UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 03-12-2020
iasparliament
December 03, 2020
Brahmaputra Floods
Tree rings grow wider in years when soil moisture is high.
Indirectly, wider rings reflect more rainfall and higher river runoff.
A study has analysed the tree rings at sites close enough to be affected by the same weather systems as Brahmaputra watershed.
With this, the scientists built a 696-year chronology (1309 to 2004).
These rings showed that the post-1950s period was actually one of the driest since the 1300s. There have been much wetter periods in the past.
Projecting from all those periods, the researchers concluded that destructive floods probably will come more frequently than thought.
If one projects from modern discharge records, one would be underestimating the danger by 24% to 38%.
Higher temperatures drive more evaporation of ocean waters, and in this region that water ends up as monsoon rainfall.
That is why warming climate will intensify the monsoon rains in coming decades, and in turn increase seasonal flooding.
Damaru-Inspired Lattice
IIT Kanpur developed a ‘Dambaru’ or ‘Damaru’ inspired Lattice.
A lattice is an ordered array of points describing the arrangement of particles that form a crystal.
IIT Kanpur has demonstrated that one can get a wider variation of propagation and stop bands with the use of these micro-structured hour-glass shaped meta-structure in the lattice unit.
These meta-structures have application in electro-magnetic and sonic wave absorption which could create ‘invisibility’ of an object in optical or acoustic domain.
IIT Kanpur has shown the nature of stiffness of a vibrating medium could be altered by controlling the lattice micro-structure from regular honeycomb to auxtetic honeycomb structure.
This has wide applications in the field of vibration isolation in high speed trains, stealth submarines and helicopter rotors.
This work is sponsored by a SPARC project of MHRD.
IFSCA, an IAIS Member
Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City is India's first operational smart city and international financial services centre.
GIFT City’s regulator International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has become an International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) member.
Now, IFSCA would have access to IAIS’s global network and would exchange ideas and information with other global regulators.
This would develop a vibrant global insurance hub in IFSC at GIFT City.
This would connect GIFT IFSC with global insurance institutions.
It would facilitate IFSCA in the joint development of global insurance business with other global centres.
IAIS
Established in 1994 with Switzerland as its headquarter, IAIS is a voluntary membership organisation of insurance supervisors and regulators.
It is the international standard-setting body responsible for developing and assisting in the implementation of principles, standards, and other supporting material for the supervision of the insurance sector.
Indian Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) is among the leading members of IAIS.
UK approves Covid-19 Vaccine
UK becomes first country to approve Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use.
The British regulator declared that the vaccine offers protection of up to 95% and is safe to be used for immunisation against Covid-19.
Immunisation in UK is expected to start within days and will be delivered to high-priority groups first.
State of the Global Climate Provisional Report
This report was released by the World Meteorological Organization.
The decade 2011-2020 would be the warmest ever on record.
Also, the year 2020 is set to be among the three warmest on record.
The record heat in 2020 has been despite La Niña conditions prevailing in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
Scientific evidence indicates increasing temperatures are a direct result of human-led global warming, an impact of Green House Gas emission.
After record GHG levels of 2019, there has been a slight dip this year due to measures taken by countries to fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Global sea-level rise was similar to 2019 values and the general decreasing trend has continued.
Extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, floods, heavy rainfall and droughts which are an expensive consequence of global warming impacted many parts of the world.
The report states that climate induced human migration is one of the least understood impact of anthropogenic climate change.
Migratory Bird Festival
Bihar is holding a bird festival for the first time as part of its initiative to save migratory birds that arrive in the state in large numbers every year.
The three-day festival is being organised in Bhagalpur district of Bihar.
The 60-km stretch of Bihar’s Vikramshila Dolphin Sanctuary between Sultanganj and Kahalgaon had long been a hub of migratory birds.
The ‘ringing of birds’ involves trapping them in nets and snares.
Subsequently, they are weighed and their details logged before a metal ring inscribed with a unique number is tied to their tibia bone.
This helps birdwatchers and professional conservationists log their presence across the globe.
Source: The Indian Express, AIR, Business Line, Down To Earth