National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 8th June 2019

Space station will be open to tourists from next year

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: U.S. space agency NASA said that it would open up the International Space Station to business ventures including space tourism with stays priced at $35,000 a night  as it seeks to financially disengage from the orbiting research lab.

More on the Topic:

• There will be up to two short private astronaut missions per year. The missions will be for stays of up to 30 days. As many as a dozen private astronauts could visit the ISS per year.
• These travellers would be ferried to the orbiter exclusively by the two companies currently developing transport vehicles for NASA: SpaceX, with its Crew Dragon capsule, and Boeing, which is building one called Starliner.
• These companies would choose the clients and bill for the trip to the ISS, which will be the most expensive part of the adventure: around $58 million for a round trip ticket.
• The space station does not belong to NASA. It was built along with Russia starting in 1998, and other countries participate in the mission and send up astronauts.
• But the U.S. has paid for and controls most of the modules that make up the orbiter.
• The new space tourists to the ISS will not be the first: S. businessman Dennis Tito had that honour in 2001. He paid Russia around $20 million for the trip.

About International Space Station:

• It is the largest manned object in space, 357ft long, just a yard short of a full-length football field.
• It weighs 419,725kg including the weight of spacecrafts. The space station can accommodate as many as six spacecrafts at one time.
• It is the single most expensive object ever built at £93.4bn.
• It is the third brightest object in the Earth’s night sky after the moon and Venus.
• The space station travels at a speed of 4.791 miles per second, fast enough to go to the moon and back in a single day.
• It orbits the earth approximately once every 90 minutes or 16 times in a 24-hour period.
• It passes over 90 per cent of the earth’s population in the course of its orbital path.
• The living space in the station includes six sleeping quarters, a gym and a 360-degree bay window, but only two bathrooms.
• The zero gravity causes astronauts to float while doing their daily activities.
• The orbiting station has been continuously occupied since November 2000.On September 2, 2017, Nasa’s Peggy Whitson set the record of being the longest-serving human in space.
• The ISS currently serves as the largest, peaceful scientific collaboration in history. The multination partnerships have helped defray the burden of the ISS’s functioning.

Source: The Hindu

Sexually Transmitted Infections

Topic: Health

In News: Every day, more than 1 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are detected in people aged 15-49 years, according to latest data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

More on the Topic:

• This amounts to more than 376 million new cases annually of four infections chlamydia, gonorrhoea, trichomoniasis and syphilis.
• These STIs have a profound impact on the health of adults and children worldwide. If untreated, they can lead to serious and chronic health effects that include neurological and cardiovascular disease, infertility, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirths, and increased risk of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). They are also associated with significant levels of stigma and domestic violence.
• Syphilis alone caused an estimated 200,000 stillbirths and newborn deaths in 2016, making it one of the leading causes of infant mortality globally.
• Warning that STIs remain a persistent and endemic health threat worldwide, the WHO noted that, since the last published data for 2012, there has been no substantive decline in either the rates of new or existing infections.
• On average, approximately 1 in 25 people globally have at least one of these STIs, according to the latest figures, with some experiencing multiple infections at the same time.

Way Forward:

• Timely and affordable testing and treatment are crucial for reducing the burden of STIs globally, alongside efforts to encourage people who are sexually active to get screened for STIs.
• The WHO further recommends that pregnant women should be systematically screened for syphilis as well as HIV.
• All bacterial STIs can be treated and cured with widely available medication. However, recent shortages in the global supply of benzathine penicillin has made it more difficult to treat syphilis.

Source: The Hindu

SEBI, MCA sign pact for more data scrutiny

Topic: Economy

In News: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate seamless sharing of data and information for carrying out scrutiny, inspection, investigation and prosecution.

More on the topic:

• The MoU will facilitate the sharing of data and information between the regulator and the MCA on an automatic and regular basis, while enabling sharing of specific information such as details of suspended companies, delisted firms, shareholding pattern from the SEBI and financial statements filed with the Registrar by corporates, returns of allotment of shares and audit reports relating to corporates.
• The MoU will ensure that both the MCA and the SEBI have seamless linkage for regulatory purposes and in addition to regular exchange of data, the two will also exchange with each other, on request, any available information for scrutiny, inspection, investigation and prosecution.
• A Data Exchange Steering Group will meet periodically to review the data exchange status.

Significance of the MOU:

• This assumes significance as the MCA has the database of all registered firms while SEBI only regulates listed entities that may have unlisted subsidiaries, with the MCA having access to all the data of such unlisted entities.
• The MoU comes in the wake of increasing need for surveillance in the context of corporate frauds affecting important sectors of the economy.
• As the private sector plays an increasingly vital role in economic growth, the need for a robust corporate governance mechanism becomes the need of the hour.

Source: The Hindu

Private agencies to handle PR work for Railways

Topic: Governance

In News: In a major shift, the Railway Ministry has decided to hand over core public relations activities to private agencies with more focus on social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter.

More on the Topic:

• The largest employer of the Union Government will now hire professionals to devise communication strategies to promote the image of the Railways and also in the management of passenger feedback and public grievances.
• In the existing system, Public Relations in the railways is managed by a CPRO at the zonal level who is supported by Senior Public Relations Officers, Public Relations Inspectors and supporting staff at the headquarters and divisional level.
• One of the primary tasks of the PR agencies would be to formulate a result-oriented, comprehensive communication strategy on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Quora, YouTube, LinkedIn and Medium and other platforms that would be decided from time to time by the competent authority.
• The private agencies chosen by the Zonal Railways through open bidding process would analyse newspapers/magazines, websites and television channels as regards news relating to the Railways.
• A dedicated team of qualified analysts would be deployed to work in back-end offices to assist CPROs in identifying issues/themes and “identifying influencers who are active in media.”
• The outsourced work would include online storage and management of data and content and make them available to railway officials when required.

Source: The Hindu

Al-Qaeda

Topic: Internal Security

In News: Global terror outfit Al-Qaeda has announced a new chief for its India wing, , two weeks after its top ‘commander’ Zakir Musa was killed in an encounter in Pulwama’s Tral.

More on the Topic:

• Al-Qaeda is getting more active in the Indian subcontinent and by 2017, it boasted several hundred members, with its cells mostly in Afghanistan and its operatives flourishing in Bangladesh, counter-terrorism experts have told the US lawmakers.
• Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent usually abbreviated as AQIS, is an Islamist militant organization which aims to fight the governments of Pakistan, India, Myanmar and Bangladesh in order to establish an Islamic state.
• The militant group has also stated its intentions to attack American targets in the Indian Subcontinent. This group is listed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, United States, Canada and India.

Steps Taken by India Against Terrorism:

• Government of India has created National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2008 after Mumbai attacks which acts as a federal agency to combat terror.
• Multi Agency Centre (MAC) revamped after 26/11 attacks, acts as a multi-agency intelligence coordination mechanism for counter terrorism.
• Combating Financing of Terrorism Cell (CFT- Cell) is also created to deal with the policy matters on combating terrorist financing and Fake Indian Currency.
• India is also a member of FATF (Financial Action Task Force) whose aim is to establish international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.Recently FATF puts Pakistan on ‘grey-list’ over global terror finance.
• The government has created observation posts, Border fencing, flood lighting, deployment of modern and hi-tech surveillance equipment to prevent increased immigration.
• Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) has replaced manual surveillance/patrolling of the international borders by electronic surveillance to enhance detection and interception capabilities.
• India has been supportive of all efforts, particularly in the UN to combat terrorism and has played a leading role in shaping international opinion and urging the international community to prioritize the fight against terror.
• India since 1996 is trying to push a global intergovernmental convention i.e. Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) to tackle terrorism. It can provide a legal framework to enhance prosecution and extradition of terrorists.
• Continuous dialogues with neighbouring countries have been initiated from time to time for motivating them for a strict action against terrorists breeding in their respective territories.

Mains Question(2015): Terrorist activities and mutual distrust have clouded India-Pakistan relations. To what extent the use of soft power like sports and cultural exchanges could help generate goodwill between the two countries? Discuss with suitable examples.

Source: The Hindu

Power from waste-to-energy

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: Continuing its efforts to establish an environment-friendly network, the Delhi Metro has become the first ever project in the country to receive power generated from a waste-to-energy plant.

More on the Topic:

• The waste-to-energy plant set up by East Delhi Waste Processing Company Limited (EDWPCL) is based on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) involving the Delhi government and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), besides the EDWPCL.
• The state of the art facility is set up to process above 1,500 tonnes per day (TPD) of waste and generate 12 MW of green power.
• The plant is India’s first Euro norms compliant waste-to-energy facility,” the DMRC said.
• The plant will mitigate over 8 million tons of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) over the life of the project, thus combating global warming.
• The Delhi Metro has been working continuously towards the conservation of the environment since the inception of the organisation. It is the first ever rail based organisation in the world to claim carbon credits.
• The DMRC has also commissioned a facility at Rohini on PPP model for recycling of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste with a capacity of 150 tons per day.

About Carbon Credits:

• A carbon credit is a permit or certificate allowing the holder, such as a company, to emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.
• The credit limits the emission to a mass equal to one ton of carbon dioxide. The ultimate goal of carbon credits is to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
• The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) developed a carbon credit proposal as a market-oriented mechanism to slow worldwide carbon emissions.
• A 1997 agreement known as the Kyoto Protocol set binding emission reduction targets for the countries that signed it, set to go into force in 2005.
• Another agreement, known as the Marrakesh Accords, spelled out the rules for how the system was to be implemented. One mechanism through which countries were encouraged to meet their targets was emissions trading.
• The Kyoto Protocol divided countries into industrialized and developing economies. Industrialized—or Annex 1—countries operated in their own emissions trading market.
• If a country emitted less than its target amount of hydrocarbons, it could sell its surplus credits to countries that did not achieve their Kyoto level goals, through an Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA).

Mains Question(2017): ‘Climate Change’ is a global problem. How India will be affected by climate change? How Himalayan and coastal states of India will be affected by climate change?

Source: The Hindu

Shortwave Radio Transmissions

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: If Prasar Bharati has its way, All India Radio will have to stop all global short wave transmissions eighty years after it began international broadcasting in 1939. AIR is resisting the move arguing that it will curtail its global reach.

More on the Topic:

• Prasar Bharati CEO denied that discontinuing short wave will impact global outreach. There would be fresh investments in expanding in DD India, AIR World Service and Prasar Bharati’s Gobal Digital Platform.
• “Going forward, AIR world service will be primarily a digital service which will leverage FM and Medium Wave capabilities where available and short wave in a limited way for strategic purposes. PB is also exploring the option of hiring airtime in transmitters outside India on a need basis where feasible.
• China has recently started buying air time on Nepalese radio channels for its programmes. India too may soon follow suit

About Shortwave Radio Transmission:

• Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave radio frequencies, the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), and generally extends from 3-30 MHz (10 to 100 meters), above the medium frequency band (MF), to the end of the HF band.
• Radio waves in the shortwave band can be reflected or refracted from a layer of electrically charged atoms in the atmosphere called the ionosphere.
• Therefore, short waves directed at an angle into the sky can be reflected back to Earth at great distances, beyond the horizon.
• This is called skywave or “skip” propagation, thus shortwave radio can be used for very long distance communication, in contrast to radio waves of higher frequency which travel in straight lines (line-of-sight propagation) and are limited by the visual horizon, about 64 km (40 miles).
• Shortwave radio is used for broadcasting of voice and music to shortwave listeners over very large areas, sometimes entire continents or beyond.
• It is also used for military over-the-horizon radar, diplomatic communication, and two-way international communication by amateur radio enthusiasts.

Source: AIR