IASbhai DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB: 20th NOVEMBER
Page Contents:
Drought prediction survey 2019-20
HEADLINES:
Prolonged rains help tackle drought
WHY IN NEWS?
Survey predicts dip in number of villages facing water scarcity in 2020
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Environment:Effects:Impact of Deforestation on Indian Monsoon
LEARNING:
For PRELIMS the observations made in this survey are very important.
For MAINS the analysis of whole issue is very important keeping ground water percolation in mind.
OBSERVATIONS:
Who releases it ?
Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA) of the State government.
Key takeways :
- 689 villages in 14 tehsils of the State could face water scarcity in 2020.
- Entire Konkan region including Mumbai, Kolhapur, Bhandara, Gondia, and Gadchiroli fall in the region which received more than 1200 mm rainfall.
- While Pune, Satara, Nasik, Nandurbar, Latur, Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Amaravati, Washim, Yavatmal, Nagpur, Wardha and Chandrapur receieve around 1200 mm to 700 mm rainfall.
- The rest of the State falls in the less than 700 mm rainfall category.
How they measured ?
“Earlier, the prediction was broadly based on merely 32,00 observation wells.These were geo-tagged with Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre.
- Considering the geography of Maharashtra, 28% area is a highly dissected plateau, which includes Konkan, western ghats and other hilly regions.
- At least 44% area is moderately dissected plateau with medium water seepage capacity.
- The rest of the 28% area is undissected plateau and/or valley fill where groundwater availability is higher.
IASbhai Windup:
82% of the State consists of balsamic rock which has the capacity to store merely 1 to 3% water. Metamorphic rock covers 10% region which too does not hold water. Of the remaining 8%, around 5.5% is sedimentary rock while rest is alluvium where water storage is considerably good, around 5 to 10%.
SOURCES: THE HINDU
Warkaris
HEADLINES:SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 1:Culture:Bhakti movementLEARNING:
- Warkari (meaning ‘the one who performs the Wari’).
- A religious movement) within the bhakti spiritual tradition of Vaishnavite Hinduism, geographically associated with the Indian state of Maharashtra.

- The Warkari movement includes the worship Vithoba and a duty-based approach towards life emphasising moral behavior and strict avoidance of alcohol and tobacco.
- The adoption of a strict lacto-vegetarian diet and fasting on Ekadashi day (twice a month).
- Self-restraint (brahmacharya) during student life
- Equality and humanity for all rejecting discrimination based on the caste system or wealth.
- The reading of Hindu texts.
- The recitation of the Haripath every day and the regular practice of bhajan and kirtan.
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 1:Geography:Chapter:EarthLEARNING:
- The people of Kasaragod district will have a rare opportunity to witness the December 26 solar eclipse first in all of India. Cheruvathur here is one of the three places in the world where the eclipse will be most clearly seen.
- The annular solar eclipse will be fully visible in Cheruvathur.
- Observers will be able to experience the “ring of fire” that is characteristic for this kind of solar eclipse.
Annual report on road accidents
HEADLINES:SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Infrastructure:roadLEARNING:
- More than 1.5 lakh people lost their lives in road crashes in the country in 2018, registering an increase of 2.4%.
- Daily average of 1,280 road crashes and 415 deaths.
- This translates into 53 crashes and the loss of 17 lives every hour.
- India is the most unsafe country in the world for road users across 199 countries, as reported by the Geneva-based World Road Federation’s World Road Statistics 2018.
- Over-speeding is a major killer, accounting for 64.4% of the persons killed.
- Top Countries :INDIA>CHINA>USA
- Top states : TN>MP > UP
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Cyber Security:MalwareLEARNING:
- Israel # NSO company
- The surveillance was carried out using a spyware tool called Pegasus, which has been developed by an Israeli firm, the NSO Group.
- The surveillance was carried out “between in and around April 2019 and May 2019” on users in 20 countries across four continents, WhatsApp said in its complaint.
- Surveillance “targeted at least 100 human-rights defenders, journalists and other members of civil society across the world”
Pegasus:
- Pegasus works by sending an exploit link, and if the target user clicks on the link, the malware or the code that allows the surveillance is installed on the user’s phone.
- Once Pegasus is installed, the attacker has complete access to the target user’s phone.
- It has ability to access password-protected devices, being totally transparent to the target, leaving no trace on the device, consuming minimal battery, memory and data so as to not arouse suspicion in more alert users, a self-destruct mechanism in case of risk of exposure, and ability to retrieve any file for deeper analysis.
1 comment
Its good …short and sweet..just need more exposure..
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