Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Doomsday Clock
Mains level: Various existential threat to mankind
The hands of the ‘Doomsday Clock’, a visual depiction of how vulnerable the world is to a climate or nuclear catastrophe, remained at ‘100 seconds to midnight’ for the second consecutive year — the closest it has been to the symbolic annihilation of humanity.
Q.The ‘Doomsday Clock’ represents the hypothetical countdown to raise human consciousness against mutually assured destruction. In this light, discuss various existential threats to humanity and action taken so far.
What is the ‘Doomsday Clock’?
- The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and students from the University of Chicago in 1945, created the ‘Doomsday Clock’.
- It is held as a symbol to represent how close the world is to a possible apocalypse.
- It is set annually by a panel of scientists, including 13 Nobel laureates, based on the threats — old and new — that the world faced in that year.
- When it was first created in 1947, the hands of the clock were placed based on the threat posed by nuclear weapons, which the scientists then perceived to be the greatest threat to humanity.
- Over the years, they have included other existential threats, such as climate change and disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence.
Significance of such clock
- The reason the scientists selected a clock is twofold — they wanted to use the imagery of an apocalypse (midnight) as well as the “contemporary idiom of a nuclear explosion” (zero countdowns) to illustrate the threats to humanity.
- The clock was originally set to seven minutes to midnight and has since moved closer or further away from the dreaded 12 o’clock position.
- The furthest it has been being 17 minutes after the end of the Cold War in 1991.
Why was the clock set at ‘100 seconds from midnight’?
- It was set at the ‘100 seconds from midnight’ position due to the prevailing climate conditions, “cyber-based disinformation”, nuclear risk and the pandemic.
- It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in the history of the Clock.
- We now face a true emergency – an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ULBs in India
Mains level: ULB reforms
Rajasthan has become the 5thState in the country to successfully undertake Urban Local Bodies (ULB) reforms stipulated by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance and has thus become eligible for additional reform linked to borrowing.
Which are the four other States?
: They are Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and Telangana, who have completed ULB reforms.
Now try this PYQ:
Q.The Constitution (Seventy-Third Amendment) Act, 1992, which aims at promoting the Panchayati Raj Institutions in the country, provides for which of the following?
- Constitution of District Planning Committees.
- State Election Commissions to conduct all panchayat elections.
- Establishment of State Finance Commissions.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) Only 1
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
What are the ULB reforms?
The four citizen-centric areas identified for reforms are:
- Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System
- Ease of doing business reform
- Urban Local body/ utility reforms
- Power Sector reforms.
The set of reforms stipulated by the Department of Expenditure are:
(a) The State will notify:
- Floor rates of property tax in ULBs which are in consonance with the prevailing circle rates (i.e. guideline rates for property transactions) and;
- Floor rates of user charges in respect of the provision of water supply, drainage, and sewerage which reflect current costs/past inflation.
(b) The State will put in place a system of periodic increases in floor rates of property tax/ user charges in line with price increases.
Why need such reforms?
- Reforms in ULBs and the urban utility reforms are aimed at the financial strengthening of ULBs to enable them to provide better public health and sanitation services to citizens.
- Economically rejuvenated ULBs will also be able to create good civic infrastructure.
Back2Basics: Municipal Governance in India
- Municipal or local governance refers to the third tier of governance in India, at the level of the municipality or urban local body.
- Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) are small local bodies that administer or govern a city or a town of a specified population.
- They are vested with a long list of functions delegated to them by the state governments.
- These functions broadly relate to public health, welfare, regulatory functions, public safety, public infrastructure works, and development activities.
- There are several types of Urban Local Bodies in India such as Municipal Corporation, Municipality, Notified Area Committee, Town Area Committee, Special Purpose Agency, Township, Port Trust, Cantonment Board, etc.
Development through history
- It has existed since the year 1687, with the formation of Madras Municipal Corporation, and then Calcutta and Bombay Municipal Corporation in 1726.
- In the early part of the nineteenth century, almost all towns in India had experienced some form of municipal governance.
- In 1882 the then Viceroy of India, Lord Ripon, known as the Father of Local Self Government, passed a resolution of local self-government which lead to the democratic forms of municipal governance in India.
- In 1919, a Government of India Act incorporated the need of the resolution and the powers of democratically elected government were formulated.
- In 1935 another Government of India act brought local government under the preview of the state or provincial government and specific powers were given.
Changes after the 74th Amendment (1992)
- It was the 74th amendment to the Constitution that brought constitutional validity to municipal or local governments.
- Until amendments were made in respective state legislation on an ultra vires (beyond the authority) basis and the state governments were free to extend or control the functional sphere.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Prabuddha Bharat
Mains level: Not Much
PM will address the 125th-anniversary celebrations of ‘Prabuddha Bharata’, a monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order, started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following pairs does not form part of the six systems of Indian Philosophy?
(a) Mimamsa and Vedanta
(b) Nyaya and Vaisheshika
(c) Lokayata and Kapalika
(d) Sankhya and Yoga
Prabuddha Bharata
- The journal ‘Prabuddha Bharata’ has been an important medium for spreading the message of India’s ancient spiritual wisdom.
- It is India’s longest-running English language journal (wiki).
- Its publication was started from Chennai (erstwhile Madras), where it continued to be published for two years, after which it was published from Almora.
- Later, in April 1899, the place of publication of the Journal was shifted to Advaita Ashrama and it has been continuously published from there since then.
- Some of the greatest personalities have left their imprint on the pages of ‘Prabuddha Bharata’ through their writings on Indian culture, spirituality, philosophy, history, psychology, art, and other social issues.
- Luminaries like Netaji SC Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sister Nivedita, Sri Aurobindo, Former President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, among others, have contributed to the Journal over the years.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: India-Myanmar relations
Myanmar’s military staged a coup detaining de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and declaring it had taken control of the country for one year under a state of emergency.
Q.Despite its military coup, Myanmar is the key in linking South Asia to Southeast Asia and the eastern periphery becomes the focal point for New Delhi’s regional outreach. Analyse.
What is the news?
- The intervention came with rising tensions between the military, which ruled the country for nearly five decades, and the civilian government over allegations of fraud in November’s elections.
- The military had signaled its intentions to seize power to settle its claims of irregularities in the polls, which Suu Kyi’s party won easily.
How was the coup carried out?
- The military detained the leaders of the governing NLD party and Myanmar’s civilian leadership, including Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, along with various ministers and even the opposition.
- The military quickly seized control of the country’s infrastructure, suspending most television broadcasts and canceling all domestic and international flights, according to reports.
- Telephone and internet access was suspended in major cities.
- The stock market and commercial banks were closed, and long lines were seen outside ATMs in some places.
- In Yangon, the country’s largest city and former capital, residents ran to markets to stock up on food and other supplies.
Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?
- Suu Kyi came to power as state councilor in 2016 after the country’s first fully democratic vote in decades.
- Her ascension to leadership was seen as a critical moment in the transition of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to democracy from military dictatorship.
- Suu Kyi, the daughter of the country’s independence hero General Aung San, spent more than 15 years under house arrest.
- Her time in detention made her an international icon, and she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
- Since her release, her reputation has been tarnished by her cooperation with the military and her deadly campaign against the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group.
India’s response to the takeover
- India is “deeply concerned” with the return to military rule, which is a repeat of events thirty years ago.
- It sees only option to engage, building on its outreach in recent years via the security and defence establishment.
- India seeks a more pragmatic approach, engaging the military while pushing for more freedoms and democracy in Myanmar.
Various issues concerning India
- One important reason for the change is that India’s security relationship with the Myanmar military.
- These days, it has become extremely close, and it would be difficult to “burn bridges” with them given their assistance in securing the North East frontiers from insurgent groups.
- Apart from strategic concerns, India has cultivated several infrastructure and development projects with Myanmar, which it sees as the “gateway to the East” and ASEAN countries.
- These include the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multi-modal transit transport network, as well as a plan for a Special Economic Zone at the Sittwe deep-water port.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: POCSO Act
Mains level: Paper 2- Interpretation of Section 7 of POCSO Act
In a recent judgement, Section 7 of POCSO Act was interpreted in a controversial way by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court.
Issue of the definition of sexual assault under POCSO Act
- Recently, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court held that skin-to-skin contact is essential to constitute the offence defined under Section 7 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act).
- Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, which deals with outraging modesty of women and which provides for a lesser sentence, was held to be applicable in such cases.
- This ruling raises several concerns.
- The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights had asked the Maharashtra government to appeal this decision in the Supreme Court.
- The Supreme Court has currently stayed the acquittal of the accused under this judgement.
Concerns with the judgement
- The Court held that the stringent nature of punishment provided for the offence required stricter proof and serious allegations.
- The court said the punishment should be proportionate to the seriousness of the crime.
- Nevertheless, while adjudging the seriousness of the offence the court has not given consideration to the fact that the victim, a minor, is entitled to greater protection.
- The major concern is that the interpretation of the court seems to defeat the purpose of the POCSO Act.
- Section 7 of POCSO defines sexual assault as “Whoever, with sexual intent touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of the child or makes the child touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of such person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration is said to commit sexual assault.”
- The court has concluded that the touching of the breast without skin-to-skin contact is not similar to the abovementioned acts and, therefore, does not fall within this definition.
- The court seems to have followed a rather pedantic approach to reach this conclusion.
- The fact that the trauma of the child whose breasts were groped through a cloth could be of the same nature and severity as direct touching of the breast is not discussed.
- And if the trauma is the same, the mere existence of cloth should not affect the applicability of the POCSO Act.
Legislative history and object of POCSO Act
- The POCSO Act was enacted with the specific intention of protecting children from sexual assault and sexual harassment.
- It took into consideration the standards prescribed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations to which the Indian government acceded to on December 11, 1992.
- The Act acknowledges the special vulnerability of children and that special protection, above and beyond that provided in the IPC, is required when the victim is a child.
Conclusion
If such an interpretation is followed, there is a threat that the POCSO Act in itself might become redundant as a wide range of sexually violative activities would be excluded from its ambit due to lack of skin-to-skin contact.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Positive Externality
Mains level: Paper 3- Challenge of Big Tech
The article deals with the issue of checking the misuse of monopoly power by the Big Tech while encouraging their positive externalities.
Worldwide Investigations against Big Tech
- Big Tech firms, especially Facebook and Google have been investigated worldwide, including in the European Union and the United States, on the abuse of monopolistic power.
- Comparisons are drawn with investigations in the U.S. on the telecom industry and the break-up of the AT&T.
- However, there are important differences this time around.
- First, the information good that is being provided by the Internet firms of today, is largely non-rival.
- Second, Internet firms operate globally, therefore, it is often difficult to lay down international rules of obligation and fulfilment.
- Third, while it is debatable whether the goods and services provided by the Internet firms are excludable.
- It is this factor that was leveraged by the Internet firms to provide search, navigation, and social connectivity with no charge to the consumers, and, consequently, making these services non-excludable.
Monetisation model of Big Techs and isseus with it
- Public goods should be provided by governments, but the information goods as described above are being provided by private firms.
- This arrangement poses several problems.
- First, private firms need to have monetisation models to cover the costs of providing their services.
- So, the Internet firms have resorted to personalised advertisements and third-party sharing of the personal data of their users for monetisation purposes.
- Second, the strong network effects present in these Internet platforms warrant increasing the subscriber base and garnering as much market share as possible.
- This results in near-monopoly of some firms in their defined markets.
- These firms may resort to anti-competitive behaviour including acquiring rivals to vertically integrate; erecting entry barriers by refusing to interconnect and inter-operate with competing firms, and leveraging their capital base, thereby engaging in predatory pricing, and driving out competitors.
Positive externalities and consumer surplus
- Network effects create a huge consumer surplus.
- Even without our knowledge, these Internet firms have now become an indispensable part of our lives.
- There are positive externalities as well, for example, Google Maps Application Program Interface (APIs) is being used by almost all logistic transand port companies.
- Facebook APIs are used for advertisement by almost all firms across the industry.
- Google, recently announced that its Search is being expanded to provide accurate and timely information on vaccine distribution to enable quick recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Challenge of regulation
- The question before policymakers is how to regulate these Internet firms from abusing their monopoly power while encouraging the positive externalities and consumer surplus they create.
- It is often very difficult to prove that the firms engage in the abuse of their monopoly power.
- Due to strong network effects, it is not possible to ban or curtail these services.
Way forward
- A traditional view is to subsidise the good that creates positive externalities.
- Governments can provide tax subsidy to these Internet firms in return for their orderly behaviour in the marketplace.
- Governments could explore mandating sharing of Non-Personal Data (NPD) owned by these firms for societal and economic well-being as pointed out in the expert committee on NPD.
- The other way to control any abusive behaviour of the Internet firms is to use the power of public voice.
- The huge public outcry and subsequent government actions have delayed the recent changes to privacy policy relating to the sharing of personal information between WhatsApp and its parent firm, Facebook.
Consider the question “Services provided by the Internet firms have become indispensable part of our life, this leads to the problem of checking their monopoly power while encouraging their positive externalities and consumer surplus. In light of this, discuss the challenges posed by the Big Techs and suggest the ways to deal with them.”
Conclusion
While governments and regulators deal with these dilemmas the Internet firms should adhere to core ethical principles in conducting their businesses as firms that aim at super monopoly profits and are greedy to become powerhouses of the world, often end up in the ditch.
Back2Basics:What is positive externality
- A positive externality exists if the production and consumption of a good or service benefits a third party not directly involved in the market transaction.
- For example, education directly benefits the individual and also provides benefits to society as a whole through the provision of more informed and productive citizens.
What is Network Effect
- The network effect is a phenomenon whereby increased numbers of people or participants improve the value of a good or service.
- The Internet is an example of the network effect. Initially, there were few users on the Internet since it was of little value to anyone outside of the military and some research scientists.
- However, as more users gained access to the Internet, they produced more content, information, and services.
- The development and improvement of websites attracted more users to connect and do business with each other.
- As the Internet experienced increases in traffic, it offered more value, leading to a network effect.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: President’s address
Mains level: Significance of Presidential address
Many Opposition parties announced their decision to boycott the President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget session in solidarity with the farmers protesting against the three farm laws.
Try this PYQ:
Q. The President’s address is one of the most solemn occasions in the Parliamentary calendar. Discuss. Highlight its importance in Parliamentary Democracy.
President’s address
- The Constitution gives the President the power to address either House or a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.
- Article 87 provides two special occasions on which the President addresses a joint sitting. The first is to address the opening session of a new legislature after a general election.
- The second is to address the first sitting of Parliament each year. A session of a new or continuing legislature cannot begin without fulfilling this requirement.
- When the Constitution came into force, the President was required to address each session of Parliament.
In the UK, the history of the monarch addressing the Parliament goes back to the 16th century. In the US, President Gorge Washington addressed Congress for the first time in 1790.
History & precedent
- In India, the practice of the President addressing Parliament can be traced back to the Government of India Act of 1919.
- This law gave the Governor-General the right of addressing the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State.
- The law did not have a provision for a joint address but the Governor-General did address the Assembly and the Council together on multiple occasions.
- There was no address by him to the Constituent Assembly (Legislative) from 1947 to 1950.
- And after the Constitution came into force, President Rajendra Prasad addressed members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for the first time on January 31, 1950.
By the govt, about the govt
- The President’s speech essentially highlights the government’s policy priorities and plans for the upcoming year. The address provides a broad framework of the government’s agenda and direction.
- There is no set format for the President’s speech. The Constitution states that the President shall “inform Parliament of the cause of the summons”.
How it is done in India?
- The speech that the President reads is the viewpoint of the government and is written by it.
- Usually, in December, the PM’s Office asks the various ministries to start sending in their inputs for the speech.
- A message also goes out from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs asking ministries to send information about any legislative proposals that need to be included in the President’s address.
- All this information is aggregated and shaped into a speech, which is then sent to the President. The government uses the President’s address to make policy and legislative announcements.
Assembly debates on the matter
- During the making of the Constitution, Prof K T Shah wanted the President’s address to be more specific.
- He suggested that the language be changed to specify that the President shall inform Parliament “on the general state of the Union including financial proposals, and other particular issues of policy he deems suitable for such address”.
- His amendment was inspired by the US Constitution, according to which the President gives to Congress information on the State of the Union, and recommend measures as he shall judge necessary.
- But Shah’s amendment was rejected by the Constituent Assembly.
- The address of the President follows a general structure in which it highlights the government’s accomplishments from the previous year and sets the broad governance agenda for the coming year.
Notable addresses till date
- In 1985 President Giani Zail Singh announced that PM Rajiv Gandhi’s government intended to introduce a new national education policy and the anti-defection law.
- In 1996, PM Vajpayee’s 13-day government announced its intention of giving statehood to Uttaranchal and Vananchal (Jharkhand) and 33 percent reservation to women in legislatures.
- During his second stint in 1999, Vajpayee’s government mooted the idea of a fixed term for Lok Sabha and State Vidhan Sabhas.
- After the devastating tsunami of 2004, PM Manmohan Singh’s government used the President’s Address to announce the creation of a national law for disaster management.
Procedure & tradition
- In the days following the President’s address, a motion is moved in the two Houses thanking the President for his address.
- This is an occasion for MPs in the two Houses to have a broad debate on governance in the country.
- The PM replies to the motion of thanks in both Houses and responds to the issues raised by MPs.
- The motion is then put to vote and MPs can express their disagreement by moving amendments to the motion.
Role of the opposition
- Opposition MPs have been successful in getting amendments passed to the motion of thanks in Rajya Sabha on five occasions (1980, 1989, 2001, 2015, 2016).
- They have been less successful in Lok Sabha. For example in 2018, Lok Sabha MPs tabled 845 amendments of which 375 were moved and negated.
Significance of the address
- The President’s address is one of the most solemn occasions in the Parliamentary calendar.
- It is the only occasion in the year when the entire Parliament, i.e. the President, Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha come together.
- The event is associated with ceremony and protocol.
- The Lok Sabha Secretariat prepares extensively for this annual event.
- In the past, it used to get 150 yards of red baize cloth from the President’s house for the ceremonial procession.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dark Matter
Mains level: Dark Matter, Black Holes
Space scientists from the University of Sussex have found a new way to know more about dark matter. They have narrowed down the range of masses within which particles that could make up dark matter may lie in.
What is the news about?
- Around 95 % of the Universe is unknown to human beings.
- It is often referred to as dark which has nothing to do with the colour of any substance but to do with the unknown nature of cosmic entities known as dark matter and dark energy.
Trending in news these days is the Quantum Technology. (as it used to be until last year were- the Internet of Things (IoT) CSP 2019, Artificial Intelligence (AI) etc.)
Must read all this news in a loop:
- National Mission on QC
- Quantum Coin
- Quantum Supremacy
- Quantum Entanglement
What is Dark Matter?
- Dark matter is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect, or emit light, so they cannot be detected by observing electromagnetic radiation.
- Dark matter is a form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of its total mass-energy density or about 2.241×10−27 kg/m3.
What does the research say?
- Scientists carried out the research using quantum gravity, a field of study that tries to combine two of Einstein’s concepts — quantum physics and general relativity theory of gravity.
- This is the first time anyone has thought of using what we know about quantum gravity to calculate the mass range for dark matter.
- Their research shows that the dark matter particles can neither be super light nor super heavy unless there is a force acting on it that is yet unknown.
Quantum gravity: The concept
- Quantum gravity is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics.
- Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics which describes nature at the smallest scales of energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles.
- Here quantum effects cannot be ignored, such as in the vicinity of black holes or similar compact astrophysical objects where the effects of gravity are strong, such as neutron stars.
Significance of the findings
- This might help in finding out more about this mysterious force. There are currently four known forces in the Universe — gravitational, electromagnetic, weak and strong.
- Scientists estimate that roughly 68 per cent of the Universe is made up of dark energy which is responsible for the accelerated expansion of the Universe.
- Another 27 per cent is a dark matter whose existence was inferred from the observation that ordinary matter in galaxies, including the Milky Way, is far less than that required by gravity to hold the galaxies together.
Why does the ‘Dark Matter’ matter?
- Dark matter’s gravitational effects are also necessary to explain the motions of clusters of galaxies and the structure of the entire Universe at the largest scale.
- On smaller scales, dark matter is too diffused to impact the motion of the Solar System, Earth or the origin and evolution of humans in any significant way.
- But the nature of that dark matter is still unclear. It is most likely made of particles that do not couple to light because of which humans cannot see them.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Patharughat uprising
Mains level: Peasants movements in colonial India
Twenty-five years before the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, more than a hundred peasants fell to the bullets of the British on January 28, 1894, in Patharughat, a small village in Assam’s Darrang district.
Make a note of all breakthrough peasants’ revolt in the nineteenth century. Also, try this PYQ:
Q.The demand for the Tebhaga Peasant Movement in Bengal was for-
(a) The reduction of the share of the landlords from one-half of the crop to one-third
(b) The grant of ownership of land to peasants as they were the actual cultivators of the land
(c) The uprooting of Zamindari system and the end of serfdom
(d) Writing off all peasant debts
Patharughat uprising
- After the British annexation of Assam in 1826, surveys of the vast lands of the state began.
- On the basis of such surveys, the British began to impose land taxes, much to the resentment of the farmers.
- In 1893, the British government decided to increase agricultural land tax reportedly by 70- 80 per cent.
- Up until then the peasants would pay taxes in kind or provide service in lieu of cash.
- Across Assam, peasants began protesting the move by organising Raij Mels, or peaceful peoples’ conventions.
The day of the massacre
- The unarmed peasants were protesting against the increase in land revenue levied by the colonial administration when the military opened fire.
- Despite these gatherings being democratic, the British perceived them as “breeding grounds for sedition”.
- On January 28, 1894, when the British officers were refusing to listen to the farmers’ grievances, things heated up.
- There was a lathi charge, followed by an open firing which killed many of the peasants present.
- Official records, as mentioned in the Darrang District Gazette, 1905, edited by BC Allen, placed the casualties in the Patharughat incident as 15 killed and 37 wounded.
Why was the incident significant?
- The incident was one of the most tragic and inspiring episodes in the saga of the Indian freedom movement.
- However, it rarely features in the mainstream historical discourse of the freedom struggle.
- For the larger Assamese community, Patharughat comes second only to the Battle of Saraighat, when the Ahoms defeated the Mughals in 1671.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EDISON alliance
Mains level: Global action against digital divide
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has announced the launch of an Essential Digital Infrastructure and Services Network (EDISON) Alliance.
The peculiarity of name ‘EDISON Alliance’ creates a hotspot here for prelims. UPSC may either crate confusion over purpose or parent organization. The alliance is yet to take shape completely; hence there is an ambiguity over its members.
EDISON Alliance
- Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), which describes itself as an international organization for public-private partnership, will serve as the secretariat and platform for the EDISON Alliance.
- A wider group of ‘Champions Leaders’ will advise and support the Alliance, the WEF said while announcing the launch.
- Alliance aims to work towards ensuring global and equitable access to the digital economy.
- Its prime goal is to ensure an unprecedented level of cross-sectoral collaboration between the technology industry and other critical sectors of the economy, according to the WEF.
Why need such an alliance?
- Access to digital technologies has enabled many to work, learn and live during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- However, the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing gaps and inequalities in almost half of the global population.
- Some 3.6 billion people, remain offline and broadband services are too expensive for 50 percent of the population in developed countries, the WEF said.
- This hampers access to health, education, and economic inclusion.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Marine Turtle Action Plan
Mains level: Not Much
The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has launched the National Marine Turtle Action Plan.
Do you know?
Most people use the term “turtle” to reference any reptile with a shell on its back, but there are several differences between these two unique creatures. In actual sense tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises.
Tortoises have more rounded and domed shells where turtles have thinner, more water-dynamic shells. Turtle shells are more streamlined to aid in swimming. One major key difference is that tortoises spend most of their time on land and turtles are adapted for life spent in water.
National Marine Turtle Action Plan
Aim: To strengthen and sustain collective and collaborative sea turtle conservation through the monitoring of key sites and a network of partners in the Indian sub-continent
Project details
- The project contains ways and means to not only promote inter-sectoral action for conservation but also guide improved coordination amongst the government, civil society and all relevant stakeholders.
- It highlights actions to be taken for handling stranded animals on the shore, stranded or entangled animals in the sea or on a boat, reducing threats to marine species and their habitats, rehabilitation, etc.
Why need such a project?
- India has rich marine biodiversity along a vast coastline of over 7,500 km.
- It has significant nesting and feeding grounds for four species of marine turtles, namely leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), green (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea)
- Even though all four species are listed under Schedule I of the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, their populations in the Indian waters are under threat.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Paris Club, G20
Mains level: Not Much
Chad has become the first country to officially request a debt restructuring under a new common framework “G20 Common Framework” introduced by China and other Group of 20 countries last year with the help of the Paris Club.
What is G20 Common Framework?
- G20 Common Framework is the Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI).
- It was announced in November 2020 to deal with the issue of unsustainable debts faced by various countries as an impact of COVID-19.
What is the news?
- This official request of Chad for debt restructuring under the G20 common framework was notified by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- The creditors will now soon begin discussions on the first test of the new framework.
- The creditors will also ask China and other private-sector creditors to participate as agreed last year.
- A new four-year programme of Chad worth about $560 million under the Extended Credit and Extended Fund facilities was announced by IMF.
- Chad is under high debt like many other African countries.
Significance of the move
- This is the first time that a country has requested debt restructuring under the framework and the investors will now look at how the framework can work.
- Participation in China is also a question. Last year, G20 Common Framework brought non-members of the Paris Club- India, China, and Turkey to join the framework.
Back2Basics: Paris Club
- Paris Club is a club or group of officials from major creditor countries.
- It was established in the year 1956.
- It aims to find sustainable solutions to the difficulties faced by debtor countries in payments.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Draft fifth Science, Technology and Innovation Policy
The article discusses the features in the fifth Science, Technology and Innovation policy and also suggests the areas that needs attention.
Draft Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
- The new policy envisages technological self-reliance and aims to position India among the top three scientific superpowers.
- For that to happen, the draft policy says, we need to attract our best minds to remain in India by developing a people-centric science, technology, and innovation ecosystem.
- It aims at doubling private sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Expenditure on Research and Development every five years.
Following are the highlights of the policy
1) Funding issue
- Raising our R&D investment in science (about 0.6% now) to 2% of the GDP has been a national goal for a while.
- Despite strong recommendations in the past by several scientific bodies and leading scientists and policymakers, we are still well short of that goal.
- The 2020 draft policy blames this on “inadequate private sector investment” and adds that “a robust cohesive financial landscape remains at the core of creating an STI-driven Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
- Government is trying to shift the responsibility of financing R&D to different agencies such as the States, private enterprises, and foreign multinational companies.
- But it is doubtful if the various funding models that are presented are workable or practical, especially during a pandemic.
- Private sector cannot be expected to pay for basic research as return on investment in basic research takes too long from a private sector perspective.
- The fact is that basic science research in India is suffering from the lack of adequate funding despite grand proclamations.
- We need to implement the self-financing revenue model proposed in the Dehradun Declaration for the CSIR labs back in 2015.
2) A decentralized institutional mechanism
- Policymakers are considering alternative mechanisms of governance of the financial landscape.
- The issue of the administrative burdens of researchers and the problem of journal paywalls is also being considered.
- Policymakers are also exploring international best practices of grant management.
- The draft policy visualises a decentralized institutional mechanism for a robust STI Governance.
- This intention is in fact defeated in the document itself, where several new authorities, observatories and centres have been proposed.
- Decentralisation of administrative architecture is essential, but we need to explore the practical option of providing more autonomy to research and academic centres for financial management.
3) Steps to tackle the discrimination
- The number of suicides of students is on the increase in the IITs.
- In 2019, more than 2,400 students dropped out from the 23 IITs in just two years, over half of them belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes.
- Caste discrimination could be one of the reasons for these tendencies.
- As a part of inculcating an inclusive culture in academia, the document promises to tackle discriminations “based on gender, caste, religion, geography, language, disability and other exclusions and inequalities”.
- It mentions more representation of women and the LGBTQ community.
Way forward
- The document should prioritise important issues and amplify first the problems which have cultural and administrative dimensions.
- The document does not mention how to stem the rot within, although it speaks extensively about science communication and scientific temperament.
- There is need to facilitate an environment that encourages a mindset that constantly challenges conventional wisdom as well as open-minded inquiry among the students.
Consider the question “As India aspires to be the scientific superpower, suggest the areas which the new Science, Technology and Innovation policy should focus on”
Conclusion
With the advent of new disruptive technologies, global competitiveness will be increasingly determined by the quality of science and technology, which in turn will depend on raising the standard of Indian research/education centres and on the volume of R&D spending. India has no time to waste.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Expenditure in Budget
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with expenditure estimates in the Budget
The article highlights the issues with the system of Budget presentation and suggest the areas to focus on.
Issues with expenditure and revenue estimates
- Experience shows revenues being much less than the Budget projections: each year, this mistake is repeated and even amplified.
- The expenditure estimates are even more disingenuous because they understate the actual expenditures that should be counted.
- This concern has been repeatedly brought up by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
- A CAG report in 2018 identified at least three methods of reducing the stated expenditure:
- 1) Not paying for the full fertilizer subsidy.
- 2) Not paying the central government’s dues to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for the food subsidy, and forcing the FCI to borrow from the market.
- 3) Using other special purpose vehicles to pay for infrastructure investment, like the Long Term Irrigation Fund.
- In 2017-18, just those three items amounted to ₹1,29,446 crore or 1.8% of GDP.
- These strategies are problematic because they are non-transparent and they also force other agencies (like State governments and public sector enterprises) to go in for expensive commercial borrowing.
What CGA data reveals
- The data from the Controller General of Accounts show that between April and November 2020, revenues of the central government predictably collapsed, by around 18%, or ₹181,372 crores, compared to the same period of the previous year.
- But despite that, expenditures should have gone up, because the lockdown-induced collapse in an economic activity meant that public spending would be the only thing keeping the economy afloat.
- In three rounds of stimulus packages government claimed to inject amounts of ₹1.7-lakh crore in March, ₹20-lakh crore in May, and then ₹2.65-lakh crore in November
- However, the public accounts show that the total spending of the central government increased by only ₹86,301 crores.
- That was only a 4.6% increase — not even enough to keep pace with inflation.
- In other words, the central government reduced its real spending over the period of the pandemic and economic crisis.
- This fiscal stance obviously affects people and also adds to contractionary tendencies in the economy, and prolongs the severe demand recession.
- Policies that destroy informal economic activities eventually come to harm the formal enterprises as well.
Consider the question “There has been growing concerns that expenditure estimates presented in our Budget fail to represent the actual expenditure of the government. What are the reasons for that and how it could affect the reliability of government finances?”
Conclusion
The Budget this year needs to focus on moving to a more expansionary fiscal stance that prioritizes employment generation and public service provision.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: New Monetary Framework
Mains level: Paper 3- Economic recovery and challenges ahead
Ahead of the Budget, the article discusses the status of Indian economy and suggests the measures to be adopted in the budget to speed up the recovery.
Estimates of damages and signs of economic recovery
- The first advance estimates of national income published on January 7 project a contraction of 7.7% for real GDP.
- The Q2 GDP estimates published by the National Statistical Office had suggested an economic recovery in India.
- An improvement in the rate of contraction from 23.9% in Q1 to 7.5% in Q2 was seen as the beginning of a sustained recovery.
- The Ministry of Finance, in its Monthly Economic Review highlighted it as signifying a ‘V’ shaped recovery and as a reflection of the resilience and robustness of the Indian economy.
- The Monetary Policy Statement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released on December 4, 2020 also projects positive growth in the remaining quarters of the financial year.
State of the economy before pandemic
- Growth rate of the economy had collapsed from 8.2% in Q4 of 2017-18 to a mere 3.1% in Q4 of 2019-20, sliding continuously for eight quarters.
- The policy stance against this backdrop was premised on the hope that private corporate investment will pick up momentum sooner than later.
- The RBI did the heavy lifting through five consecutive lowering of repo rate along with liquidity infusion programmes.
- However, monetary-fiscal linkages are crucial to catalyse the demand.
Crucial role played by the RBI
- While being cautious of inflation, the RBI has decided to continue the accommodative stance in its latest monetary policy to support growth.
- The CPI inflation after crossing 7% has cooled off to 4.6% in December.
- Still, the real interest rates remain very low.
- The efficacy of the new monetary framework (NMF) — the agreement between the RBI and Government of India in February 2016 to adopt inflation targeting in India — will be reviewed in March 2021, and we flag the need for revising the framework.
- The RBI is continuing its liquidity infusion programmes including the on-tap Targeted Long Term Repo Operations (TLTRO).
- This programme announced on October 9, 2020 for five stressed sectors has been extended to 26 stressed sectors notified under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS 2.0).
- The RBI is also continuing its ‘operation twist’ with Open Market Operations (OMO) of ₹10,000 crore scheduled for December 17, 2020.
- Nevertheless, the RBI Governor has rightly pointed out that the signs of recovery are far from being broad-based.
Stimulus for targeted state intervention
- According to the International Monetary Fund’s Fiscal Monitor Database of Country Fiscal Measures, the fiscal stimulus for India is 1.8% of GDP.
- The IMF, in its Fiscal Monitor, highlights the need to scale up public investment to ensure successful reopening, boost growth and prepare economies for the future.
- What we need is stimulus not based on “business cycle” but from the perspective of much needed targeted state interventions in public health, education, agriculture and physical infrastructure, and to redress widening inequalities.
- As private final consumption expenditure is sluggish, contracting 26.7% and 11% in Q1 and Q2, respectively, a “fiscal dominance” is expected in India for sustained economic recovery.
- However, India cannot afford fiscal stimulus at the rates of advanced economies, due to a lack of fiscal space.
Way forward
- Plummeting private corporate investment in India is a matter of concern.
- The fear of financial crowding out emanating from high fiscal deficit is misplaced in the context of India.
- Economic recovery will be determined by the degree of containment of the pandemic and the sustained macroeconomic policies.
- Any abrupt withdrawal of ongoing economic policy support, both by the monetary and fiscal authorities, will be detrimental to growth in times of the pandemic.
- The fiscal rules at the national and subnational government levels need to be made flexible.
Consider the question “Recovery of Indian economy battered by the pandemic has not been complete. Suggest the fiscal measure to be adopted by the government to speed up the recovery.”
Conclusion
The fiscal stimulus needs to continue in FY 2021-22 to speed up India’s recovery along with the measures suggested above.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 21, 48A, 51A(g)
Mains level: Paper 2- Constitutional values and climate change
The article highlights how climate change impacts the constitutional values and promises by affecting the vulnerable disproportionately and suggest the distinctly Indian paradigm of development.
How democratic values are threatened by climate change
- Over the last seven decades, India has made distinct progress, but many core development challenges persist and we are yet to fulfill our constitutional promise.
- Climate change will only exacerbate existing inequalities through a range of cascading and coinciding crises.
- These words from the Preamble — justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity — serve as reminders of the daunting path to achieving social democracy, especially in a warming world.
- B R Ambedkar had said that to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact it was essential not to be content with mere political democracy but to strive for social democracy as well.
How climate change affects democratic values
- Climate change is profoundly unjust.
- It will increasingly impinge upon our freedom of movement, and that it could deny equality of status and opportunity to millions of disadvantaged citizens like the forest-dwelling communities who have contributed least to the crisis and yet stand to be hit the hardest.
- The evidence is clear that unless we rapidly move to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, vast swathes of India could be inhospitable due to floods, droughts, heatwaves, and increasingly erratic and unpredictable monsoon rains.
Call for action against climate change
- The fraternity can particularly serve as a call to action for the powerful to direct their resources towards shaping India’s response to climate change and “assuring the dignity of the individual”, as framed in the Preamble.
- Indian business and philanthropy can play a key role in building resilience by encouraging innovation, complementing the role of the state, and securing citizens’ legislated rights.
- Climate philanthropy can help develop and pilot new solutions and inspire ambitious political action.
- A plethora of opportunities are currently on the margins but could become mainstream drivers for the three key pillars of jobs, growth, and sustainability.
- A distinctly Indian, climate-friendly development paradigm powered by clean energy could play an integral role in fostering social and economic justice by uplifting millions of Indians.
- Our nation’s welfare depends on healing the broken relationship between a broken economy and a broken ecology.
Constitutional mandate to protect the environment
- The right to life enshrined in Article 21 is increasingly interpreted as a right to environment.
- When this is read together with Articles 48A and 51A(g), there is a clear constitutional mandate to protect the environment that will only grow more important in the coming decades for citizens and the executive, legislature, and judiciary.
- Central to these considerations is the need for a uniquely Indian climate narrative, one that is both by and for Indians.
Consider the question “Our constitutional values must guide us to a distinctly Indian, climate-friendly development paradigm to fulfil the constitutional commitment to its citizens. Comment.”
Conclusion
India can build its own pathway to become a climate leader aiming to secure a future where both people and nature can thrive. Much of this work can be rooted in the constitutional framework that binds together millions of Indians despite their myriad differences — a framework that is progressive in scope and ambitious in vision.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Details of the bill
Mains level: DNA profiling and privacy concerns
Noted Parliamentarians have filed a dissent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s report on DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill 2019.
Q. A statutory protection for private data is necessary for the enforcement of DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019. Critically analyse.
What is the news?
- The finalized Draft Report recognizes the potential dangers of indexing the DNA profiles of non- convicts, especially convicts and suspects, it has still retained these objectionable provisions.
- These MPs have claimed that the Bill does not take into account public concerns over privacy violations and targets Dalit, Muslims and Adivasis by way of DNA sample collection.
- The fear is that the law could be used for caste or community-based profiling.
Other issues
- The bill would not be a panacea to the problems of an inadequate criminal justice system, the MPs stressed.
- He flagged the example of the United Kingdom, where the number of crimes solved by DNA evidence had been reducing even though the number of profiles in the system was going up.
DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019
- The primary intended purpose for the enactment of the bill is for expanding the application of DNA-based forensic technologies to support and strengthen the justice delivery system of the country.
- The utility of DNA based technologies for solving crimes, and identifying missing persons, is well recognized across the world.
- Other aims include Speedier justice delivery and an Increased conviction rate.
- Bill’s provisions will enable the cross-matching between persons reported missing and unidentified dead bodies found in various parts of the country, and also for establishing the identity of victims in mass disasters.
- By providing for the mandatory accreditation and regulation of DNA laboratories, the Bill seeks to ensure the data remain protected from misuse or abuse in terms of the privacy rights of our citizens.
- The Bill has two major components: the DNA databanks and the DNA Regulatory Board.
Criticisms of the Bill
Matter of Consent
- Written consent is required from everyone for their DNA samples to be collected, processed, and included in the database except for those who have committed crimes with a punishment of 7+ years or death.
- However, similarly, specific instruction is missing for the collection of DNA samples for civil matters.
- Such matters include parentage disputes, emigration or immigration, and transplantation of human organs.
- The Bill also doesn’t state that the consent has to be voluntary.
Civil Disputes
- It is not clear if DNA samples collected to resolve civil disputes will also be stored in the databank (regional or national), although there is no index specific for the same.
- If they will be stored, then the problem cascades because the Bill also does not provide for information, consent, and appeals.
- If a person’s DNA data has entered the databank, there is no process specified by which they can have it removed.
- All of these issues together could violate the right to privacy.
The authenticity of DNA Labs
- There’s also the question of whether the DNA labs accredited by the Regulatory Board are allowed to store copies of the samples they analyze.
- And if so, how the owners of those samples can ensure the data is safe or needs to be removed from their own indices.
- It’s unclear if the Regulatory Board will oversee other tests performed at the accredited labs.
- This could become necessary because, unlike one’s biometric data or PAN number, the human genome contains lots of information about every individual.
Overreaching access to identity
- So a test undertaken to ascertain a person’s identity by analyzing her DNA will in the process also reveal a lot of other things about that person, including information about their ancestry i.e. information that the individual has a right to keep private.
- The Bill does not specify which parts of an individual’s DNA can be analyzed to ascertain their identity.
- The more parts are subjected to analysis, the more conclusively a person’s identity can be established.
- But this can’t be used as a license to parse more than is necessary because then the DNA lab is also likely to reveal more information than it has the right to seek.
The way forward: Data protection
- The bill can become oppressive without a robust data protection law.
- Statutory protection for private data is critical because it provides a mechanism for enforcement of rights, grievance redressal, and independent oversight.
- When the data being collected is as sensitive as DNA, it requires additional protection.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: OST, INF Treaty, New START policy
Mains level: US-Russia power tussle
The Russian lower house of Parliament, the Duma has ratified a new START nuclear treaty with the US. Both countries had “agreed in principle” to extend the arms treaty by five years with Joe Biden swearing-in.
The New START, INF and the Open Skies …. Be clear about the differences of these treaties. For example- to check if their inception was during cold war era etc.
New START Treaty
- The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) pact limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers and is due to expire in 2021 unless renewed.
- The treaty limits the US and Russia to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, well below Cold War caps.
- It was signed in 2010 by former US President Barack Obama and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
- It is one of the key controls on the superpower deployment of nuclear weapons.
A reset to Trumps policies
- In February 2020, the US withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), accusing Moscow of violating the agreement.
- Russian then had proposed a one-year extension without conditions of the last major nuclear arms reduction accord, the New START Treaty between Russia and the U.S.
- If it had fallen, it could have been the second nuclear weapons treaty to collapse under the leadership of Trump.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Virus mutation
Mains level: Vaccination challenges for coronavirus
SARS-CoV-2 variants have emerged independently in several countries, and research published over the past week indicates that the virus is changing more quickly than was once believed.
Try this PYQ:
Q.H1N1 virus is sometimes mentioned in the news with reference to which one of the following diseases?
(a) AIDS
(b) Bird flu
(c) Dengue
(d) Swine flu
Mutation of Virus
- Mutation, an alteration in the genetic material (the genome) of a cell of a living organism or of a virus that is more or less permanent and that can be transmitted to the cell’s or the virus’s descendants.
- Like all life, viruses carry a genetic code in the form of nucleic acids — either DNA or RNA.
- When cells multiply, the DNA within them replicates as well, to make copies for the new cells.
- During replication, random errors are introduced into the new DNA, much like spelling errors when we write.
- While the errors in DNA virus genomes can be corrected by the error-correcting function of cells in which they replicate, there are no enzymes in cells to correct RNA errors.
- Therefore, RNA viruses accumulate more genetic changes (mutations) than DNA viruses.
Effect of mutation on the virus
- Evolution requires not just mutations, but also selection.
- While most mutations are deleterious to the virus, if some allow a selective advantage — say better infectivity, transmission, or escape from immunity — then the new viruses out-compete the older ones in a population.
- The mutations can be synonymous (silent) or non-synonymous (non-silent); the latter also changes an amino acid (protein building block) at that position in the coded protein.
Mutations in COVID
- As of January 26, about 29,000 infections are attributed to UK variants from 63 countries, many due to local transmission.
Why is it harmful?
- Viruses with mutations within the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the Spike protein have the most potential to evade antibodies that develop as a result of natural infection or vaccination.
- The RBD binds the cellular receptor allowing the virus to infect cells, and anti-RBD antibodies neutralize the virus.
- Such mutations were recently found in variant viruses that emerged in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.
Testing of mutation
- Indirect tests are done in laboratories to assess if an emerging variant might escape antibodies developed after natural infection or vaccination.
- Serum (the blood components that contain antibodies) from recovered patients or vaccinated people, and antibodies are known to neutralize the original virus, are tested.
- Serial dilutions of the serum or antibodies are separately mixed with a fixed amount of the original and variant viruses, and the mixture is added to cells in culture.
- After a period of incubation, cells are washed and stained. Cells infected and killed by viruses multiplying within them appear as clear zones (plaques) on a dark background.
- The effectiveness of serum or antibody is expressed as an inhibitory concentration (IC) or plaque reduction neutralisation titer (PRNT) value.
- The IC50 or PRNT50 value is the reciprocal dilution of serum or antibody that neutralises 50 per cent viruses in the sample.
India’s response
- Only the UK variant viruses have so far been reported from India — and that too, in travellers.
- There is no reported local transmission, but considering its increased infectivity, this is likely to happen.
- The evidence so far suggests that current vaccines would still protect against the UK variant, even if with reduced efficacy.
- The evidence at this time, though of concern, does not indicate that current vaccines are failing.
- But this has to be watched carefully, and all efforts made to limit transmission between people, which drives mutations and the emergence of variants.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Adam's Bridge
Mains level: NA
In possibly a first, Indian scientists will undertake a scientific expedition to date the chain of corals and sediments forming the Ram Setu.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which of the following have coral reefs?
- Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- Gulf of Kachchh
- Gulf of Mannar
- Sunderbans
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1, 2 and 3 only
(b) 2 and 4 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Ram Setu
- Also known as Adam’s bridge, Ram Setu is a 48-km long bridge-like structure between India and Sri Lanka.
- It finds mention in the Ramayana but little about its formation is known or proven, scientifically.
What is the underwater archaeological project at Ram Setu?
- The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) will undertake a three-year scientific project.
- The idea is to see whether Ram Setu is a man-made structure or not.
- The most important aspect of the project is to establish its age, scientifically.
- The explorers will apply a number of scientific techniques while attempting to date the Ram Setu, study its material composition, outline the sub-surface structure along with attempting to excavate remnants or artefacts, if any, from the site.
- Once it is known, the information can be verified and co-related with its mention in the Ramayana and similar scriptures.
How is the project planned?
- An initial survey will make use of underwater photographs to check if any habitation remains inundated in the area. A geophysical survey will be performed to understand the structure.
- Over the years, several kinds of depositions, including sand, have covered the actual structure. Initially, only physical observation, and no drilling, will be done.
- NIO operates two oceanographic vessels – RV Sindhu Sankalp (ability to go up to and remain 56 metres underwater) and RV Sindhu Sadhana (ability to go up to and remain 80 metres underwater).
- For collecting core samples at greater depths and for bathymetry purposes, Sindhu Sadhana will be deployed for the Ram Setu project.
Two of the planned tests:
- Side-scan SONAR — Will provide bathymetry which is similar to studying the topography of a structure on land. Soundwaves signals will be sent to the structure which will provide an outline of the physical structure of the Ram Setu.
- Silo seismic survey – Mild earthquake-like tremor shocks will be sent at shallow depths close to the structure. These energized shockwaves are capable of penetrating into the structure. The reflected or refracted signals will be captured by instruments that will provide sub-surface structure.
Significance of such exploration
- India has a vast coastline of over 7,500 kilometres.
- Oceans are a treasure trove of the past records — climate, evolutionary changes of the underwater fauna, coastal lives, habitations, settlements and civilizations.
- Of these, the sea-level changes remain the most significant of all with respect to climate studies.
- History has records of sailors who set out on unknown voyages to later discover new lands and islands.
- They ventured into deep seas even before the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS).
- Using such underwater exploration studies, scientists say that it is possible to trace numerous ship-wreckages and remains from the past.
- Studies of ship wreckage, artefacts or remains could reveal a lot of information.
Recently a 60000 YO submerged forest was explored off the Alabama coast in the USA.
Has India undertaken underwater archaeological explorations?
- A part of Dwarka, along with coastal Gujarat, is underwater, confirming the sea-level rise.
- The NIO has been studying this site, and so far, traced large amounts of scattered stones which were retrieved at the depth between three to six metres beneath.
- Stone anchors, too, were found at the site, suggesting it to be part of an ancient harbour.
- In the past, NIO had initiated studies to trace the missing shore temples of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu.
- Presently, several ship wreckage studies, including the one-off the Odisha coast, are going on.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now