GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

India will be taking over an ambitious hydropower project in Nepal, West Seti, nearly four years after China withdrew from it.

• The Government of Nepal has decided to hand over the agreement of the 750-megawatt (MW) West Seti Hydropower Project and 308 MW SR6 Storage Hydroelectric Project to India's National Hydro Power Company Limited (NHPC).
• West Seti is a 750MW hydro power project.
• It is planned on West Seti river/basin in Seti, Nepal.
  

Six decade wait:

• West Seti Hydropower Project, which is to be built on the Seti River in far-western Nepal, has remained on the drawing board for the last six decades.
• China’s Three Gorges Corporation had informed the Nepal Government in August 2018 that it would not be able to execute the 750-MW West Seti Hydropower Project.
• Prior to that, the Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation (SMEC) had been refused renewal of its licence following its failure to begin the work “convincingly” during an entire decade from the mid-1990s.
• The Australian company had been given a generation licence for 30 years under a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) scheme.

India -Nepal power relations:

• Nepal is rich in power sources with around 6,000 rivers and an estimated potential for 83,000 MW. India has formally approached Nepal on many occasions.
• India is viewed as a feasible market for Nepal, but there has been some uncertainty in Nepal over India’s inability to deliver projects on time. India has undertaken to harness or expressed intent to harness major rivers in the north.
• An ambitious Mahakali treaty was signed back in 1996, to produce 6,480 MW, but India has still not been able to come out with the Detailed project Report.
• The Upper Karnali project, for which the multinational GMR signed the contract, has not made any headway for years. 
• West Seti, therefore, has the potential to be a defining model for Nepal India’s power relations in future.

A new study has suggested that warm subsurface waters in the Bay of Bengal likely helped fuel the 2020 Amphan super cyclone.

Marine heatwaves:

• First described in 2011: The term “marine heatwave” was initially used to describe an extreme surface warming event off the west coast of Australia during 2010-11 austral summer.
• Marine heatwaves like The Blob has resulted in mass mortalities in marine mammals and birds, and collapse of fisheries and aquaculture in the US, Korea, etc.
• Marine heatwaves are periods of extremely high temperatures in the ocean (above the 90th percentile).
• These events cause marine habitat destruction due to coral bleaching, seagrass destruction, and loss of kelp forests, affecting the fisheries sector adversely.
• Impact on the Monsoon
• The marine heatwaves in the western Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal are found to result in dry conditions over the central Indian subcontinent.
• There is an increase in rainfall over south peninsular India in response to the heatwaves in the Bay.

What causes marine heatwaves?

• Marine heatwaves can be caused by a whole range of factors, and not all factors are important for each event.
• The most common drivers of marine heatwaves include ocean currents which can build up areas of warm water and air-sea heat flux, or warming through the ocean surface from the atmosphere.
• Winds can enhance or suppress the warming in a marine heatwave, and climate models like El Niño can change the likelihood of events occurring in certain regions.
  
  

Trends:

• Bay of Bengal recorded surface temperatures of 32-34°C, before Cyclone Amphan.
• 93% of the heat from global warming goes into the oceans.
• Warm waters are an energy source for cyclones.
• As the Arabian Sea warms, the number and intensity of cyclones and heavy rains increase.
• Over the Arabian Sea,
• 150% rise in the number of very severe cyclones
• 80% rise in the total duration of cyclones
• 20%-40% rise in the intensity of cyclones Over the Bay of Bengal, rapid intensification may be occurring more.

Key findings about Marine heatwave and Cyclone:

• The heat content in the subsurface ranged between 135 and 150 kilojoules per square centimetre before the cyclone.
• Warm subsurface waters could intensify cyclones by allowing heat to flow between the sea and atmosphere. Warmer waters fuel cyclones.
• The subsurface water may have warmed because of the high sea level anomaly, which is the difference between the total and average sea level.
• An increase in sea level is brought about by anticyclonic eddies, which is a circular movement of water.
  

Gujarat is the first state in the country to launch Balika Panchayat.

Balika Panchayat:

• The initiative aims to promote the social and political development of the girls and ensure their active participation in politics. 
• It is a new initiative has been started in Kutch under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.
• The main objective of panchayat is that the girls should move forward in politics.
• In Balika panchayat, the member is nominated just like Gram panchayat.
• This initiative has been taken by the Women and Child Development Welfare Department of the Gujarat Government under the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' campaign.
• ‘Balika Panchayat’ is managed by people in the 11-21 age group and its main objective is to promote the social and political development of the girl child and to remove the evil practices from the society such as child marriage, and the dowry system.

Significance:

• It focuses on women- led development instead of women's development.
• It’s a replicable model for other states where child marriage is prevalent or girls education is on the decline.
• Balika Panchayat have made girls vocal, which is proven by the Gujarat model.
  

The first official standard for a grassroots innovation has been set up for clay cooling cabinet "Mitticool".

Non-electric cooling cabinet:

• It has been developed by Mansukhbhai Prajapati, from Wankaner, from Gujarat.
• The IS 17693: 2022 - given to the non-electric cooling cabinet made of clay is the first standard rooted in a grassroots innovation - ‘Mitticool Refrigerator’.
• The standard set up by the Bureau of India Standards is necessary after a particular stage for scaling up and entering the cross-border markets.
• The standard specifies the construction and performance requirements of a cooling cabinet of the natural refrigerator made out of clay which operates on the principle of evaporative cooling.
• These cabinets may be used to store perishable foodstuff without the need of electricity.
• It provides a natural coldness to foodstuffs so that they remain fresh without deteriorating their quality.
• The standard can help grassroots innovations march hand-in-hand with innovations in the formal sector. 
  

Significance:

• The standard helps in the endeavour of BIS to fulfil 6 of out 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely 1 (No poverty), 2 (Zero hunger), 5 (Gender equality), 7 (Affordable and clean energy), 9 (Industry, innovation, and infrastructure), and 12 (Responsible consumption and production).

Impact:

• The impact of the ‘Mitticool Refrigerator’ has already been exponential, and it is poised to grow by attaining this significant milestone of setting standards.
• It is already playing a lead role in:
• reviving the pottery culture, tradition, and heritage;
• connecting people back to roots in better,
• healthier ways;
• promoting sustainable consumption;
• economically empowering the indigent community;
• working towards green and cool earth, economic development and employment generation; and
• contributing towards rural women upliftment and making them financially independent

The Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), part of National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India, has been awarded UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education for 2021.

• The Ministry of Education initiative to use ICT under the "PM eVidya" scheme during the Covid pandemic has won UNESCO's recognition.
• The CIET was proactive in bringing learning to children’s doorsteps.
  • These efforts were especially helpful in pandemic situations, when schools were closed, in reaching out to students.
  • These efforts helped in arresting the learning hiatus to a large extent.
• It used12 PM eVidya DTH TV channels and nearly 397 radio stations, including community radio stations under the PM eVidya program.

PM eVIDYA:

• The PM eVIDYA was initiated as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan by the Ministry of Education in 2020.
• It unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access for imparting education by using technology to minimise learning losses.

UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize 

• It was established in 2005 with the support of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
• The Prize rewards individuals and organizations that are implementing outstanding projects and promoting the creative use of technologies to enhance learning, teaching and overall educational performance in the digital age.
• An international Jury selects the two best projects
• Each prize winner receives USD 25,000, a medal and a diploma during a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
• This award recognizes innovative approachesto leveraging new technologies to expand educational and lifelong learning opportunities for all, in line with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and its goal 4 on Education.

Astronomers have observed a phenomenon, called, “cosmic cannibalism," a dead star is ripping apart its planetary system.

• A white dwarf is ripping up an entire planetary system with its death throes.
• A star is ending its life so violently that the dead star left behind, called a white dwarf, is disrupting an entire planetary system by sucking in debris from both its inner and outer reaches.
• This cosmic phenomenon is the first time that astronomershave observed.
• The white dwarf star is consuming the rock-metallic and icy material, both of which are the “ingredients of planets”.
• This case of cosmic cannibalism was diagnosed with the help of archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA observatories.
• The researchers obtained the findings based on the analysis of material captured by the atmosphere of the nearby white dwarf star G238-44.

White Dwarf:

• A white dwarf is formed when a low-mass star like our sun exhausts most of its nuclear fuel.
• It is usually very dense and about the size of a planet.
• They are dense, dim, stellar corpses — the last observable stage of evolution for low- and medium-mass stars.  
• Compared to our sun, a white dwarf has a similar carbon and oxygen mass though it is much smaller in size — similar to Earth.
• White dwarf temperatures can exceed 100,000 Kelvin according to NASA (that's about 179,500 degrees Fahrenheit).
  • Despite these sweltering temperatures, white dwarfs have a low luminosity as they're so small in size.
    

NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) spotted a peculiarly-shaped cloud drifting across the Caspian Sea.

• The cloud had well-defined edges resembling something from a cartoon, or something painted onto the scenery, in sharp contrast with the typical diffused and dispersed cloud cover.

About:

• According to an atmospheric scientist at SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, the cloud is a small stratocumulus cloud.
  • Cumulus clouds are detached “heaps” of “cauliflower-shaped” clouds that are usually found during good weather conditions.
  • In stratocumulus clouds, these heaps are clumped together, forming a widespread horizontal layer of clouds.
• The stratocumulus cloud in the picture formed a layer that spans about 100 kilometres.
  • These clouds typically form at low altitudes, generally between 600 and 2,000 metres above the ground.
  • The one in the picture was probably hovering at an altitude of about 1,500 metres.
• Sharp edges are often formed when dry, warm air coming from land collides with colder moist air over the ocean, and the cloud forms at that boundary.
  

How are clouds formed?

• A cloud is defined as 'a visible aggregate of minute droplets of water or particles of ice or a mixture of both floating in the free air'.
• Each droplet has a diameter of about a hundredth of a millimeter and each cubic meter of air will contain 100 million droplets.
• Because the droplets are so small, they can remain in liquid form in temperatures of -30 °C. If so, they are called supercooled droplets.
• Clouds at higher and extremely cold levels in the atmosphere are composed of ice crystals - these can be about a tenth of a millimeter long.
• Clouds form when the invisible water vapor in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice crystals.
• For this to happen, the parcel of air must be saturated, i.e. unable to hold all the water it contains in vapor form, so it starts to condense into a liquid or solid form. 
• There are two ways by which saturation is reached.

1. By increasing the water content in the air, e.g. through evaporation, to a point where the air can hold no more.
2. By cooling the air so that it reaches its dew point - this is the temperature at which condensation occurs, and is unable to 'hold' any more water. 
   

Different types of clouds: