What are cloudbursts, and why they occur more in places like Amarnath

 Sudden, “highly-localised rains” in Amarnath, Jammu and Kashmir, on Friday evening (July 8) caused flooding and led to the deaths of at least 16 people and injuries to more than 20 others. Those who died were at a camp near the cave, a site of pilgrimage.

Many politicians tweeted out messages of condolence and mentioned cloudburst-induced floods, as was earlier stated by officials. However, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) later said on July 9 that a cloudburst may not have actually occurred.

We explain what cloudbursts are, the basis on which heavy rains can constitute a cloudburst, and how they can lead to deadly flash floods.

What is a cloudburst?

A cloudburst refers to an extreme amount of rain that happens in a short period, sometimes accompanied by hail and thunder, and this has a precise definition. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) defines it as unexpected precipitation exceeding 100mm (or 10 cm) per hour over a geographical region of approximately 20 to 30 square km. Significant amounts of rainfall such as this can result in floods. Basically, all instances of cloudbursts involve heavy rain in a short period, but all instances of heavy rain in a short period are not cloudbursts if they do not fit this criterion. According to weather scientists, the shrine reported 31 mm of rainfall between 4:30 pm and 6:30 pm on Friday, which does not fit the definition. “The flash floods could have been triggered due to rainfall in the higher reaches of the mountains near the Amarnath cave shrine,” IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told PTI.

Why do cloudbursts occur in hilly areas like Amarnath?

Experts have said it is difficult to predict when exactly a cloudburst will occur, and there is little definitive data on the exact number of cloudbursts that occur in India. Due to their definition dealing with a very small area, it is difficult to accurately predict and identify cloudbursts immediately. However, they are more likely to occur in mountainous zones mainly because of terrain and elevation. This is because, in hilly areas, sometimes saturated clouds ready to condense into rain cannot produce rain, due to the upward movement of the very warm current of air. Instead of falling downwards, raindrops are carried upwards by the air current. New drops are formed and existing raindrops increase in size. After a point, the raindrops become too heavy for the cloud to hold on to, and they drop down together in a quick flash.

A study published in 2020 examined the meteorological factors behind the cloudburst over the Kedarnath region, where a cloudburst aided the devastating 2013 floods. It found that during a cloudburst, the relative humidity and cloud cover was at the maximum level with low temperature and slow winds. “It is expected that because of this situation a high amount of clouds may get condensed at a very rapid rate and result in a cloudburst,” wrote the team.

Last year, a cloudburst occurred in the Amarnath region around the same time. However, as the Amarnath yatra had been previously closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it did not lead to loss of life there.

Source: Indian Express, 11/07/22

Assam floods: Diary from a deluge

 Night was falling on the skyline of Silchar. The mighty Barak had by then made its detour through the second-largest urban conglomeration of Assam. Turbid waters were gushing through the breached portion of an important embankment. Three-fourths of the 27 square-kilometre landmass that makes Silchar had been completely submerged. The Barak was flowing with gusto at more than 1.5 meters above the danger level. And waters were rising thick and fast to make things even more horrific in the engulfing doom and despair.

In the heart of the town, euphemistically known as the “posh” enclave, where the real estate prices are perhaps some of the highest in the country, 18 families including ours were huddled in a five-storey housing complex to see before our disbelieving eyes how ravaging the river could be. But the day started on an otherwise normal note for us, even as reports of waters sneaking into the low-lying areas of the town had been pouring in since the previous evening. There were incessant rains over the past few days. Old-timers of the town were trying to recall if they had ever experienced downpours of such lethal intensity in the Barak Valley.

Weather offices confirmed that Assam and Meghalaya had by then recorded the highest June rainfall in 121 years with 858.1 mm, breaking the earlier record of 789.5 mm in 1966. Not to miss the matter of fact statistics, flash flood had lashed Silchar in 1966 as well. To put things in perspective, the government initiative to build embankments along the Barak to save Silchar from frequent floods was first seen in the aftermath of the devastating inundation of 1966. Various dykes along the town-side of the course of the river continued to be constructed in intervals from the Sixties till the Eighties.

The entire Barak Valley in general and its headquarters, Silchar, have always been vulnerable to recurring floods due to the Barak going in spate resulting from heavy rains upstream, around Manipur and Mizoram. The recorded history provides information on the mammoth flooding in 1916, 1929, 1966, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 2004. On other occasions too, the Valley went through minor floods. Partial accounts of the deluge of 1929 are available in two important individual memoirs. Both from the Silcharer Kadcha (Silchar Diary) by Kaliprasanna Bhattacharjee (ed. Amitabha Dev Choudhury, 2008) and a report on the great floods of 1929 by Sundari Mohan Das, published in the renowned Bengali periodical from the then Calcutta, Prabasi, edited by Ramananda Chatterjee in the same year, we come to know of the degree of devastation caused by the river systems of the Barak-Surma twin Valley. The similarity between the two great floods, separated by seven-years-less-than-a-century, mainly lies in the fact that both the Surma and the Kushiyara rivers in Sylhet were equally in spate as the Barak. Also, both the natural disasters happened in June. Some archival photographs reproduced in the memoirs by Bhattacharjee along with his narration tell us how waters were flowing at the first-storey height along the Central Road of Silchar. There are ghastly stories of corpses floating on the water. There was death, squalor and devastation all along. That was 1929. That was India under British rule. That was the time when the Barak had no dykes to stop surging waters

But more than nine decades on, in the third week of June 2022, we, the residents of a middle-class housing society, were experiencing a chill down the spine when waters were inching up, one after another of the staircase leading up to the first floor of the building. The ground floor of our housing complex, Sukumari Apartment, a 15-year-old building located in the lane that ends at the south Assam headquarters of the indomitable Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was already submerged. Marauding waters had filled the lift shaft of the building and five steps of the staircase went under the water. The central power panel of the housing society was just four inches above the water level. The whole area had plunged into darkness as the APDCL office had disconnected supply fearing short circuits.

That was the beginning of the travail for survival for us, like at least four lakh other Silcharites. The town, which started municipal administration as far back as 1882, and which was recently declared as a municipal corporation by the Government of Assam, saw the fury of nature at its worst. The people of the town were yet to recover from the fear and losses inflicted by the first round of floods just a month back. Communication and connectivity systems went haywire. The May floods from torrential rains and the resultant heavy landslides in the Dima Hasao district had already thrown life out of gear. Rail communication in the Lumding-Badarpur section of the North East Frontier Railway remained snapped since the May mayhem. Severe landslides on the national highway in Meghalaya closed the surface transport as well. When the Valley was under siege and its hapless dwellers in a beleaguered spot, in came the second round of floods.

The stock of water in the overhead tank of our building was fast depleting. Inverter batteries were being dried in the flats. Mobile towers were not working. Internet connectivity got a beating as there was no power to supply electricity to the modems. The middle-class has long forgotten the use of lanterns and candles. Kerosene is no more a lighting fuel. Nights in the marooned Silchar were getting asphyxiating. With the sky loaded with dark and heavy clouds overhead, the meteorological department forecasting more rains and babbling waters underneath, we were hearing stories about people getting drowned. With an uncanny resemblance to the anecdotes of 1929, we saw the visuals of abandoned dead bodies looking for a piece of dry land.

The government machinery got activated to look for the “miscreants” who had dug the dyke. A credible segment of the local media reported that a canal had been cut through the embankment on May 22, in the aftermath of the first round of floods to allow the stagnant waters in the Mahisha Beel (a natural reservoir where the town canals offload their water flow back to the river as there was no sluice gate to do so). That the locals had breached the dyke was no state secret. It was already in the public domain and the line agencies were very much in the loop. The good 20-odd days in the interregnum could easily be used to refill the canal and mend the dyke. But that was not to be. Those who pierced the protection of the town and those who almost oversaw the deed were equally convinced that the problem of regular inundation of the catchment area had a solution. The ruling political class in the district knew of the development. And none of them, it appears, had any idea as to what was in store for Silchar. But the disaster was a “manmade one”, they began to say, when the deluge set in.

The name of an otherwise obscure location — “Bethukandi” where the dyke had been breached — suddenly became a global cynosure as the people who did the damage to the dyke and the majority of the townsfolk swept by the floods belong to two different communities. Flood waters will recede, life will reboot losses and pains will remain mere accounts in the annals of history. But elections will surely arrive. And, unfortunately, they will usher in a new tagline — flood jihad. Hopefully, the state that failed to guard the river will succeed in saving the social fabric.

Written by Joydeep Biswas

Source: Indian Express, 11/07/22

Quote of the Day July 8, 2022

 

“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”
Benjamin Spock

“अपने ऊपर विश्वास रखें। जितना आप करते हैं उससे कहीं अधिक आप जानते हैं।”
बेंजामिन स्पॉक

Current Affairs- July 8, 2022

 

INDIA

– Women & Child Development Minister Smriti Irani given additional charge of the Ministry of Minority Affairs

– Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia given additional charge of Steel Ministry

– Music composer Ilaiyaraaja, former athlete PT Usha, philanthropist Veerendra Heggade and screenwriter V. Vijayendra Prasad Garu nominated to Rajya Sabha

– PM inaugurates, lays foundation for projects worth Rs 1,774 cr in Varanasi

– PM inaugurates Akshaya Patra midday meal kitchen with cooking facility for one lakh students in Varanasi

– PM inaugurates 3-day Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam in Varanasi to implement National Education Policy (NEP 2020)

– WCD Ministry issues guidelines for Mission Vatsalya Scheme for welfare and rehabilitation of children

– Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launches SVANidhi Mahotsav, a cultural festival for celebrating the success of PM SVANidhi Scheme

– Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann marries Mohali-based Dr Gurpreet Kaur in Chandigarh

– India elected to UNESCO panel on Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage

– External Foreign Minister S Jaishankar meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ahead of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Govt approves Rs 2,415-cr road project to connect Haryana to the upcoming Jewar International Airport in Gautam Budh Nagar (UP)

– Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) elects R. Dinesh of TVS as President Designate for 2022-23

– Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-owned Akasa Air gets airline license from DGCA

WORLD

– UK: Boris Johnson resigns as PM

– Ukrainian forces raise national flag on recaptured Snake Island in Black Sea

– 10th World Peace Forum organized in Beijing by Tsinghua University

– UNSECO celebrates first World Kiswahili language day on July 7

Google Start-up School India initiative

 On July 6, 2022 the Start-up School India initiative was launched by Google.

About Google Start-up School India Initiative

• The Start-up School India Initiative was set into motion, with the aim of collecting relevant information on start-up, and building it into a systematic curriculum.
• This move will extend help to 10,000 start-ups in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• This programme will be held in virtual mode, for nine-weeks.
• It will include fireside chats between Google collaborators and leaders from the start-up ecosystem.

Topics covered under the initiative

• The Google Start-up School India initiative will cover topics including fintech, language, job search, social media & networking, business-to-consumer e-commerce and business-to-business e-commerce.
• Effective product strategy, designing apps for users in Indian Markets, product user value, and user acquisition will also be covered in the instructional modules are other topics to be discussed in the instructional modules of curriculum.

Aim of the initiative

The Start-up School India initiative caters to the early-stage founders with a minimum viable product. It aims to provide flexibility of virtual curriculum. The initiative further provides attendees with pick and choose modules. It will provide entrepreneurs the chances to learn from talk like formalisation of recruitment and what makes a successful founder.

What is the need of start-up schools?

India is the third largest startup ecosystem worldwide. Even though the number of start-ups is huge, 90% of startups got failed in first five years of operation. Start-ups failed due to no control on financial burn, inefficient feedback loops, absence of leadership, and improper demand projections.  Thus, Start-up School India initiative was designed to align efforts in order to expand the start-ups.

UGC’s proposal to permit part-time PhDs: what is it and how does it work?

 The University Grants Commission is finalising the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of Ph.D. Degree) Regulations draft that it proposed in March this year. With the amendments, working professionals will be able to pursue part-time PhDs programmes.

 Part-time PhD programmes aren’t entirely new to India and are common in the IITs.

With the UGC’s proposal, more higher educational institutions across the country will offer the programme, which will help professionals who cannot afford to take long leaves to pursue their research. We explain the eligibility criteria, the requirements for the supervisors and its other provisions:  

What will be the eligibility criteria for enrollment?

The eligibility conditions are the same for both full-time and part-time candidates. The work will also be assessed in the same way as done for the full-time PhD students. In addition to meeting the regular criteria, however, the part-time PhD candidates will also have to produce a No-Objection Certificate or NOC from their employer.

“Such part-time PhD programmes are very useful to professionals who cannot take long leave for doing PhD,” UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar told The Indian Express.

What are the specifications of the NOC?

Apart from stating that the prospective part-time PhD candidate and employee is permitted to pursue the programme on a part-time basis, the NOC will have to spell out that they will be given sufficient time for research work. 

 The workplace will be required to establish facilities in the employee’s field of research as a doctoral scholar and the organisation will also have to make a submission saying that the employee will be relieved from duty to complete the requisite coursework if required.  

 Offices rarely offer facilities for research and there is a requirement for “facilities in the employee’s field of research at the place of work”.  Isn’t the policy too restrictive? 

 Prof Kumar said that the proposed part-time PhD policy – with NoCs that are required to be submitted by part-time PhD applicants – is in tune with the best institutions in India such as IITs. 

 “Most industries involved in manufacturing, scientific research  or the IT sector do have some facilities for research such as prototyping, testing and measurement. Such applicants can use the facilities in their place of work and also in the University where they register for part-time PhD.”

He added: “In IITs, students usually work during weekends to use the facilities at the institutions. A similar thing can be done in Universities. Students can also access library e-resources and online computing facilities using secure VPN connection from outside the campus, depending on the IT usage policy of the University.”

 Who will guide the part-time PhD candidates?

  The part-time PhD student will largely work independently but will work on his or her subject in consultation with the supervisor. At least six months of course work will have to be attended by them full-time. Once they complete the course work, they can carry out research under the guidance of a supervisor using the research facilities either in their own organisations or the research facilities in the universities.

 Who will the supervisors be?

 Permanent faculty members with a PhD working as Professor/Associate Professors, with at least five research publications in peer-reviewed or refereed journals may be recognized as research supervisors. 

 Permanent faculty members working as Assistant professors with a Ph.D. degree and at least three research publications in peer-reviewed or referred journals can also be supervisors under the proposed norms.

 Which institutions can offer part-time PhD programmes?

  The PhD regulations shall apply to every University established or incorporated by or under a Central Act, a Provincial Act, or a State Act, as well as every college and higher educational institution declared by a notification in the Official Gazette by the Central Government under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956.

 How will the quality of the part-time programme be ensured by the UGC?

 Citing the example of the IITs, where part-time PhDs are common, Kumar says that “they have not seen any degradation in the quality of doctoral work”.

 Kumar added that every semester, the part-time PhD candidates would be “required to make presentations and submit progress reports” to the research advisory committee, which is “mandated to make sure that the PhD students carry out research of high standards”.

 Can people who have completed an M Phil in the past and are currently employed as working professionals also apply for the programme?

 Under the proposed revised regulations, one can join PhD programmes either after a four year UG programme or after a two year Master’s degree. The M Phil programme is being phased out from the  2022-23 academic session. However, if one has an M.Phil degree, the research advisory committee may recommend only 12 credits of course work and not more.

“Their research experience during M.Phil would be helpful just as in the case of the four-year UG honours with research who gain some research experience. In fact, many from scientific research organisations  may have some kind of research experience already. That would certainly help them in their part-time PhD programme. Such applicants would also bring a diversity in research problems being studied in the university system,” Prof Kumar said.

 Can a techie working with an IT firm apply for a part-time PhD?

 Anyone can apply as long as they are regular full time employees, their workplace or organisation is recognised by the concerned University, the applicant submits the required NOC, and fulfils the eligibility criteria for PhD admissions.

 Source: Indian Express, 8/07/22

Why does Rajya Sabha have ‘nominated’ MPs, and who gets nominated?

 The government on Wednesday (July 6) nominated musician Ilaiyaraaja, track-and-field icon PT Usha, Telugu screenwriter V Vijayendra Prasad, and philanthropist and spiritual leader Veerendra Heggade to Rajya Sabha. The four new entrants to Rajya Sabha belong to four southern states, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.

Ilaiyaraaja, Usha, Prasad, and Heggade will serve until July 2028. The Upper House of Parliament now has nine nominated members — the other five being lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, dancer Sonal Mansingh, politician Ram Shakal, author and columnist Rakesh Sinha, and former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. Three nominated positions are currently vacant.

What does the Constitution say about nominated members?

Article 80 of the Constitution (“Composition of the Council of States”) says “The Council of States shall consist of (a) twelve members to be nominated by the President in accordance with the provisions of clause (3); and (b) not more than two hundred and thirty-eight representatives of the States and of the Union territories.” Clause 3 of the article layer down the qualifications for the appointment: “The members to be nominated by the President…shall consist of persons having special knowledge or pracLiterature, science, art and social service.”

Since Rajya Sabha was constituted in 1952, a total 142 individuals have been nominated as its members. The list includes scholars, jurists, educationists, historians, scientists, litterateurs, journalists, engineers, economists, administrators, artistes, sportspersons, social workers, and politicians, mostly with loyalty to the government of the day.

What is the role of nominated members?

Nominated members of Rajya Sabha enjoy all the powers and privileges to which the elected MPs are entitled. They can take part in the proceedings of the House in the normal manner, even though there has been criticism that several nominated members have poor attendance and do not appear to show much interest in legislative work. In this context, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, actor Rekha, and businesswoman Anu Aga have faced criticism in recent years.

Nominated members are not allowed to vote in the election of the President. They do have the right to vote in the election of the Vice-President, however.tical experience in respect of such matters as the following, namely:—

Why are members nominated to the Rajya Sabha?

Pitching for a provision in the Constitution to allow eminent persons to be nominated to the Council of States, N Gopalaswami Ayyangar, who was part of the Constitution Drafting Committee, said: “We also give an opportunity, perhaps, to seasoned people who may not be in the thickest of the political fray, but who might be willing to participate in the debate with an amount of learning and importance which we do not ordinarily associate with the House of the People (Lok Sabha).”

The first list of 12 Presidential nominees perfectly represented this sentiment: Zakir Husain, who later became the President of India; historians Kalidas Nag and Radha Kumud Mookerji; the eminent Hindi poet Maithilisharan Gupt; Gandhian author Kakasaheb Kalelkar; scientist Satyendranath Bose; social worker N R Malkani; danseuse Rukmini Devi Arundale; Gandhian scholar J M Kumarappa; jurist Alladi Krishnaswami; actor Prithviraj Kapoor; and medical scientist Major General S S Sokhey.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru told Lok Sabha on May 13, 1953: “The President has nominated some members of the Council of States who, if I may say so, are among the most distinguished…in arts, science, etc…. They do not represent political parties or anything, but they represent really the high watermark of literature or art or culture or whatever it may be.”

Politicisation of the nominated category

Over time, the high ideal of the nomination came to be eroded. Ruling dispensations have repeatedly used the nominated category to shore up their numbers in the House, to dispense favours, and to get their preferred individuals into Parliament.

While a nominated member can join a political party within six months of taking his/ her seat in the House, even those who remain technically independent are assumed to be aligned with the ruling regime.Maragatham Chandrasekar, Congress general secretary and former minister, served three terms as nominated member of Rajya Sabha from 1970 to 1988 as a “social worker”. Former Assam Chief Minister Anwara Taimur (who was nominated in 1988), Indira Gandhi’s close associate Nirmala Deshpande (nominated in 1997 and 2003), former minister Mani Shankar Aiyyar (nominated in 2010), Madan Bhatia (nominated in 1982 and 1988), Sat Paul Mittal (nominated in 1976 and 1982) all had close allegiance to the Congress.

The BJP nominated former Union minister Subramanian Swamy in 2016, a one-man army crusading against the Nehru-Gandhi family in various courts. Its journalist nominees, the late Chandan Mitra and Swapan Dasgupta, were/are closely associated with the party, and contested elections on BJP tickets. Actor Hema Malini, nominated in 2003, is a BJP politician. Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu was aligned with the BJP before joining the Congress. Former Lok Sabha member from Robertsganj Ram Shakal entered Rajya Sabha in 2018.

Source: Indian Express, 7/07/22