Daily Current Affairs 

1.Rabindranath Tagore

• August 7, 2024 is the death anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
• Born in Calcutta in 1861, he was a poet, philosopher, musician, playwright and painter. He is popularly known as ‘Gurudev’.
• He was influenced by the classical poetry of Kalidasa and began writing classical poems of his own.
• He released his first collection of poems under the name ‘Bhanusingh’ at the age of 16.
• He published several books of poetry in the 1880s and completed ‘Manasi’ (1890), which shows the maturity of his talent.
• His collection of poems ‘Gitanjali’ earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, making him the first non-European to receive this prestigious award.
• He wrote the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.
• He wrote the song ‘Banglar Mati Banglar Jal’ (Bengal’s soil, Bengal’s water) to unite the Bengali population after the Bengal partition in 1905.
• He also wrote the famous ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ which helped ignite the spirit of nationalism among the people.
• Tagore founded the Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan, West Bengal in 1921.

Role in the freedom struggle

• He started the ‘Rakhi festival’ in which people from the Hindu and Muslim communities tied coloured threads on each other’s wrists.
• He condemned British imperialism, yet he did not fully support or agree with Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement.
• He considered British rule a symptom of the overall “disease” of the social order of the masses.
• He renounced the knighthood conferred on him by Lord Hardinge in 1915 in protest against the killing of innocent Indian citizens by the British in the Amritsar massacre.

 

2.Pyrocumulonimbus Clouds

Firestorms in the Sky

• Wildfires are becoming increasingly severe, leading to the formation of a dangerous weather phenomenon – pyrocumulonimbus clouds.
• These fire clouds are not your average rainmakers; they pose a significant threat by sparking new blazes and intensifying existing ones.

Formation:

• Pyrocumulonimbus clouds arise from the intense heat generated by wildfires or volcanic eruptions. This heat rapidly warms the surrounding air, causing it to rise.
• As the air ascends, it cools and condenses water vapor present in the atmosphere. When this condensation attaches to ash particles from the fire, a dark, billowing pyrocumulus cloud forms.
• Under extreme conditions, with sufficient moisture and upward air movement, these pyrocumulus clouds can transform into towering pyrocumulonimbus clouds, reaching heights of up to 50,000 feet.

Impact:

• Unlike regular thunderstorms, pyrocumulonimbus clouds produce little to no rain. However, they pose a more serious threat – lightning strikes within these clouds can ignite new wildfires far away from the initial blaze.
• Additionally, strong winds generated by these clouds can rapidly spread existing fires, creating a vicious cycle of destruction.
• The increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires due to rising global temperatures are a cause for concern.
• Data suggests a significant rise in pyrocumulonimbus cloud formations – in Canada alone, the number of such clouds documented in 2023 (140) was nearly triple the annual average recorded globally before 2023 (around 50).

3.Guidelines for Organ Transport

Ensuring Timely Organ Delivery

• The Indian government has issued comprehensive guidelines to streamline the transportation of live human organs across the country.
• The aim is to expedite the movement of these life-saving organs from the donor to the recipient, maximizing the chances of successful transplantation.

Key Provisions of the Guidelines

• Domestic Transport Only: Organ transportation is restricted to within India to ensure regulatory oversight and ethical considerations.
• Priority Handling: Airports are mandated to provide a dedicated green path for organ transport, including priority clearance and handling.
• Green Corridors: Road transport of organs will be facilitated through green corridors, ensuring minimal delays.
• Nodal Officer: A nodal officer from the police department will be appointed in each state to coordinate the creation of green corridors.

Legal Framework and Government Initiatives

• The Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOA), 1994, is the cornerstone of organ donation and transplantation in India.
• It outlines the legal framework for organ retrieval and transplantation while prohibiting commercial dealings in human organs.
• To promote organ donation and transplantation, the government has established the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) at the national level and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organizations (SOTTOs) at the state level.
• Additionally, an online organ donation registry has been implemented to facilitate organ pledging.
• These guidelines and initiatives collectively aim to create a robust and efficient system for organ transport, ultimately saving lives.

4.Declaration of National Disaster

• No provision for classifying as a national disaster
• There is no legal or executive provision that allows a natural disaster to be declared a national disaster.
• The existing guidelines of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF)/National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) do not contemplate declaring a disaster as a ‘national disaster’.

Suggestion of the Tenth Finance Commission

• The Tenth Finance Commission (1995-2000) examined a proposal that a disaster be termed a “national disaster of rare severity” if one-third of the population of a state is affected.
• The panel did not define “disaster of rare severity” but said that assessment of disaster of rare severity must necessarily be done on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the intensity and magnitude of the disaster, the level of assistance required, the state’s capacity to deal with the problem, options and flexibility in plans.

Effects of declaration

• When a disaster is declared of “rare severity”/”severe nature”, support is provided at the national level to the State Government.
• The Centre also considers additional assistance from the NDRF.
• A Disaster Relief Fund (CRF) is set up, with a 3:1 share between the Centre and the State.
• When resources in the CRF are inadequate, additional assistance from the National Disaster Contingency Fund (NCCF), funded 100% by the Centre, is considered.
• Relief in repayment of loans or grant of new loans on concessional terms to affected persons is also considered when a disaster is declared as “severe”.

5.Guru Ghasidas-Tamar Pingla Tiger Reserve

New Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh

• The Chhattisgarh government has decided to declare a new tiger reserve covering the areas of Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamar Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary.
• It will be the fourth tiger reserve in the state after Indravati Tiger Reserve, Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve and Achanakmar Tiger Reserve.
• It will also be the third largest tiger reserve in the country. Nagarjuna Sagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve in Andhra Pradesh is the largest tiger reserve in India, followed by Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam.
• The Guru Ghasidas-Tamar Pingla forests located in the northern part of the state act as a corridor between the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (Madhya Pradesh) and the Palamu Tiger Reserve (Jharkhand).