IASbhai DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC (THE HINDU+LIVEMINT+PIB)
Dear AspirantsIASbhai Daily Current Affairs for UPSC is an initiative to dilute major articles from leading Newspapers in India which are most relevant to UPSC preparation –‘THE HINDU, LIVEMINT , INDIAN EXPRESS’ and help millions of readers who find difficulty in answer writing and making notes everyday. Hence we choose articles on daily basis and analyse them with respect to UPSC PRELIMS2020.
Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.– Norman Vincent Peale
ORANGE COLOUR: Important for Prelims.
RED COLOUR: Important for Mains.
BLACK COLOUR: Must Read !
BLUE COLOUR : Important Links/Survey.
PINK COLOUR: Reports/Themes/Summits.
Page Contents:
Lockdown lifts Delhi’s air quality
HEADLINES:
Lockdown lifts Delhi’s air quality to a 5-year high
WHY IN NEWS:
CPCB data shows pollution fell with cities recording a ‘good’ on AQI
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Air Pollution : AQI
ISSUE:
- PM 2.5, the most dangerous pollutant, measured at the pollution monitoring station in Anand Vihar, New Delhi.
- PM 2.5 had ranged from 72-187g/m³ during the corresponding period last year, and 72-171g/m³ in 2018.
- In 2016, it spanned 49-116g/m³, station data on the website of the CPCB shows.
JANATA CURFEW REPORT
- The CPCB in a report on the impact of the ‘Janata curfew’ on March 22, said that on the day before, AQI was ‘Moderate (101-250)’ in Delhi.
- “Overall, up to 44% reduction in PM10 levels was observed in Delhi during March 22-23, 2020, compared to previous day.
- The PM2.5 reduction was 8% on the curfew day but declined to 34% next day owing to negligible combustion activities on March 22-23, 2020, in and around the city,”.
The key factor that triggered the decline was :
- The number of on-road vehicles, which contributed to a 51% reduction in NOx levels.
- 32% reduction in carbon monoxide levels during March 22-23 as compared to March 21.
- Delhi and other regions of the Indo Gangetic Plains generally tend to have better air quality in March, aided by consistent wind and sunlight, which help flush out pollutants.
LOCKDOWN EFFECT
- During the lockdown PM10 and PM2.5 levels were reduced by about 35-40%.
- The cessation of industries contributed to this reduction by 10%, vehicles 10-15% and dust another 10-15%, the organisation calculated.
IASbhai WINDUP:
High emission levels in Lucknow and Guwahati were noted for PM2.5, attributable to ‘local’ combustion related activities.
As on March 29, no city was under ‘Poor’ AQI (251-300) category.
SOURCES:THE HINDU/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains
Google publishes data on people’s movements
HEADLINES:
Google publishes data on people’s movements
WHY IN NEWS:
Users travel information in 131 countries to aid health officials
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Technology
ISSUE:
In India, visits to retail and recreation locations dropped by 77%.
KEY POINTS:
- The analysis of location data from billions of Google users’ phones is the largest public data set available to help health authorities assess if people are abiding with government orders issued to rein in the virus.
- The reports on users’ movements in 131 countries will be made available on a special website and will “chart movement trends over time by geography”, according to a post on one of Google’s blogs.
- Trends will display “a percentage point increase or decrease in visits” to locations like parks, shops, homes and places of work, not “the absolute number of visits,”.
For example:
- In France, visits to restaurants, cafes, shopping centres, museums or theme parks have plunged by 88% from their normal levels, the data showed.
- Italy and Spain, two of the hardest-hit countries, both saw visits to retail and recreation locations such as restaurants and movie theaters plunge 94%.
- The U.K. had declines of more than 80% while India, which went into a sudden 21-day lockdown on March 25, was also notable at 77%.
‘NO IDENTIFIABLE DATA’
No “personally identifiable information,” such as an individual’s location, contacts or movements, will be made available, the post said.
The reports will also employ a statistical technique that adds “artificial noise” to raw data, making it harder for users to be identified.
The purpose of generating artificial noise, whether intentional or not, may vary, depending on what is considered noise in a particular context. It can be used to experiment on a subject by controlling the frequency or amplitude of the artificial noise to ascertain how the subject interacts with external stimulation.
IASbhai WINDUP:
Like the detection of traffic jams or traffic measurement Google Maps, the new reports will use “aggregated, anonymised” data from users who have activated their location history.
SOURCES:THE HINDU/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains
Hack the Crisis – India
HEADLINES:
Shri Sanjay Dhotre launched Hack the Crisis – India, an Online Hackathon to find working solutions for overcoming COVID 19 pandemic
WHY IN NEWS:
Aim of this hackathon is to strengthen fight against COVID19
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Health:Diseases
LEARNING:
For PRELIMS it is an important initiative . This can be asked in PRELIMS !
For MAINS nothing much here .
ISSUE:
HACK THE CRISIS – INDIA
ORGANIZED BY:
This hackathon is part of a global initiative and is being organised by ‘Hack A Cause – India’ and ‘Ficci Ladies Organization Pune’ and supported by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India (MEITY).
AIM:
- Aim of this hackathon is to strengthen fight against COVID19.
- The winning ideas from few top participating teams, as implementable solutions on corona crisis is expected to help India and global citizens.
Over 2000 teams and over 15000 participants will be enhancing their working prototypes in 48 hour hackathon with expert mentoring from India, Estonia and Finland.
IASbhai WINDUP:
While we continue to fight these challenges as a nation, amidst business disruptions and remote working scenarios, it is important for all including governments, industry and individuals to contribute with all its might to overcome the present and emerge stronger as humanity.
According to great Albert Einstein in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
SOURCES:THE HINDU/PIB/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains
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