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  • Species in news: Abortelphusa Namdaphaensis

    A crab specie was recently named after Arunachal Pradesh’s pristine forests on the edge of a small stream in Namdapha Tiger Reserve.

    Try this question from CSP 2020:

    Q.With reference to India’s Biodiversity, Ceylon frogmouth, Coppersmith barbet, Gray-chinned minivet and White-throated redstart are:

    (a) Birds
    (b) Primates
    (c) Reptiles
    (d) Amphibians

    Abortelphusa Namdaphaensis

    • The species, a small freshwater crab species, is a tribute to Namdapha, the largest protected area in the Eastern Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot and the Abor Hills.
    • It is the first Gecarcinucidae to be found in the Himalayan region. Freshwater crabs are divided into two families/categories: Potamidae and Gecarcinucidae.
    • Both differ in abdomen shape and size. Potamidae species have a broad triangular abdomen, whereas, in Gecarcinucidae, the abdomen is mostly T-shaped.
    • While the Gecarcinucidae is found in the peninsular region, the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, Potamidae are found in the Himalayan region.

    What makes it special?

    • The new species was found in a dry area, despite being a “freshwater” crab.
    • Freshwater crabs use their gills to absorb dissolved oxygen from water, but for food, breeding, and other purposes, they do not need water, and thus roam on the land near water.
    • The only reason it was possible to spot this on land is that the habitat around the water body has been preserved, untouched even.
    • Of the 125 freshwater crabs in India, the north-east accounts for 37. Arunachal Pradesh has 15 and Assam has 21.
    • The discovery highlights the potential of Arunachal Pradesh as one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in the country.

    Back2Basics: Namdapha

    • Namdapha (named a National Park in 1983) is known for its rich biodiversity and believed to be the rare area that harbours four large cats: tigers, snow leopards, clouded leopards and leopards.
    • The Abor Hills, bordered by the Mishmi Hills and Miri Hills, is historically known for the Abor Expedition.
    • It is a punitive expedition against the Abors in the North-Eastern Frontier Agency (which corresponds to parts of present-day Assam and Arunachal Pradesh) from October 1911 to April 1912.
    • The expedition had thrown up a plethora of new floral and faunal species, making it a zoological and botanical expedition as well.

  • Is Indian economy going through stagflation

    The article analyses the challenge faced by the Monetary Policy Committee in wake of a pandemic where falling growth is accompanied by the rising inflation.

    Dilemma with inflation targetting in pandemic

    • After the RBI’s adoption of a flexible inflation targeting framework from August 2020, it became even more focused on anchoring inflation and inflation expectations than ever before.
    • But the COVID pandemic has created a dilemma for the RBI.
    • Higher-than-anticipated inflation compelled the monetary policy committee (MPC) to hold policy rates despite the contraction in April-June GDP by 23.9 per cent.

     CPI vs. WPI: Which should be focused for inflation targeting?

    • Inflation-targeting framework based on one narrow nominal consumer price index (CPI)  has highlighted the challenges of conducting monetary policy in a severe growth shock scenario.
    • Inflation targeting is particularly challenging if it coincides with a sharp increase in headline CPI inflation as in the current period.
    • The current framework has led to an excessive and obsessive emphasis on point CPI estimates, at the cost of ignoring other indicators.
    • WPI core inflation, which essentially represents the manufacturing sector, is below 1 per cent but this does not find much mention.
    • This is strange because ultimately, the GDP deflator is calculated using both CPI and WPI inflation, with the latter having a greater weight.
    • This should be taken into consideration, while reviewing the existing monetary policy framework.
    • Given the composition of the current CPI basket, RBI’s monetary policy actions can at best impact only 41.35 per cent of the overall items.
    • Food and beverages, fuel items, gold and silver tobacco/intoxicants are items over which the RBI does not have any control.[58.65 per cent of the overall items]

    This is a different time

    • In normal times, a sustained increase in food and fuel prices can lead to a generalised increase in prices.
    • But this argument is not valid in the current context where a large number of people have lost their jobs or have seen fall in incomes.
    • In the current context, higher food and fuel prices would lead to reduction in expenditure on discretionary items.
    • So there will be only a relative shift in prices, without any fear of a generalised spiral, as households will not be in any position to demand higher wages to compensate for the increase in prices of food and fuel items.
    • Given the amount of slack in the economy, a scenario of sustained generalised increase in prices seems unlikely over the next 6-9 months.

    How to measure the success of inflation targeting

    • The CPI inflation targeting framework has helped to reduce inflation expectations during FY17-FY21 on average (9.3 per cent) compared to the previous period of FY12- FY16 (12.8 per cent).
    • However, the gap between inflation expectations and actual CPI inflation has remained unchanged at 5.1 per cent during these two periods.
    • The success of the inflation-targeting framework should not only be judged by the actual CPI inflation trend, but also in terms of gap between the two.

    How RBI performed without inflation targeting framework in the past

    • Even without any formal inflation-targeting framework, India had successfully managed to keep inflation low during FY02-FY06.
    • The RBI’s stance then was based on a multiple-indicator approach to conduct monetary policy.
    • First factor that made it possible was the increase in minimum support prices of food-grains was kept below 3 per cent on average.
    • Second factor was the composition of growth which was better during this period with investment growth surpassing consumption growth by several percentage points.
    • It is for this reason that CPI inflation remained contained at 4 per cent on average during this period even with 7 per cent real GDP growth.

    Risk of structural increase in inflation

    • In the current cycle, investment growth is likely to be impacted more severely than consumption growth.
    • Given the acute weakness in the demand side of the economy, persistent problems in the real estate sector, continued deleveraging of the NBFC sector and significant job losses structural increase in inflation is limited.

    What should be the policy response

    • The scope for rate cuts remains dim in the near-term.
    • But the RBI to remain active with a host of unconventional measures, which will likely include more proactive bond purchases to ensure that market interest rates do not rise significantly due to fiscal and market borrowing-related concerns.

    Conclusion

    Given the prevailing unholy mix of growth and inflation, it is tempting to categorise India’s economic situation as one of “stagflation”. But, in our view, it is too early to conclude decisively on this matter, given the fluid nature of things.

    Back2Basics: Inflation expectations

    • Inflation expectations are what people expect future inflation to be, and they matter because these expectations actually affect people’s behavior.
    • If people expect inflation to be lower and they act on those beliefs, they could, in fact, cause inflation to be lower.
    • If businesses expect lower inflation, they may raise prices at a slower rate; they don’t want the prices of their items to look too out of line with those of their competitors.
    • If workers expect lower inflation, they may ask for smaller wage increases.
    • The combination of businesses and workers acting in this manner will result in the economy experiencing lower inflation.

     

     

     

  • Nobel Prize in Chemistry for CRISPR Technology

    French-American duo Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for the chemistry of CRISPR, which allows scientists to ‘cut-paste’ inside a genetic sequence.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.What is Cas9 protein that is often mentioned in news?

    (a) A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing

    (b) A biosensor used in the accurate detection of pathogens in patients

    (c) A gene that makes plants pest-resistant

    (d) A herbicidal substance synthesized in genetically modified crops

    The CRISPR technology

    • The CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, developed in the year 2012
    • CRISPR has made gene editing very easy and simple, and at the same time extremely efficient.
    • The technology works in a simple way — it locates the specific area in the genetic sequence which has been diagnosed to be the cause of the problem, cuts it out, and replaces it with a new and correct sequence that no longer causes the problem.
    • The technology replicates a natural defence mechanism in some bacteria that use a similar method to protect itself from virus attacks.

    Working of CRISPR

    • An RNA molecule is programmed to locate the particular problematic sequence on the DNA strand.
    • A special protein called Cas9, often described in popular literature as ‘genetic scissor’, is used to break and remove the problematic sequence.
    • A DNA strand, when broken, has a natural tendency to repair itself. But the auto-repair mechanism can lead to the re-growth of a problematic sequence.
    • Scientists intervene during this auto-repair process by supplying the desired sequence of genetic codes, which replaces the original sequence.
    • It is like cutting a portion of a long zipper somewhere in between and replacing that portion with a fresh segment.
    • Because the entire process is programmable, it has a remarkable efficiency and has already brought almost miraculous results.

    Uses of CRISPR

    • There are a whole lot of diseases and disorders, including some forms of cancer, that are caused by an undesired genetic mutation.
    • These can all be fixed with this technology. There are vast applications elsewhere as well. Genetic sequences of disease-causing organisms can be altered to make them ineffective.
    • Genes of plants can be edited to make them withstand pests, or improve their tolerance to drought or temperature.

    Ethical concerns

    • In November 2018, a Chinese researcher in Shenzen created an international sensation with his claim that he had altered the genes of a human embryo that eventually resulted in the birth of twin baby girls.
    • This was the first documented case of a ‘designer babies’ being produced using the new gene-editing tools like CRISPR.
    • What made matters worse was that the gene-editing was probably done without any regulatory permission or oversight.

  • [pib] Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

    The Union Cabinet has approved the Ratification of seven chemicals listed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

    Stockholm Convention

    • It is a global treaty to protect human health and environment from POPs, which are identified chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate in living organisms, adversely affect human health/ environment and have the property of long-range environmental transport (LRET).

    Key Provisions:  The provisions of the Convention require each party to:

    • Prohibit and/or eliminate the production and use, as well as the import and export, of the intentionally, produced POPs that are listed in Annex A to the Convention
    • Restrict the production and use, as well as the import and export, of the intentionally, produced POPs that are listed in Annex B to the Convention
    • Reduce or eliminate releases from unintentionally produced POPs that are listed in Annex C to the Convention
    • Ensure that stockpiles and wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with POPs are managed safely and in an environmentally sound manner

    Do you know?

    The Global Environment Facility (GEF) serves as a financial mechanism for the following conventions:

    1. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
    2. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
    3. UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
    4. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
    5. Minamata Convention on Mercury

    What are POPs?

    • Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), sometimes known as “forever chemicals” are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes.
    • Because of their persistence, POPs bioaccumulate with potential adverse impacts on human health and the environment.
    • Many POPs are currently or were in the past used as pesticides, solvents, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals.
    • Although some POPs arise naturally (e.g from volcanoes), most are man-made via total synthesis.

    Threats of POPs

    • Exposure to POPs can lead to cancer, damage to central & peripheral nervous systems, diseases of the immune system, reproductive disorders and interference with normal infant and child development.

    India’s actions on POPs till now

    • The MoEFCC had notified the ‘Regulation of Persistent Organic Pollutants Rules, on March 5, 2018, under the provisions of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
    • The regulation prohibited the manufacture, trade, use, import and export seven chemicals which were already listed as POPs under Stockholm Convention-
    1. Chlordecone
    2. Hexabromobiphenyl
    3. Hexabromodiphenyl ether and Heptabromodiphenylether (Commercial octa-BDE)
    4. Tetrabromodiphenyl ether and Pentabromodiphenyl ether (Commercial Penta-BDE)
    5. Pentachlorobenzene
    6. Hexabromocyclododecane and
    7. Hexachlorobutadiene

  • [pib] Kasturi Cotton

    Now India’s premium Cotton would be known as ‘Kasturi Cotton’ in the world cotton trade.

    Kasturi Cotton

    • It is the first-ever Brand and Logo for Indian Cotton on Second World Cotton Day.
    • The Kasturi Cotton brand will represent Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and Indianness.

    Do you know?

    1. Cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of India and it provides livelihood to about 6.00 million cotton farmers.
    2. India is the 2nd largest cotton producer and the largest consumer of cotton in the world.
    3. India produces about 6.00 Million tons of cotton every year which is about 23% of the world cotton.
    4. India produces about 51% of the total organic cotton production of the world, which demonstrates India’s effort towards sustainability.

  • Tackling the challenge of Big Tech

    The article discusses the threat posed by the spread of misinformation on the internet and suggests the steps to tackle it.

    Warning for India

    • The U.S.’s experience with the Internet should serve as a stark warning to India.
    • Most Americans now get their news from dubious Internet sources.
    • This resulted in hardening of political stances and the acute polarisation of the average American’s viewpoint.
    • For India, the danger is that like the U.S., such extreme polarisation can happen in a few short years.
    • There are anywhere between 500 million and 700 million people are now newly online, almost all from towns and rural areas.

    Use of targeted algorithm

    • Social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter have become the source of news for the people, but these have no journalistic norms.
    • The spread of the misinformation or news has been greatly enhanced by the highly targeted algorithms that these companies use.
    • They are likely to bombard users with information that serves to reinforce what the algorithm thinks the searcher needs to know.
    • As they familiarise themselves with the Internet, newly online Indians are bound to fall prey to algorithms that social network firms use.

    Steps to control the misinformation on the internet

    • 1) Tech firms are already under fire from all quarters,  nonetheless, we need to act.
    • They are struggling to meet calls to contain the online spread of misinformation and hate speech.
    • 2) Unlike the U.S., India might need to chart its own path by regulating these firm before they proliferate.
    • In the U.S., these issues were not sufficiently legislated for and have existed for over a decade.
    • Free speech is inherent in the Constitution of many democracies, including India’s.
    • This means that new Indian legislation needs to preserve free speech while still applying pressure to make sure that Internet content is filtered for accuracy, and sometimes, plain decency.
    • 3) The third issue is corporate responsibility.
    • Facebook, for instance, has started to address this matter by publishing ‘transparency reports’ and setting up an ‘oversight board’.
    • But we cannot ignore the fact that these numbers reflect judgements that are made behind closed doors.
    • What should be regulatory attempts to influence the transparency are instead being converted into secret corporate processes.
    • We have no way of knowing the extent of biases that may be inherent inside each firm.
    • The fact that their main algorithms target advertising and hyper-personalisation of content makes them further suspect as arbiters of balanced news.
    • This means that those who use social media platforms must pull in another direction to maintain access to a range of sources and views.

    Consider the question “What are the factors responsible for the spread of misinformation on social media and suggest the measures to tackle it.”

    Conclusion

    We need strong intervention now. Else, in addition to the media, which has largely been the responsible fourth estate, we may well witness the creation of an unmanageable fifth estate in the form of Big Tech.

  • Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme

    The Ministry of Electronics and IT had approved some proposals by electronics manufacturers under its Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme often seen in news is related to-

    a) Electronics manufacture

    b) Khadi and Village Industries

    c) MSMEs

    d) None of these

    What is the PLI scheme?

    • As a part of the National Policy on Electronics, the IT ministry had notified the PLI scheme on April 1 this year.
    • The scheme will, on one hand, attract big foreign investment in the sector, while also encouraging domestic mobile phone makers to expand their units and presence in India.
    • It would give incentives of 4-6 per cent to electronics companies which manufacture mobile phones and other electronic components.
    • A/c to the scheme, companies that make mobile phones which sell for Rs 15,000 or more will get an incentive of up to 6 per cent on incremental sales of all such mobile phones made in India.
    • In the same category, companies which are owned by Indian nationals and make such mobile phones, the incentive has been kept at Rs 200 crore for the next four years.

    Tenure of the scheme

    • The PLI scheme will be active for five years with financial year (FY) 2019-20 considered as the base year for calculation of incentives.
    • This means that all investments and incremental sales registered after FY20 shall be taken into account while computing the incentive to be given to each company.

    Which companies and what kind of investments are considered?

    • All electronic manufacturing companies which are either Indian or have a registered unit in India will be eligible to apply for the scheme.
    • These companies can either create a new unit or seek incentives for their existing units from one or more locations in India.
    • Any additional expenditure incurred on the plant, machinery, equipment, research and development and transfer of technology for the manufacture of mobile phones and related electronic items will be eligible for the incentive.
    • However, all investment done by companies on land and buildings for the project will not be considered for any incentives or determine the eligibility of the scheme.

  • Physics Nobel for discoveries about Black Holes

    Three scientists won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for advancing our understanding of black holes, the all-consuming monsters that lurk in the darkest parts of the universe.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Recently, scientists observed the merger of giant ‘blackholes’ billions of light-years away from the Earth. What is the significance of this observation?

    (a) ‘Higgs boson particles’ were detected.

    (b) ‘Gravitational waves’ were detected.

    (c) Possibility of inter-galactic space travel through ‘wormhole’ was confirmed.

    (d) It enabled the scientists to understand ‘singularity’.

    Who are these laureates?

    • Briton Roger Penrose received half of this year’s prize for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.
    • German Reinhard Genzel and American Andrea Ghez received the second half of the prize for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.

    What are black holes?

    • A black hole is formed when stars collapse and can be defined as a space in the universe with an escape velocity so strong that even light cannot escape it.
    • Escape velocity is the speed at which an object must travel to override a planet or an object’s gravitational force.
    • For instance, for a spacecraft to leave the surface of the Earth, it needs to be travelling at a speed of about 40,000 km per hour.
    • Since light cannot get out, black holes are invisible and can only be tracked with the help of a space telescope or other special tools.
    • And the reason light cannot escape is mainly that the gravity inside a black hole is very strong as a result of a lot of matter being squeezed into a small space.

    Their contributions

    • Penrose has been awarded the prize for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.
    • Genzel and Ghez have been awarded the prize for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.
    • Penrose’s work has shown that black holes are a direct consequence of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
    • Einstein himself did not believe that black holes exist and presented his theory in November 1915, providing a new way to look at and understand the gravity that shapes the universe “at the largest scale”.
    • Penrose used Einstein’s general theory of relativity in order to prove that the process of formation of black holes is a stable one.
    • Genzel and Ghez, on the other hand, have discovered that an invisible and an extremely heavy object governs the stars’ orbit at the centre of the Milky Way.

  • Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) System

    DRDO successfully conducted the flight test of its Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) system.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The SMART system recently tested by the DRDO is essentially a-

    a)Radar

    b)Torpedo

    c)UAV

    d)Missile

    What is the SMART system?

    • Torpedoes are self-propelled weapons that travel underwater to hit a target but are limited by their range.
    • In the mid-2010s, DRDO undertook a project to build capacity to launch torpedoes assisted by missiles; Monday’s was the first known flight test of the system.
    • This SMART system comprises a mechanism by which the torpedo is launched from a supersonic missile system with modifications that would take the torpedo to a far longer range than its own.
    • For example, a torpedo with a range of a few kilometres can be sent a distance to the tune of 1000 km by the missile system from where the torpedo is launched.

    Why is it significant?

    • SMART is a game-changing technology demonstration in anti-submarine warfare.
    • India’s anti-submarine warfare capacity building is crucial in light of China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean region.
    • Assets of such warfare consist of the deployment of submarines, specialised anti-submarine ships, air assets and state-of-the-art reconnaissance and detection mechanisms.
    • The Navy’s anti-submarine warfare capability got a boost in June after the conclusion of a contract for Advanced Torpedo Decoy System Maareech, capable of being fired from all frontline warships.
    • India has been indigenously developing and building several anti-submarine systems and vessels in the recent past.

  • Kozhikode-Wayanad Tunnel Project

    Kerala CM has launched a tunnel road project that would connect Kozhikode with Wayanad.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.From the ecological point of view, which one of the following assumes importance in being a good link between the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats?

    (a) Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve

    (b) Nallamala Forest

    (c) Nagarhole National Park

    (d) Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve

    Kozhikode-Wayanad Tunnel Project

    • The 7-km tunnel, being described as the third-longest in the country, is part of an 8-km road cutting through sensitive forests and hills of the Western Ghats.
    • Its endpoints are at Maripuzha in Thiruvambady village panchayat (Kozhikode) and Kalladi in Meppadi panchayat (Wayanad).
    • The tunnel is an outcome of a decades-long campaign for an alternative road as the Thamarassery Ghat Road is congested and gets blocked by landslides during heavy monsoon.

    How will the road impact the ecology?

    • The Forest Department has identified the proposed route as a highly sensitive patch comprising evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, marshlands and shola tracts.
    • This region is part of an elephant corridor spread between Wayanad and Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu.
    • Two major rivers, Chaliyar and Kabani that flows to Karnataka, originate from these hills in Wayanad.
    • Eruvazhanjipuzha, a tributary of Chaliyar and the lifeline of settlements in Malappuram and Kozhikode, begins in the other side of the hills.
    • The region, known for torrential rain during the monsoon, has witnessed several landslides, including in 2019 at Kavalappura near Nilambur and at Puthumala, Meppadi in Wayanad.

    Environmental clearance issues

    • Proponents of the project have been stressing that the tunnel will not destroy forest (trees).
    • The MoEFCC guidelines state that the Forest Act would apply not only to surface area but the entire underground area beneath the trees.
    • For tunnel projects, conditions relating to underground mining would be applicable.
    • As the proposed tunnel is 7 km long, it will require emergency exit points and air ventilation wells among other measures, which would impact the forest further.