Page 1 Why Modi’s focus on groundwater is critical - editorials - Hindustan Times2 Massive black holes found in dwarf galaxies3 The mystery of Malappuram’s population boom5 Renewable Energy Sector Makes rapid Strides in 20196 Oldest material on Earth found inside meteorite that hit Australia14 Ordinance promulgated for amendment of MMDR Act and CMSP Act; paves way for growth in Coal and Mining sector16 China’s birth rate hits lowest level since 194920 Who are the Brus, and what are the implications of settling them in Tripura?21 India begins coral restoration in Gulf of Kachchh23 A bid to restore coral reefs in Gulf of Kutch using biorocks25 Bharat Parv 2020 to be celebrated from 26th to 31st January27 Indian Railways commissions first Waste to Energy Plant in Bhubaneswar29 Page 2 Source : www.hindustantimes.com Date : 2020-01-02 WHY MODI’S FOCUS ON GROUNDWATER IS CRITICAL - EDITORIALS - HINDUSTAN TIMES Relevant for: Geography | Topic: Distribution of key natural resources - Water Resources incl. Rivers & related issues in world & India Jan 02, 2020-Thursday -°C Humidity - Wind - Metro cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata Other cities - Noida, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Bhopal , Chandigarh , Dehradun, Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi Powered by On December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Atal Bhujal scheme to strengthen the institutional framework for participatory groundwater management and bringing about behavioural changes at the community level for sustainable groundwater resource management. For now, the scheme will be implemented in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The PM has personally led the initiative to make water-management a key focus area in this term in office. In his first “Mann ki Baat” address after his re-election, he pitched for water conservation to be made into a mass movement. The decision to focus on the groundwater crisis is a good one because its over-exploitation is contributing to — as stated by NITI Aayog —“the worst water crisis” in India’s history. Groundwater is one of the most important water sources in India accounting for 63% of all irrigation water and over 80% of the rural and urban domestic water supplies. And participatory groundwater management is a key way of tackling the crisis. In fact, villagers in Andhra Pradesh has already shown how acquifer management and sharing of borewells can ensure equitable distribution of water. It’s time to build on these positive experiences of community water management. END crackIAS.comDownloaded from crackIAS.com © Zuccess App by crackIAS.com Page 3 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2020-01-07 MASSIVE BLACK HOLES FOUND IN DWARF GALAXIES Relevant for: Geography | Topic: The Earth and the Solar System Artist's conception of a dwarf galaxy, its shape distorted, most likely by a past interaction with another galaxy, and a massive black hole in its outskirts (pullout). The black hole is drawing in material that forms a rotating disk and generates jets of material propelled outward. | Photo Credit: Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF Astronomers have discovered some of the smallest galaxies known to host massive black holes, findings which may reveal how such regions of space exhibiting ultrahigh gravitational force — that even light cannot escape from — formed in the early universe. The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal, found 13 massive black holes, about 4,00,000 times as heavy as the Sun, in dwarf galaxies which are more than 100 times smaller than our own Milky Way. According to the researchers, including those from Montana State University in the U.S., these galaxies are situated so far away that light from the Earth would take less than a billion years to reach them. “We hope that studying them and their galaxies will give us insights into how similar black holes in the early universe formed and then grew, through galactic mergers over billions of years, producing the supermassive black holes we see in larger galaxies today, with masses of many millions or billions of times that of the Sun,” said study co-author Amy Reines of Montana State University. The scientists used the Very Large Array (VLA), a radio astronomy observatory located in central New Mexico in the U.S., to make the discovery. Previously in 2011, Reines and her colleagues used VLA to discover the first massive black hole in a dwarf starburst galaxy in 2011. Following this finding, the scientists started by choosing a sample of galaxies from the NASA- Sloan Atlas — a catalog of galaxies made with visible-light telescopes. They selected galaxies with stars totalling less than 3 billion times the mass of the Sun. From this pool of galaxies, they picked ones which appeared in the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters (FIRST) survey — an astronomical survey of the skies above the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere made using the VLA betweencrackIAS.com 1993 and 2011. The scientists then made more sensitive, high-resolution images of 111 of the selected galaxies. “The new VLA observations revealed that 13 of these galaxies have strong evidence for a massive black hole that is actively consuming surrounding material. We were very surprised to find that, in roughly half of those 13 galaxies, the black hole is not at the center of the galaxy, unlike the case in larger galaxies,” Reines said. Based on the findings, the astronomers suggested that the galaxies may have merged with others earlier in their history. Page 4 They found this inference to be consistent with computer simulations predicting that roughly half of the massive black holes in dwarf galaxies were found wandering in the outskirts of their galaxies. “This work has taught us that we must broaden our searches for massive black holes in dwarf galaxies beyond their centers to get a more complete understanding of the population and learn what mechanisms helped form the first massive black holes in the early universe,” Reines said. You have reached your limit for free articles this month. Register to The Hindu for free and get unlimited access for 30 days. Already have an account ? Sign in Sign up for a 30-day free trial. 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END Downloaded from crackIAS.com © Zuccess App by crackIAS.com Page 5 Source : www.livemint.com Date : 2020-01-09 THE MYSTERY OF MALAPPURAM’S POPULATION BOOM Relevant for: Geography | Topic: Indian Demography including Tribes Malappuram saw its population rise 44% between 2015 and 2020 Malappuram in northern Kerala is the world’s fastest-growing city, according to a chart put out by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Three Indian cities figure among top ten, and all of them are in Kerala. Malappuram saw its population rise 44% between 2015 and 2020. Kozhikode ranks fourth on the global chart, while Kollam is tenth, with respective population growth figures of 35% and 31%. The EIU has compiled this list on data provided by the United Nations Population Division. In all, six Indian cities figure on the list of 30. What sets Malappuram apart? Kerala is a state that has a sub-replacement-level fertility rate, as well as high literacy and other impressive socio-economic indicators. The literacy rates in these three cities are higher than the national average, and better off families typically have fewer children. (The semi and illiterate poor, in contrast, are often unaware that the survival chances of their offspring have risen sharply since olden days.) So, what’s going on? Some analysts may suspect an answer to the anomaly lies in the city’s high proportion of Muslims, who are perceived to have larger families than others. In the absence of city-specific evidence to back faith as a key to the puzzle, however, it’s advisable to go by the academic finding that, across India, the size of a family bears a far stronger correlation with its income than with religious belief. In all this, the factor that could get overlooked is the trend of rural residents moving to cities. In many states, this is what drives urban population growth. And cities that are seen as more habitable tend to attract disproportionate numbers. Might that be a major factor in Malappuram’s growth? Log in to our website to save your bookmarks. It'll just take a moment. Your session has expired, please login again. You are now subscribed to our newsletters. In case you can’t find any email from our side, please check the spam folder. crackIAS.comEND Downloaded from crackIAS.com © Zuccess App by crackIAS.com Page 6 Source : www.pib.nic.in Date : 2020-01-10 RENEWABLE ENERGY SECTOR MAKES RAPID STRIDES IN 2019 Relevant for: Geography | Topic: Distribution of Key Natural Resources - Energy Resources of the World Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Renewable Energy Sector Makes rapid Strides in 2019 Installed Re Capacity Crosses 84GW; Nearly 1o GW Re Capacity Added in 2019 Posted On: 09 JAN 2020 5:58PM by PIB Delhi YEAR END REVIEW, 2019, MNRE As a part of Nationally Determined Contributions as per the Paris Accord on Climate Change, India has made a pledge that by 2030, 40% of our installed power generation capacity shall be from non-fossil fuel sources and also by 2030, reduce emission intensity of GDP by 33-35 % from 2005 level.