Daily Current Affairs : 13-12-2020

1.India-Uzbekistan Virtual Summit

Recently, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed the India-Uzbekistan Virtual Summit.

Background

• Both India and Uzbekistan have been involved in the Afghan Peace process, with a focus on connectivity with the country.

• India, via Chabahar Port in Iran and the India-Afghanistan air corridor and Uzbekistan via a planned rail project are connecting the 2 countries.

• India and Uzbekistan have been engaging under various formats including India Central Asia Dialogue at the foreign minister's level.

Key Highlights

• The bilateral summit revolved around Afghanistan and counter-terrorism.

• It is the first-ever bilateral summit of India with any of the Central Asian country.

• India will provide expertise in according to country's development needs like in infrastructure, IT, training, capacity building, education, health.

• India's western Gujarat state and Uzbekistan's Andijan already have cooperation and now the focus is on cooperation between the Haryana and Fergana.

Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation

• Both leaders emphasized on the need for bilateral and global cooperation to continue the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic including development and distribution of effective vaccines and other medicines.

• India and Uzbekistan have a mutually identified target of USD 1 billion for bilateral trade and the leaders stressed on the importance of making concerted efforts to achieve the target.

• The leaders agreed that both sides should work towards an early conclusion of Bilateral Investment Treaty which shall facilitate investment promotion and protection for further improvement of trade and economic cooperation.

• The leaders agreed to strengthen mutual cooperation in the field of science, technologies and innovation by enhancing direct cooperation between government organizations, research institutes, innovation centres and technological enterprises of two countries.

Development Cooperation

• The Indian side confirmed the approval of USD 448 million of Line of Credit to be extended by India for four developmental projects in Uzbekistan in the fields of road construction, sewerage treatment and information technology.

• The Uzbek side conveyed its desire to explore the possibility of implementing priority developmental projects in Uzbekistan as part of the USD 1 billion Line of Credit offered by India for Central Asian countries.

Defence and Security

• The leaders appreciated the enhanced pace of bilateral defence cooperation since the convening of the first meeting of Joint Working Group on Defence Cooperation in 2019.

Civil Nuclear Energy

• Both Sides welcomed the deepening of their bilateral civil nuclear cooperation, in particular, the conclusion of the bilateral agreement between the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, India and the Agency for Development of Nuclear Energy, Uzbekistan.

Connectivity

• The Sides reiterated their continued commitment for enhancing connectivity between India and Uzbekistan and in the larger Central Asian region to bolster trade and investment.

• The Indian side welcomed the Uzbek proposal to hold trilateral dialogue among India, Iran and Uzbekistan to promote connectivity through the Chabahar port.

Culture, Education and People- to-People Contacts

• The Sides expressed their appreciation for the 25 successful years of functioning of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Centre for Indian Culture in Tashkent and the role it has played in strengthening India-Uzbekistan cultural relations.

• The Indian side invited the Uzbek side to avail of increased scholarship opportunities provided by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and training and capacity building under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.

Source: PIB

2.Ischaemum Janarthanamii

Recently, the researchers at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune have discovered the new species called Ischaemum Janarthanamii.

About Ischaemum Janarthanamii

• It is a tough novel species of Indian Muraingrasses discovered from the plateaus of Western Ghats of Goa.

• It is named in honour of Prof. M. K. Janarthanam, a Goa University Professor known for his contribution to Indian grass taxonomy.

• It grows on low altitude lateritic plateaus in the outskirts of Bhagwan Mahavir National Park, Goa.

• Globally 85 species are known from Ischaemum, of which 61 species are exclusively found in India.

  • The Western Ghats have 40 species with the highest concentration of the genus.

Source: PIB

3.Aerosols in Indo-Gangetic Plain

Recently, the scientists have found out that the Aerosols which make the Indo-Gangetic Plain one of the most polluted regions of the world, have led to increased incidents of high rainfall events in the foothills of the Himalayan Region.

Key Highlights

• The study was conducted by National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Leipzig Institute for Meteorology (LIM), University of Leipzig, Germany, Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

• The study was conducted under DST Climate Change program which has highlighted the crucial role of the aerosol direct radiative effect on high precipitation events over the Himalayan region.

• The Indo-Gangetic Plain is located south and upwind of the Himalayan foothills which is the region of high aerosol loading such as black carbon and dust.

• The study highlighted that particulate emissions can alter the physical and dynamical properties of cloud systems and, in turn, amplify rainfall events over orographic regions downwind of highly polluted urban areas.

• The study used 17 years (2001–2017) of rainfall rate, aerosol measurements called aerosol optical depth (AOD), meteorological reanalysis fields such as pressure, temperature, and moisture content at different altitudes.

• It is used to compute the thermodynamic variable “moist static energy” and outgoing long-wave radiation from Indian region to investigate high precipitation events on the foothills of the Himalayas.

• The team found clear associations between high precipitation events, high aerosol loading and high moist static energy (MSE) values.

Significance of Aerosol study in Indo-Gangetic Plain

• The results of the study indicate that aerosols can play a vital role in exciting high precipitation (HP) events over the Himalayas during the monsoon season.

• The aerosols, including chemistry, are essential to consider when forecasting HP events over the Himalayan region in regional modelling studies.

Impact of Aerosols

• The aerosols can influence climate by scattering light and changing Earth’s reflectivity and they can also alter the climate via clouds.

• Natural aerosols (sulfates, sea salt or ammonium salt) are the most common condensation nuclei in pristine environments.

• It forms the brighter clouds which block the sunlight from reaching Earth’s surface and this cloud albedo effect may have a big impact on the climate.

• The aerosol can influence precipitation by either modifying cloud microphysical processes through aerosol activation, or by modifying local thermodynamical profile, facilitating an on-site impact on clouds overlapping with the aerosol population.

Source: PIB

4.India Water Impact Summit (IWIS)

Recently, the Union Minister of Jal Shakti inaugurated the 5th India Water Impact Summit (IWIS).

Key Highlights of India Water Impact Summit (IWIS)

• It is organised by the National Mission for Clean Ganga and Center for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (c-Ganga).

• It began with the theme of comprehensive analysis and holistic management of local rivers and water bodies with focus on Arth Ganga-river conservation synchronised development.

• The 5th IWIS will forge greater interaction between investors and stakeholders in the water sector.

• It will promote international cooperation between India and many foreign countries for water and river management.

• The summit is aimed at discussing and disseminating the needs for the modalities of embracing Arth Ganga and the vision of the prime minister in sectors that closely interweave with river conservation.

Source: PIB

5.Indus Valley Civilisation diet had dominance of meat

Recently, a new study published in the ‘Journal of Archaeological Science’ has found out that diet of the people of Indus Valley civilisation had a dominance of meat, including extensive eating of beef.

Key Highlights

• The study, titled “Lipid residues in pottery from the Indus Civilisation in northwest India” highlighted the food habit of the people of that era on the basis of lipid residue analysis found in pottery from Harappan sites in Haryana.

• It finds dominance of animal products such as meat of pigs, cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat, as well as dairy products, used in ancient ceramic vessels from rural and urban settlements of Indus Valley civilisation in northwest India.

• The study revealed that the high proportions of cattle bones may suggest a cultural preference for beef consumption across Indus populations, supplemented by consumption of mutton/lamb.

• It says that at Harappa, 90% of the cattle were kept alive until they were three or three-and-a-half years, suggesting that females were used for dairying production, whereas male animals were used for traction.

Source: The Indian Express