Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)
Category: Geography
- Northeast India, one of the wettest places on the Earth has been experiencing rapid drying, especially in the last 30 years.
- Some places which used to get as high as 3,000 mm of rain during the monsoon season have seen a drop of about 25-30%.
- The decreasing monsoon rainfall is associated with natural changes in the subtropical Pacific Ocean. Pattern of fluctuations.
- Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) — a pattern of fluctuations in the ocean, particularly over the north Pacific basin — are mainly associated with this declined rainfall.
- Just like El Nino/La Nina in the tropical Pacific, PDO has a signature for a longer time (on the decadal scale) in the sea surface temperatures and its interaction with the atmosphere, which in turn affects the northeast Indian summer monsoon.
- The reduction in rainfall during a major part of the last 114 years may be associated with global man-made factors, while the trend during the last 36 years is associated with natural phenomena.
- Only about 7% of the rainfall in this region is associated with local moisture recycling, which means that anthropogenic activities can affect only this small percentage. So it was concluded that the recent rapid drying is a part of interdecadal variability of monsoonal rainfall which is strongly associated with the PDO.
Forex Reserve
Category: Economy
- Continuing strong inflow of funds by Foreign Portfolio Investors and Reserve bank of India’s decision to conduct $10 billion dollar-rupee buy-sell swap auction between March and April 2019 has lifted the foreign exchange reserve to a near one-year high of $418.5 billion.
- Rising forex reserve is expected to further increase the import cover for the country.
- While a growing inflow of FPI money has helped the rupee withstand pressures on account of rising crude prices, following US decision to withdraw waivers for imports from Iran, it is also expected to improve the country’s import cover further.
- A decline in imports would lead to improvement in current account deficit in fourth quarter of 2018-19 as forex reserves continue to rise.
- While forex reserves had hit a high of $426 billion in April 2018, it witnessed a steady slide over the following months and went down to $392 billion in October 2018 on the account RBI intervention to manage the rupee, which slipped to all time lows in October 2018 following sharp rise in crude oil prices and outflows by foreign institutional investors.
- In October 2018, the rupee had fallen to its all time low of 74.34 against the dollar in line with the rising crude oil prices and the RBI had to intervene to stem the slide of rupee against the dollar following capital outflows from the debt and equity markets.
- A significant part of the relief to rupee came on account of decline in crude oil prices in December 2018.
Chakri Dynasty
Category: International
- King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand was crowned.
- King Vajiralongkorn is the 10th monarch of the Chakri dynasty, which has reigned over the kingdom since 1782.
- The ceremony symbolises Rama X’s transformation from human to divine figure.
Maternal Mortality
Category: Health
- MMR across India was 130 per 1,00,000 live births in 2014-16.
- The lowest MMR of 46 was recorded in Kerala, followed by 61 in Maharashtra.
Arsenic
Category: Sc& tech
Arsenic is known to be poisonous, but recently, researchers have identified micro-organisms in the Pacific ocean that breathe arsenic
