Daily Current Affairs : 29th May

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Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE.

Topics Covered

1. Surface Ozone Pollution.
2. Cauvery Water Management Authority.
3. Anthropocene epoch.
4. East Container Terminal.

1 . Surface Ozone Pollution.

What to Study.

• Mains : What is Surface ozone Pollution, its impact and difference between Stratospheric ozone and Surface Ozone.
• Prelims : About Surface ozone pollution, About Air Quality Index and SAFAR.

Context : With rising temperatures, surface ozone pollution is expected to increase in Delhi in the next three days, according to a forecast by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

What is Surface Ozone Pollution

• Ozone found in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere is called surface or ground level ozone.
• Tropospheric, or ground level ozone is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). 
• The majority of tropospheric ozone formation occurs when nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), react in the atmosphere in the presence of sunlight, specifically the UV spectrum. NOx, CO, and VOCs are considered ozone precursors.
• Motor vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, and chemical solvents are the major anthropogenic sources of these ozone precursors. This happens when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, chemical plants, and other sources chemically react in the presence of sunlight.
• Ozone is most likely to reach unhealthy levels on hot sunny days in urban environments, but can still reach high levels during colder months.
• Ozone can also be transported long distances by wind, so even rural areas can experience high ozone levels. 
• Ozone at ground level is a harmful air pollutant, because of its effects on people and the environment, and it is the main ingredient in “smog

Effects

• Surface ozone can lead to cough, shortness of breath, throat pain in short term and cause corrosion of linings of lungs and make lungs vulnerable to further infections in case of long-term exposure

About Stratospheric Ozone

• Ozone is found naturally in small concentrations in the stratosphere, a layer of Earth’s upper atmosphere.
• In this upper atmosphere, ozone is made when ultraviolet light from the sun splits an oxygen molecule (O2), forming two single oxygen atoms. If a freed atom collides with an oxogen molecule, it becomes ozone. 
• Stratospheric ozone has been called “good” ozone because it protects the Earth’s surface from dangerous ultraviolet light.

About Air Quality Index

• Air Quality Index (AQI) is a tool for effective dissemination of air quality information to people.
• There are six AQI categories, namely Good, Satisfactory, Moderately polluted, Poor, Very Poor, and Severe. 
• The AQI will consider eight pollutants (PM₁₀, PM_2.5, NO₂, SO₂, CO, O₃, NH₃, and Pb) for which short-term (up to 24-hourly averaging period) National Ambient Air Quality Standards are prescribed.
• Based on the measured ambient concentrations, corresponding standards and likely health impact, a sub-index is calculated for each of these pollutants. The worst sub-index reflects overall AQI.
• Associated likely health impacts for different AQI categories and pollutants have been also been suggested, with primary inputs from the medical expert members of the group.

State-of-the-Art Air Quality and Weather Forecast System (SAFAR)

• System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research known as “SAFAR” provides location specific information on air quality in near real time and its forecast 1-3 days in advance for greater metropolitan cities of India
• The SAFAR system is developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, along with ESSO partner institutions namely India Meteorological Department (IMD) and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF).
• The ultimate objective of the project is to increase awareness among general public regarding the air quality in their city well in advance so that appropriate mitigation measures and systematic action can be taken up for betterment of air quality and related health issues.
• The system will be an integral part of India’s first Air Quality Early Warning System operational in Delhi and will strengthen the existing air quality network of SAFAR, Central Pollution Control Board and Delhi Pollution Control Committee.
• In addition to regular air quality parameters like PM2.5, PM10, Sulfur Dioxide, Ozone, Nitrogen Oxides, Carbon Monoxide, the system will also monitor the existence of Benzene, Toluene and Xylene.

2 . Cauvery Water Management Authority

What to Study

• Mains : Article -262 regarding Inter State Water Dispute, Inter State Water Disputes Act, Cooperative Federalism
• Prelims : States involved in various Inter State River disputes

Context : The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on Tuesday ordered Karnataka to release 9.19 tmcft of water for the month of June from the Biligundlu reservoir to the Mettur Dam in Tamil Nadu.

Background of Cauvery River Dispute

• At the root of the dispute are two agreements between the British-controlled Madras Presidency and the princely state of Mysore in 1892 and 1924.
• After the Madras Presidency objected to the Mysore state’s plan to build irrigation projects on the river, the British government made them sign an agreement in 1892 which aimed at serving the purposes of either state.
• In 1910, Madras Presidency objected to the construction of a dam on Cauvery by the Mysore state. The matter then went to a tribunal for arbitration. The arbitration led to another agreement between the two states in 1924 which would lapse 50 years later.
• After Independence, when the states were formed on the basis of language, Kerala and Puducherry staked their claims over the Cauvery waters as some parts of these states fell in the river basin.
• In 1990 to adjudicate upon the water dispute regarding the Inter-State river Cauvery and the river valley thereof among the States of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Union territory of Puducherry the Central Govt constituted Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CDWT)
• The Tribunal investigated the matters referred to it and forwarded to the Central Government a report under sub-section (2) of section 5 of the Act on the 5th February, 2007.
• In August 2016, the Tamil Nadu government sought the Supreme Court’s intervention, saying that there was a deficit of 50.0052 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water released from Karnataka reservoirs, with respect to the mininum limit prescribed by the CDWT. The state said its farmers needed more water to begin cultivating samba – a kind of rice grown in the state. The Karnataka government responded by saying it wouldn’t be able to release any more Cauvery water, as low rainfall during the monsoon had left its reservoirs half-empty.
• The Supreme Court reduced water allocation to Tamil Nadu by 14 tmc (one thousand million cubic feet). Karnataka will release only 177 tmc of water to Tamil Nadu for the next 15 years. The court also ordered the Centre to constitute Cauvery Management Board within 40 days for implementing the tribunal award and its verdict.

About Cauvery Water Management Authority

• In exercise of the powers conferred by section 6A of the Inter State Water Dispute Act, the Central Government notified the Cauvery Water Management Scheme on 01st June, 2018, inter alia, constituting the ‘Cauvery Water Management Authority’ and the ‘Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’ to give effect to the decision of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal as modified by the Hon’ble Supreme Court
• The authority will decide the sharing of the river water among the States of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
• The authority’s mandate will be to monitor the storage, apportion shares, supervise operation of reservoirs and regulate water releases with the assistance of the Regulation Committee.
• The Authority will have a chairman who will be appointed by the Central government for a tenure of five years. He has to be a senior and eminent engineer with wide experience in water resource management or an IAS office in the rank of secretary or additional secretary. There will be two part-time members — representatives of the Central Government and four part-time members from party States 

3 . Anthropocene epoch

Context : On May 21, a 34-member panel of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) voted 29-4 in favour of designating a new geological epoch — the Anthropocene. The final ratification will be made by the executive committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences.

What is an epoch

• An epoch is a subdivision of the geologic timescale that is longer than an age but shorter than a period.
• The current epoch is the Holocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period.
• Rock layers deposited during an epoch are called a series.

Background

• The current epoch, the Holocene, is the 12,000 years of stable climate since the last ice age during which all human civilisation developed.
• But the striking acceleration since the mid-20th century of carbon dioxide emissions and sea level rise, the global mass extinction of species, and the transformation of land by deforestation and development mark the end of that slice of geological time, the experts argue.
• The Earth is so profoundly changed that the Holocene must give way to the Anthropocene.

About Anthropocene

• The term ‘Anthropocene’ was coined in 2000 by Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer to denote the present geological time interval in which human activity has profoundly altered many conditions and processes on Earth.
• According to the AWG, the phenomena associated with the Anthropocene include an order-of-magnitude increase in erosion and sediment transport associated with urbanisation and agriculture, marked and abrupt anthropogenic perturbations of the cycles of elements such as carbon, environmental changes generated by these perturbations, including global warming, sea-level rise, and ocean acidification, rapid changes in the biosphere and finally proliferation and global dispersion of many new ‘minerals’ and ‘rocks’ including concrete, fly ash and plastics, and the myriad ‘technofossils’ produced from these and other materials.

Golden Spike

• The focus is now on identifying a definitive geologic marker or golden spike (technically called Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point) to signal the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch.
• The golden spike must be present globally and should be a part of deposits for geological record.
• Many in the AWG believe that artificial radionuclides spread across the world by atomic bomb tests from the early 1950s would serve as the golden spike.
• The radionuclides are present almost everywhere — from marine sediments to ice layers and even stalagmites and stalactites.

4 . East Container Terminal

What to Study

• Mains : India – Srilanka Relationship, Chinese influence in India’s neighbourhood

Context : Sri Lanka, Japan and India on Tuesday signed an agreement to jointly develop the East Container Terminal at the Colombo Port.

About East Container Terminal

• The three countries will jointly build the East Container Terminal at the Port of Colombo.
• As per the agreement the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) retains 100% ownership of the East Container Terminal (ECT), while the Terminal Operations Company is jointly owned, the SLPA
• Sri Lanka will hold a 51% stake in the project and the joint venture partners will retain 49%.
• Japan is likely to provide a 40-year soft loan with a 0.1% interest rate, details of India’s contribution to the initiative are awaited,

Importance of the Project for India

• Over 70% of the trans-shipment business at the strategically located ECT is linked to India
• The involvement of India and Japan is the project is being seen as a big development aimed at neutralising the growing influence of China, which has poured money into the South Asian island nation under its mammoth Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure plan