14 August 2024, The Indian EXPRESS
Rainfall that caused Wayanad landslides influenced by climate change, shows study
Page no- 10
GS3- Disaster and disaster management
- The rainfall that triggered the recent landslides in Wayanad, killing more than 200 people, were made 10 per cent heavier by human-induced climate change, a new study has found.
- The study by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international group of researchers, found that the excessive rainfall in the early hours of July 30 that triggered the landslides was “once in a 50-year event”.
MP HC says automatic bail cancellation against natural justice, fundamental rights
Page no- 10
Prelims Syllabus- Polity
- If there is an “automatic cancellation” of bail, it affects the fundamental right of a person and denies the valuable right to natural justice, observed Madhya Pradesh high court in a recent judgment and said that “such a condition could not be made part of the bail order”.
- “Cancelling bail order directly affects the freedom of a person which affects his fundamental rights.
- Any order which is passed affecting the freedom of a person must be passed after giving a reasonable opportunity of hearing.
- Reasonable opportunity of hearing is a fundamental right under the Constitution,” observed Justice Vishal Dhagat and recalled a March 2022 order of the high court.
The post-Mandal moment
Page no- 14
GS2- Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of the vulnerable sections
- The recent ruling of the Supreme Court allowing states to sub-classify SCs and STs for the purpose of preferential treatment in reservation has produced two pronounced responses: Political parties are trying to duck the issue by not committing themselves while most proponents of the reservation policy are upset about and critical of the ruling.
- Both the silence and the criticism represent the unease with the post-Mandal moment.
- The ruling itself, and the various judgments, are characteristic of the concerns and confusions of the post-Mandal moment.
- Mandal — understood as caste politics — has had two connected but separate trajectories: One pre-Mandal and the other occasioned by the Mandal Commission Report.
- The former is a historically anchored life of democratisation, involving long-term struggles against caste.
- In this sense, the life of Mandal had its origin in the writings and work of Jyotiba Phule and Periyar.
- This pre-Mandal life of the idea of Mandal was made possible by BR Ambedkar.
- Subsequently, and as a consequence, the question about the pichchadas (backward castes) drew attention since 1967 in the universe of electoral politics.
Failing her
Page no- 14
GS1- Society – Issues related to women
- A trainee doctor walks into a seminar room after a 36-hour shift to rest, the only place available in the absence of a duty room.
- The next morning she is found dead, her body bearing marks of grievous sexual assault.
- A junior nurse finishes her shift and goes to change. She is sexually assaulted and choked nearly to death.
- She lives for 41 excruciating years afterwards in a vegetative state.
- Separated by decades and cities, the fate of these two women — the 31-year-old doctor in Kolkata’s state-run RG Kar Medical College who was found dead on August 9, and Aruna Shanbaug, assaulted in November 1973 in Mumbai’s KEM Hospital — shows that when it comes to women’s safety, not much has moved in India despite the loud assertions of “nari shakti”.
A caveat in the jobs data
Page no- 15
GS3- Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment
- Studies based on the KLEMS data are being widely quoted to counter claims of poor job creation in the country.
- This database has been developed as part of an international project and has a very respectable parentage, nurtured by scholars from the Delhi School of Economics and ICRIER since 2009 and housed in the Reserve Bank of India since 2022.
- Hence, it is necessary that we examine the methodology of generating the data, going into sectoral details and original sources.
- The KLEMS database consisting of data on capital (K), labour (L), energy (E), material (M) and services (S), currently available for the period 1980 to 2024, is meant to provide a “measurement tool to monitor and evaluate productivity growth at the industry level as well as the aggregate economy”.
- It uses data from different rounds of the employment-unemployment surveys (EUS), the periodic labour force surveys (PLFS), the National Account Statistics and the Annual Survey of Industries.
- In the absence of yearly data from the National Statistical Office, the available data are used as benchmarks and interpolated for other years.
Amid Hindenburg probe calls, look at JPCs on financial allegations
Page no- 19
GS2- Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these
- The Opposition has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the Hindenburg Research allegations against Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. The BJP has rejected the demand.
- A JPC is an ad hoc body comprising members from both Houses of Parliament, roughly in proportion to party strengths in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
- The representation of Lok Sabha is double that of Rajya Sabha. A JPC, therefore, acts as a mini Parliament to carry out detailed scrutiny of a specific matter within a specific time frame.
Rearing broiler chickens
Page no- 19
GS3- Economics of animal-rearing
- Raghuvendra Verma has 2.5 acres of land, on which he grows paddy, chana (chickpea) and moong (green gram) in one acre.
- On the remaining 1.5 acres, he raises broiler meat chickens in two environmentally-controlled (EC) poultry sheds, housing 11,000 and 9,000 birds respectively.
- The 38-year-old from Devkatta village in Dongarghar tehsil of Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district rears them for about 37 days – from day- old chicks (DOC) weighing 35-45 gm, to slaughter-ready birds of roughly 2.5 kg.
- Verma does six such cycles annually, each of some 60 days that includes 20 days of “downtime” for litter removal, floor cleaning and pressure washing of equipment.
- His six batches last year (mid-May 2023 to mid-May 2024) yielded marketable birds with aggregate weight of 320,865 kg.
What is a DDOS Attack, cause of Trump-Musk interview glitches?
Page no- 19
Prelims Syllabus- Science & Technology
- Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk hosted former US President and Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump on his social media platform X on Monday (August 12) for a live audio interview.
- However, their conversation started after a 40-minute delay and witnessed several glitches, due to what appeared to be a “massive DDoS attack on X”, Musk said in a post.
