Current Affairs News Analysis | Prelims & Mains 2020 | 18 July 2020
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” –Maya Angelou
ORANGE COLOUR: Important for Prelims.
RED COLOUR: Important for Mains.
BLACK COLOUR: Must Read !
BLUE COLOUR : Important Links/Survey.
PINK COLOUR: Reports/Themes/Summits.
Today's Must Read Articles :Page Contents:
KritiScan
HEADLINES:
UV System for baggage Scan Disinfection to fight COVID 19
WHY IN NEWS:
Hot from PIB !
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Science and Technology
LEARNING:
For PRELIMS remember the developers ARCI & Vehant Technologies .
For MAINS take a note on how this system works .
ISSUE:
NEED
- Baggage, an inevitable part of travel involves handling by multiple people and can be contact points for spread of the virus
- This should be disinfected quickly each time they change hands.
BAGGAGE DISINFECTION SYSTEM
- In order to control spread of infection through baggage,
- International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad and Vehant Technologies, Noida have co-developed KritiScan UV Baggage Disinfection System.
UVC DISINFECTION SYSTEMS
- The compact UVC conveyor system developed can efficiently disinfect the baggage passing through the conveyor within a few seconds
- It is suitable for use in airports, railway and bus stations, hotels, commercial and private establishments for rapid disinfection of baggage.
- UVC based disinfection systems are known for their rapid disinfection capability
- UVC irradiation at 254 nm is known for its germicidal properties where no chemical residues are left behind.
KRITISCAN FEATURES
- The Kritiscan UV advanced baggage disinfecting system has a specially designed motorized conveyor .
- It uses UVC light (254 nm) with appropriate irradiance to inactivate microbes and viruses.
- The UV-C lamps used in the system are well shielded .
- However, any human intervention is strongly advised against when the UVC sources are on.
IASbhai WINDUP:
The sensing mechanism in the chamber automatically detects the entry of any item into it and powers the system and disinfects the 360-degree surface of any baggage.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | Current Affairs News Analysis | Prelims & Mains 2020
Women farmers emerging as decision-makers
HEADLINES:
Women farmers emerging as decision-makers, innovators in wheat-based systems: Study
WHY IN NEWS:
Women adopted specific strategies to further their interests in the context of wheat-based livelihoods, challenging men as sole decision-makers, the study found
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 1 : 4 : Issues related to women : Women Empowerment : Decision Making
ISSUE:
PUBLISHED BY
European Journal of Development Research and data collected by Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
STUDIED ON
- Six wheat-growing communities of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Haryana and Punjab.
- The communities — Prem and Ganga in Bihar; Deva and Cheeda in UP; Bete in Punjab; and Thali in Haryana — were classified on the basis of gender gaps.
THE TRANSFORMATION
- They are transitioning from workers to innovators and managers.
- Women were adopting specific strategies to further their interests in the context of wheat-based livelihoods.
- It also aimed to assess how locally valid gender norms affected their capacity to do the same.
- These gender gaps were gauged with reference to indicators such as women’s leadership, physical mobility status, education levels, access to and control over productive assets.
- Gender gap also impacts the ability to market and to benefit from sales of agricultural produce.
As an “analytic lens to help understand the ways in which women deploy their agency to secure their goals”.
MORE RECOGNITION
- Women were increasingly recognised as wheat farmers.
- Before neither men nor women acknowledged their role.
- In all three communities, participants claimed their decision-making capacity doubled over the past decade, and that their sense of self-worth and dignity increased.
- Women selected and improved wheat varieties and inputs such as inorganic fertilisers.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- Middle-income women, enabled through mechanisation to retire from the field, see an opportunity to increase their own well-being.
- They also have time to spend on themselves and their children, as well as on developing their own businesses.
- Mechanisation also frees men to engage in off-farm work, thus increasing overall household income.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | Current Affairs News Analysis | Prelims & Mains 2020
Methane emissions rose
HEADLINES:
Methane emissions rose 576 mln tonnes every year between 2008 and 2017: Studies
WHY IN NEWS:
Emissions increased nine per cent compared to the last decade, according to the studies.
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3: Hydrocarbons
ISSUE:
All known data about methane was gathered by researchers from atmospheric measurements and models to formulate METHANE BUDGET.
PUBLISHED BY
Global Carbon Project.
KEY OBSERVATIONS
- While methane emissions briefly stabilised between 2000 and 2006.
- Concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere now exceed 1,875 parts per billion or about 2.5 times that from the 1850s.
- Methane is responsible for a quarter of global warming that occurred since the 1850s, -climate scientists.
THE METHANE BUDGET
- The methane budget as described here, refers to the budget of all emissions and removals of CH4.
- About 97% of annual emissions are offset by removals within the atmosphere from reaction with OH radicals.
- Thus, the growth rate of CH4 is the subtle imbalance between emissions and a huge natural sink from OH.
METHANE SOURCES
- Agriculture & Waste (e.g. livestock and rice paddies).
- Fossil fuel production & use (coal, gas/oil extraction), which account for about 60% of total emissions.
- Biofuel & Biomass burning emissions are both natural and human-induced.
- Other Natural sources (e.g. geological processes, lakes, rivers, termites) are also important, but these sources are not currently very well understood and their amount are highly uncertain.
CHANGE IN TOTAL METHANE EMISSIONS
Source: Global Carbon Project / NASA
- The increase was primarily fuelled by human activities, especially agriculture and fossil fuels.
- Agriculture — made up 24 per cent of the emissions, while landfills were responsible for 11 per cent.
- Tropical regions in three continents — Africa, Asia and South America — were responsible for 64 per cent of the entire planet’s emissions.
- While temperate regions and the Arctic contributed to 32 per cent and four per cent respectively.
- Large amounts of carbon are contained in the Arctic’s frozen soils (permafrost) and forest vegetation.
GLOBAL CARBON PROJECT
It was formed to work with the international science community.
AIM
- To establish a common and mutually agreed knowledge base to support policy debate and action to slow down and ultimately stop the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
- The bring the attention of the scientific community,policymakers and the general public on the rising atmospheric concentrations of the main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O).
IASbhai WINDUP:
The biggest concern and also the biggest unknown is whether the currently small CH4 emissions in the Arctic from small lakes known as thermokarst and permafrost soils will increase in the future as permafrost thaw appears unavoidable in the next decades.
DOWNLOAD METHANE CYCLE: HERE.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | Current Affairs News Analysis | Prelims & Mains 2020
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