Current Affairs 7th November 2017

Current Affairs 7th November 2017 - Important Points

• India to play constructive role in combating climate change by - COP-23
• Guinea ratifies International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement on - 6th November 2017
• Hasmukh Adhia appointed as new Finance Secretary on - 6th November 2017
• 2017 set to be among top three hottest years with record breaking extreme weather on - 6th November 2017
•  NGT questions Delhi, UP, Haryana governments over severe air quality on - 7th November 2017
• Indian telescope AstroSat measures X-ray polarisation of Crab pulsar star in Taurus constellation on - 6th November 2017

Current Affairs 7th November 2017 - Details

India to play constructive role in combating climate change by - COP-23

The 23 annual conferences of the parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change kicked off in Bonn, Germany on 6th November 2017 with the focus to follow the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Important Highlights

• The conference would be organized from 6th November till 17th November 2017. India at the summit firmly maintained its stand and it considers climate change as a major threat and will play a positive and constructive role in tackle it. This was stated by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr Harsh Vardhan while initiating the India Pavilion at the summit.
• India’s theme for COP 23rd is ‘Conserving Now, Preserving Future’. The Minister noted that solving the problem of climate change is not a question of politics but is a moral duty.
• He mentioned, although India's per capita emissions are only 1/3 of the global average and its contribution to global stock of CO2 is less than three %, it has still moved ahead with the execution of path-breaking initiatives.
• Besides this, India also looked forward for early time-bound agreement of 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol by developed nations to ensure the highest possible reduction efforts under the UN Convention by all nations.
• The minister also stated that India has been determined in its climate change policies and expects other nations to be committed, based on their historical duty on the basis of equity and common but differentiated duties.
• He also mentioned that contributions of citizens, sustainable lifestyles and climate justice deliver an alternative method to address climate change which must be rigorously followed.
  
  
• The meeting takes place against the backdrop of several destructive natural calamities including hurricanes, forest fires, droughts, floods, melting of ice and impacts on agriculture that have affected the food security of countries across the world.
• The Paris Agreement, which was accepted in December 2015 by more than 190 countries, mainly focuses to prevent rise in global average temperature and keep it well below 2 degree Celsius.
• Prior two nations, Nicaragua and Syria, had refrained from signing it. Little while back, US also announced its withdrawing decision from the agreement.
• Nicaragua, however, has signed the accord now, leaving behind the US and Syria as the only 2 holdouts on the global climate treaty

Guinea ratifies International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement on - 6th November 2017

The Republic of Guinea on 6th November 2017 signed the International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement.
The instrument of agreement was given to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj by Guinea’s Foreign Minister Mamady Toure, who was on his 4-days visit to India from 3-6th November 2017.
Thus, Guinea became the 15th nation to sign the agreement. The other 14 nations are India, Bangladesh, Comoros, Fiji, Ghana, France, Mauritius, Seychelles, Niger, Mali, Nauru, Somalia, South Sudan and Tuvalu.
With the agreement of ISA pact by 15 nations, ISA will now be an international legal body. The ISA framework agreement shall enter into force on 6th December 2017 which is the 13th day after the date of deposit of the related instrument.
More about International Solar Alliance Pact

• The International Solar Alliance was inaugurated jointly by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande on the 1st day of the COP-21 summit at Paris in 2015.
• In Indian Headquarter, the alliance was framed as a coalition of solar resource rich nations to collaborate on meeting their energy requirements through a common and concurred approach.
• The alliance will become a legal entity once at least 15 nations ratify and submit the framework agreement.
• Till date, the total number of signatories to ISA framework agreement has extended to 31.

Hasmukh Adhia appointed as new Finance Secretary on - 6th November 2017

The Cabinet Appointments Committee on 6th November 2017 approved the appointment of revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia as the new Finance Secretary of India.
Adhia would be joining after Ashok Lavasa, who got retired from same post last month. The new appointment was declared through an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training.
As per the committee, the senior secretary in the Finance Ministry is appointed as the Finance Secretary.
The Union Ministry of Finance comprises 5 departments, the secretaries of which are as follows:
Expenditure: Ajay Narayan Jha
Financial Services: Rajiv Kumar
Department of Investment and Public Asset management: Neeraj Kumar Gupta
Economic Affairs: Subhash Chandra Garg
Revenue: Hasmukh Adhia
Adhia is a 1981 batch IAS officer and Subhash Chandra Garg is from 1983 batch, Rajiv Kumar from 1984 batch and Ajay Narayan Jha and Neeraj Kumar Gupta both are 1982 batch IAS officers.
More about Hasmukh Adhia

• He is 1981 batch IAS officer from Gujarat. He also completed PhD in Yoga from Swami Vivekanand Yoga University in Bangalore.
• He is a Gold medalist in post graduate program in Public Management and Policy from IIM Bangalore.
• Adhia worked in various key positions for the Gujarat government including Principal Secretary-Transport, Principal Secretary-Education, Additional Chief Secretary-Finance, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister of Gujarat and as the District Magistrate and Collector of Bhavnagar and Surat districts.
• He also worked as the Executive Director of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam and Managing Director of Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation.
• Under the Union government, he worked as the financial services secretary and revenue secretary.
  Previously, he was also appointed as a consultant to the UN Industrial Development Organization.

2017 set to be among top three hottest years with record breaking extreme weather on - 6th November 2017

The World Meteorological Organization on 6th November 2017 specified that the year 2017 will be one of the three hottest years in record, with various high-impact events including disastrous hurricanes and floods, devastating heat waves and drought.
The average global temperature from January to September 2017 was 1.1°C approximately above the pre-industrial era.
As a result of a powerful El Nino, 2016 is likely to remain the warmest year in-record, with 2017 and 2015 being 2nd and/or 3rd. 2013-2017 is set to be the warmest five-year period in record.
This WMO statement was issued on the opening day of the UNs Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany.
Key Findings-

• Year 2017 had  temperatures topping 50 °C in Asia, record-breaking hurricanes in the Caribbean and Atlantic reaching as far as Ireland.
• Most events affect the food security of millions of people, especially the most vulnerable.
  According to the review of the Food and Agriculture Organization, agriculture accounted for 26% of all the damage and loss associated with storms, floods and drought.
• As per WHO, the global health effects of heat-waves depend not only on the overall warming trend, but also on how heat-waves are distributed across the world.
• Fresh research shows that the risk factors of heat-related illness or death has increased steadily since 1980, with around 30% of the world’s population now living in climatic conditions that produced prolonged extreme heat-waves.
• In 2016, 23.5 million people were moved during weather-related disasters. Majority of these movements were related with floods and occurred in the Asia-Pacific region.
  In Somalia, more than 760000 internal movements were reported.

 NGT questions Delhi, UP, Haryana governments over severe air quality on - 7th November 2017

The National Green Tribunal on 7th November 2017 questioned the governments of Delhi, UP and Haryana over worst air pollution levels in the respective states.
It also asked the governments for not undertaking the preventive measures to control the worse air quality in the regions.

Important Highlights

• The bench also mentioned that the ambient air quality is so bad that even children are not able to breathe properly. It also guided the CPCB to state what emergency directions it has released in exercise of its powers to handle the situation.
• A bench lead by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar rebuked the state governments for not being ready in advance to tackle the emergency situation as the Delhi-NCR region witnessed heavy smog and polluted air quality on 7 November morning as pollution levels reached the permissible levels.
• The Central Pollution Control Board recorded 'severe' air quality on the same day due to the high intensity of pollution.
• According to the earlier direction of the NGT, the state governments required to spray water using helicopters to control the smog.

Indian telescope AstroSat measures X-ray polarisation of Crab pulsar star in Taurus constellation on - 6th November 2017

India’s multi-wavelength space telescope program AstroSat has been doing well in measuring the X-ray polarization of the Crab-pulsar star in the Taurus constellation. The researches were published in the journal Nature Astronomy on 6th November 2017.
The Astrosat team recorded the results of their 18-months observations of the Crab-pulsar in the Taurus constellation and studied the variations of polarization as a highly-magnetized and eye-catching object that spins about 30 times every second.
Taurus is the 2nd astrological sign in the present zodiac. It spans the 30-60 degree of the zodiac.

Key Findings-

• The Crab-pulsar is the revolving neutron star which is the main energy source of the Nebula. A pulsar is a rotating neutron star that releases electromagnetic radiation. Neutron stars and black holes are also known as pulsars.
• The X-ray polarization measurement is so difficult that so far the only measurement attained worldwide is for the Crab Nebula pulsar. Crab Nebula pulsar was observed in 1054 AD.
• Pulsars exhibit strong gravitational and magnetic fields trillion times than that on the Earth. They are rich sources of X-rays, electromagnetic waves similar to light, however, have ten to hundred thousand times higher energy.
• Astronomers observed the properties of these radiations to make a picture of dense objects and their surroundings.
• Another feature of the measurements is the observation of polarization properties at various rotation phases of the pulsar, which has not done so far.
• The team had to study the Crab pulsar many times and combine data of many months due to its small rotation time.
  Instruments used by scientists to measure X-ray polarization-
• Indian scientists utilized the data from the CZT Imager which is made of a “Cadmium Zinc Telluride” semiconductor and consists of 16384 tiny independent detectors to measure X-rays coming from the celestial objects.
• To get the micro-second perfection for combining the data, the AstroSat team utilized one of the world’s best radio telescopes – the Indian Giant Meter-wave Radio Telescope at Khodad near Pune.

More about AstroSat-

• AstroSat was launched by Indian Space Research Organization on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle as very first dedicated space observatory on 28th September 2015.
• The 1513 kg space observatory was built at a cost of Rs 180 crore with five scientific instruments to study celestial objects in the universe for the 1st time at optical, ultraviolet and x-ray wavebands at the same time.
• The instruments are an image screen, an ultraviolet imaging telescope, scanning sky monitor and a soft x-ray telescope.