Archives: News

Monsoon Updates

What is Global Warming Hiatus (GWH)?

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Important Geophysical Phenomena
A new study on variability in the Mascarene High (MH) in the Southern Indian Ocean during global warming hiatus (GWH) has revealed that the region experienced significantly increased sea surface temperature (SST) during this period (1998-2016).
Try this PYQ:

Q.With reference to Ocean Mean Temperature (OMT), which of the following statements is/are correct? (CSP 2020)
1. OMT is measured upto a depth of 26 degree Celsius isotherm which is 129 meters in the south-western Indian Ocean during January-March.
2. OMT collected during January-March can be used in assessing whether the amount of rainfall in monsoon will be less or more than a certain long-term mean.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
What is Global Warming Hiatus (GWH)?
- A global warming hiatus is referred to a global warming pause, or a global warming slowdown, which is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures.
- The hiatus, however, can result in an increase in the SST.
What is Mascarene High (MH)?
- The Mascarene High (MH) is a semi-permanent subtropical high-pressure zone in the South Indian Ocean.
- It is also called the Indian Ocean subtropical high, which is a high-pressure area located between 20° to 35° South latitude and 40° to 90° East longitude.
- It is a region from where the cross-equatorial winds blow to India.
- It has been named after the Mascarene Islands, in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to Mauritius as well as the French Réunion Islands.
- Apart from its large influence on African and Australian weather patterns, it also helps in driving the inter-hemispheric circulation between the Indian Ocean in the south and subcontinental landmass in the north.
Role of MH
- The warming in SST due to global warming has resulted in a decrease in the pressure gradient between the MH and the Indian landmass.
- This in turn suppressed the intensity of low-level cross-equatorial winds over the western Indian Ocean affecting the onset of the monsoon over the Indian subcontinent and rainfall over East Asia.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

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

PIB | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia
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
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now
Agricultural Sector and Marketing Reforms – eNAM, Model APMC Act, Eco Survey Reco, etc.

[pib] Kasturi Cotton

PIB | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Major Crops & Cropping Patterns
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.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now
Women empowerment issues – Jobs,Reservation and education

What India can learn from Kenya about women’s representation

| Polity | Mains Paper 2: Laws, Institutions & Bodies Constituted For The Vulnerable Sections
Asymmetric representation in India and Kenya has given rise to complex debate in both countries. The article analyses the similarities and difference.

Issue of women’s representation in Parliament
- Many political promises have been made in seven decades of the working of the Indian Constitution regarding 33 per cent reservation in Parliament.
- But the two bills, introduced in 1996 and 2010, have been allowed to lapse.
What are the hurdles?
- Every political party endorses the idea but the battle within political classes has been over “quota within a quota”.
- Some have argued that ways should be found to ensure that this reservation should contain 33 per cent reservation within for SC and ST women.
- Some have championed a systemic practice of reservation at the stage of distributing party tickets.
- Some continue to fight for underprivileged and rural women.
- Some maintain that a constitutional convention mandating increased representation for women by parties will be more appropriate than a constitutional amendment.
Comparison with Kenya
- While both fall short in equitable representation, Kenya has secured about 22 per cent women in the present National Assembly.
- India peaked to its highest number in the 2019 elections with 62 women (around 14.58 per cent),out of a total of 542 Lok Sabha seats.
- In the Kenyan Senate women number only 21 (or 31 per cent) of the 67-member House are female; in the Indian Rajya Sabha women comprise 25 out of 243 elected members.
- In both societies, women’s representation has always been “pyramidical”, most women remain below the constitutional radar at the bottom, even when a few scale national heights.
- Asymmetric representation in both societies has generated a long and complex debate concerning women’s representation.
Difference in constitutional histories and judicial actions
- India has nothing like the two-thirds rule in Kenya’s new constitution.
- Kenya’s Constitution requires that not more than two-thirds of the members of elective or appointive bodies shall be of the same gender.
- But the 2010 constitutional norm of a “two-thirds gender rule”, buttressed by the requirement that the electoral system shall comply with this rule has been breached.
- The judicial orders (from 2012) giving various timeframes to enact legislation to implement gender parity have found Parliament unresponsive.
- The stage was thus set for the exercise of constitutional power and function by the chief justice to advise the president to dissolve Parliament.
- This was a great victory for the Kenyan women.
Conclusion

Indian sisterhood can yearn wistfully, but valiantly, for another Vishakha moment in the demosprudential leadership of the nation by the apex court.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now
Social Media: Prospect and Challenges

Tackling the challenge of Big Tech

op-ed snap | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Social Media Networks & Internal Security
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.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now
Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta’ Movement

| | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History
Sardar Ajit Singh Sandhu, the brain behind the ‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta’ movement is now being remembered in the ongoing agrarian resentments in Punjab.

Try this PYQ:

Q.What was the immediate cause for the launch of the Swadeshi movement?

(a) The partition of Bengal done by Lord Curzon.

(b) A sentence of 18 months rigorous imprisonment imposed on Lokmanya Tilak.

(c) The arrest and deportation of Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh; and passing of the Punjab Colonization Bill.

(d) Death sentence pronounced on the Chapekar brothers.

‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta’ Movement
- In 1879, the British constructed the Upper Bari Doab canal to draw water from the Chenab river and take it to Lyallpur (now in Pakistan and renamed Faisalabad) to set up settlements in uninhabited areas.
- Promising to allot free land with several amenities, the government persuaded peasants and ex-servicemen from Jalandhar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur to settle there.
- In 1907, in Lyallpur, Ajit Singh Sandhu also Bhagat Singh’s uncle headed the movement that articulated this discontent.
- The catchy slogan, Pagdi Sambhal Jatta, the name of the movement, was inspired by the song by Banke Lal, the editor of the Jang Sayal newspaper.
- The agitated protestors ransacked government buildings, post offices, banks, overturning telephone poles and pulling down telephone wires.
Who was Ajit Singh?
- He was a revolutionary and a nationalist during the time of British rule in India.
- With compatriots, he organised agitation by Punjabi peasants against anti-farmer laws known as the Punjab Colonization Act (Amendment) 1906 and administrative orders increasing water rate charges.
- He was an early protester in the Punjab region of India who challenged British rule and openly criticized the Indian colonial government.
- In May 1907, with Lala Lajpat Rai, he was exiled to Mandalay in Burma.
- Due to great public pressure and apprehension of unrest in the Indian Army, the bills of exile were withdrawn and both men were released in November 1907.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now
Industrial Sector Updates – Industrial Policy, Ease of Doing Business, etc.

Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme

| Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.
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.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now
Gravitational Wave Observations

Physics Nobel for discoveries about Black Holes

| Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields
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.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now
Indian Missile Program Updates

Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) System

Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields
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.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now
Roads, Highways, Cargo, Air-Cargo and Logistics infrastructure – Bharatmala, LEEP, SetuBharatam, etc.

Kozhikode-Wayanad Tunnel Project

Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.
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.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now