Due to an event referred to as “opposition”, which takes place every two years and two months, Mars will shine the brightest.
Try this question from CSP 2017:
Q.Which region of Mars has a densely packed river deposit indicating this planet had water 3.5 billion years ago?
(a) Aeolis Dorsa (b) Tharsis (c) Olympus Mons (d) Hellas
What is the Opposition Event?
‘Opposition’ is the event when the sun, Earth and an outer planet (Mars in this case) are lined up, with the Earth in the middle.
The time of opposition is the point when the outer planet is typically also at its closest distance to the Earth for a given year, and because it is close, the planet appears brighter in the sky.
An opposition can occur anywhere along Mars’ orbit, but when it happens when the planet is also closest to the sun, it is also particularly close to the Earth.
It will outshine Jupiter, becoming the third brightest object (moon and Venus are first and second, respectively) in the night sky during the month of October.
When does opposition happen?
Earth and Mars orbit the sun at different distances (Mars is farther apart from the sun than Earth and therefore takes longer to complete one lap around the sun).
In fact, the opposition can happen only for planets that are farther away from the sun than the Earth.
In the case of Mars, roughly every two years, the Earth passes between sun and Mars, this is when the three are arranged in a straight line.
Further, as the Earth and Mars orbit the sun, there comes a point when they are on the opposite sides of it, and hence very far apart. At its farthest, Mars is about 400 million km from the Earth.
In case of opposition, however, Mars and Sun are on directly opposite sides of the Earth. In other words, the Earth, sun and Mars all lie in a straight line, with the Earth in the middle.
Logic behind the name
As per NASA, from an individual’s perspective on the Earth, Mars rises in the east and after staying up all night, it sets in the west just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Because from the perspective on Earth, the sun and Mars appear to be on the opposite sides of the sky, Mars is said to be in “opposition”.
Essentially, the opposition is a reference to “opposing the sun” in the sky.
NSM is a proposed plan by GoI to create a cluster of seventy supercomputers connecting various academic and research institutions across India.
In April 2015 the government approved the NSM with a total outlay of Rs.4500 crore for a period of 7 years.
The mission was set up to provide the country with supercomputing infrastructure to meet the increased computational demands of academia, researchers, MSMEs, and startups by creating the capability design, manufacturing, of supercomputers indigenously in India.
Currently, there are four supercomputers from India in the Top 500 list of supercomputers in the world.
Aims and objectives
The target of the mission was set to establish a network of supercomputers ranging from a few Tera Flops (TF) to Hundreds of Tera Flops (TF) and three systems with greater than or equal to 3 Peta Flops (PF) in academic and research institutions of National importance across the country by 2022.
This network of Supercomputers envisaging a total of 15-20 PF was approved in 2015 and was later revised to a total of 45 PF (45000 TFs), a jump of 6 times more compute power within the same cost and capable of solving large and complex computational problems.
What is a Supercomputer?
A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer.
The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS).
Since 2017, there are supercomputers which can perform over a hundred quadrillion FLOPS (petaFLOPS).
Since November 2017, all of the world’s fastest 500 supercomputers run Linux-based operating systems.
Why do we need supercomputers?
Tackle problems: Developed and almost-developed countries have begun ensuring high investments in supercomputers to boost their economies and tackle new social problems.
These high-performance computers can simulate the real world, by processing massive amounts of data, making cars and planes safer, and more fuel-efficient and environment-friendly.
They also aid in the extraction of new sources of oil and gas, development of alternative energy sources, and advancement in medical sciences.
Disaster Management: Supercomputers have also helped weather forecasters to accurately predict severe storms, enable better mitigation planning and warning systems.
They are also used by financial services, manufacturing and internet companies and infrastructure systems like water-supply networks, energy grids, and transportation.
Future applications of artificial intelligence (AI) also depend on supercomputing.
Due to the potential of this technology, countries like the US, China, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia have created national-level supercomputing strategies and are investing substantially in these programmes.
When did India initiate its efforts to build supercomputers?
India’s supercomputer programme initiated in the late 1980s, when the United States ceased the export of a Cray Supercomputer due to technology embargos.
This resulted in India setting up C-DAC in 1988, which in 1991, unveiled the prototype of PARAM 800, benchmarked at 5 Gflops. This supercomputer was the second-fastest in the world at that time.
Since June 2018, the USA’s Summit is the fastest supercomputer in the world, taking away this position from China.
As of January 2018, Pratyush and Mihir are the fastest supercomputers in India with a maximum speed of Peta Flops.
Remember the story of the pied piper? Weren’t you astonished at the ease with which he solved the village’s problem (Rat Infestation) where everyone else had terribly failed? Certainly, the Pied Piper had special skills that villagers lacked.
Now let’s forget the Pied Piper for a moment. What if someone tells you that a 160+ score in Essay paper is very much attainable even for an average Essay writer? Don’t believe it? Have a look at these two successive scorecards.
UPSC mains scorecards of Zeeshan sir. A whopping jump of 65 marks in Essay paper.
Here you’ve seen Zeeshan sir transforming from a mere villager (average UPSC essay writer) to a pied piper. But what changes led to a whopping jump of 65 marks (from 98 to 163 Marks)? For that, you need to follow the footsteps of the Pied Piper.
Truth be told, the Essay paper is the most ignored, least understood, but the most scoring paper of the IAS exam. Consider the effort that you need to put in to score even 130 marks in any of the G.S. papers. But in the Essay, it’s altogether a different story.
Like the villagers in the story, IAS aspirants employ the wrong means to approach this paper. Some of those are:
Making the paper an enlarged version of G.S. answer and overloading it with facts, figures, data, statistics.
Using flowery language and difficult vocabulary.
Overdoing Diagrammatic representation.
Using stories, quotes, illustrations just for the sake of using them.
Being restricted to dimensional analysis e.g. PESTEL approach where the main thrust is on probing these dimensions only. And the list goes on.
It’s imperative that you become like Pied Piper to tame the Essay Paper i.e. understand the actual demands of this paper and present them as per the expectations of UPSC. What’s even more exciting is that you can do this with limited efforts and time thus allowing you to devote more time to other time taking subjects.
Zeeshan sir himself will be mentoring and streamlining your essay preparation in Essay FLTs 2020.
What is Essay FLTs 2020?
It is a mentor-driven Essay test series for UPSC 2020 Mains exam. Our focus is on personalized attention in evaluation, execution, and course correction. Our innovative methodology in topic selection, reviews, and evaluation on one hand and mentorship and collaborative approach on the other will build your capacity to write Essays that will fetch 160+ marks.
What are we offering and how is it unique?
We’ve innovated at every step of the process.
Highly relevant, precise and thoughtful topic selection
Our research tells us there are 8 broad themes of essays being asked since 2010 – Economy, Polity, Women Issues, Education, Science & Tech, Philosophy, IR, Miscellaneous.
But there is some rationality to the way UPSC selects essay topics. Those themes are highly relevant to the current times and one can find a strong correlation with current affairs of the past year(s).
We plan to develop your competencies so that you can be better prepared for the actual exam.
Our biggest innovation lies in our review methodology. Specific portions of your essay will be highlighted with symbols to indicate issues in essay writing
(X) Cross – FUNDAMENTAL FLAWS like judgments/strong postures which need to be avoided at all costs.
(*)Star -APPRECIATION for uniqueness.
STRUCTURE is not maintained. Issues with Language and expression.
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS for candidates.
Along with this, Zeeshan sir will also leave specific reviews on strengths and weaknesses.
We don’t want to merely suggest additional points that can be googled by the student themselves or point out superficial flaws like not ‘sticking to the topic’. They don’t necessarily highlight the shortcomings in the essay. This adds very little value to students. We go much beyond that and help students fix major flaws in their essays.
10 parameters on which your essays are going to get evaluated
Comprehension of the topic
Language and Expression
Structure and Organisation of thought.
Objectivity and Biases. Balance of perception
Attitude whether a learner or judgmental
Focus and attention
Content and Source matter, Knowledge and information processing capability
Ability to forge links in an interdisciplinary manner
Model essays with indicative structure and good essay copies
You will be provided with good essay copies to serve as sample answers. This is a better alternative than sample answers which are hastily written and at times not updated with the latest figures.
Students have an incorrect impression that going through a sample essay will somehow help them write better essays. This is absolutely incorrect.
To develop your competency in tackling different topics, you have to be able to come up with appropriate structures. This aspect of the program addresses this issue.
The expectation from you would be that you study the solutions in detail and try to address the shortcomings in your essays. Should doubts still persist, we’re here to help.
One-to-one Mentorship and Civilsdaily’s handholding
This component of the program is the most important. Post-evaluation of your essay test you will get on a one-to-one discussion with Zeeshan sir. He will discuss the topic in considerable depth, appropriate structure, pitfalls to avoid, etc.
Along with that, sir will also discuss copies presenting different styles in which the essays could be attempted.
Membership to exclusive group on Habitat
Habitat is our learning platform, here you’ll be given membership to an exclusive Essay group. This group will be administered by Zeeshan sir, Sajal sir, in-service officers, rankers, and other mentors.
For essays, you need multiple perspectives to understand a topic or an issue in its entirety. You need discussions; arguments; confluence, confrontation, and integration of ideas. Here, discussions will be facilitated by mentors and enriched by different viewpoints by peers. Moreover, you can ask and discuss any of your doubts with peers and Zeeshan sir.
Besides these, you will be given the following
Any additional material that we release for essays.
Notes and reference material including good articles, essays, etc. on Habitat group.
Program inclusion
5 FLTs
Model essays
One-to-one mentorship
Membership to exclusive Essay group on Habitat
Notes and references on Habitat
Price of the program
Rs. 4000 + taxes for Smash Mains 2020 enrolled students
Against the backdrop of the ongoing tussle between the states and the Centre over the issue of GST compensation, the article analyses the evolution of federalism and power-sharing in India.
GST and federalism
At the first sign of stress, the nation unified in a singular system of taxation (GST) turned into a policy of every-state-for-itself.
Evidence of seriously miscued revenue estimates without pragmatic tax rate, was accumulating at an alarming pace.
The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) recently revealed how a cess meant to remedy shortfalls in GST yields, was retained in central government revenues, in violation of all applicable norms.
This revelation does little to build trust between the Centre and the States at a time when the States’ facing lack of resource and the central government is advising them to borrow.
Some states believe that the onus of borrowing should rest with the central government.
Higher borrowing limit for states with conditions
The central government sanctioned a higher borrowing limit for States through the current year.
In the bargain, it imposed conditionalities:
1) Enforcing a singular standard for the implementation of policies across a vast and diverse country.
2) Improving India’s ranking as a place for “doing business”.
States will have unconditional access to borrowings equivalent to half a percentage point of their gross output.
But, subsequently, every tranche of a quarter point will be premised on progress in implementing the “one nation, one ration card” scheme, and improvements in the “ease of doing business”.
Federalism in India
Aside from the contents and definitions sections, the word “federal” occurs in only one operational article of the Indian Constitution, in reference to the apex judicial body created in colonial times.
When this body was transformed into the Supreme Court at the moment the Constitution came into force, the word seemingly lost all operative value.
The distribution of powers and responsibilities between various tiers of the governmental system, was achieved without explicit recognition of federalism as a governing principle.
In actual operational terms, the relationship of Centre and States followed different paradigms through various phases of politics.
At the time of Independence, the distribution of powers between Centre and States was transformed into an internal discussion of the Congress.
Evolution of power-sharing and politics
The “Congress system”, as the political scientist Rajni Kothari called it, was seen at one time to have sufficient internal flexibility and resilience to absorb all factional pressures.
The first challenge came from the cultural terrain, compelling a reluctant national leadership to accept linguistic reorganisation of States.
And then, as ambitions of nation-building through rapid industrialisation resulted in the possibility of a non-Congress politics.
The Congress lost power in a number of key States in 1967.
The polity moved into a new phase when politics was about “waves” at the national or state level either in favour of, or against the Congress.
From 1989 onwards, politics settled into another distinct phase, when outcomes at the national level were the resultant of very separate State-level results.
Conclusion
Though federal structure could not be free from Centre-State power struggle, that struggle should not come into the development of the nation. In this context, it is the responsibility of the Centre to address the issues facing the state amid pandemic.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2020 has been awarded for the discovery of CRISPR Cas9. The two scientists have pioneered the use of CRISPR – Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) system as a gene-editing tool.
Background of discovery of CRISPR
In 1987a group of Japanese researchers observed an unusual homologous DNA sequence bearing direct repeats with spacing in a eubacterial gene.
In subsequent years CRISPR was discovered and showed to be a bacterial adaptive immune system and to act on DNA targets.
A notable discovery on the use of CRISPR as a gene-editing tool was by a Lithuanian biochemist, Virginijus Šikšnys, in 2012.
Šikšnys showed that Cas9 could cut purified DNA in a test tube, the same discovery for which both Charpentier and Doudna were given the credit.
Thus, the exclusion of Siksnys from this year’s Nobel is going to raise discussions.
Issue of gene-edited babies
The world was alarmed by such a mission in 2018 when Chinese scientist edited genes in human embryos using the CRISPR-Cas9 system which resulted in the birth of twin girls.
The incident became known as the case of the first gene-edited babies of the world.
Following the incident, the World Health Organization formed a panel of gene-editing experts.
The expert panel suggested a central registry of all human genome editing research in order to create an open and transparent database of ongoing work.
Guidelines and regulations in India
In India, several rules, guidelines, and policies are notified under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 to regulate genetically modified organisms.
The above Act and the National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research involving human participants, 2017, by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and the Biomedical and Health Research Regulation Bill implies regulation of the gene-editing process.
This is especially so in the usage of its language “modification, deletion or removal of parts of heritable material”.
However, there is no explicit mention of the term gene editing.
Consider the question “What is CRISPR-Cas9? How it helps in the gene-editing? What are the concerns with use of it for gene-editing?”
Conclusion
It is time that India came up with a specific law to ban germline editing and put out guidelines for conducting gene-editing research giving rise to modified organisms.
Back2Basics: What is CRISPR?
CRISPRs: “CRISPR” stands for “clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.”
It is a specialized region of DNA with two distinct characteristics: the presence of nucleotide repeats and spacers.
Repeated sequences of nucleotides — the building blocks of DNA — are distributed throughout a CRISPR region.
Spacers are bits of DNA that are interspersed among these repeated sequences.
In the case of bacteria, the spacers are taken from viruses that previously attacked the organism.
They serve as a bank of memories, which enables bacteria to recognize the viruses and fight off future attacks.
The article suggests the three-pronged strategy to deal with the emission from transportation and highlights the importance of coordination at various level to deal with the issue of pollution.
Anti-pollution campaign in Delhi
With air pollution returning to pre-COVID levels, the Delhi administration has launched a major anti-pollution campaign this month.
The campaign is focused on cutting the deadly smoke from thermal plants and brick kilns in the National Capital Region as well as on chemical treatment of stubble burning from nearby States.
Abating emission from transportation
Delhi’s long-term solution will depend importantly also on abating emissions from transportation.
Delhi needs a 65% reduction to meet the national standards for PM2.5.
Vehicles, including trucks and two-wheelers, contribute 20%-40% of the PM2.5 concentrations.
Tackling vehicle emissions would be one part of the agenda, as in comparable situations in Bangkok, Beijing, and Mexico City.
Three-part action to combat emissions from transportation
A three-part action comprises emissions standards, public transport, and electric vehicles.
1) Stricter enforcement of emission controls
Two-wheelers and three-wheelers were as important as cars and lorries in Beijing’s experience.
Bangkok ramped up inspection and maintenance to cut emissions.
The first order of business is to implement the national standards.
2) Strengthening public transport
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) around the world show how the sizeable investment cost is more than offset by the benefits, and that financing pays off.
Delhi has lessons from its BRT experience in designating better BRT lanes, improving the ticketing system and synchronising with the Metro.
The Supreme Court’s ruling to increase Delhi’s bus fleet and align it with the Metro network must be carried out.
The ‘odd-even’ number plate policy can help, but the system should reduce exemptions, allow a longer implementation period, and complement it with other measures.
3) Adoption of electric vehicle: A long term solution
Subsidies and investment will be needed to ensure that EVs are used to a meaningful scale.
The Delhi government’s three-year policy aims to make EVs account for a quarter of the new vehicles registered in the capital by 2024.
EVs will gain from purchase incentives, scrappage benefits on older vehicles, loans at favourable interest and a waiver of road taxes.
Need for coordination at various level
Transport solutions need to be one part of pollution abatement that includes industry and agriculture.
Delhi’s own actions will not work if the pollution from neighbouring States is not addressed head on.
Technical solutions need to be underpinned by coordination and transparency across Central, State, and local governments.
Public opinion matters.
Citizen participation and the media are vital for sharing the message on pollution and health, using data such as those from the Central Pollution Control Board.
Conclusion
It is a matter of prioritising people’s health and a brighter future. Once the pandemic is over, Delhi must not stumble into yet another public health emergency. The time to act is now.
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
Indian Navy is scheduled to hold another Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with the US to undertake Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP).
Try this question:
Q.What do you mean by Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs)? What are its legal backings? Discuss its significance.
Freedom of Navigation Operations
FONOPs are closely linked to the concept of freedom of navigation, and in particular to the enforcement of relevant international law and customs regarding freedom of navigation.
Freedom of navigation has been thoroughly practised and refined, and ultimately codified and accepted as international law under UNCLOS, in a legal process that was inclusive and consent-based.
The drafting of UNCLOS was driven in part by states’ concerns that strong national maritime interests could lead to excessive maritime claims over coastal seas, which could threaten freedom of navigation.
FONOPs are outgrowths of this development of international law, based on sovereign equality and international interdependence.
Significance of FONOPs
FONOPs are a method of enforcing UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) and avoiding these negative outcomes by reinforcing freedom of navigation through practice.
It is exercised by sailing through all areas of the sea permitted under UNCLOS, and particularly those areas that states have attempted to close off to free navigation as defined under UNCLOS.
Back2Basics: UNCLOS
The Law of the Sea Treaty formally known as the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982 at Montego Bay, Jamaica. It entered into force in 1994.
The convention establishes a comprehensive set of rules governing the oceans and to replace previous U.N. Conventions on the Law of the Sea
The convention defines the distance of 12 nautical miles from the baseline as Territorial Sea limit and a distance of 200 nautical miles distance as Exclusive Economic Zone limit.
Following up on India’s announcement of a $500 million package to the Maldives, the Exim Bank of India and the Maldives’s Ministry of Finance signed an agreement for $400 million in Male.
Try this question from 2014:
Q.Which one of the following pairs of islands is separated from each other by the ‘Ten Degree Channel’?
(a) Andaman and Nicobar
(b) Nicobar and Sumatra
(c) Maldives and Lakshadweep
(d) Sumatra and Java
Greater Male Connectivity Project
The GMCP consists of a number of bridges and causeways to connect Male to Villingili, Thilafushi and Gulhifahu islands that span 6.7 km.
It would ease much of the pressure of the main capital island of Male for commercial and residential purposes.
When completed, the project would render the Chinese built Sinamale Friendship bridge connecting Male to two other islands, thus far the most visible infrastructure project in the islands.
At present, India-assisted projects in the region include water and sewerage projects on 34 islands, reclamation project for the Addl island, a port on Gulhifalhu, airport redevelopment at Hanimadhoo, and a hospital and a cricket stadium in Hulhumale.
An experimental satellite developed by three students of Karur (TN) has been selected for launch in sub-orbital space by NASA.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The term ‘IndARC’, sometimes seen in the news, is the name of:
(a) An indigenously developed radar system inducted into Indian Defence
(b) India’s satellite to provide services to the countries of Indian Ocean Rim
(c) A scientific establishment set up by India in Antarctic region
(d) India’s underwater observatory to scientifically study the Arctic region
Indian Sat
The Indian Sat is made of reinforced graphene polymer. It is 3 cm in size and weighs 64 gm.
It has its own radio frequency communication to transmit and receive a signal from earth to outer space. The solar cells attached to the satellite generate power for it.
The photographic film will absorb and measure the cosmic radiation inside the rocket.
It would study the effect of reinforced graphene polymers in microgravity. It would be in sub-orbital space flight for a few minutes before landing in the ocean.
What is micro-gravity?
The term micro-g environment is more or less synonymous with the terms weightlessness and zero-g, but with an emphasis on the fact that g-forces are never exactly zero—it is just very small.
On the ISS, for example, the small g-forces come from tidal effects, gravity from objects other than the Earth, such as astronauts, the spacecraft, and the Sun, and, occasionally, air resistance.
Back2Basics: Femto-satellites
Femto-satellites are satellites with a mass lower than 100 grams.
These new categories of satellites are, by concept, low cost devices if they are based on Commercial-of-the-Shelf (COTS) components.
Some examples of applications are related to low-cost missions with a short time of development.
Kalamsat
Kalamsat was a communication satellite with a life span of two months launched in 2017.
The nanosatellite is a 10cm cube weighing 1.2 kg.
It will be the first to use the rocket’s fourth stage as an orbital platform.
The fourth stage will be moved to higher circular orbit so as to establish an orbital platform for carrying out experiments.
It is named after former Indian president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and was built by an Indian high school student team, led by Rifath Sharook, an 18-year-old from the Tamil Nadu town of Pallapatti.
It is the world’s lightest and first-ever 3D-printed satellite.
