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NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced the commencement of solar cycle 25.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Which one of the following reflects back more sunlight as compared to the other three?
(a) Sand desert
(b) Paddy cropland
(c) Land covered with fresh snow
(d) Prairie land
What is the Solar Cycle?
Like seasons on Earth, the Sun follows a cycle of 11 years, during which solar activities fluctuate between solar minima and maxima.
Depending on the number of sunspots detected on the Sun, scientists term it is as solar maxima (highest number of sunspots) or solar minima (lowest number of sunspots).
Sunspots are small and dark, yet cooler areas formed on the solar surface, where there are strong magnetic forces.
They start appearing at Sun’s higher latitudes and later shift towards the equator as a cycle progresses.
In short, when the Sun is active, there are more sunspots in comparison to fewer sunspots during the lesser active phase.
Maxima or minima is not a specific time in the 11-year cycle but is a period that can last for a few years.
How are solar cycles determined?
One of the important elements researchers look out for on the Sun’s surface is the number of sunspots.
A new cycle commences when the Sun has reached its lowest possible minima phase.
Every time the cycle changes, the Sun’s magnetic poles reverse.
Monitoring solar cycles
Since the Sun is a highly variable star, data of sunspot formation and its progress need close monitoring.
Data of six to eight months are required to confirm whether the star has undergone a minima phase.
Traditionally, telescopes were used to record sunspots and recorded data since 1755 is available.
With the advance in technology in recent decades, satellites are also used to make real-time sunspot observations.
On this basis, scientists announced the completion of solar cycle 24, which lasted between December 2008 and December 2019.
With the Sun’s activities having reached its lowest minima between the two cycles, the new solar cycle 25 has now commenced.
How has the transition between solar cycles 24 and 25 been?
The Sun’s activities were notably lesser during 2019 and early 2020. There were no sunspots for 281 days in 2019 and 181 days in 2020.
Since December 2019, the solar activities have slowly picked up, corroborating the beginning of the news cycle.
The panel termed solar cycle 25 to be a weak one, with the intensity similar to that of Solar cycle 24.
What solar activities affect us on Earth?
Solar activities include solar flares, solar energetic particles, high-speed solar wind and Coronal Mass Ejections (CME).
These influence the space weather which originates from the Sun.
Solar storms or flares can typically affect space-dependent operations like GPS, radio and satellite communications, besides hampering flight operations, power grids and space exploration programmes.
CMEs pose danger to space weather. Ejections travelling at a speed of 500km/second are common during solar peaks and create disturbances in Earth’s magnetosphere, the protective shield surrounding the planet.
At the time of spacewalks, astronauts face a great health risk posed by exposure to solar radiation outside Earth’s protective atmosphere.
India has suggested Pakistan appointing a Queen’s Counsel for the Kulbhushan Jadhav case to ensure a free and fair trial.
Queen’s Counsel
In the UK and in some Commonwealth countries, a Queen’s Counsel during the reign of a queen is a lawyer who is appointed by the monarch of the country to be one of ’Her Majesty’s Counsel learned in the law’.
The position originated in England.
Some Commonwealth countries have either abolished the position, or re-named it so as to remove monarchical connotations, for example, ’Senior Counsel’ or ’Senior Advocate’.
Queen’s Counsel is an office, conferred by the Crown that is recognised by courts.
Senior Advocate Harish Salve earlier this year has been appointed as Queen’s Counsel (QC) for the courts of England and Wales.
Four Indian cities -New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru – witnessed a significant drop in their rankings in the global listing of smart cities that was topped by Singapore.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following is not a sub-index of the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’?
(a) Maintenance of law and order
(b) Paying taxes
(c) Registering property
(d) Dealing with construction permits
Global Smart City Index
The Institute for Management Development, in collaboration with Singapore University for Technology and Design, has released the 2020 Smart City Index.
Its key findings rest on how technology is playing a role in the Covid-19 era.
The 2020 Index was topped by Singapore, followed by Helsinki and Zurich in the second and the third place respectively.
Others in the top 10 list include Auckland (4th), Oslo (5th), Copenhagen (6th), Geneva (7th), Taipei City (8th), Amsterdam (9th) and New York at the 10th place.
India’s performances
In the 2020 Smart City Index, Hyderabad was placed at the 85th position (down from 67 in 2019), New Delhi at 86th rank (down from 68 in 2019), Mumbai was at 93rd place (in 2019 it was at 78) and Bengaluru at 95th (79 in 2019).
This drop can be attributed to the detrimental effect that the pandemic has had where the technological advancement was not up to date.
From 15 indicators that the respondents perceive as the priority areas for their city, all four cities highlighted air pollution as one of the key areas that they felt their city needed to prioritise on.
For cities like Bangalore and Mumbai, this was closely followed by road congestion while for Delhi and Hyderabad it was basic amenities, the report said.
Indian scientists have reported a first-of-its-kind discovery of morphological phenotypic plasticity (MPP) in the Kalinga cricket frog.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements:
Biodiversity hotspots are located only in tropical regions.
India has four biodiversity hotspots i.e., Eastern Himalayas, Western Himalayas, Western Ghats and Andaman and the Nicobar Islands.
Which of the above statements is/ are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Kalinga Frog
The Kalinga Frog (Fejervarya Kalinga) was recently identified species which was documented in 2018.
The species was encountered several times during field expeditions in the Western Ghats. However, the physical characteristics vary entirely from the known species of Eastern Ghats.
However, it has been reported from the central Western Ghats, with the evidence of considerable MPP.
It was the only genetic analysis that helped prove that physically different-looking frogs from eastern and western ghats were the same.
What is MPP?
The morphological phenotypic plasticity (MPP) is the ability of an organism to show drastic morphological (physical features) variations in response to natural environmental variations or stimuli.
The term “phenotype” refers to the observable physical properties of an organism, which include the organism’s appearance, development, and behaviour.
PM has dedicated to the nation the historic Kosi Rail Mahasetu (mega-bridge).
Kosi Rail Mahasetu
The Kosi Mega Bridge line project was sanctioned during 2003-04.
The bridge is 1.9 km long. It is of strategic importance along the India-Nepal border.
In 1887, a meter gauge link was built in between Nirmali and Bhaptiahi (Saraigarh).
During the heavy flood and severe Indo Nepal earthquake in 1934, the rail link was washed away and thereafter due to meandering nature of river Kosi no attempt was made to restore this Rail link for long period.
The dedication of the mega-bridge is a watershed moment in the history of Bihar and the entire region connecting to the North East.
About Kosi River
The Kosi is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, Nepal and India.
The river crosses into northern Bihar, India where it branches into distributaries before joining the Ganges near Kursela in Katihar district.
Its unstable nature has been attributed course changes and the heavy silt it carries during the monsoon season, and flooding in India has extreme effects.
It is also known as the “Sorrow of Bihar” as the annual floods affect about 21,000 km2 of fertile agricultural lands thereby disturbing the rural economy.
You don’t have much time (just 9 months now!) if you want to see your name in the final list of 2021.
Moreover, it should take just one attempt to clear this exam. Any further attempt, if you’re taking, should only be to improve your rank. (Civilsdaily has 70+ selections in 2019)
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We had a discussion with around 1500 students who were not able to clear prelims even after more than 2 attempts. Some were stuck on mains.
Just making a workable strategy or covering the syllabus only is not enough.
Broadly, five factors determine your success in cracking this prestigious IAS exam: Planning and strategizing– the first step; Learning – Knowledge and information; Analyzing – making linkages, connections, etc.; Executing and utilizing information; and Constant course correction – because mistakes are inevitable, need to rectify them asap.
Failing to tackle any one of them, feeds into a vicious cycle. Without guidance or mentoring, understanding where the problem lies in and how to rectify it becomes problematic.
This is where our 3 tier mentoring comes in:
1. First step starts with this Samanvayacall:Once you fill in the form, our senior mentors get on a 30-40 minute call with you to understand your prep level, working/ study constraints, current strategies, and create a step by step plan for next week, next month and so on.
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After the skirmish at the border, Beijing started to concentrate troops, armoured vehicles and munitions opposite our posts in Aksai China at Galwan.
2 interpretations of China’s move
First believes that the Chinese exercise was a territorial snatch in Aksai Chin, which they believe is entirely theirs.
The move was accompanied by a “lesson” to the Indians on aggressive Indian behaviour in not conceding Aksai Chin.
The second school of thought in India believes that territory has nothing to do with it.
They believe that, due to growing economic power, Beijing will lay down the rules of world governance.
How it matters for India
India contest China’s entire southern border, refuse to join the Belt and Road initiative, create an anti-China maritime coalition, compete with them for influence in South East Asia and Africa.
India is also unsupportive of their crackdown on Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang and move ever closer to the United States.
When China assumes hegemonic power after 2030, India is going to get a nasty surprise.
Secularism, democracy and the rights of man will play no part in Chinese foreign policy.
China will overturn every international, financial, trade, diplomatic, arms control and nuclear agreement that the world has put together in seven decades.
Way forward
We in India need to conduct a large and vociferous debate on Chinese intentions.
If the Chinese intention is to “teach us a lesson” we need a new national strategy, combining diplomatic and military means.
If our national goal is to concentrate on the creation of wealth and growing GDP, let us proclaim it, tighten our belt, look down and avoid conflict.
Conclusion
What China wants is Indian acceptance of Beijing’s benign superiority, and that is a purely Chinese trait, not to be confused with the known rules of international diplomacy. Talking from a position of inferiority will not lead to an equitable solution. But first, a national debate.
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The article analyses the challenges federalism in India faces and the important role played by the division of states based on the languages.
Three conceptions of nationalism in India
Following three conceptions of nationalism were prevalent in India before independence.
The first, the idea that a community with a strongly unified culture must have a single state of its own.
The second saw the nation as defined by a common culture whose adherents must have a state of their own.
But this common culture was not ethno-religious.
It conceives common culture in terms of a strong idea of unity that marginalises or excludes other particular identities.
A third nationalism accepts that communities nourished by distinct, territorially concentrated regional cultures have the capacity to design states of their own as also educational, legal, economic, and other institutions.
This may be called a coalescent nationalism consistent with a fairly strong linguistic federalism.
The central state associated with it is not multi-national.
At best, it is a multi-national state without labels, one that does not call itself so; a self-effacing multi-national state.
Suspicion of linguistic identities
After Partition, the Indian ruling class began to view with suspicion the political expression of even linguistic identities.
It was feared that federation structured along ethno-linguistic lines might tempt politicians to mobilise permanently on the basis of language.
The second fear was about an increase in the likelihood of inter-ethnic violence, encourage separatism and eventually lead to India’s break up.
Thus, when the Constitution came into force in 1950, India adopted unitary, civic nationalism as its official ideology.
Formation of states on linguistic basis and its implications
A unitary mindset shaped by the experience of a centralised colonial state was resurrected.
The second tier of government was justified in functional terms, not on ethical grounds of the recognition of group cultures.
Following the Committee’s recommendations, States were reorganised in 1956.
India slowly became a coalescent nation-state, moving from the ‘holding together’ variety to what is called the ‘coming together’ form of (linguistic) federalism.
This meant that regional parties were stronger than earlier in their own regions and at the centre.
This let to more durable centre because it was grounded more on the consent and participation of regional groups that, at another level, were also self-governing.
Indian federalism also attempted to remove its rigidities by incorporating asymmetries in the relation between the Centre and different States.
Treating all States as equals required the acknowledgement of their specific needs and according them differential treatment.
Conclusion
Coalescent nationalism has served India well, benefiting several groups in India. True, it has not worked as well in India’s border areas such as the North-east and Kashmir. But their problems can only be resolved by deepening not abandoning coalescent nationalism.
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