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Daily G.K. - Top Stories

07 Apr 2019

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

 US Reaches H-1B Visa Cap for 2020

  •  The United States announced it had received enough petitions for H-1B visas for the congressionally mandated annual cap of 65,000 for 2020, the first under new rules that favour foreigners with advanced degrees from US colleges and might disadvantage Indians with Indian degrees.
  • US citizenship and immigration services, which runs the visa programme, said it has "received a sufficient number of petitions projected as needed to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap for fiscal year 2020". And that it will next determine "if we have received a sufficient number of petitions to meet the 20,000 H-1B visa US advanced degree exemption, known as the master's cap".
  • Indians have historically accounted for more than 70% of the total of 85,000 H-1B visas the US grants every year against applications by American employers for speciality occupations.
  • Some of them were those employed by Indian companies with US operations such as TCS and Infosys, but most were hired by American companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
  • The H-1B programme has come under intense scrutiny from the Trump administration which believes, agreeing with long-time critics, these visas have been used to hire foreigners at the cost of Americans, to displace local workers. And in line with President Donald Trump's "Buy American, Hire American" policy, rules have been introduced and changed to make it harder to qualify, costlier and less welcoming.
  • The new rule favouring foreigners with US degrees, which was announced in January, is expected to boost their numbers by an estimated 16%, or 5,340 workers.

New UK Passports Shed 'EU' Label

  •  Brexit has proved to be a veritable bridge too far with the Theresa May government struggling to see it through.
  • But the UK home office has already begun issuing new passports without the words "European Union" on the burgundy cover.
  • British passports issued from March 30 onwards don't have the prominent "European Union" label at the top of the front cover.
  • Instead, the new cover only mentions "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
  • The words were dropped because the home office had assumed Brexit would happen as scheduled on March 29.
  • But events inside and outside the House of Commons have led to continuing uncertainty, with Prime Minister May now seeking an extension until June 30.
  • Dropping the two words from the British passport's front cover is not the only change to be carried out.
  • Its colour will change from burgundy to blue later in the year. It will mark a return to the colour first used in 1921.
  • The existing burgundy colour was adopted in 1988.
  • There will be no difference for British citizens whether they are using a passport that includes the words 'European Union' or a passport that doesn't. Both designs will be equally valid for travel.
View Month Wise

ENVIRONMENT

Night Herons at Yamuna Park

  •  The otherwise quiet and tranquil Yamuna Biodiversity Park (YBP) has, of late, become lively with the quok and woc of black-crowned night herons.
  • It is during this time of the year the birds breed and the heronry becomes lively with the calls of the nestlings and adults.
  • Experts said that even though black-crowned night herons had almost vanished from the Yamuna floodplains long ago, possibly due to the loss of habitat and the river's rising pollution levels, they have started setting up colonies over the past few years and have been breeding in the YBP. Now, their population is growing every year.
  • In 2016, park authorities spotted around 2,000 nests, which shot up to at least 2,500 in 2017. This year, scientists are expecting around 5,000 nests in the park.
  • Park authorities are now planning to monitor the birds — particularly the black-crowned night herons — around the clock to understand their nesting ecology and feeding habits.
  • Even though the huge colony has several species such as snake birds, cormorants, egrets, pond herons and grey herons, blackcrowned night herons dominate the park's heronry.
View Month Wise

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

Boeing Set to Cut 737 MAX Production

  •  Boeing will cut production of its troubled 737 MAX airliner in April, underscoring the growing financial risk it faces the longer that its best-selling plane remains grounded after two deadly crashes.
  • The company said that starting in mid-April it will cut production of the plane to 42 from 52 planes per month so it can focus its attention on fixing the flight-control software that has been implicated in the crashes.
  • The move was not a complete surprise. Boeing had already suspended deliveries of the MAX in March, after regulators around the world grounded the jet.
  • Preliminary reports into accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia found that faulty sensor readings erroneously triggered an anti-stall system that pushed the plane's nose down. Pilots of each plane struggled in vain to regain control over the automated system.
  • In all, 346 people died in the crashes. Boeing faces a growing number of lawsuits filed by families of the victims.
  • Boeing also announced it is creating a special board committee to review airplane design and development.
  • The announcement to cut production comes after Boeing acknowledged that a second software issue has emerged that needs fixing on the MAX - a discovery that explained why the aircraft maker had pushed back its ambitious schedule for getting the planes back in the air.
View Month Wise

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

 India working on star wars arsenal

  •  After successfully testing an anti-satellite (ASat) missile in March,, India is working to develop other counterspace capabilities like directed energy weapons (DEWs) and co-orbital killers as well as the ability to protect its own satellites from electronic or physical attacks.
  • The A-Sat missile that destroyed the Microsat-R satellite at an altitude of 283-km in the low-earth orbit (LEO) on March 27 was a "direct-ascent, kinetic kill" weapon.
  • It's "feasible" to target multiple satellites with multiple launches of the three-stage interceptor missile, which can go up to 1,000 km into space.
  • A co-orbital weapon is basically a satellite equipped with some explosive, weapon or DEW device, which is first put into orbit and then later manoeuvred to target the enemy satellite.
  • Apart from these kinetic kill weapons, other ASAT weapons like lasers, jammers, EMP and high-powered microwaves are being developed by China, which first tested an A-Sat missile against a Leo weather satellite in 2007.
  • India's long-term aim is to develop A-Sat weapons against satellites in both LEO and GEO-synchronous orbits as a credible deterrence against emerging threats to its growing space-based assets. 
  • DRDO for long has also been running programmes on a wide variety of DEWs like highenergy lasers and high-powered microwaves capable of destroying aerial and ground-based targets, but whether they can be successfully developed into ASat weapons remains to be seen.

IIT-B researchers find bacteria that may help remove pollutants

  •  While carrying out a routine experiment on degradation of pollutants, researchers from IIT-Bombay have stumbled upon an organism which preferentially feeds on hazardous aromatic pollutants over glucose.
  • The discovery of this strain of bacterium, called Pseudomonas putida CSV86, can help in eliminating a diverse range of aromatic pollutants such as naphthalene (in household insect repellents), benzoate (in food preservatives), plastics and industrial chemicals.
  • The findings of the study, which was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, will not only help in getting rid of pollutants in waste water by breaking them down into safer chemicals, but further gene study could have implications in the field of agriculture too.

Amazon Plans Constellation of 3,000 Sats for 'Inclusive' Internet

  •  Tech giant Amazon is planning to set up a network of more than 3,000 satellites in order to provide a high-speed broadband internet service from space.
  • In his latest space venture, Jeff Bezos plans to establish 3,236 satellites that will provide high-speed internet access to people around the world.
  • In recent weeks, Amazon has been posting job adverts for the project, named Project Kuiper, after a part of the distant solar system believed to contain many comets, asteroids, and other small bodies.
  • It was discovered by the late Dutch American astronomer Gerard Kuiper.
  • Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will provide lowlatency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world.
  • This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet.
  • Amazon is joining several other major players already seeking to provide the nextgeneration broadband service from space. 
View Month Wise

SPORTS

IPL- 2019

  •  The Chennai Super Kings captain foresaw a battle no one could have, helped raise the par score of 160 on a difficult Chepauk pitch, before fielding three spinners to slowly turn the screws on Kings XI Punjab and extract another victory at home.

Joseph's Record 6/12 Powers

  •  Mumbai Indians' pace bowler Alzarri Joseph played spoilsport picking six for 12, the best spell in IPL history, to derail home team Sunrisers Hyderabad's chase.
  • After restricting Mumbai Indians to 136/7 in 20 overs, Sunrisers Hyderabad looked on course but the Antiguan fast bowler put the spanner in the works by bettering a record that has stood for 11 seasons.
  • Before Joseph, Sohail Tanvir's 6/14 in the inaugural season in 2008 was the best.

Tai Tzu to Retire after Olympics

  •  World No 1 shuttler Tai Tzu Ying declared that she will hang up her boots after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
  • The 24-year-old from Chinese Taipei has been the most dominant force in women's badminton ever since she became world No 1 on December 1, 2016, relinquishing the top spot only once for two weeks in April 2018.
  • Though she won the 2018 Asian Games gold and the Asian Championships the last two years, the two-time All England winner has never won a medal in any of the badminton Majors. However, that is what she aspires to before retiring.
  • Tai has a 15-5 record against Saina Nehwal, beating the Indian 13 times on the trot. Saina last won against Tai six years ago at the Swiss Open.
  • The Taiwanese also has an impressive 10-4 record against Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu.
View Month Wise

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

EC Bans Uncertified Political Ads on Poll Date and Day Before

  •  The Election Commission barred parties, candidates and others from publishing political advertisements on polling day and a day prior to it in each of the seven phases of Lok Sabha polls unless their contents are pre-certified by screening committees.
  • The EC had taken a similar decision for the first time in 2015 Bihar polls.
  • The poll panel said instances of advertisements of offending and misleading nature published in print media have been brought to its notice in the past.
  • The EC order said to ensure that no untoward incident takes place, it is using its constitutional powers to direct that "no political party or candidate or any other organization or person" will publish any advertisement in the print media on the day and one day prior to poll day unless the contents are pre-certified by screening committees.

Wildlife Board Not to Hear J&K Cases 

  •   Wildlife clearances for projects in the protected areas of Jammu and Kashmir will no longer be considered by the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL).
  • This is because of the special status granted to the state, although some activists and lawyers believe the body's clarification is misplaced.
  • Existing laws, including the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and the Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act, do not provide for consultation of the NBWL for cases related to national parks or sanctuaries in Jammu and Kashmir.
  • According to minutes of the 53rd meeting of the standing committee of NBWL published on March 25, the union environment ministry, through an office memorandum dated May 7, 2018, formed a committee to examine matters related to projects falling within national parks or wildlife sanctuaries of Jammu and Kashmir, projects in conservation reserves or community reserves, and projects falling within the eco-sensitive zone of a protected area.
  • Jammu and Kashmir has 38 conservation reserves, 14 wildlife sanctuaries and five national parks
  • Supreme Court judgments, such as the landmark case of TN Godavarman vs Union of India, which covers both issues related to wildlife and forests "do not specifically mention the state of Jammu and Kashmir while making no exception...," the minutes said.
  • The committee has said important cases may be referred to the NBWL by state authorities for advice or consideration but in view of the special provisions for Jammu and Kashmir, NBWL will take the view of the ministry of law before considering any case.
View Month Wise

PERSONS IN NEWS

Shatrughan Sinha Joins Congress Party

  •  Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Shatrughan Sinha, joined the Congress party .
  • The party fielded him as its Lok Sabha poll candidate from the Patna Sahib constituency in Bihar.
  • The actor-turned-politician, who is the incumbent MP from the seat, will face senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. 
  • Congress's new list also names former Himachal Pradesh minister Ramlal Thakur from Hamirpur and Jasbir Singh Gill Dimpa from Khadoor Sahib in Punjab.

Dan Robbins Dies

  •   Dan Robbins, a package designer who died at 93, helped to conceive what became known as paint by numbers.
  • He copied the idea from Leonardo, who numbered the objects in the background of his paintings and had his apprentices paint them with designated colours.
  • He copied one of the master's basic techniques and thereby enabled children to grow up believing that they, too, could paint "The Last Supper."
View Month Wise

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION

CBSE to Start School Hubs

  •  CBSE is taking a new step towards academic proficiency. To achieve this, it will consider a group of schools and the community around them as a unit rather than an individual school.
  • The new concept of a collaborative learning hub (CLH) envisages five or so schools sharing resources, helping each other in capacity building, conducting joint activities, facilitating teacher-student exchanges and designing their own curriculum and papers for Classes I to VIII.
  • CLH, which comes into operation from July 1, is mandatory and its outcome will be part of the audit for the affiliation and upgradation of schools.
  • Under the scheme, 22,000 affiliated institutions have been grouped into 4,500 district hubs.
  • CBSE has adopted CLH to enable a group of schools to work together throughout the year, sharing their infrastructure and resources, practices and help each other while acting as change makers in their localities.
  • A hub will also share resources like sports facilities, laboratories, auditorium, and organise training for principals and teachers as well as sports and cultural events, science exhibitions and quizzes.
  • The hubs will also be encouraged to organise seminars on issues like safety and security, energy and water conservation, environment, digital innovations, ethics and leadership skills.
  • Each hub will make efforts to connect with the industrial units, factories, administrative headquarters, security services, institutions of higher learning and business houses in the locality to learn from and get insights into life and society.
  • As a community service, the hub will be encouraged to adopt a school and village or develop gardens, among other such activities. 
  • According to CLH guidelines, it is mandatory for each hub to hold at least one monthly meeting and take turns at hosting activities every month.
  • Every two years, the institutions will decide on lead school in the hub, based on results in Classes X and XII, teacher-student ratio, infrastructure, digital initiatives, sports facilities, extracurriculars, innovations and participation in international, national, regional, state and district-level events.
View Month Wise
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