A weak El Nino prevailing in the Pacific Ocean since the start of this year is beginning to dissipate as reported recently.
It is a naturally occurring phenomenon that occurs every 2-7 years, and can last anywhere between nine months and two years.
El Nino (The Little Boy) is a climate pattern with unusual warming of surface waters in equatorial Pacific Ocean.
It is the “Warm phase”, off the coast of Peru.
The opposite of El Nino is La Nina (The Little Girl), is when sea surface temperatures in the Pacific drop to lower-than-normal levels.
It is the “Cool phase”.
These warm and cool phases are part of a recurring climate pattern that occurs across this section of the Pacific, known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
The air circulation as a result of difference in surface pressure and temperature over the western and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean is known as Walker circulation.
The two conditions influence weather events worldwide, including the Indian monsoon.
It affects precipitation in few areas, drought can be widespread affecting southern Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Australia.
El Nino is known to suppress rainfall during the monsoon months in India.
During an El Niño, the trade winds weaken in the central and western Pacific.
The clouds and rainstorms associated with warm ocean waters also shift toward the east.
So, the beginning of dissipation of El Nino is a good news for India which is hoping to get good rainfall in the remaining part of the monsoon season.
Other effects around the world include,
Flooding in South America
Drought in Indonesia and Australia
Warmer, drier winters in the eastern and midwestern US
Wetter winters in California and the Southwest
Declining fisheries
More hurricanes in the Pacific, fewer in the Atlantic
Higher global temperatures
Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)
Global MPI report for 2019, released by UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
It is an international measure of acute multidimensional poverty covering over 100 developing countries.
It defines poor not only on the basis of income, but on other indicators, including poor health, poor quality of work and the threat of violence.
The global MPI factors are measured using 10 indicators,
The MPI assesses poverty at the individual level.
If someone is deprived in a third or more of ten indicators, the global index identifies them as ‘MPI poor’.
About 1.3 billion people are 'multi-dimensionally poor' across the globe, according to the report.
India has reduced MPI from 0.283 to 0.123 in a decade lifting 271 million people out of poverty in 10 years.
The number of people living in multidimensional poverty has gone down from 690.55 million in 2005-06 to 369.55 million in 2015-16.
It was found that Jharkhand has made the fastest improvement among Indian states in reducing poverty .
Jharkhand reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty from 74.9 % to 46.5 % between 2005-06 and 2015-16.
Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh together accounted for 196 million MPI poor people more than half of all multidimensionally poor in India.
The report also showed that children suffer poverty more intensely than adults and are deprived in all 10 indicators.
Kartarpur Corridor
It is a road link for Sikh pilgrims to visit the famous Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan.
It would link two important holy sites related to the founder of Sikhism located in Pakistan and in India.
The 16th century Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur is on the banks of the river Ravi.
The gurudwara was established by the first Sikh Guru in 1522.
It was here that Guru Nanak assembled a Sikh community and lived for 18 years until his death in 1539.
Recently it had been agreed between two countries for a visa-free Kartarpur corridor to operate daily with a limit of 5,000 pilgrims per day.
This would also be open to pilgrims of Indian origin who are citizens of other countries.
A four-lane Highway will connect Dera Baba Nanak from Gurdaspur-Amritsar Highway to International border.
The length of the corridor is about 4 km, 2 km on either side of the International Border.
It comes at the time of 550th birth anniversary year of Guru Nanak.
Jalyukta Shivar
It is the flagship programme of the Maharashtra government.
It aims to make 5,000 villages free of water scarcity.
It target the drought-prone areas by improving water conservation measures to make them more water sustainable.
It also proposed to strengthen and rejuvenate water storage capacity.
Dedicated committees were formed to assist in construction of watersheds like farm ponds, cement nullah bunds alongside rejuvenating the existing water bodies in the villages.
More than 11,000 villages where Jalyukta Shivar was introduced are declared drought-free.
The water storage capacity has been improved and the overall agriculture productivity jumped up 30 to 50 % in these areas.
