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  • Cyclonic storms during October

    October to December period is among the favourable months for the development of cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. This year, however, October passed without witnessing a cyclonic storm.

    Must read: [Burning Issue] Tropical Cyclones and India

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/burning-issue-tropical-cyclones-and-india/

    When do cyclones form and hit Indian coasts?

    • About 80 cyclones are formed around the world annually, out of which five are formed in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, together known as the North Indian Ocean.
    • India’s east and west coasts are prone to cyclones with the maximum associated hazards—rain, heavy winds and storm surge— faced by coastal districts of West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
    • Cyclones in the North Indian Ocean are bi-modal in nature, that is, they occur during two seasons— April to June (pre-monsoon) and October to December (post-monsoon).
    • Of these, May and November remain the most conducive for the development of cyclones.

    When have cyclones skipped October, previously?

    • Cyclonic disturbances— either in the form of a well-marked low pressure, depression or a deep depression— are common in October.
    • Ocean disturbances enter the Bay of Bengal from the South China seaside and head towards the Indian coast.
    • IMD officials have attributed it to the weak La Nina conditions along the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
    • Cooler than normal sea surface temperatures over this region—termed as La Nina— has been prevailing since August this year.

    Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO)

    • Because Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) was positioned in a favourable phase, the low-pressure systems intensified maximum up to a deep depression.
    • MJO is kind of an eastward-moving cyclic weather event along the tropics that influences rainfall, winds, sea surface temperatures and cloud cover. They have a 30 to 60-day cycle.
    • Most importantly, there was the high wind shear noted between the different atmospheric levels, last month.
    • The vertical wind shear— created due to significant wind speed difference observed between higher and lowers atmospheric levels— prevented the low-pressure systems and depression from strengthening into a cyclone.

  • Ghogha-Hazira Ferry Service

    PM has virtually inaugurated the Ghogha-Hazira Ro-Pax ferry service in Gujarat.

    Try this question from CSP 2016:

    Q.Recently, which of the following States has explored the possibility of constructing an artificial inland port to be connected to the sea by a long navigational channel?

    (a) Andhra Pradesh

    (b) Chhattisgarh

    (c) Karnataka

    (d) Rajasthan

    Ghogha-Hazira Ferry Service

    • It will work as a Gateway to South Gujarat and Saurashtra region. It will reduce the distance between Ghogha and Hazira from 370 km to 90 km.
    • It has a load capacity of 30 trucks (of 50 MT each) on the main deck, 100 passenger cars on the upper deck and 500 passengers plus 34 crew and hospitality staff on the passenger deck.
    • The reduced cargo travel time from 10 to 12 hours to about four hours will result in huge savings of fuel (approx 9,000 litres per day) and lower the maintenance cost of vehicles drastically.
    • The ferry service, while making three round trips per day on the route, would annually transport about 5 lakh passengers, 80,000 passenger vehicles, 50,000 two-wheelers and 30,000 trucks.

    Benefits

    • It will reduce the fatigue of truck drivers and enhance their incomes by giving them more opportunity to do extra trips.
    • It will give an impetus to the tourism industry with ease of access to the Saurashtra region and lead to the creation of new job opportunities.
    • With the onset of ferry services, the port sector, furniture and fertilizer industries in Saurashtra and Kutch region will get a big boost.
    • Eco-tourism and religious-tourism in Gujarat, especially in Porbandar, Somnath, Dwarka and Palitana will grow exponentially.
    • The benefits of enhanced connectivity through this ferry service will also result in increased inflow of tourists in the famous Asiatic lion wildlife sanctuary at Gir.

  • [Burning Issue] India’s push for a Gas-based Economy

    The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has last month approved ‘Natural Gas Marketing Reforms’, taking another significant step to move towards a gas-based economy.

    What is Natural Gas?

    • Natural gas is a fossil fuel source consisting primarily of methane. It is the cleanest fossil fuels among the available fossil fuels.
    • It is used as a feedstock in the manufacture of fertilizers, plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals as well as used as a fuel for electricity generation, heating purpose in industrial and commercial units.
    • Natural gas is also used for cooking in domestic households and a transportation fuel for vehicles.

    Natural gas scenario in India

    The share of domestic gas and imported RLNG was about 48% & 52% respectively. The City Gas Distribution (CGD) accounts for the largest consumption of natural gas followed by fertilizers, power and other industrial sectors.

    (1) Domestic Gas Sources

    • The domestic gas in the country is being supplied from the oil & gas fields located at western and southeastern areas viz. Hazira basin, Mumbai offshore & KG basin as well as North East Region (Assam & Tripura).

    (2) Import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

    • In order to meet the gas demand, LNG is imported through the Open General License (OGL) in the country.  At present, India is having six operational LNG regasification terminals at Dahej, Kochi, Mundra, Ennore etc.

    Gas Pipelines

    • Gas Pipeline infrastructure is an economical and safe mode of transporting natural gas by connecting gas sources to gas-consuming markets.
    • An interconnected National Gas Grid has been envisaged to ensure the adequate availability and equitable distribution of natural gas in all parts of the country.

    Why go for Natural Gas?

    • Energy Efficient: Natural gas produces more energy than any of the fossil fuels in terms of calorific value.
    • Cleaner fuel: Natural gas is a superior fuel as compared with coal and other liquid fuels being an environment-friendly, safer and cheaper fuel.
    • Economy of use: Natural Gas (as CNG) is much cheaper compared with petrol or Diesel.
    • Emission commitments: India made a commitment to COP-21 Paris Convention in December 2015 that by 2030, it would reduce carbon emission by 33%-35% of 2005 levels.
    • Diverse applications: Natural gas can be used as domestic kitchen fuel, fuel for the transport sector as well as a fuel for fertilizer industries and commercial units.
    • Supply-chain convenience:  Natural Gas is supplied through pipelines just like we get water from the tap. There is no need to store cylinders in the kitchen and thus save space.
    • Pacing up the progress line: On the global front, switching to natural gas is bringing commendable results. The latest report released by IEA shows that the electricity produced by natural gas worldwide was more than that of coal for the first time ever.

    Various govt. initiatives

    India’s quest to increase the share of natural gas in the overall energy mix hinges crucially on two factors: (1) Development of pipelines and (2) Hassle free exploration. In this regard, the govt. has taken several measures.

    • The Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) is a policy indicating the new contractual and fiscal model for the award of hydrocarbon acreages towards exploration and production (E&P).
    • The govt. has envisaged developing and expanding the National Gas Grid. At present about 16,788 Km natural gas pipeline is operational and about 14,239 Km gas pipelines are being developed.
    • The Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga (PMUG) pipeline project currently under will provide connectivity to another flagship project, the North-East Gas Grid.
    • The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which aims to provide free cooking gas connections to poor families is also a roaring success.
    • Moreover, India is constantly moving to revive the 1,814 kilometre-long Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) transnational gas pipeline which is in shamble for years.

    What are the Natural Gas Marketing Reforms?

    • Gas-based economy implies gas as the main commercial energy source in the energy mix of an economy.
    • The reforms aim to provide a standard procedure for the sale of natural gas in a transparent and competitive manner to discover market price by issuing guidelines for sale by the contractor through e-bidding.
    • This will bring uniformity in the bidding process across the various contractual regimes and policies to avoid ambiguity and contribute towards ease of doing business.

    Components of the policy

    • The objective of the policy is to prescribe standard procedure to discover market price of gas to be sold in the market by gas producers, through a transparent and competitive process.
    • It would permit affiliates to participate in bidding process for sale of gas and allow marketing freedom to certain Field Development Plans (FDPs) where Production Sharing Contracts already provide pricing freedom.

    Objectives of these reforms

    These reforms will build on a series of transformative reforms rolled out by the Government in last several years. These reforms in gas sector will further deepen and spur the economic activities in the following areas:

    • The whole eco-system of policies relating to production, infrastructure and marketing of natural gas has been made more transparent with a focus on ease of doing business.
    • These reforms will prove very significant for Atmanirbhar Bharat by encouraging investments in the domestic production of natural gas and reducing import dependence.
    • These reforms will prove to be another milestone in moving towards a gas-based economy by encouraging investments.
    • The increased gas production-consumption will help in the improvement of the environment.
    • These reforms will also help in creating employment opportunities in the gas-consuming sectors including MSMEs.
    • The domestic production will further help in increasing investment in the downstream industries such as City Gas Distribution and related industries.

    Making it happen 

    • The government brought a series of reforms in the Gas sector and as a result investment of more than Rs. 70,000 crore is being made on the East coast very recently.
    • Gas production from the East coast will contribute to Atmanirbhar Bharat by meeting the increasing energy needs of the country.
    • The domestic gas production has complete marketing and pricing freedom. All discoveries and field development plans approved after 28 Feb 2019 have a complete market and pricing freedom.

    Better done than said …… Overcoming challenges

    • Lack of infrastructure:  India has enough storage capacity of the current state of domestic consumption of natural gas. However, to fill the entire energy bucket, we need to increase energy storage.
    • Import dependence: Energy consumption in India is growing at 4.2 per cent per annum, which is the fastest among major economies of the world. Presently 52% of our domestic consumption relies on imported LNG. Moreover, the global disruptions in the import supply-chain can wreak havoc as the general hikes in Diesel prices do.
    • Safety concerns: The global oil and gas market remains vulnerable to a wide range of risk factors, including natural disasters, major technical accidents, and geopolitical tensions among others.
    • Domestic issues and delays: Petroleum including gas falls under the Union List. Pipeline laying has faced land acquisition challenges due to local farmers’ protest and unviable routes causing major project delays.
    • Underutilization: GAIL is getting hit over the scarcity of domestic natural gas leading to underutilization of its 11,500 km of the pipeline network. Its network is operating at an average of 47% capacity.
    • Less-feasible power alternative: Within the power sector, natural gas has received little traction primarily because the per-unit cost of electricity generated by a gas-fired power plant in India is higher than that from fossil fuels such as coal.
    • Ecological concerns: Offshore drilling operations can possibly affect fish, lead to a build-up of heavy water contaminants, disorient whales and sea life that rely on sonar for navigation and exacerbate the risk of oil spills.
    • Energy Trilemma: In order to build a strong basis for prosperity and competitiveness, India must balance the three core dimensions of the energy trilemma: affordability and access, energy security and environmental sustainability.

    Way forward

    • A shift to a gas-based economy has to ensure both availability and affordability. Availability may be ensured by increasing production or import, developing the requisite delivery infrastructure — terminals, stations and pipelines.
    • The current gas market is dominated by countries such as the US, Qatar and Russia. India must make use of these multiple gas production centres and ensure a balanced geographical portfolio of imports to ensure a robust and secure natural gas strategy as it does for Oil.
    • India will have to embark on a balanced approach to develop indigenous gas resources, maybe through technology-intensive deeper drilling techniques and large scale import tie-ups.

    Conclusion

    • It is evident that clean energy transitions are underway – and it’s also a signal that we have the opportunity to meaningfully move the needle on emissions through more ambitious policies and investments.
    • But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, as governments do play an important role in the growth of the energy sector in any country. Given the fact that the market in India is still nascent, there is always this concern of how effective these measures can be.
    • With domestic production of gas stagnating and consumption growing at a CAGR of 4.5 per cent, there’s still a long way to go for transforming the economy to a gas-based one.

    References

    http://petroleum.nic.in/natural-gas/about-natural-gas

    https://www.financialexpress.com/economy/modis-gas-based-economy-dream-to-help-cut-global-emissions-heres-how-india-can-end-coal-legacy/1865302/

    https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/how-india-is-unbottling-the-gas-economy/article32984963.ece

    https://www.indiainfoline.com/article/news-sector-oil-gas/great-business-opportunity-for-indian-industry-to-participate-in-making-gas-based-economy-120110500417_1.html

    https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/on-road-to-a-gas-based-economy/article25765361.ece

  • Using the crucial expertise of CAPFs

    The article emphasises the role played by the CAPFs in dealing with the disasters.

    Dealing with the disasters

    • When disaster strikes our country, be it natural or man-made, the government summons the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) to carry out the task of overcoming the disaster.
    • The CAPFs help in carrying out rescue and relief operations, and also mitigates the pains and problems arising out of the disaster.

    Role played by CAPFS during Covid

    • CAPFs comprise the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal, Assam Rifles and the ITBP.
    • Even before the country got to know about the COVID-19, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) had already set up its 600-bed quarantine centre in Chawla on the outskirts of New Delhi.
    • The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had roped in specialists from the Safdarjung Hospital to coordinate with ITBP officials.
    • Doctors and paramedical personnel of other CAPFs were also roped in.
    • The expertise acquired by ITBP personnel and the Standard Operating Procedure prepared by the ITBP came handy for the States and other police forces in establishing their own quarantine centres and COVID-19 hospitals.

    Role of NDRF during Covid-19

    • NDRF personnel are wholly drawn from the CAPFs.
    • So, they form a good reserve of trained personnel when they go back to their parent force after their stint with NDRF.
    • With 12 battalions of the NDRF— each comprising 1,149 personnel — spread across the country, its experts have the core competency to tackle biological disasters like COVID-19.
    • Such personnel can be deployed at quarantines centres after short-term courses.
    • A proposal mooted by NITI Aayog last year, to conduct a bridge course for dentists to render them eligible for the MBBS degree, could be revived, and such doctors could be on stand-by to help in such emergency crises.

    Conclusion

    It is these CAPF personnel who give a semblance of existence of government administration even in the remotest corners of the country. Their versatile experience can be utilised to the nation’s advantage.

    B2BASICS:

    CAPF

    The Central Armed Police Forces refers to uniform nomenclature of five security forces in India under the authority of Ministry of Home Affairs. Their role is to defend the national interest mainly against the internal threats.

  • Equity in education matters

    Fairness and inclusiveness are two important aspects of education system. Growing shift toward digital education in India has implications for these two aspects. The article suggests ways to make the education system fair and inclusive.

    Knowledge economy in India

    • The new National Education Policy (NEP) as well as other factors have lately brightened up education landscape in India..
    • The rise of education technology (ed-tech) incorporating VR, AR, ‘gamification’, 3D immersive learning, etc, is contributing to the knowledge economy’s potential for large market size, calling for requisite policy support.

    Barriers to equity in education

    • The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) defines two dimensions of equity in education.
    • First is “fairness”, which means ensuring that personal and social circumstances do not prevent students from achieving their academic potential.
    • The second is “inclusion”, which means setting a basic minimum standard for education that is shared by all students regardless of their background.
    • The barriers that make equity difficult to foster in India are varied and complex.

    Loss of learning during Covid pandemic

    • The latest Annual State of Education Report (ASER) reveals that 20% of rural students lacked textbooks.
    • Only one in ten students had access to online classes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
    • The Survey provides a glimpse into the levels of learning loss that students in rural India, particularly in states like Bihar, West Bengal, UP, and Rajasthan, are suffering, resulting in sharp digital divides in education.
    • Unless remedied with urgency, the digital split may disrupt learning, and jeopardise our hard-won gains resulting in large scale school drop-outs, particularly of adolescent girls.

    How to remove barriers to equity?

    • To remove these barriers we need to look at several aspects like monetary resources, academic standards, academic content and support.
    • Apart from inequality in internet access and access to devices, even the quality of connection and related services and subscription fees exacerbate the digital divide.
    • For education to be availed as a social good, access at an affordable cost and reasonable quality is a precondition.
    • The availability of content in vernacular languages is yet another issue.
    • In digital education along with demand-side issues, supply-side issues need fixing, such as training of teachers in ICT, new learning devices and handling the evolved curriculum.
    • Teachers and academic institutions need to ensure that the content they are using is lucid, appropriate, fact-based and relevant.
    • Access to education loans from banks and financial institutions are a great support in the cause of education, particularly higher education.
    • Education is on the Concurrent List. A cooperative and collaborative spirit will thus be critical to realise the goals.
    • The Centre has a task well cut for building consensus on NEP2020.

    Consider the question “Fainess and inclusiveness are two important dimensions of equity that should be pursued by any education system. However, push towards digital educations threatens these two dimensions of the education system in India. Comment” 

    Conclusion

    With strong corporate commitment, states’ support, backed by strong policy push and intent by the Centre, and value addition by other stakeholders, the roadblocks on the path of equity and inclusiveness in education, though daunting, could be addressed.

    Source-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/equity-in-education-matters/2121998/

  • Green Hydrogen based vehicular fuel

    Transport sector has been a major contributor of Green House Gases in India. Moving towards cleaner fuels brings to fore two options battery-operated electric vehicle (EV) and hydrogen fuel cell EV. The article compares the two.

    Vehicular emission and steps taken to deal  with it

    • The transport sector in India contributes one-third of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, within which the lion’s share is that of road transport.
    • The government has made concerted efforts to tackle vehicular emissions with policies steps and programmes such as the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME I) scheme, FAME II, tax benefits, etc.

    Blending hydrogen

    • Typically, hydrogen can be produced in one of three ways, i.e., from fossil fuels (grey hydrogen), through carbon capture utilisation & storage (CCUS) application and fossil fuels (blue hydrogen), or by using renewable energy (green hydrogen). 
    • Indian Oil Corporation Limited has patented a technology that produces H-CNG (18% hydrogen in CNG) directly from natural gas, without having to undertake expensive conventional blending.
    • This compact blending process provides a 22% reduction in cost as compared to conventional blending.
    • In comparison to CNG, H-CNG allows for a 70% reduction in carbon monoxide emissions and a 25% reduction in hydrocarbon emissions.
    • The new H-CNG technology requires only minor tweaks in the current design of CNG buses.
    • However, the issue is that the  Hydrogen-spiked CNG is still being produced from natural gas-a fossil fuel.

    Electric vehicle Vs. Fuel cell

    • From a commercial viability standpoint, two cleaner fuel alternatives come to mind—battery-operated electric vehicles (BEV) and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV).
    • Hydrogen FCEVs has reduced refuelling time (5 minutes versus 30-40 minutes with fast charges), higher energy density, longer range, etc.
    • However, one needs to focus on is the entire life cycle of these vehicles as opposed to restricting the analysis to just the carbon-free tailpipe emissions.
    • According to a report by Deloitte (2020) on hydrogen and fuel cells, the lifecycle GHG emissions from hydrogen FCEVs ranges between 130-230 g CO2e per km.
    • The lower end of the range depicts the case of hydrogen production from renewables while the higher end reflects the case of hydrogen production from natural gas.
    • The corresponding life cycles GHG emissions for BEV and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles range between 160-250 g CO2e and 180-270 g CO2e respectively.
    • The cost of lithium ion-based battery-operated vehicles has been reducing while hydrogen fuel cell technology is relatively quite expensive.
    • A hydrogen-run vehicle achieves an energy efficiency rate of 25-35% (roughly 45% of energy is lost during the electrolysis process alone).

    Way forward

    • Given that these are early days for FCEV, one can be hopeful that we will be able to achieve economies of scale and attain cost reductions.
    • Hydrogen Council (2020) on hydrogen cost competitiveness that states scaling up and augmenting fuel cell production from 10,000 to 200,000 units can deliver a 45% reduction in the cost per unit.
    • Similarly, the versatility of hydrogen allows for complementarity across its numerous applications.
    • Moreover, based on the numbers quoted by this report, fuel cell stacks for passenger vehicles are expected to exhibit learning rates of 17% in the coming future.
    • The corresponding figures for commercial vehicles stand at 11%.
    • Efforts are underway in India, and the research activities pertaining to hydrogen have been compiled and recently released in the form of a country status report.
    • In their quest for becoming carbon neutral by 2035, Reliance Industries plan to replace transportation fuels with hydrogen and clean electricity.
    • Similarly, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is considering setting up a green hydrogen production facility in Andhra Pradesh.
    • The ministry of road transport and highways issued a notification proposing amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (1989) to incorporate safety standards for hydrogen fuel cell technology vehicles.
    • As per a policy brief issued by TERI, demand for hydrogen in India is expected to increase 3-10 fold by 2050.

    Consider the question “What are the benefits and challenges in the adoption of hydrogen as vehicular fuel?”

    Conclusion

    Against this backdrop, the future of hydrogen, particularly green hydrogen, looks promising in India.

    Source:-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/fuelling-a-green-future/2121991/

  • 6th November 2020| Daily Answer Writing Enhancement

    Important Announcement:  Topics to be covered on 9th November

    GS-1 Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country. 

    GS-4 Case Studies.

    Question 1)

    Sea-level rise (SLR) is a “well accepted” consequence of climate change. Analyse. 10 marks

    Question 2)

    Fairness and inclusion are the two dimensions of equity in education. However, the shift towards digital education throws new challenges to the New National Education Policy in achieving these two dimensions. Comment. 10 marks

    Question 3)

    India needs to explore the option of hydrogen-based vehicular fuel. But the adoption of it faces several challenges. In light of this, examine benefits and the challenges in adoption of hydrogen as a vehicular fuel. 10 marks

    Question 4)  

    Emotional intelligence in recent times has become the buzzword for determining the success of a person. Do you agree? If yes, mention the steps you have taken in your life to develop emotional intelligence. 10 marks

    Reviews will be provided in a week. (In the order of submission- First come first serve basis). In case the answer is submitted late the review period may get extended to two weeks.

    *In case your answer is not reviewed in a week, reply to your answer saying *NOT CHECKED*. If Parth Sir’s tag is available then tag him.

    For the philosophy of AWE and payment, check  here: Click2Join

  • What is a Fast Radio Burst (FRB)?

    NASA has reported that it observed a mix of X-ray and radio signals never observed before in the Milky Way.

    Such news makes us think about alien and extraterrestrial life at the first. Do not get carried away with such thoughts. Its simply a space based phenomena.

    What is an FRB?

    • The first FRB was discovered in 2007, since when scientists have been working towards finding the source of their origin.
    • Essentially, FRBs are bright bursts of radio waves (radio waves can be produced by astronomical objects with changing magnetic fields).
    • Its durations lie in the millisecond-scale, because of which it is difficult to detect them and determine their position in the sky.

    Who discovered it?

    • The X-ray portion of the simultaneous bursts was detected by several satellites, including NASA’s Wind mission.
    • Further, a NASA-funded project called Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2 (STARE2) also detected the radio burst.

    Why are they significant?

    • First noticed in 2018 by the Canadian observatory the waves have created ripples across the globe for one reason — they arrive in a pattern.
    • This gave birth to theories that they could be from an alien civilization.
    • Initially, it was believed that the collision of black holes or neutron stars triggers them.
    • But the discovery of repeating FRBs debunked the theory of colliding objects.

    What is the origin of the FRB detected in April?

    • The source of the FRB detected in April in the Milky Way is a very powerful magnetic neutron star, referred to as a magnetar.
    • Magnetar is located in the constellation Vulpecula and is estimated to be between 14,000-41,000 light-years away.
    • The FRB was part of one of the magnetar’s most prolific flare-ups, with the X-ray bursts lasting less than a second.

    What is a magnetar?

    • A magnetar is a neutron star, “the crushed, city-size remains of a star many times more massive than our Sun.”
    • The magnetic field of such a star is very powerful, which can be over 10 trillion times stronger than a refrigerator magnet and up to a thousand times stronger than typical neutron stars.
    • Neutron stars are formed when the core of a massive star undergoes gravitational collapse when it reaches the end of its life.

  • Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and its flaws

    A special instrument for access to crop genetic resources, i.e. Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) system, is fraught with challenges.

    What is ABS?

    • The Nagoya Protocol sought to ensure commercial and research utilization of genetic resources led to sharing its benefits with the government and the community that conserved such resources.
    • The Nagoya Protocol deals with Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
    • It is a 2010 supplementary agreement to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
    • It sets out obligations for its contracting parties to take measures in relation to access to genetic resources, benefit-sharing and compliance.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which one the following is associated with the issue of control and phasing out of the use of ozone-depleting substances?

    (a) Bretton Woods Conference

    (b) Montreal Protocol

    (c) Kyoto Protocol

    (d) Nagoya Protocol

    A deviation from its purpose

    • The CBD was created with wild biodiversity in mind, especially medicinal plants where the source of a particular genetic resource and associated traditional knowledge can often be established easily.
    • The situation is different with respect to genetic resources for food and agriculture, including crops and livestock.
    • Humans have modified these in an incremental manner and in many different geographical locations far from where they were originally domesticated.

    India at loss

    • India was a victim of misappropriation or bio-piracy of our genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, which were patented in other countries.
    • Well-known examples of this include neem and turmeric. It was expected that the Nagoya Protocol on ABS, a key missing pillar of the CBD, would address this concern.

    Threats to livestocks

    • Animal genetic resources composed of breeds and strains of domesticated animals that humans have developed out of 40 wild species in the past 10,000 years were placed under the purview of the Nagoya Protocol.
    • India is a key repository of genetic resources related to animals and holds a rich diversity of distinct livestock breeds. It is, therefore, essential that these breeds are protected.
    • The impending and on-going implementation of the Nagoya Protocol at national levels, therefore, creates some urgency for the animal genetic resource sector to engage with these questions.

  • Brown Carbon ‘Tarballs’

    A study has highlighted that brown carbon ‘tarballs’ that fasten the glacial melting has been found in the Himalayan atmosphere.

    We are still to find a solution for the ill-fated Delhi air,  and here comes another blow from the stubble burnings.

    What are Brown Carbon ‘Tarballs’?

    • Tarballs are small light-absorbing, carbonaceous particles formed due to burning of biomass or fossil fuels that deposit on snow and ice.
    • They are formed from brown carbon, emitted during the burning of fossil fuels.
    • The median sizes of externally mixed tarballs and internally mixed tarballs were 213 and 348 nanometre respectively.
    • Primary brown carbon (BrC) co-emitted with black carbon (BC) from biomass burning is an important light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosol.
    • The black carbon from the Indo-Gangetic Plain can reach the Himalaya region and influence glacial melting and climatic change.

    Highlights of the study

    • Until now, black carbon was found to be transported long distances by the wind to the Himalayan atmosphere.
    • The study revealed that a dense array of active fire spots — corresponding to large-scale wheat-residue burning on the Indo-Gangetic Plain — occurred along the pathways of Himalaya.
    • The percentage of the tarballs increased on days of higher levels of pollution and could contribute to the hastening of glacial melt and global warming.
    • The researchers concluded that tarballs from long-range transport can be an important factor in the climatic effect and would correspond to a substantial influence on glacial melting in the Himalaya region.

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