India signs UNISA
India on 7 August 2019 signed a key UN convention on international settlement agreements, even as experts called for local laws to support the treaty’s implementation in business contracts.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21180-india-signs-unisa
#UNISA #India #JawedAshraf #NDIAC #ADR #IIIA #Singapore

Living indigenous languages
The Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea has the highest number of 'living' indigenous languages in the world (840), while India stands fourth with 453. 2019 is the United Nations' International Year of Indigenous Languages.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21179-living-indigenous-languages
#indigenous #UN #UNESCO #Australia #Pacific #UnitedNations #India

‘Climate Change and Land’ report
Agriculture and associated land activities related to food production could be contributing over a quarter of the global emissions of greenhouse gases, a new major report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21178-climate-change-and-land-report
#IPCC #GHG #GlobalWarming #anthropogenic #greenhouse #Agriculture

Curiosity rover completes seven years
NASA's Curiosity rover has completed seven years on Mars and it has shared a 360-degree view of the Teal Ridge alongside a throwback video of its landing on the red planet. It’s been seven years since NASA’s Curiosity rover first touched the surface of the Mars.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21177-curiosity-rover-completes-seven-years
#NASA #Mars #planet #MRO #UpperMountSharp #VeraRubinRidge #Curiosity

Tribunal for SFJ
The Centre has set up a tribunal to adjudicate whether or not there is sufficient reason to impose a ban on pro-Khalistan group Sikhs For Justice, which was declared as an unlawful organisation last month.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21176-tribunal-for-sfj
#SFJ #Tribunal #UAPA #Prevention #ParamjeetSinghPamma

Vikram goes silent
ISRO has lost contact with Chandrayaan 2’s lander Vikram and rover Pragyan on 7 September 2019. Earlier in the day, ground stations lost contact with the lander during its powered descent to the lunar surface minutes before the planned touch-down.
Read More: http://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21417-vikram-goes-silent
#Vikram #Chandrayaan2 #ISRO #LOI #PSLVC11 #KSivan #Pragyan

Disturbed Area tag in Assam extended
Despite demand from several quarters to remove, Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 Assam government as per Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, has declared the entire State of Assam as “Disturbed Area for another six month.
Read More: http://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21416-disturbed-area-tag-in-assam-extended
#Assam #CAPF #AFSPA #ULFA #SupremeCourt #ArmedForces

India, South Korea ink deal for Navy
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held talks with his South Korean counterpart Jeong Kyeongdoo. They comprehensively reviewed bilateral defence cooperation and signed two agreements to expand defence educational exchanges and extend logistical support to each other’s navies.
Read More: http://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21415-india-south-korea-ink-deal-for-navy
#India #Navy #RajnathSingh #ROK #SouthKorea

Subsea science observatory vanishes
A German research organization is searching, so far in vain, for an underwater environmental monitoring station that was moored on the sea bed and went missing last month.
Read More: http://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21414-subsea-science-observatory-vanishes
#German #CH4 #observatory #organization #science #greenhouse #gas

Joint Panel for FTA
India and the 10-member bloc of South-East Asian nations have decided to review their free trade agreement (FTA) in goods that was signed in 2009.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21446-joint-panel-for-fta
#FTA #JointPanel #ASEAN #RCEP #Indianindustry #PiyushGoyal

Healthcare’s climate footprint
India figures among the top ten countries that account for 75 per cent of global healthcare climate footprint, according to a report released by Health Care Without Harm, an international NGO, in collaboration with Arup.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21445-healthcare-s-climate-footprint
#Healthcare #footprint #GHG #NGO #greenhouse #gas

UN refuses to interfere on Kashmir issue
A day after India and Pakistan had a face-off at the 42nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 11 September 2019 expressed concern on the potential escalation between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue and appealed to both sides to solve it through dialogue.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21444-un-refuses-to-interfere-on-kashmir-issue
#Kashmir #Pakistan #ImranKhan #UNSC #Article370 #UNHRC #NarendraModi

A rare Harvest Moon
This 13 September 2019, a full moon will be visible in the sky, which will be the first time in nearly 20 years that it will coincide with the 13th September 2019.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/index.php/study-material/news-for-aspirants/21443-a-rare-harvest-moon
#Harvest #Moon #NationalGeographic #HarvestMoon #fullmoon

Greenhouse gases hit new high
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2018, exceeding the average yearly increase of the last decade and reinforcing increasingly damaging weather patterns, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22108-greenhouse-gases-hit-new-high.html
#Greenhouse #WMO #gases #NDCs #UNEP #CO2

Maharashtra political crisis
While ordering floor test for Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, the Supreme Court on 26 November 2019 referred to its past decisions on Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand where it had ordered similar exercise in times of political crisis.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22107-maharashtra-political-crisis.html
#Maharashtra #DevendraFadnavis #PoliticalCrisis #MLAs #BJP

Red flags rising Mudra bad loans
Reserve Bank Deputy Governor MK Jain on 26 November 2019 raised concerns over the growing NPA levels in Mudra loans and asked banks to monitor these loans closely.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22106-red-flags-rising-mudra-bad-loans.html
#Redflags #NPA #PMMY #NarendraModi #Mudraloans #Kishore #PradhanMantriMUDRAYojana

Constitution Day
Constitution Day is being celebrated across the country to mark the adoption of the Indian Constitution by the Constituent Assembly on this day (26 November) in 1949. The Constitution Day is also known as Samvidhan diwas.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22105-constitution-day.html
#ConstitutionDay #Samvidhandiwas #NarendraModi #BhimRaoAmbedkar

Merger of UT Bill 2019 introduced
The government on 26 November 2019 introduced in the Lok Sabha a Bill to merge two Union Territories — Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli — into one.
Read More: https://www.ksgindia.com/study-material/news-for-aspirants/22104-merger-of-ut-bill-2019-introduced.html
#UTBill2019 #Merger #LokSabha #JammuandKashmir #NagarHaveli

Today's Headlines - 02 August 2023
Climate change is altering the colour of the oceans
GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

The colour of the Earth’s oceans has significantly altered over the past two decades, most likely due to human-induced climate change, according to a new study. Over 56 per cent of the oceans, more than the total land area on the planet, has experienced the shift in colour, it added. The study, ‘Global climate-change trends detected in indicators of ocean ecology’, was published in the journal Nature.

What makes the oceans colourful in the first place?

In most regions across the world, the oceans appear blue or navy blue for a reason. This happens due to “the absorption and scattering of light”.
When the sunlight falls on deep and clear water, colours with longer wavelengths, such as red, yellow and green, are absorbed by the water molecules but blue and violet, which have a much shorter wavelength, are reflected back.
When sunlight hits the ocean, some of the light is reflected back directly but most of it penetrates the ocean surface and interacts with the water molecules that it encounters.
The red, orange, yellow, and green wavelengths of light are absorbed so that the remaining light we see is composed of the shorter wavelength blues and violets.
But when the water isn’t deep or clean, an ocean can appear to be of a different colour.
For instance, along Argentina’s coastline, where major rivers merge into the Atlantic Ocean, the ocean exudes a brown tint because of dead leaves and sediments spewing from the rivers.
In other parts of the world, the oceans appear green, which happens due to the existence of phytoplankton on the upper surface of the water.
Phytoplanktons are microscopic marine algae that contain the green-coloured pigment chlorophyll.
The pigment helps them absorb sunlight, which they use to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into sugars. Moreover, chlorophyll absorbs the red and blue portions of the light spectrum — or photosynthesis — and reflects green light.

What methods were used to carry out the study?

To conduct the study, Cael and his team first analysed data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, which has been monitoring ocean colour since 2002 — the measurements are taken in terms of the amount of light coming off the surface of the oceans, at all seven of the different wavelengths of light, from violet to red.
The examination of 20 years worth of data indicated that in more than 50 per cent of the world’s oceans, the colour has changed.
Then, to check if the phenomenon has occurred due to climate change, researchers used a climate model – a computer representation of the Earth.
This model simulated the planet’s oceans under two scenarios: one with the addition of greenhouse gases, and the other without it.
The greenhouse-gas model predicted that a significant trend should show up within 20 years and that this trend should cause changes to ocean colour in about 50 percent of the world’s surface oceans — almost exactly what Cael found in his analysis of real-world satellite data.

#upsc #news #headline #climate #colour #oceans #pigment #phytoplankton #chlorophyll #sediments #spewing #rivers #spectrum #methods #MODIS #NASA #Aqua #satellite #world #earth #wavelength #gases #greenhouse #data #planet

Today's Headlines - 03 August 2023
New IPCC assessment cycle begins
GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded its elections, marking the beginning of the seventh assessment cycle. The elections commenced, during the IPCC’S 59th session held in Nairobi, Kenya. In the process, the body elected James Skea, professor of sustainable energy at Imperial College, London, as the new IPCC Chair.

About IPCC

It was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
The IPCC produces comprehensive assessment reports (ARs) that are considered the most authoritative source of scientific knowledge on climate change.
So far, it has released six ARs — the final synthesis report of the sixth AR came out in March 2023 — and with the latest elections, the body has initiated a new cycle of producing the next AR.

What does the IPCC Chair do?

The primary role of the IPCC Chair is to oversee the reports which come out in each assessment cycle.
Together with the IPCC Bureau, the Chair also sets the research agenda, which could include the release of additional special reports on specific topics.
The Chair is required to possess a rare combination of scientific and diplomatic skills, which are needed to get the approvals of governments on the report summaries.
The tenure of the Chair usually lasts five to seven years, depending on the duration of the assessment cycle, and they can serve up to two terms only — India’s RK Pachauri remains the only person till now to serve two terms as the Chair. He headed the fourth and fifth assessment cycles of the IPCC, between 2002 and 2015.

What are the IPCC assessment cycles?

So far, the IPCC has had six assessment cycles, during which it released six comprehensive assessment reports.
In each of these cycles, the body also produced several special reports on specific topics. Not only this, IPCC also publishes methodology reports during these cycles, in which it provides guidelines for governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
Kickstarter in 2015, the sixth assessment cycle, the most recent one, was concluded in March this year with the release of the synthesis report — a relatively non-technical summary of the previous report that came out during the cycle.
The previous reports included reports put out by the three working groups, including Working Group I, which aims at assessing the physical scientific basis of the climate system and climate change, Working Group II, which examines the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change and its consequences, and the Working Group III, which focuses on climate change mitigation, assessing methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere
Notably, the IPCC doesn’t conduct its research, but asks the authors to “assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks”.

#upsc #news #headline #IPCC #cycle #panel #WMO #UNEP #ARs #agenda #report #bureau #diplomatic #greenhouse #methodology #technical #gas #emissions #synthesis #mitigation #research #focus #risks

Today's Headlines - 16 August 2023
Wildfires ravage Hawaii’s Maui Island
GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

The images of the aftermath of the devastating fire in Hawaii’s Maui Island have grabbed the world’s attention. The wildfires, which have already killed nearly 100 people and left thousands homeless, have become part of a wider global list of unusually intense blazes that have raged across Europe, Canada and the United States.

What happened in Hawaii

Hawaii is no stranger to fires, which burn on a smaller scale with some regularity, especially in the drier parts of the island.
The current fires – active in Lahaina, Upcountry and Pūlehu/Kīhei – are believed to have started with the one in Lahaina spreading quickly across the town.
The exact cause of the fires is still under investigation, but experts agree that the fires were bolstered by strong winds from Category-4 Hurricane Dora, which was passing through the Pacific Ocean – far to the southwest of the island.
Low humidity and dry vegetation too precipitated the issue. Initial reports suggest that the changing land-use patterns in Hawaii, which has seen farm and forest lands being replaced by flammable non-native species of grasses like Guinea grass, are a likely cause for the easy spread of the fire.
Over the past few decades, wildfire has been increasing in Hawaii as a result of changing climate, as a result of increases in invasive species, and a lot of our active agriculture going out… and becoming fallow.

What is the link between wildfires and climate change?

Wildfires have been a part of life on Earth, usually following a seasonal pattern during the June-August period.
Be it natural or human-made, the phenomenon is a critical part of the ecosystem. A healthy fire is key to ensuring that forests remain robust and resilient.
It also aids the natural replenishment of nutrients in the soil, helps sunlight reach the forest floors, and encourages the germination of seeds.
It is the increasingly intense nature of the wildfires – aided by the warming weather, dry conditions and change in rain cycles – that is now becoming a source of worry.
Experts have compared it akin to the difference between throwing a lighted matchstick on a pile of wet, green wood and on dry kindling. And increasingly, climate change is determining the degree of dryness of the latter.
Besides the destruction of lives and livelihoods, these catastrophic wildfires also release an immense amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
There is also one immediate issue – these immense fires contribute adversely to air pollution, leading to long-term and short-term respiratory issues, heart disease and lung cancer.

#upsc #news #headline #wildfires #hawaiimaui #island #enviroment #worldattention #europe #US #fires #pulehu #kihei #lahaina #pacific #ocean #humidity #category #guinea #forest #ecosystem #natural #peroid #seeds #catastrophic #greenhouse #gases #cancer #airpollution #respiratory #heart #disease

Today's Headlines - 18 August 2023
Net zero carbon emission country
GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

Bhutan has emerged as a country with net zero emissions and not only curbed its carbon footprints, but has also transformed into a carbon sink, absorbing more carbon dioxide (CO2) than releasing, It reported that the recent report from the World Economic Forum revealed that the eight countries including Bhutan have attained an impressive feat of net zero emissions.

More about the News

Bhutan is one among the 196 nations that committed to the Paris Agreement during the UN Climate Change Conference focused on restricting global temperature increases to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Apart from Bhutan, Comoros, nestled in the Indian Ocean and Gabon in Central Africa have managed to control the carbon emissions and set an example for other countries.
Comoros, by conscientiously managing its agricultural, fishing, and livestock sectors, complemented by rigorous environmental safeguards has maintained low emissions.
Bhutan's unique success as the first nation to achieve net zero emissions is rooted in its population of 8,00,000 and its remarkable forest coverage of 70%.
Why this achievement

The nation prioritizes sustainable organic farming and forestry practices, accentuated by the reliance on hydropower and the prudent management of its main economic driver, tourism.
Notably, Bhutan charges a $200 sustainable development fee per day from tourists, underscoring the value placed on eco-tourism and environmental protection.
It has been reported that another reason behind this control of emissions is the forests being an intrinsic part of its spiritual heritage.
Guided by a climate-conscious forest economy, Bhutan mitigates greenhouse gas emissions, preserves wildlife habitats, mitigates forest fires, and practices sustainable forest management for timber, fruit, and rubber - fostering a circular economy.
The nation has embarked on pilot projects that explore sustainable timber construction, showcasing innovative solutions.
Bhutan's journey to net zero emissions, fueled by an unyielding commitment to its environment and cultural heritage, is a source of inspiration for the world.
As nations navigate the complexities of climate change, Bhutan's story beckons us to embrace sustainable practices and safeguard our precious planet.

#upsc #news #headline #netzero #carbon #emission #country #enviroment #carbonfootprints #bhutan #carbondioxide #nations #climatechange #parisagreement #indianocean #gabon #africa #comoros #temperature #indianocean #safeguards #environmental #livestocks #sectors #rigorous #achievement #farming #tourism #reliance #heritage #economy #greenhouse #gas #wildlife #forestfires #cultural #world #embrace #planet #nations