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  • Person in news: Ramkinkar Baij

    Ministry of Culture’s has organised virtual tour titled “Ramkinkar Baij | Journey through silent transformation and expressions” to commemorate his 115th Birth Anniversary.

    We can expect a description based question in prelims like-

    Q. “In 1925, he made his way to Kala Bhavana, the art school at Santiniketan and was under the guidance of Nandalal Bose. Encouraged by the liberating, intellectual environment of (Tagore’s) Santiniketan, his artistic skills and intellectual horizons blossomed, thus acquiring greater depth and complexity. One of the earliest modernists in Indian art, he assimilated the idioms of the European modern visual language and yet was rooted in his own Indian ethos.”

    Who is the imminent personality discussed?

    Who was Ramkinkar Baij?

    • Ramkinkar Baij (1906-1980), one of the most seminal artists of modern India, was an iconic sculptor, painter and graphic artist.
    • He was born in Bankura, West Bengal, into a family of little economic and social standing and grew by his sheer determination into one of the most distinguished early modernists of Indian art.
    • In 1925, he made his way to Kala Bhavana, the art school at Santiniketan and was under the guidance of Nandalal Bose.
    • Encouraged by the liberating, intellectual environment of (Tagore’s) Santiniketan, his artistic skills and intellectual horizons blossomed, thus acquiring greater depth and complexity.

    His works

    • One of the earliest modernists in Indian art, he assimilated the idioms of the European modern visual language and yet was rooted in his own Indian ethos.
    • His themes were steeped in a deep sense of humanism and an instinctive understanding of the symbiotic relationship between man and nature.
    • Both in his paintings and sculptures, he pushed the limits of experimentation and ventured into the use of new materials.
    • For instance, his use of unconventional material, for the time, such as cement concrete for his monumental public sculptures set a new precedent for art practices.
    • The use of cement, laterite and mortar to model the figures, and the use of a personal style in which modern western and Indian pre-classical sculptural values were brought together was equally radical.

    Popular recognition

    • Although his work was passed over for quite a while, gradually it began to get both national and international attention.
    • He was invited to participate in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1950 and in the Salon de Mai in 1951.
    • In the national honours began to come his way one after the other.
    • In 1970, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan for his irrefutable contribution to Indian art.
    • In 1976 he was made a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi.
    • In 1976, he was conferred the honorary Doctoral Degree of ‘Desikottama’ by Visva Bharati, and in 1979 an honorary D. Litt by Rabindra Bharati University.

  • Western Ghats yield 3 new plant species

    A team of scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have reported the discovery of three new plant species from the evergreen forest patches of the southern end of the Western Ghats in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

    One may get carried away from the heavy botanical names. But UPSC is known for asking ruthless questions.

    Q. Recently, our scientists have discovered new and distinct spices of banana plant which attains a height of about 11 meters and has orange – colored form of pulp. In which part of India has been discovered? (CSP 2016)

    a) Andaman Islands

    b) Anaimalai Forests

    c) Maikala Hills

    d) Tropical rainforest of North-East

    Which are the new species?

    The three new species found are:

    1) Eugenia sphaerocarpa of the Myrtaceae or Rose apple family

    • A good population of Eugenia sphaerocarpa is growing in the Kakkayam area of the Malabar wildlife sanctuary in Kerala above 800 m.
    • The specific epithet ‘sphaerocarpa’ denotes to the large, showy lemon-yellow spherical fruit.
    • The fruits of Eugenia species are known for their palatability and many of them are harvested from the wild with some under cultivation.

    2) Goniothalamus sericeus of the Annonaceae family of custard apple

    • A small number of Goniothalamus sericeus plants has been found in the Kanyakumari wildlife sanctuary in Tamil Nadu.
    • Mature flowers with characteristic greenish-yellow to beige petals are fragrant while the fruits are very showy and an attractive golden yellow in colour.
    • The specific epithet ‘sericeus’ refers to the presence of dense silky hair on the petals.

    3) Memecylon nervosum of the Melastomataceae (Kayamboo or Kaasavu in local parlance) family

    • A small population of Memecylon nervosum was also found at the same sanctuary at an altitude between 700-900 m with more that than 10 sub-populations located along the banks of a perennial rivulet.
    • The species have showy purplish-blue flowers and mauve to purplish-red fruits.
    • The specific epithet ‘nervosum’ alludes to the presence of prominently raised lateral and intramarginal veins on the lower surface of the lamina.

  • Super Cyclone Amphan and its threats

    The storm system in the Bay of Bengal, Amphan, developed into a super cyclone and is expected to make landfall along the West Bengal-Bangladesh coast very soon.

    Realted PYQ:

    Q. In the South Atlantic and South Eastern Pacific regions in tropical latitudes, cyclone does not originate. What is the reason? (CSP 2015)

    (a) Sea Surface temperature are low
    (b) Inter Tropical Convergence Zone seldom occurs
    (c) Coriolis force is too weak
    (d) Absence of land in those regions

    Super Cyclone Amphan

    • Cyclone Amphan is a tropical cyclone formed over the Bay of Bengal that has intensified and likely to turn into a “super cyclonic storm (maximum wind speed is 224 kmph)”.
    • It has been named by Thailand.
    • Amphan is the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
    • By the time it makes landfall in West Bengal, Amphan is expected to tone down into a category 4 Extremely Severe Cyclonic (ESC) storm with a wind speed of 165-175 kmph and gusting to 195 kmph.

    What makes it a nightmare?

    • This is the first super cyclone to form in the Bay of Bengal after the 1999 super cyclone that hit Odisha and claimed more than 10,000 lives.
    • It is the third super cyclone to occur in the North Indian Ocean region after 1999 which comprises of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the northern part of the Indian Ocean.
    • The other two super cyclones were Cyclone Kyarr in 2019 and Cyclone Gonu in 2007.

    Recent cyclones in the region

    • From 1965 to 2017, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea collectively registered 46 ‘severe cyclonic storms’.
    • More than half of them occurred between October and December.
    • Seven of them occurred in May and only two (in 1966 and 1976) were recorded in April, according to data from the IMDs cyclone statistics unit.
    • Cyclone Phailin in 2013 and the super cyclone of 1999 — both of which hit coastal Odisha — have been the most powerful cyclones in the Bay of Bengal in the past two decades in terms of wind speed.
    • Last year, Fani, which was an ESC made landfall in Odisha and ravaged the State, claiming at least 40 lives.

    Back2Basics: Tropical Cyclones

    • Cyclones are formed over slightly warm ocean waters.
    • The temperature of the top layer of the sea, up to a depth of about 60 metres, need to be at least 28°C to support the formation of a cyclone.
    • This explains why the April-May and October-December periods are conducive for cyclones.
    • Then, the low level of air above the waters needs to have an ‘anticlockwise’ rotation (in the northern hemisphere; clockwise in the southern hemisphere).
    • During these periods, there is an ITCZ in the Bay of Bengal whose southern boundary experiences winds from west to east, while the northern boundary has winds flowing east to west.
    • This induces the anticlockwise rotation of the air.
    • Once formed, cyclones in this area usually move northwest. As it travels over the sea, the cyclone gathers more moist air from the warm sea and adds to its heft.

    What strengthens them?

    • A thumb rule for cyclones is that the more time they spend over the seas, the stronger they become.
    • Hurricanes around the US, which originate in the vast open Pacific Ocean, are usually much stronger than the tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, a relatively narrow and enclosed region.
    • The cyclones originating here, after hitting the landmass, decay rapidly due to friction and absence of moisture.

    Grading of Cyclones

    • Tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are graded according to maximum wind speeds at their centre.
    • At the lower end are depressions that generate wind speeds of 30 to 60 km per hour, followed by:
    1. cyclonic storms (61 to 88 kmph)
    2. severe cyclonic storms (89 to 117 kmph)
    3. very severe cyclonic storms (118 to 166 kmph)
    4. extremely severe cyclonic storms (167 to 221 kmph) and
    5. super cyclones (222 kmph or higher)

  • What is the Sample Registration System (SRS)?

    The Registrar General of India released its Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin based on data collected for 2018.

    Since we are talking about birth rates and death rates, how about revising Demographic Transition Model. Can you recall 4 distinctive stages of Indian Demographic history?

    Sample Registration System (SRS)

    • The SRS is a demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of infant mortality rate, birth rate, death rate and other fertility and mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels.
    • Initiated on a pilot basis by the Registrar General of India in a few states in 1964-65, it became fully operational during 1969-70.
    • The field investigation consists of a continuous enumeration of births and deaths in selected sample units by resident part-time enumerators, generally Anganwadi workers and teachers; and an independent retrospective survey every six months by SRS supervisors.
    • The data obtained by these two independent functionaries are matched.

    Highlights of the data

    Birth and death rates

    • According to the data released the national birth rate in 2018 stood at 20, and death and infant mortality rates stood at 6.2 and 32, respectively.
    • The rates are calculated per one thousand of the population.
    • Madhya Pradesh has the worst infant mortality rate in the country while Nagaland has the best.
    • Chhattisgarh has the highest death rate, while Delhi has the lowest.
    • Bihar continues to remain at the top of the list in the birth rate while Andaman and Nicobar are at the bottom.

    Infant mortality

    • The data shows that against the national infant mortality rate (IMR) of 32, Madhya Pradesh has an IMR of 48 and Nagaland 4.
    • Bihar has the highest birth rate at 26.2 and Andaman and Nicobar Islands has a birth rate of 11.2.
    • Chhattisgarh has the highest death rate at 8 and Delhi, an almost entirely urban state, has a rate of 3.3, indicating better healthcare facilities.
    • As far as IMR is concerned, the present figure of 32 is about one-fourth as compared to 1971 (129).
    • In the last 10 years, IMR has witnessed a decline of about 35 per cent in rural areas and about 32 per cent in urban areas. T

    Birth rate

    • The birth rate is a crude measure of fertility of a population and a crucial determinant of population growth.
    • India’s birth rate has declined drastically over the last four decades from 36.9 in 1971 to 20.0 in 2018.
    • The rural-urban differential has also narrowed. However, the birth rate has continued to be higher in rural areas compared to urban areas in the last four decades.
    • There has been about an 11 per cent decline in the birth rate in the last decade, from 22.5 in 2009 to 20.0 in 2018. The corresponding decline in rural areas is 24.1 to 21.6, and in urban areas, it is 18.3 to 16.7.

  • Toda Embroidery of the Nilgiris

    Many women and indigenous Toda artisans from the Nilgiris are producing thousands of stylish, embroidered masks for local residents, police, and sanitary workers.

    Recently, the Assamese Gamosa was in new. Now the Pukhoor Embroidery has made it into the list. Keep a note of all such handicrafts. We can expect a match the pair based prelim question.

    Toda Embroidery

    • The Toda Embroidery, also locally known as “pukhoor” is an artwork among the Toda pastoral people of Nilgiris, in Tamil Nadu, made exclusively by their women.
    • The embroidery, which has a fine finish, appears like a woven cloth but is made with the use of red and black threads with a white cotton cloth background.
    • Both sides of the embroidered fabric are usable and the Toda people are proud of this heritage.
    • This handicraft product is listed as a geographically tagged product and is protected under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act (GI Act) 1999.

    Related facts

    • The local terms used to describe the embroidery work are ‘kuty’ or ‘awtty’ meaning “stitching” and ‘kutyvoy’ meaning the embroidered piece.
    • The materials used in this work are roughly woven white cloth, woollen black and red threads with use occasionally of blue threads and manufactured needles.
    • The designs developed relate to nature and the daily cycle of life.
    • The patterns used in Toda embroidery do not cover many floral motifs but generally cover celestial bodies (like Sun and Moon), reptiles, animals, and horns of buffaloes, made in crimson and black colours.
    • Rabbit ears are a constant depiction on the boundary of the embroidered cloth. Another common design in the form of black triangles in a box design is done in honour of their first priest.
    • Women who do embroidery consider their work as a “tribute to Nature”.
    • As a traditional garment, it is worn by both men and women at all ceremonial occasions and also at funerals. Elderly people of the community wear this cloth daily.

  • Person in news: Gopal Krishna Gokhale

    The Prime Minister has paid tributes to Gopal Krishna Gokhale on his birth anniversary.

    These days, personality-based prelims questions are quite prevalent.

    Q.) He wrote biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Shivaji and Shri Krishna; stayed in America for some time; and was also elected to the Central Assembly. He was – (CSP 2018)

    a) Aurobindo Ghosh

    b) Bipin Chandra Pal

    c) Lala Lajpat Rai

    d) Motilal Nehru

    Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915)

    • Gokhale was a liberal political leader and a social reformer during the Freedom Movement.
    • Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress (INC) and the founder of the Servants of India Society.
    • Through the Society as well as the Congress and other legislative bodies he served in, Gokhale campaigned for Indian self-rule and for social reforms.

    Gokhale and INC

    • Gokhale became a member of the INC in 1889, as a protégé of social reformer MG Ranade.
    • He was the leader of the moderate faction of the Congress party that advocated reforms by working with existing government institutions.

    Quest for political reforms

    • Gokhale’s mentor, justice M.G. Ranade started the Sarvajanik Sabha Journal.
    • Gokhale’s deposition before the Welby Commission on the financial condition of India won him accolades.
    • He played a leading role in bringing about Morley-Minto Reforms (1909), the beginning of constitutional reforms in India.

    Servants of India Society

    • In 1905, when Gokhale was elected president of the INC and was at the height of his political power, he founded the Servants of India Society.
    • It aimed to specifically further one of the causes dearests to his heart: the expansion of Indian education.
    • The Society took up the cause of promoting Indian education in earnest, and among its many projects organised mobile libraries, founded schools, and provided night classes for factory workers.

    Involvement in the government

    • In 1899, Gokhale was elected to the Bombay Legislative Council.
    • He was also elected to the Imperial Council of the Governor-General of India as a non-officiating member representing Bombay Province.

    Mentor to Gandhi

    • Gokhale was famously a mentor to Mahatma Gandhi in the latter’s formative years.
    • In 1912, Gokhale visited South Africa at Gandhi’s invitation.
    • As a young barrister, Gandhi returned from his struggles and received personal guidance from Gokhale, including a knowledge and understanding of India and the issues confronting common Indians.
    • By 1931, Gandhi emerged as the leader of the Indian Independence Movement. In his autobiography, Gandhi calls Gokhale his mentor and guide.

    His literary works

    • In 1908, Gokhale founded the Ranade Institute of Economics.
    • He started the English weekly newspaper, The Hitavad (The people’s paper).
    • He also published a daily newspaper titled Jnanaprakash, which allowed him to voice his reformist views on politics and society.

    With inputs from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopal_Krishna_Gokhale

  • Florence Nightingale and her legacy

    The 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, falls tomorrow on May 12.

    Personality based questions sometimes find their way in the Prelims. For example:

    Q) A recent movie titled The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on the biography of – (CSP 2016)

    (a) S. Ramanujan

    (b) S. Chandrasekhar

    (c) S. N. Bose

    (d) C. V. Raman

    Who was Florence Nightingale?

    • Nightingale (1820-1910), who had considerable mathematical skills, is credited with being the first healthcare professional to use data to show that infection control improves health outcomes.
    • Through her career, she stressed a practice that is relevant as ever today — handwashing.

    Nurse and mathematician

    • Her signature effort came during the Crimean War (1854-56), when she answered a government call for nurses and took a posting in Turkey.
    • This is where she earned the name ‘Lady with the Lamp’, for walking around patients’ beds at night, holding a lamp. Here she did her pioneering work with statistics.
    • When she arrived, diseases such as cholera and typhus were rife in the hospitals.
    • Nightingale collected data, calculated the mortality rate, and showed that an improvement of sanitary methods would reduce the number of deaths.
    • The mortality rate dropped from 60% to 42.7% by February 1855, and to 2.2% by the spring.

    • She used her data to create graphics, the most famous of which is a polar area diagram (pictured) that used areas to represent variations in death rate.
    • The blue wedges from the center of the circle represent area for the deaths from Preventable or Mitigable diseases, the red wedges measured from the center is deaths from wounds, & the black wedges measured from the center is the deaths from all other causes.
    • The blue wedges, representing death by sickness, are far bigger than those representing wounds.

  • Attack on Pearl Harbor (1941)

    US President Mr Trump has said the COVID-19 pandemic is a worse “attack” on the U.S. than either Pearl Harbor or 9/11.

    Practice Question :

    Discuss how the world order changed post Pearl Harbour attack with context to the US hegemony in Asia-Pacific.

    Attack on Pearl Harbor

    • The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour was among the most significant moments of the World War II.
    • It signalled the official entry of the US into the hostilities, which eventually led to the dropping of nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
    • Significantly, in December 2016, Shinzo Abe became the first sitting Japanese Prime Minister to visit Pearl Harbour.

    What led up to the attack on Pearl Harbour?

    • Before Japan attacked Pearl Harbour in 1941, relations between the US and Japan were already worsening.
    • In 1910, Japan annexed Korea and, in 1937, it invaded China, sending alarm bells ringing in the US and other Western powers about Japan’s manifest expansionist agenda.
    • Between December 1937 and January 1938, an episode which is referred to as the “Nanking Massacre” or the “Rape of Nanking”, occurred — Japanese soldiers killed and raped Chinese civilians and combatants.
    • Japanese historians estimate that anywhere between tens of thousands and 200,000 Chinese were killed.
    • The US was against Japan’s aggression in China, and imposed economic sanctions and trade embargoes after its invasion.

    Immediate causes

    • Japan was reliant on imports for oil and other natural resources — this was one of the reasons why it invaded China and later French Indo-China (present-day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia).
    • The intention was to take control of the major Chinese ports to have access to resources such as iron, rubber, tin, and most importantly, oil.
    • In July 1941, the US ceased exporting oil to Japan.
    • Negotiations between the two countries ended with the “Hull Note”, the final proposal delivered to Japan by the US. Essentially, the US wanted Japan to withdraw from China without any conditions.
    • Ultimately, the negotiations did not lead to any concrete results, following which Japan set its task for Pearl Harbour in the last week of November 1941.
    • Japan considered the attack to be a preventive measure against the US interfering with Japan’s plans to carry out military operations in some parts of Southeast Asia.

    What happened at Pearl Harbour?

    • About 7.55 am on December 7, 1941, about 180 aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the US Naval base at Pearl Harbour on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
    • The bombing killed over 2,300 Americans and destroyed the battleships USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma.
    • Roughly 160 aircraft were destroyed, and 150 were damaged.

    Impact on the US

    • In the short term, the American naval presence in the Pacific was severely weakened.
    • However, the Japanese had largely ignored the harbour’s infrastructure, and many of the damaged ships were repaired on-site and returned to duty.
    • American opinion immediately shifted to favouring war with Japan, a course that would conclude with Japan’s unconditional surrender less than four years later.

  • [pib] Seasonal rapid advancement of Surging Glaciers in Karakoram Range

    Indian researchers have found a seasonal advancement in 220 surge-type glaciers in the Karakoram Range of Ladakh.

    Points to note:

    1) Open you map and revise the glaciers of Himalayan region.

    2) Glacial landforms as Geographic phenomenon.

    What are Glacial Surges?

    Click here to see the animated view

    • Glacial surges are short-lived events where a glacier can advance substantially, moving at velocities up to 100 times faster than normal.
    • Until recently, most glaciologists believed that a glacier’s physical characteristics, such as its thickness and shape, and the properties of the terrain it sits on determining whether it can surge.
    • Now, it is proved to believe an external factor also plays a major role: water from precipitation and melting.
    • Pooling on the surface, it can infiltrate the glacier through crevasses and reach its base, warming, lubricating, and, ultimately, releasing the ice.

    Why surging in the Karakoram is a concern?

    • The behaviour of these glaciers, which represent 40% of the total glaciated area of the Karakoram, goes against the normal trend.
    • Surging of glaciers is potentially catastrophic as it can lead to the destruction of villages, roads and bridges.
    • It can also advance across a river valley and form the ice-dammed lake.
    • These lakes can form catastrophic outburst floods.
    • Therefore, monitoring of glacier surges, ice-dammed lake formation, and drainage is of paramount importance.

    Which are these glaciers?

    • The scientists focused on the Shispare and Muchuhar glaciers, former tributaries of the once larger Hasanabad Glacier situated in Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan.

    Significance of the study

    • The Surge-type glaciers oscillate between brief (months to years) rapid flow and lengthy (tens to hundreds of years) slow flow or stagnation, which are called the ‘active’ (or ‘surge’) and ‘quiescent’ phases, respectively.
    • This unsteady glacier flow makes it difficult to accurately assess individual glacier mass balances using in-situ observations.
    • The study will help to understand the diversity of glacial behaviour and help make accurate assessments of individual glacier mass balances for disaster planning and management.

  • What is Cinco de Mayo and why is it celebrated?

    Cinco de Mayo, or fifth of May in Spanish, also called Battle of Puebla Day, is an annual celebration observed in Mexico and the US that marks the former’s military victory on its soil over French forces in 1862.

    Possible mains question:

    Q. The French colonization attempts went beyond India and had a global reach. Comment.

    French advent in Mexico

    • In the 1860s, Mexico had been severely weakened by lengthy wars over the previous two decades – the Mexican-American War (1846-48) and the internal Reform War (1858-61).
    • As a result, in 1861, the then President Benito Juárez announced a temporary moratorium of two years on repaying Mexico’s foreign debts.
    • In response, troops from Britain, Spain, and France invaded Mexico, demanding reimbursement.
    • By April 1862, Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew.
    • France, which at the time was led by Emperor Napoleon III, decided to establish an empire in Mexican territories with the support of the local landowning classes.
    • France also intended to curb US power in North America.

    The Battle of Puebla

    • In late 1861, a French fleet attacked the Mexican port of Veracruz on the country’s eastern coast and landed a large army that drove the Juárez government into retreat.
    • As they moved from Veracruz to capital Mexico City, the French encountered stiff resistance from Mexican forces.
    • At Puebla, over 100 km ahead of Mexico City, a poorly equipped and outnumbered Mexican force decisively defeated the advancing French troops on May 5, 1862, killing over a thousand.
    • The event marked a significant political victory of Mexican republicans and President Juárez and helped establish a sense of national unity in the country.

    Cinco de Mayo: Present-day significance

    • In Puebla, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated annually with speeches, parades, and by reenacting episodes of the 1862 battle.
    • The city today houses a museum dedicated to the battle, and the actual battlefield is maintained as a park.
    • In the US, in the mid-20th century, the celebration became a way for immigrants from Mexico to express pride in their heritage.
    • Later, Cinco de Mayo also became popular with other demographics in the country when the festivities were linked with Mexican alcoholic beverages.
    • As the celebration assumed greater importance in the country, many have criticised the negative stereotypes of Mexicans that were perpetuated as a result, as well as the promotion of excessive drinking.