Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 12 November 2016
:: National ::
India signs nuclear deal with Japan
India signed a historic civilian nuclear deal with Japan during the annual bilateral summit held in Tokyo.
Sealing of the deal marked the high point of the ongoing visit to Japan by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who issued a media statement describing it as a ‘historic step’.
The nuclear deal which will help India access Japan’s nuclear market, had been under negotiation for six years and was firmed up during the 2015 visit of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to India when the principles of the agreement were frozen.
However, the final seal on the text had to wait legislative clearance from Japan, which has 13 civil nuclear agreements with countries such as France and the U.S.
India is the first non-member of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) to have signed such a deal with Japan.
Negotiations which began in 2010 during the UPA government were stuck on India’s non-NPT status as Japan sought assurances that the deal would be used for peaceful purposes.
The last stage of negotiations was keenly watched due to a “nullification clause” which seeks automatic cancellation of the deal if India resorts to nuclear testing.
World Bank wants India and Pakistan to come for mediation
The World Bank has “urged” India and Pakistan to agree to mediation on how to proceed in their dispute over two hydropower dam projects in Jammu and Kashmir.
Replying to a strong statement from India that the World Bank, a signatory to the Indus Waters Treaty 1960, was favouring Pakistan by going ahead with an arbitration process, the Bank said it had gone ahead with both countries’ requests.
Conceding that a “draw of lots” was held to appoint three neutral umpires despite India’s objections, a senior World Bank official explained that the decision was a “procedural one.”
However, World Bank Group General Counsel admitted that two parallel processes were “unworkable” in the long run, and therefore mediation was required.
The dispute is over the Kishenganga (330 MW) and Ratle (850 MW) hydel plants India is constructing on the Kishenganga and Chenab rivers.
India-Japan civil nuclear agreement is “broadly in line” with other such deals (Register and Login to read Full News)
NITI Aayog vice chairman says demonetisation will reduce inflation (Register and Login to read Full News)
:: Science and Technology ::
Supermoon on 14th will be biggest in 60 years
On 14th, the moon will be the biggest and brightest it has been in more than 60 years. So long as the sky is clear of clouds, it should be a great time to get outside and gaze at it or take some photos.
It’s what is commonly called a “supermoon”, or technically a “perigee full moon” — a phenomenon that occurs when a full moon coincides with the moon being the closest it gets to the Earth on its orbit.
What makes this one special is that the moon is going to be even closer to the Earth than it normally gets, making it a tiny bit bigger than even your average supermoon.
But, despite a lot of hyperbolic news written about the event in the past few days, don’t be too surprised if it looks much like any other full moon.
How much bigger will it be? At 8:09PM GMT, the moon will pass by the Earth at a distance of 356,511km — the closest it has passed the Earth since 1948. As it does so, it will be a full moon, making it a particularly big supermoon.
Supermooons are roughly 30% larger in area and 30% brighter than the smallest full moons — full moons that happen when the moon is at its furthest distance from Earth: at “apogee”. In terms of diametre — the width of the moon — it will be about 14% wider than the smallest full moons.
The difference between this unusually big supermoon and other supermoons is negligible.
While a supermoon is 30% brighter than the smallest full moons, it’s only about 15% brighter than an average full moon.
That’s nothing to sneeze at — on a clear night, away from city lights, it will provide more moonlight than you’d usually get from a full moon.
When it comes to the size, the difference in width (diameter) between a supermoon and an average moon is about 7%.
When the moon is high in the sky, that difference is something you’re unlikely to notice, because the sky is big and there’s nothing to measure it against.
But if you could compare it to a moon at apogee (when it’s farthest) you would probably be able to see the difference.
What’s more, the boost in actual size of the moon’s image from a supermoon is totally swamped by what’s known as the “moon illusion”, which affects your perception of the size of the moon.
That moon illusion (as the name suggests) is a complete illusion — the image of the moon does not change significantly at all as it moves from the horizon up into the sky.
But, when it is close to the horizon, observers think it looks bigger. Exactly what causes the moon illusion is still a matter of debate. But there are lots of possible explanations .
What causes a supermoon? The moon’s orbit around the Earth is not quite a circle but an ellipse — a kind of squashed circle.
Ellipses are described mathematically with two foci, one at either side of the centre. When an orbit is elliptical, the big body in the middle (the Earth in this case) sits at one of those two foci.
Since the Earth is sitting off to one side of the ellipse, the moon is inevitably closer to the Earth when it passes that side, and further away as it passes the other side.
When it is at the close side (called “perigee”), and it is a full moon, it’s called a supermoon. (That name was actually made up in the pseudoscience field of astrology but it has entered the common lexicon.)
Why are supermoons not all the same size? In short, the reason is that the shape of the ellipse that the moon draws around the Earth is changing all the time as it is pushed and pulled by other gravitational forces.