East Asian Birds in Andaman
Category: Environment
- Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo (Chalcites basalis) is a native of Australia and New Guinea. However, it was recently found in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.The sighting was the first recorded instance of the bird in India.
- The Zappey’s Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cumatilis) a song bird that breeds in China and spends the winters in the Malay peninsula, Sumatra and Java, was spotted six times in different areas of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- In the past few years a few other birds of southeast Asian origin have been recorded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands during migration. Number of new sightings has increased post the 2004 tsunami.
- These birds use Andaman and Nicobar Islands for a few week rest before they can fly along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF).
- The EAAF extends from Arctic Russia and North America to the south Australian boundaries and includes the most of the east Asian regions including Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
ITSSO
Category: Welfare
- As per the investigation tracking system for sexual offences (ITSSO) launched on February 19, the MHA cites Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh as the leading states/UTs in terms of completion of investigations within two months.
- ITSSO, set up by MHA is an online mechanism to monitor and track time-bound investigation in sexual assault cases.
- ITSSO is an analytical tool based on CCTNS data available right from the police station to national level.
ADS-B
Category: Sc & tech
- Soon India will be able to know the exact position of aircraft flying over the vast stretches of Indian Ocean falling in airspace of its own as well as that administered by it, every 30 seconds.
- The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has tied up with American company Aireon that with its partners provides spacebased global air traffic surveillance system.
- On land, planes equipped with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) systems beam their positions to ground-based receivers every few seconds. India has 30 such receivers, which, in turn, send the positional data to connected ATC monitoring systems, giving exact position of aircraft.
- But when over the vast ocean, air traffic controllers (ATC) get only a rough idea of position of aircraft. With aircraft with ADS-B system, even over ocean we will know exactly where an aircraft is.
Ethical Gold
Category: Environment
- As high-end consumers demand to know the origin of their treasures, some jewellers are ensuring they use responsibly sourced, ecofriendly or recycled gold.
- Specialised producers now tack a “fairmined” ecologically friendly label on their output, and the Swiss house Chopard last year became the first big name to commit to “100% ethical” creations.
- The firm says it uses only verified suppliers of gold that meet strict standards to minimise negative environmental impacts of mining the precious metal.
- Among the many certificates and standards claiming to codify “responsible” goldmining, two labels stand out. They are “fairmined” gold and the more widely known “fairtrade” label. Both support artisanal mines that seek to preserve the environment in terms of extraction methods, along with decent working conditions for the miners.
- Fairmined or Fairtrade gold is about 10 to 12% more expensive. But recycled gold barely generates any additional cost premium since it was already refined for a previous life in the form of jewellery or part of a high-tech product.
