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GS Paper: GS3

  • How dangerous is Ammonia?

    Two persons died and several took ill in a major ammonia gas leakage at a fertilizers unit at Prayagraj.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. With reference to chemical fertilizers in India, consider the following statements:

    1. At present, the retail price of chemical fertilizers is market-driven and not administered by the Government.
    2. Ammonia, which is an input of urea, is produced from natural gas.
    3. Sulphur, which is a raw material for phosphoric acid fertilizer, is a by-product of all oil refineries.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 2 only

    (d) 1,2 and 3

    Ammonia

    • Ammonia is critical in the manufacturing of fertilizers and is one of the largest-volume synthetic chemicals produced in the world.
    • More than 80 per cent of ammonia made is consumed in the manufacturing of fertilizer, and most of the remainder goes into the production of formaldehyde.
    • A tri-hydroid of nitrogen (NH3), ammonia is a building block for ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) that is used in agriculture as a high-nitrogen fertilizer.

    Why is it harmful?

    • According to experts in Chemistry, ammonia is stored for industrial use in liquid form under high pressure or in gaseous form at low temperature.
    • In such cases, the cause of death is always suffocation as in the case of Prayagraj incident, the victims must have been very close to the point of a gas leak.

    Effects on the human body

    • Ammonia, even in moderate concentration, can cause irritation to eyes, skin, nose and throat.
    • It interacts immediately upon contact with moisture present in the skin, eyes, oral cavity, and respiratory tract to form ammonium hydroxide.
    • It is very caustic and disrupts the cell membrane lipids, ultimately leading to cellular destruction.
    • As cell proteins break down, water is extracted, resulting in an inflammatory response that causes further damage.

    Secretion in humans

    • Ammonia, which is highly soluble in water, is found in soil, air, and water; it is naturally present in the body.
    • It is secreted by the kidneys to neutralize excess acid.
    • However, it is highly diluted when in the environment and does not affect the human body to a noticeable level.

  • What is Positive Pay System?

    With the New Year, a new concept of Positive Pay System for Cheque Truncation System (CTS) will be introduced by the Banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking to further augment customer safety in cheque payments.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which of the following is the most likely consequence of implementing the ‘Unified Payments Interface (UPI)’?

    (a) Mobile wallets will not be necessary for online payments.

    (b) Digital currency will totally replace the physical currency in about two decades.

    (c) FDI inflows will drastically increase.

    (d) Direct transfer of subsidies to poor people will become very effective.

    Positive Pay System

    • The concept of Positive Pay involves a process of reconfirming key details of large-value cheques.
    • Put simply, cheques will be processed for payment by the drawee bank based on information passed on by its customer at the time of issuance of the cheque.
    • When the beneficiary submits the cheque for encashment, the cheque details are compared with the details provided to the drawee bank through Positive Pay.
    • If the details match, the cheque is honoured. In case of mismatch in cheque details, the discrepancy is flagged by CTS to the drawee bank and the presenting bank, which would take redress measures.

    For cheques above 50k

    • The banks are advised to enable it for all account-holders issuing cheques for amounts of â‚č50,000 and above.
    • While availing of this facility is at the discretion of the account-holder, banks may consider making it mandatory in case of cheques for amounts of â‚č5 lakh and above, the RBI had said.

    Benefits of the system

    • Under the Positive Pay system, the drawee bank is already aware of the issuer the details of the high-value cheque (above â‚č50,000) he has issued.
    • Without this intimation, if a cheque gets presented, then the drawee bank can reject payment and examine the case. Positive Pay is going to benefit both the issuer and the beneficiary.
    • For the issuer, the benefit from this concept is that there cannot be fraudulent cheques encashed out of issuer’s account.
    • For the beneficiary, the benefit is that the cheques handed out to him will mostly get honoured.

    Is Positive Pay the same as ‘certified cheque’?

    • The concept of ‘certified cheque’ was there long back — about 30 years back, long before technology swept across the Indian banking landscape.
    • Whenever anybody issued a cheque, banks used to certify that money is there in their customer’s bank account and, therefore, the cheque will get honoured.
    • This provided comfort to a beneficiary that cheque payment will get honoured and therefore did not insist on a pay order or demand draft.
    • Drawee banks used to earmark the amount in the account of the issuer and then certify the cheque.
    • This was adopted in an era when the cheque instrument used to travel physically for clearing.

    Why need such a system?

    • The RBI says the Positive Pay system is to augment customer safety in cheque payments and reduce instances of fraud occurring on account of tampering of cheque leaves.
    • Banks had recently witnessed a rise in frauds involving high-value cheques.

  • What are Fastags?

    From January 1, all lanes of National Highways will accept only electronic payments through FASTag.

    Fastags work on a unique technology called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). This has gone unnoticed in several competitive exams. Hence it is still relevant for the aspirants.

    Also read

    Fastags

    • As per Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, since 1st December 2017, the FASTag had been made mandatory for all registered new four-wheelers and is being supplied by the Vehicle Manufacturer or their dealers.
    • It has been mandated that the renewal of fitness certificate will be done only after the fitment of FASTag.
    • For National Permit Vehicles, the fitment of FASTag was mandated since 1st October 2019.

    What is ‘FASTag’?

    • FASTags are stickers that are affixed to the windscreen of vehicles and use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to enable digital, contactless payment of tolls without having to stop at toll gates.
    • The tags are linked to bank accounts and other payment methods.
    • As a car crosses a toll plaza, the amount is automatically deducted, and a notification is sent to the registered mobile phone number.

    How does it work?

    • The device employs Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for payments directly from the prepaid or savings account linked to it.
    • It is affixed on the windscreen, so the vehicle can drive through plazas without stopping.
    • RFID technology is similar to that used in transport access-control systems, like Metro smart card.
    • If the tag is linked to a prepaid account like a wallet or a debit/credit card, then owners need to recharge/top up the tag.
    • If it is linked to a savings account, then money will get deducted automatically after the balance goes below a pre-defined threshold.
    • Once a vehicle crosses the toll, the owner will get an SMS alert on the deduction. In that, it is like a prepaid e-wallet.

  • [pib] Tso Kar Wetland Complex

    India has added Tso Kar Wetland Complex in Ladakh as its 42nd Ramsar site, which is a second one in the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh. With this, India now has forty-two Ramsar sites.

    Try this PYQ:

    In which one among the following categories of protected areas in India are local people not allowed to collect and use the biomass?

    (a) Biosphere reserves

    (b) National parks

    (c) Wetlands declared under Ramsar convention

    (d) Wildlife sanctuaries

    Tso Kar Wetland Complex

    • It is a high-altitude wetland complex, consisting of two principal waterbodies, Startsapuk Tso, a freshwater lake of about 438 hectares to the south, and Tso Kar itself, a hypersaline lake of 1800 hectares to the north.
    • It is situated in the Changthang region of Ladakh.
    • It is called Tso Kar, meaning white lake, because of the white salt efflorescence found on the margins due to the evaporation of highly saline water.

    Ecological significance

    • Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.
    • They are, in fact, a major source of water and our main supply of freshwater comes from an array of wetlands which help soak rainfall and recharge groundwater.
    • The Tso Kar Basin is an A1 Category Important Bird Area (IBA) as per BirdLife International and a key staging site in the Central Asian Flyway.
    • The site is also one of the most important breeding areas of the Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) in India.

    Back2Basics: Wetlands

    • A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded by water, either permanently or seasonally, where oxygen-free processes prevail.
    • The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other landforms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil.
    • Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.

    What is the Ramsar Convention?

    • The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is a treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of such sites.
    • The convention, signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, is one of the oldest inter-governmental accords for preserving the ecological character of wetlands.
    • Also known as the Convention on Wetlands, it aims to develop a global network of wetlands for the conservation of biological diversity and for sustaining human life.
    • Over 170 countries are party to the Ramsar Convention and over 2,000 designated sites covering over 20 crore hectares have been recognised under it.

  • Fixed-term employees

    The recent incident of violence at the iPhone manufacturing factory brought into focus the issue of contract labour. The article explains the reasons for its persistence despite the provision of fixed-term employment.

    Difference between a contract worker and fixed-term worker

    • Contract workers, who are hired via an intermediary (contractor) and are not on the payrolls of the company on whose shop floors they work.
    • Fixed-term employees can be directly hired by employers without mediation by a middleman.
    • They are ensured of the same work hours, wages, allowances, and statutory benefits that permanent workers in the establishment are entitled to.
    • Employers are not required to provide retrenchment benefits to fixed-term employees.
    • With an aim to discourage the use of contract workers the government introduced the option of fixed-term employment in the Code on Industrial Relations (2020).

    Issues with the provision of fixed-term employment

    • Fixed-term employment in India is indeed quite open-ended.
    • The Code does not specify a minimum or maximum tenure for hiring fixed-term employees.
    • Nor does it specify the number of times the contract can be renewed.
    • The absence of such safeguards can lead to an erosion of permanent jobs.
    • Workers may find themselves moving from one fixed-term contract to another, without any assurance of being absorbed as permanent workers by their employer.

    So, why firms still hire contract workers?

    • The cost of hiring contract workers continues to remain lower than the cost of hiring fixed-term employees. who are required to be paid pro-rata wages and social security including gratuity.
    • In addition, the monitoring, legal compliance, and litigation costs are shifted onto the contractor in case of contract workers, thereby reducing the transaction costs of recruitment to firms.
    • To encourage a shift away from contract workers to fixed-term employees, the government should have completely prohibited the use of contract labor in core activities
    • Instead of completely prohibiting contract workers in core activities the Labour Code on Occupational Safety and Health has allowed it under certain conditions.
    • Such a provision encourages the use of contract workers, undermining the initiative of introducing fixed-term employment.

    Using PLI and Atmanirbhar Bharat to boost formal job creation

    • The production linked incentive scheme (PLI) offers government subsidies for a limited period which is five years for mobile handsets.
    • The objective of the PLI scheme is to create “good jobs”.
    • It may have been more useful to link these incentives for which a financial outlay of Rs 1.45 lakh crore has been approved over five years for 10 sectors explicitly to job creation.
    • Significantly, under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, the government is offering provident fund subsidies to employers for hiring new formal workers.
    • Both these programs could jointly be leveraged to give a big boost to formal job creation in the manufacturing sector.

    Consider the question “Examine the reasons for the persistence of contractual labour despite the option of fixed-term employment. Also suggest the ways to increase the employment opportunities that are secure.” 

    Conclusion

    The government should focus on the creation of employment opportunities that are secure through policies and laws.

  • Significance and History of National Farmers’ Day

    National Farmers’ Day, or Kisan Diwas, is celebrated across the country on December 23 to honour India’s farmers.

    Do you think that the extraordinary haste with which the farm bills were pushed through both the Houses has created the present crisis?

    National Farmers’ Day

    • It marks the birth anniversary of the nation’s fifth PM Choudhary Charan Singh.
    • In 2001, the government decided to recognise Choudhary Charan Singh’s contribution to the agriculture sector and welfare of farmers by celebrating his birth anniversary as Kisan Diwas.
    • Since then, December 23 has been observed as National Farmers’ Day.
    • Generally, awareness campaigns and drives are organised across the country to educate people on the role of farmers and their contribution to the economy.

    Who was CCS and what was his connection with farmers?

    • Chaudhary Charan Singh, who briefly served as PM between 1979 and 1980, is widely regarded as one of the country’s most famous peasant leaders.
    • He was known for his pioneering work to promote the welfare of farmers and the agricultural sector.
    • Charan Singh was no stranger to the struggles faced by the Indian farmer. He was born into a middle-class peasant family in Uttar Pradesh on December 23, 1902.
    • Greatly influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, he took an active part in the fight for independence.
    • After that, his political career largely focused on socialism in rural India.

    Major legislations

    • He was behind several major farmer-forward Bills, including the Land Utilization Bill of 1939 and the Debt Redemption Bill in 1939.
    • While serving as agriculture minister in 1952, he led UP in its efforts to abolish the Zamindari system.
    • In fact, he went on to draft the UP Zamindari and Land Reforms Bill himself.
    • On 23 December 1978, he founded the Kisan Trust — a non-political, non-profit making body — with the aim of educating India’s rural masses against injustice, and fostering solidarity among them.

  • Budget’s big worry: the food subsidy

    The article highlights the challenge of managing the procurement of wheat and rice at MSP by the FCI and maintaining its financial health.

    The problem of surplus in wheat and rice procurement

    • While MSP is declared for 23 crops, the biggest financial burden comes from wheat and rice.
    • Procurement has increased significantly with states like MP, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Odisha stepping up their efforts.
    • Overall procurement of rice and wheat has gone up to 52 million tonnes and 39 million tonnes, respectively.
    • The requirement of PDS and welfare schemes is about 60 million tonnes.
    • This leaves a surplus of about 30 million tonnes, in addition to the carry-over stock of about 42 million tonnes (current)—far above the buffer and strategic reserve norms.

    Cost of the surplus and its significance

    • The subsidy burden for rice and wheat (2020-21) is estimated to be Rs 1.8 lakh crore.
    • FCI procures wheat and rice at MSP (some states do so under the decentralised procurement & distribution scheme).
    • They incur costs like market fees, labour charges, packing costs, transport, storage charges, etc.
    • These are of the order of 9% for procurement, 9-11% for labour and transport, and 15-17% for distribution.
    • The sale price is fixed at Rs 2 and Rs 3 per kg for wheat and rice, respectively, under the National Food Security Act.
    • In addition, there are releases under LEAN (lower entitlements and higher costs compared to NFSA cards, but subsidised nonetheless) and Open Market Sales (OMSS).
    • Cost of holding the buffer for a year is about Rs 5,500 per tonne.
    • FCI is holding 39 million tonnes of rice and 55 million tonnes of wheat (July 2020) against the buffer/strategic reserve norm of 13.5 million tonnes of rice and 27.6 million tonnes of wheat, i.e., a surplus of 52 million tonnes.
    • The cost of holding this stock works out to Rs 29,000 crore per year.

    Financial burden on FCI

    • The finance ministry has not been able to allocate adequate funds to meet the full requirement of food subsidy.
    • Under-provisioning on this account has been going on, and FCI was being given loans at 8% interest from the National Savings Scheme Fund (NSSF) since 2016-17.
    • The outstanding loan on this account (October 31, 2020) is Rs 2,93,000 crore.
    • This has meant FCI getting zero budgetary support against current subsidy claims since 2017, thereby, postponing the problem year after year.
    • The subsidy burden is rising (with MSP increasing every year, quantities going up and prices under PDS fixed), and is likely to cross Rs 2 lakh crore.

    Conclusion

    Government need to bring in the reforms in the PDS and MSP regime to stop both the systems from collapsing under their own weights.

    Source:-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/union-budget-2021-22-the-burgeoning-food-subsidy-bill-will-be-a-key-budget-worry/2155584/

  • Five years since Paris Agreement, an opportunity to build back better

    This article by the Ambassador of the European Union underscores the need for implementation and action on the commitments made in the Paris Agreement to deal with climate change.

    EU’s commitment to implement Paris Agreement

    • In December 2019, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal — roadmap to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050.
    •  “Next Generation EU” recovery package and our next long-term budget earmark more than half a trillion euros to address climate change.
    • Recently  EU leaders unanimously agreed on the 2030 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% compared to 1990 levels.

    Impact on low carbon technologies

    • These actions and commitments of the EU towards Paris Agreement will further bring down the costs of low carbon technologies.
    • The cost of solar photovoltaics has already declined by 82% between 2010 and 2019.
    • Achieving the 55% target will even help us to save €100 billion in the next decade and up to €3 trillion by 2050.

    EU working with India on climate actions

    • No government can tackle climate change alone.
    •  India is a key player in this global endeavour.
    • The rapid development of solar and wind energy in India in the last few years is a good example of the action needed worldwide.
    • India has taken a number of very significant flagship initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition.
    • India and Team Europe are engaged to make a success of the forthcoming international gatherings: COP 26 in Glasgow on climate change and COP 15 in Kunming on biodiversity.

    Way forward

    • The international community should come forward with clear strategies for net-zero emissions and to enhance the global level of ambition for 2030.
    • Our global, regional, national, local and individual recovery plans are an opportunity to ‘build back better’.
    • We will also need to foster small individual actions to attain a big collective impact.

    Conclusion

    With climate neutrality as our goal, the world should mobilise its best scientists, business people, policymakers, academics, civil society actors and citizens to protect together something we all share beyond borders and species: our planet.

  • Why the universe has less ‘antimatter’ than matter?

    This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in DownToEarth.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.The known forces of nature can be divided into four classes, viz, gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force. With reference to them, which one of the following statements is not correct?

    (a) Gravity is the strongest of the four

    (b) Electromagnetism act only on particles with an electric charge

    (c) Weak nuclear force causes radioactivity

    (d) Strong nuclear force holds protons and neutrons inside the nuclear of an atom.

    What is Antimatter?

    • Antimatter is the opposite of normal matter. More specifically, the sub-atomic particles of antimatter have properties opposite those of normal matter.
    • The electrical charge of those particles is reversed.
    • Antimatter was created along with matter after the Big Bang, but antimatter is rare in today’s universe.
    • To better understand antimatter, one needs to know more about the matter.
    • The matter is made up of atoms, which are the basic units of chemical elements such as hydrogen, helium or oxygen.

    Their existence

    • The existence of antimatter was predicted by physicist Paul Dirac’s equation describing the motion of electrons in 1928.
    • At first, it was not clear if this was just a mathematical quirk or a description of a real particle.
    • But in 1932 Carl Anderson discovered an antimatter partner to the electron — the positron — while studying cosmic rays that rain down on Earth from space.
    • Over the next few decades’ physicists found that all matter particles have antimatter partners.
    • Scientists believe that in the very hot and dense state shortly after the Big Bang, there must have been processes that gave preference to matter over antimatter.
    • This created a small surplus of matter, and as the universe cooled, all the antimatter was destroyed, or annihilated, by an equal amount of matter, leaving a tiny surplus of matter.
    • And it is this surplus that makes up everything we see in the universe today.

    Studying the difference between matter and antimatter

    • A Quark is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter.
    • Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei.
    • The behaviour of quarks, which are the fundamental building blocks of matter along with leptons, can shed light on the difference between matter and antimatter.
    • Since they are unstable, they will “decay” — fall apart — into other more stable particles at some point during their oscillation.

  • Firefly Bird Diverters’ to save the Great Indian Bustard (GIB)

    The Environment Ministry along with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India has come up with a unique initiative a “firefly bird diverter” for overhead power lines in areas where Great Indian Bustard (GIB) populations are found in the wild.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which one of the following groups of animals belongs to the category of endangered species?

    (a) Great Indian Bustard, Musk Deer, Red Panda, Asiatic Wild Ass

    (b) Kashmir Stag, Cheetah, Blue Bull, Great Indian Bustard.

    (c) Snow Leopard, Swamp Deer, Rhesus Monkey, Saras (Crane)

    (d) Lion Tailed Macaque, Blue Bull, Hanuman Langur, Cheetah

    Great Indian Bustard

    • The GIB is one of the heaviest flying birds and can weigh up to 15 kg which grows up to one metre in height.
    • In July 2011, the bird was categorised as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
    • It is considered the flagship grassland species, representing the health of the grassland ecology.
    • For long, conservationists have been demanding to secure this population, warning that the bird might get extinct in the coming decades.
    • It would become the first mega species to disappear from India after Cheetah in recent times.
    • Till the 1980s, about 1,500-2,000 Great Indian Bustards were spread throughout the western half of India, spanning eleven states.
    • However, with rampant hunting and declining grasslands, their population dwindled.

    Bird Diverters

    • The diverters are called fireflies because they look like fireflies from a distance, shining on power lines in the night.
    • GIBs are one of the heaviest flying birds in India. Therefore, when they encounter these wires, they are unable to change the direction of their flight.
    • Death is most cases is due to impact with the wires and not due to electrocution.
    • The diverter will not only save GIB but other species of large birds, including migratory birds.

    Why such a move?

    • GIB is one of the most critically threatened species in India, with less than 150 birds left in the wild.
    • A report has pointed out that power lines, especially high-voltage transmission lines with multiple overhead wires, are the most important current threat for GIBs in the Thar region.
    • They are causing unsustainably high mortality in about 15% of their population.