Indians make up largest number of non-UK born residents in England, Wales

Indians make up largest number of non-UK born residents in England, Wales

• Britain's 2021 census data revealed that Indians constituted the largest chunk of residents born outside the country in England and Wales at 1.5%. 
• This means that of the nearly one in six people living in England and Wales last year who were born outside the country, Indians were at 1.5 per cent of the residents.
• UK’s office for national statistics (ONS) found that India remained the most common country of birth outside of the UK last year at 920,000 people, followed by Poland at 743,000 people or 1.2 per cent of residents and Pakistan at 624,000 (1 per cent).
• The top three countries of birth outside the UK for England and Wales remain unchanged as India, Poland and Pakistan since the last census 10 years ago, with the numbers rising across all categories – India from 694,000, Poland from 579,000 and Pakistan from 482,000 in 2011.

CSIR­NGRI to install early warning systemin Himalayan States

• The National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) of the Council of Scientificand Industrial Researchhas begun field studies toput in place an early warning system in the Himalayan States against major and sudden floods, rockslides, landslips, glacier lake bursts and avalanches and to prevent Chamoli kind of disasters in future.
• We are able to detect the major events through geophysical and seismological observations, but are yet to demonstrate the minimum threshold or the maximum distance from which we can give an early warning of natural disasters, which are 10 times less intense than what happened at Chamoli, with the help of various instruments. 
• New Law panel may examine demand for uniform civil code
• The Union Law Ministry finally made appointments to the 22nd Law Commission that is likely to examine the issue in detail.
• Law Minister Kiren Rijiju took to twitter to announce the appointmentof retired High Court Chief Justice Rituraj Awasthi as the chairperson of the Commission.
• Justice K.T. Sankaran, Professor Anand Paliwal, Professor D.P. Verma, Professor Raka Arya and M.Karunanithi are the other members of the commission. 
• The panel, which advises the government onvarious legal issues, usually gets a term of three years and the latest law panel was notified over two years ago in February 2020.

Bengal, Bihar to remainin red zone for aerosol pollution in 2023: study

• A recent study by scientists from the Bose Institute in Kolkata has revealed that aerosol pollution in West Bengal is anticipated to rise by 8% and continue to remain in the “highly vulnerable” red zone. This is the second highest forecasted aerosol pollution level in the country after Bihar.
• High aerosol amounts include particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) among other pollutants as well as sea salt, dust, black and organic carbon. If inhaled they can be harmful. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is the quantitative estimate of the aerosol present in the atmosphere and can be used as a proxy measurement of PM2.5.
• The values of AOD less than 0.3 fall under the green zone (safe), 0.3­0.4 is blue zone (less vulnerable), 0.4­0.5 is orange (vulnerable) while over 0.5 isthe red zone (highly vulnerable).

Nicobar project gets assent for diversion of 130 sq. km of forest

• The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has granted an in principle (Stage 1)clearance for the diversion of 130.75 sq. km of foreston Great Nicobar Island for the mega ₹72,000­crore project that includes a transhipment port, an airport, a power plant and a green field township. 
• The project implementation agency is the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO).
• The area is nearly 15% of the thickly forested Great Nicobar Island that is spread over 900 sq. km.
• This will be one of the largest single such forest diversions in recent times.