicial and
administrative measures to integrate Gilgit-Baltistan with the rest of the federal structure
of Pakistan. Mr Abbasi‘s announcement has sparked several protests in the region.
 As per the previous arrangement, Pakistan‘s National Assembly received representation
from five provinces Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Agencies
(FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
 This excluded the Gilgit-Baltistan region which remained on the Pakistani side following
the war of 1947 and was governed directly from Islamabad. Following the declaration by
Mr. Abbasi, the status of Gilgit-Baltistan is expected
to change.
 The idea of granting provincial status to Gilgit-
Baltistan gained momentum since work on the China-
Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through
the region, demanded greater coordination between
the local and central-level leaders.
 India, which opposes the CPEC for reasons related to sovereignty, reiterated its
territorial claims over Gilgit-Baltistan and said Mr. Abbasi‘s executive order to alter the
status of the region will be against the position of the Indian Parliament which in 1994
passed a resolution in support of India‘s claims over the undivided Jammu and Kashmir.
 India‘s sharp response coincided with the Afghan government‘s rejection of the Pakistan
National Assembly‘s merger of FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the weekend.

Attappady soon to be sandalwood reserve

News: In the face of a recent spurt in sandalwood smuggling in eastern Attappady in Kerala
state, the Forest Department has expedited the process to declare it as the second
protected sandalwood reserve, after Marayur in Idukki.

Beyond News

 Though sandalwood trees can be seen in over 9,000 hectares of the region, the reserve
will comprise 1,600 hectares where the trees grow thickly.
 Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, who visited Attappady recently, had discussed
the modalities of the reserve with senior department officials.
 As per the initial plan, the 1,600 hectares would be divided into blocks of 60 acres each.
Deputy range officers would be deputed for each block for coordinating protective
measures.
 Trained tribal youths would be deployed on daily wages to protect the trees. Electric
fencing would be erected, at a cost Rs. 35 lakh, for about 100 km to prevent movement
of wild animals into the reserve apart from preventing smuggling.
 Range officers would lead mobile squads to prevent smuggling. A dog squad of the
Forest Department with special training in sandalwood protection would be deployed
soon.
 In the past one year, the region, that accounts for over 60% of natural regeneration of
sandalwood trees in the State, has witnessed 63 cases of smuggling.
 In the past four years, the number of sandalwood smuggling cases reported from the
region was 343. Officials say most cases go unreported because of staff shortage.

General Studies-03
Mars rocks may show signs of
earlier life
News: Iron-rich rocks which formed in lake
beds are the best place to seek fossil
evidence of life on Mars from billions of years
ago, researchers say.

Beyond News

 It is believed that Mars supported primitive

life forms around four billion years ago and
the new study could aid the search for
 traces of tiny creatures known as microbes on the Red Planet.
 The study said that, sedimentary rocks made of compacted mud or clay are the most
likely to contain fossils.
 These rocks are rich in iron and a mineral called silica, which helps preserve fossils.
 They formed during the Noachian and Hesperian Periods of Martian history between
three and four billion years ago. At that time, the planet‘s surface was abundant in water,
which could have supported life.
 The rocks are much better preserved than those of the same age on Earth.
 This is because Mars is not subject to plate tectonics the movement of huge rocky slabs
that form the crust of some planets which over time can destroy rocks and fossils inside
them.

Asteroid caused earth to heat up

News: The Chicxulub asteroid which caused the extinction of dinosaurs drove a long-
lasting era of global warming when it smashed into Earth 65 million years ago, with a rapid
temperature increase of 5 degree Celsius that endured for roughly 100,000 years, a study
has found.

Beyond News

 The monumental event is a rare case where Earth‘s systems were perturbed at a rate
greater than what‘s occurring now from human activity. It provides valuable insights into
what may happen from sudden, extreme environmental changes.
 The after-effects of the Chicxulub impact remain debated, with some scientists
advocating that soot within the atmosphere blocked out the Sun to drive global cooling.
Others suggest that carbon released from the Earth‘s crust into the atmosphere upon the
asteroid‘s impact, as well as carbon from wildfires, had a warming effect.
 Researchers, analysed a robust collection of remains of fish teeth, scales and bone from
a site in Tunisia.
 Based on their analysis, researchers propose that global temperatures increased by
about 5 degree Celsius and did not cool to previous values for roughly 100,000 years
after the impact.

Cyber security, research lab opened

News: A walk-in cyber security and research lab (WiCSER), the first of its kind in the
country in Tamil Nadu, was inaugurated here by Principal Scientific Adviser to the
Government, at the Society for Electronic Transactions and Security (SETS), a research
and development organisation focussing on cyber security.

Beyond News

 The WiCSER lab has been established as a prime initiative by SETS to demonstrate
ingenious security products or solutions, state-of-the-art initiatives and research
advancements in cyber security at a single place to various organisations and academia.
 The lab is equipped with advanced test beds for evaluating information security products
and solutions pertaining to network security, hardware security and cryptology.
 It demonstrates various advanced attacks in a simulated environment and displays real
time solutions to defend them.
An air cleaner with potential
News: A team of scientists led by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Gandhinagar, has developed a nanocomposite material that can selectively convert
environmental carbon monoxide into less toxic carbon dioxide.

Beyond News

 Carbon monoxide (CO) is a major air pollutant that poses a serious threat to health.
 The new composite material is made of graphene and an alloy of platinum and palladium
in the form of nanoparticles.
 In the project, graphene was used as a substrate and then ―decorated‖ with alloy
nanoparticles made of platinum and palladium.
 The novel catalytic structure was then used for selective oxidation of CO into CO2. The
use of a metal particle of certain orientation which absorbs or interacts with CO at lower
energy helped the conversion.
 The catalytic behaviour of the nanocomposite was studied using different morphologies
for the oxidation of CO. The conversion rate varied along with the flow rate of CO as well
as temperature, showing full conversion at temperatures ranging from 75° to 125°.
 The new material could find potential use in chemical industries as well as environmental
cleaning, the researchers said.

MAY 29
General Studies-02
States yet to decide on national anthem query
News: None of the States, has responded to the Centre‘s letter seeking their opinion on
playing of the national anthem in cinema halls and public places.

Beyond News

 The Union Home Ministry had written to the States seeking their opinion on the issue. It
sent a reminder to all the States again this month.
 On December 5 last year, the Home Ministry notified the appointment of a 12-member
inter-ministerial committee which would take a final call on the playing of the national
anthem in cinema and public places.
 The committee comprises Joint Secretary-level officers from 11 Ministries and
departments of the Central government. It
was expected to submit its report within six
months.
 The Central government‘s decision to set
up the expert committee came after the
Supreme Court in October last year
observed that people ―cannot be forced to
carry patriotism on their sleeves‖ and it
cannot be assumed that if a person does
 not stand up for the national anthem, he or she was ―less patriotic.‖
 The committee is expected to give recommendations regarding regulations on
playing/singing of the national anthem and suggest changes in the acts and orders
relating to the Insult of National Honour Act, 1971.
 An earlier advisory of the Home Ministry said that audiences were not expected to
stand if the national anthem was played as part of the film.
 Whenever the Anthem is sung or played, the audience shall stand to attention. However,
when in the course of a newsreel or documentary the anthem is played as a part of the
film, it is not expected of the audience to stand as standing is bound to interrupt the
exhibition of the film and would create disorder and confusion rather than add to the
dignity of the anthem, it said.

FRP row: Centre warns sugar units of stern action

News More trouble is in store for embattled sugar enterprises found paying below the
Centrally-fixed fair and remunerative price(FRP), with the Union government deciding to
bring FRP under the Essential Commodities Act.

Beyond News:

 This would enable the Centre to act

against sugar factories failing to meet their
commitments.
 Sources said Union Minister made it clear
during a meeting in Mumbai with
stakeholders and Chief Minister that
though sugar prices have been falling and
the industry is in crisis, millers cannot not
make payments or part payments citing
low sugar prices.
 Maharashtra has ₹2,228 crore pending as
arrears in FRP payments.
 The State Sugar Commissioner has already served notices to 136 factories that failed to
keep FRP commitments.
 Sources said it was also decided that a delegation of senior State Ministers will approach
the visit the Central government with a list of demands to support the struggling sugar
industry.
 Among them will be efforts to subsidise and incentivise exports, reducing GST on
ethanol to 5% from the existing 12%, try to change the crop pattern and create a buffer
stock.
 The Central government has reiterated its commitment to supporting the industry.
 Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said the government
was commited to ensuring liquidity, financial assistance and support for export to sugar
mills to offset the situation brought about by the falling cost of sugar cane.

VVPAT glitches pose a new headache for poll panel

News: Polling in the keenly contested Lok Sabha by-elections in Kairana in Uttar Pradesh,
Bhandra-Gondiya and Palghar in Maharashtra and Nagaland, besides several
Assembly constituencies elsewhere, were marred by reports of malfunctioning of EVMs in
many booths, especially in Kairana and Bhandra-Gondiya.

Beyond News

 Chief Election Officer, Uttar Pradesh admitted in a statement that the commission
received complaints of malfunctioning of VVPAT machines from 384 polling stations in
Kairana following which replacement machines were used. This caused delays in polling
in more than a few places.
 The VVPAT replacement rate, due to glitches in the machines that were deployed, was
as high as 20.82% (way above the 5% limit seen as acceptable by the EC) in Kairana,
19.22% in Bhandara-Gondia and 13.16% in Palghar.
 The failures were attributed by an ECI spokesperson to the fact that VVPATs were being
used for the first time by polling staff (unlike the EVM itself), and the fact that these
electronic devices were sensitive to extreme heat, placement under direct light and
possible mishandling.

VVPAT

 The VVPAT, or Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail, is an EVM-connected verification

printer device. It allows voters to verify if their vote has indeed gone to the intended
candidate by leaving a paper trail of the vote cast.
 It is an adjunct machine connected to the ballot and control units of the EVM. After the
voter casts his or her mandate by pressing a button in the EVM, the VVPAT connected
to it prints a slip containing the poll symbol and the name of the candidate. Slips from a
randomly selected polling booth from each constituency are then matched with the EVM
tallies during counting to check for the accuracy of the process.
 The VVPATs were added to bring in accountability to the voting process, with many
parties questioning whether the EVMs were indeed malpractice or rigging-proof.
 EVMs, in use since 1998 in India, have been gradually upgraded with security features
and the ECI has suggested that it has robust procedural and technical safeguards to
prevent EVM-tampering and electoral malpractices such as rigging.
 The addition of the VVPAT has also increased the complexity of the otherwise simple
single programmable chip-based device, rendering it more prone to glitches. The
Technical Experts Committee of the ECI is tasked with finding remedial solutions in such
situations.

U.S. expresses concerns about India-Russia S-400 deal

News: The U.S. has serious reservations about Russia‘s S-400 missile system and India
moving ahead with the deal could complicate high technology cooperation, Chairman of the
U.S. Arms Service Committee Mac Thornberry said.

Beyond News

 There is a lot of concern in the U.S., in both the administration and the Congress, over
the S-400 system. There is concern that any country and not just India that acquires that
system will complicate our ability to work towards interoperability together.
 These concerns were separate from any sanctions and legislation that the U.S. has
imposed on Russia.
 Earlier this month, India and Russia concluded commercial negotiations for the
purchase of five S-400 Surface-to-Air Missile systems estimated at over ₹39,000 crore.
 The deal is expected to be announced later this year.
 On the Countering America‘s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), that the
U.S. passed earlier this year against Russian entities, which could affect India‘s arms
purchases from Russia, Washington was incorporating additional flexibilities to help its
partners and allies.
 There is understanding in the Administration and the Congress that additional flexibility in
that law is needed. They think there will be some additional flexibility that is granted. It is
not just India that is in that situation. There are other nations as well.
 Earlier U.S. Secretary of State had urged the Congress to provide the necessary waiver
so that it does not impact countries for which it is not intended.
 India has been in hectic discussions with the U.S. as well as Russia to offset any impact
of the legislation as the Indian military operates a large inventory of Russian equipment.

General Studies-03
IL&FS unit, SoftBank arm
partner to set up 20 GW of solar
units by 2025
News: IL&FS Energy, a subsidiary of
Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services
Limited (IL&FS) has partnered with SB
Energy of the SoftBank Group, to jointly
develop grid-connected solar parks across
various locations in India.

Beyond News

 The two firms have IL&FS Energy, one of the leading operators of conventional and
renewable power projects in India along with SB Energy haveagreed to facilitate the
development of solar parks with aggregate capacity of more than 20 GW by 2025.
 The Centre has set an ambitious target of adding 100 GW of solar power by 2022.
 SB Energy has won bids for setting up 1,400 MW solar projects in India including 300
MW at the Bhadla III Solar Park developed by the Saurya Urja Company of Rajasthan
Ltd., a joint venture between IL&FS Energy and the Government of Rajasthan.
 The development of solar parks will involve IL&FS Energy taking up the development of
solar park infrastructure such as substations, grid connectivity and arrangements for
long-term access for power evacuation in addition to other value-added services, as per
the deal.
 SB Energy will take up the installation, engineering, procurement, construction and
financing of solar projects at these locations.
Chellanam reels under sea erosion
News: Protests raged at Chellanam where at least 100 families were affected by the
monster waves that battered the Kochi coastline in Kerala.

Beyond News

 The West Kochi Coast Protection Council will observe a dawn-to-dusk hartal at the
coastal village in protest against the alleged failure of the authorities to implement
measures to mitigate the effect of sea erosion.
 Earlier in the day, residents affected by the seawater incursion staged a protest in the
village, raising a host of demands ranging from construction of geo-tube sea walls to
payment of monetary compensation for affected families.
 ―The swelling waves have begun to hit the villages even before the onset of the monsoon
season, also raising concerns of a public health crisis. Water rose up to one metre inside
some houses and hundreds of families had to be evacuated.
 Attributing the widespread damage to weak sea walls, pointed out that the worst affected
area was the stretch between Maruvakkad Velankanni Church and bazaar areas where
the seawall had not been built.
 The village sustained heavy losses in December last year when Cyclone Okchi lashed
the Kerala coast.

MAY 30
General Studies-01
Hidden mountain ranges discovered under Antarctica ice
News: Researchers have discovered mountain ranges and three huge, deep subglacial valleys
hidden beneath the Antarctica ice.

Significance: The findings are the first to emerge from extensive ice penetrating radar data
collected in Antarctica as part of the European Space Agency PolarGAP project.

Beyond News

 Although there are extensive satellite data

that help image the surface of the Earth
and its deep interior, there was a gap
around the South Pole area, which is not
covered by satellites due the inclination of
their orbits.
 The PolarGAP project was therefore
designed to fill in the gap in the satellite
data coverage of the South Pole and in
particular acquire the missing gravity data.
 Airborne radar data were also collected to
enable mapping of the bedrock topography
 hidden beneath the ice sheet. The data reveals the topography which controls how
quickly ice flows between the East and West Antarctic ice sheets.
 These valleys could be important in future as they help to channel the flow of ice from
the centre of the continent towards the coast.
 If climate change causes the ice sheet to thin, these troughs could increase the speed at
which ice flows from the centre of Antarctica to the sea, raising global sea levels.
 The largest valley, known as the Foundation Trough, is more than 350 kilometres long
and 35 kilometres wide. Its length is equivalent to the distance from London to
Manchester, while its width amounts to more than one and a half times the length of New
York‘s Manhattan Island.
 The two other troughs are equally vast. The Patuxent Trough is more than 300
kilometres long and over 15 kilometres wide, while the Offset Rift Basin is 150 kilometres
long and 30 kilometres wide.

Great Barrier Reef facing its toughest test ever

News: Australia‘s Great Barrier Reef, under severe stress in a warmer, more acidic ocean,
has returned from near-extinction five times in the past 30,000 years, researchers said.

Beyond News:

 While this suggests the reef may be more

resilient than once thought, it has likely
never faced an onslaught quite as severe
as today.
 In the past, the reef shifted along the sea
floor to deal with changes in its
environment either seaward or landward
depending on whether the level of the
ocean was rising or falling.
 Based on fossil data from cores drilled into the ocean floor at 16 sites, they determined
the Great Barrier Reef was able to migrate between 20 cm and 1.5 metres per year. This
rate may not be enough to withstand the current barrage of environmental challenges.
 The reef probably has not faced changes in SST (sea surface temperature) and
acidification at such a rate are likely much faster now and in future projections.

General Studies-02
Modi begins Indonesia visit by laying wreath at military
cemetery
News: Prime Minister began his Indonesia visit by paying homage to martyrs of Indonesian
independence struggle as he laid a wreath at the Kalibata National Heroes‘ Cemetery in
Jakarta.

Beyond News

 Prime Minister will meet President Joko Widodo and discuss bilateral cooperation in a
broad range of areas, including maritime, trade and investment.
 Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery in South Jakarta is a military cemetery in Indonesia. It was
built in 1953 and opened in November 1954 when the first burial took place.
 More than 7,000 people who are military casualties and veterans from Indonesian War of
Independence are buried at the cemetery.
 Prime Minister arrived in the Indonesian capital on the first leg of his three-nation tour to
East Asia to cement the political, economic and strategic interest of the two friendly
maritime neighbours.

General Studies-03
Bengal’s Chau mask acquires GI fame
News; The Chau mask of Purulia, the wooden mask of Kushmandi, the Patachitra, the
Dokras of Bengal, and Madhurkathi (a kind of mat) have been presented with the
Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indication Registry and Intellectual
Property India.

Beyond News

 A GI tag connects the quality and

authenticity of a given product to a
particular geographical origin, thereby
ensuring that no one other than the
authorised user can use the popular
product‘s name.
 Deputy Registrar of Geographical
Indications, told that GI tags for these five
rural crafts would not only help the artisans
create their own brand but would also
provide legal protection to artisans
practising the crafts against attempts to duplicate them in other regions.
 GI tags are given on the basis of the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration
and Protection) Act, 1999. The first product to be included in the list was Darjeeling Tea.
 While 500 families were involved in the making of large and colourful Chau masks used
in the Chau dance, also known as Chhau, in Baghmundi block of Purulia, around 200
families in Kushmandi make the wooden masks used for the Mukha dance.
 In Paschim Medinipur, a few hundred families in Pingla village make the beautifully
painted scrolls called Patachitra, and 3,000 families in two districts were into making
Madurkathi.

Bacteria-coated broccoli sent to space

News: Scientists have sent broccoli seeds coated with a healthy dose of good bacteria to
space in a quest to find a viable way for astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS)
to grow their own vegetables and possibly one day on the Moon or Mars.

Beyond News: The goal of the experiment, is to learn how to grow vegetables in the
challenging, microgravity conditions of the space station and eventually on the Moon and
Mars as human space exploration expands.
 Six broccoli seeds were aboard the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft that launched this
week from Wallops Island, Virginia, as part of a space station cargo resupply mission.
 Three of the seeds are travelling to space as it is, while the other three were coated with
two different species of bacteria, developed at the University of Washington, that can live
inside crop plants and improve their growth.
 These ―beneficial‖ microbes, also called endophytes, may also help plants grow better in
extreme low-gravity environments, and where nutrients or water could be lacking.

NGT issues notices on plea to halt road through Corbett

News: A plea seeking a stay on the construction of a link road linking Kotdwar to Ramnagar
through the Corbett Tiger Reserve has led the National Green Tribunal to seek responses
from the Uttarakhand government and the Centre.

Beyond News

 A Bench issued show-cause notices to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate
Change, National Tiger Conservation Authority, National Board for Wildlife, NBBC (India)
Limited and State government.
 The orders came while the green panel was hearing a plea which alleged that the
construction of the link road would damage the ecosystem and biodiversity of the tiger
reserve.
 The plea alleged that the construction of the road was in violation of previous
Supreme Court orders that prohibited the construction of any road through the Corbett
Tiger Reserve.

India resists lobbying by U.S. payment firms to ease local data

storage rules
News: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is standing firm on a directive to compel global payment
firms to store customer data in India, resisting calls from U.S. companies to dilute an order
they say would cost them millions of dollars, people familiar with the matter said.

Beyond News

 The payment companies are worried India‘s data onshoring move could set a precedent
and nudge other major governments to implement similar rules at a time when there is
heightened scrutiny on how companies globally handle their customers‘ data.
 The industry‘s tussle with the RBI also comes as Prime Minster aggressively pushes
digital and cashless modes of payment that leave an electronic trail as part of a
campaign to crack down on the black economy.
 While Mr. Modi‘s administration is working on a separate data protection law, foreign
companies were caught off guard in April by the RBI‘s one-page directive that said all
payments data should within six months be stored only in the country for ―unfettered
supervisory access‖.
 The RBI said storing data locally would help ―ensure better monitoring‖.
 The card companies are nervous that the move will disrupt their investment plans, as
millions of dollars are diverted from other projects in a scramble to open local data
centres within six months.
 The RBI‘s insistence that payments data be stored ―only in India‖ would hamper global
fraud detection and the companies should be allowed to keep a back-up, the sources
said.
 Master card said it was working with the industry to engage the RBI ―to understand their
need for access to domestic data and work towards a solution that meets the regulatory
requirements‖ in line with global norms.
 The move would not impact local players such as Soft bank Group-backed Indian digital
payments firm Paytm, as well as homegrown card payment network RuPay, which
competes with the likes of Visa and Mastercard, as they already store their data in India.

MAY 31
General Studies-01
Idols of Raja Raja Chola, consort recovered from Gujarat.
News: The Idol Wing of the State police recovered two ancient bronze idols of emperor
Raja Raja Chola I and his royal consort Lokamadevi believed to be worth over ₹150 crore
from the Calico Museum and Sarabhai Foundation galleries in Ahmedabad.

Beyond News

 These two idols were taken away 60 years ago and sold for several crores of rupees
through Rao Bahadur Srinivasa Gopalachery, a native of Sarukkai village near
Kapisthalam, to Gowtham Sarabhai.
 The Idol Wing began investigation into theft and misappropriation of rare idols from the
Big Temple last March. Deputy Superintendent of Police formally filed a complaint with
the Thanjavur West police station.
 The police team recorded the evidence of octogenarians, who had seen the rare idols 60
years ago, before proceeding to recover the idols kept at the Calico Museum and the
Sarabhai Foundation galleries in Ahmedabad. The police
officials reached the museum in Gujarat and informed
them that they were the property of Big Temple. Now they
are bringing it back to Tamil Nadu.
 According to inscriptions, Raja Raja Chola donated 66
idols to the Big Temple. Notable among them were Kolgai
Devar and Shetra Balar, made of gold, and four silver
idols of Vasudevar.
 These two were among the 13 idols donated by one of
the lieutenants of Raja Raja Chola. The other 11 are
missing, the police said. Mummidi Chola Brammarayan,
another lieutenant, donated a huge panchalohaidol of
Arthanariswarar to the temple.
 General Studies-02
India,Indonesia elevate ties
News: India and Indonesia elevated their bilateral ties to Comprehensive Strategic
Partnership.

Beyond News:

 The two countries condemned terrorism in all its forms, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi
held ―productive discussions‖ with President Joko Widodo.
 The two countries also signed 15 agreements, including one to boost defence
cooperation, and called for freedom of navigation in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.
 The two leaders discussed areas of strategic cooperation and ways to ensure better
economic ties and closer cultural relations, besides regional and global issues of mutual
interest.
 Modi announced a free 30-day visa for Indonesian citizens and invited the diaspora to
travel to their country of origin to experience the ‗New India.‘

‘People of Assam will be consulted on Bill’

News: Home Minister Rajnath Singh conveyed to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda
Sonowal that the people of Assam should not be apprehensive about the
proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 and any future step would be taken only after
consultations with all stakeholders.

Beyond News:

 Amid mounting pressures from various citizen groups in the State regarding the
implications of the Bill, Mr. Sonowal met Mr. Singh for over an hour-and-a-half in the
North Block.
 Sonowal stayed put in Mr. Singh‘s office even after the latter left for the day, till the Home
Ministry put out a statement stating the assurance.
 Assam has been witnessing protests against the Centre‘s move to enact the Bill that
seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan
who came to India due to religious persecution in those countries.
 Organisations spearheading the protests said that the Bill, if passed, would pave the way
for giving citizenship to illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in Assam.
 Assam Chief Minister requested Home Minister to set up a committee to make
recommendations for implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord which provides
for constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and
promote the culture, social, linguistic identity and heritage of Assamese people.
 They also discussed various administrative and security arrangements related to the
updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as per the orders of the Supreme
Court.

Plea in SC to curb misuse of religion

News: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court to order the government to take
appropriate steps to restrict the misuse of religion for electoral gain in line with the
recommendations of the Election Commission of India, and debar the candidates from
contesting election and de-register the political parties which do so.

Beyond News:

 The petition, filed by Supreme Court advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, contended that
religious statements have been made to support particular political parties and
candidates, which is against the basic dictum of democracy.
 The petition cited the 1990 report of the Goswami Committee on Electoral Reforms,
which recommended clothing the Commission with powers to initiate probe, to prosecute
or even appoint a Special Court for offences under the Representation of the People
Act (RPA).
 It said an Amendment Bill was introduced in 1990 in the Rajya Sabha, particularly, to
restrict the misuse of religion in the election. However, the government of the day
withdrew this Bill three years later.
 The Home Affairs Ministry had also referred to the Justice Liberhan Commission report
to the Election Commission for action against the parties, which misuse religious
sentiments.
 Upadhyay pointed out that Section 123(3) of the RPA mandates that an appeal on the
grounds of religion, race, caste and promotions of feelings of enmity among different
classes constitute a ―corrupt practice,‖ though it can be questioned with an election
petition.

CG teams of India, Bangladesh hold talks

News: Bangladesh Coast Guard delegation called on Additional Director General KR
Nautiyal, Coast Guard Commander (Eastern Seaboard) and Dy Inspector General Navdeep
Raj, Commander Coast Guard District Headquarters No. 6, (Andhra Pradesh).

Beyond News

 This was the first interaction of a foreign Coast Guard delegation to this newly
established headquarters of the Coast Guard which is responsible for entire eastern
seaboard of India comprising West Bengal, Orissa, A.P. and Tamil Nadu.
 An MoU between ICG (Indian Coast Guard) and BCG was signed on June 6, 2015,
during the visit of Minister to Bangladesh for the establishment of collaborative
relationship to combat transitional illegal
activities at sea and develop regional
cooperation between the two Coast
Guards.
 The BCG delegation discussed the
requirement for training and other areas of
cooperation.
 General Studies-03
3D-printed corneas for the blind
News: In a first, scientists have created 3D printed human
corneas that could solve the shortage of available eye
donors and help millions of blind people gain sight again.

Beyond News

 As the outermost layer of the human eye, the cornea has an important role in focusing
vision.
 Yet there is a significant shortage of corneas available to transplant, with 10 million
people worldwide requiring surgery to prevent corneal blindness as a result of diseases
such as trachoma, an infectious eye disorder.
 In addition, almost 5 million people suffer total blindness due to corneal scarring caused
by burns, lacerations, abrasion or disease.
 The proof-of-concept research, shows how stem cells from a healthy donor cornea were
mixed together with alginate and collagen to create a solution that could be printed, a
‗bio-ink‘.