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  • 13th May 2022 | Nikaalo Prelims- Current Affairs Test 9: March 2022

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  • 14th May 2022 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

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  • 13th May 2022 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

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  • Sagittarius A*: Black Hole at the Centre of our Galaxy imaged

    Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) facility revealed the first image of the black hole at the centre of our galaxy i.e. the Milky Way.

    The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy that contains at least 100 billion stars. Viewed from above or below it resembles a spinning pinwheel, with our sun situated on one of the spiral arms and Sagittarius A* located at the centre.

    What is Sagittarius A*?

     

    • Pronounced Sagittarius ‘A’ star, it refers to the believed location of the supermassive black hole in the centre of our galaxy.
    • About 50 years ago, astronomers identified an area within the constellation of Sagittarius that was the strongest region of radio emission – thus making it the likely centre of the Milky Way.
    • It possesses 4 million times the mass of our sun and is located about 26,000 light-years—the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km)—from Earth.

    What is an event horizon?

    • Black holes are extraordinarily dense objects with gravity so strong that not even light can escape, making viewing them extremely challenging.
    • A black hole’s event horizon is the point of no return beyond which anything—stars, planets, gas, dust and all forms of electromagnetic radiation—gets dragged into oblivion.
    • The closer someone came to a black hole, the greater the speed they would need to escape that massive gravity.
    • The event horizon is the threshold around the black hole where the escape velocity surpasses the speed of light.

    What are the recent observations?

    • The image of Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) gave support to the idea that the compact object at the centre of our galaxy is indeed a black hole, strengthening Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
    • The image was obtained using the EHT’s global network of observatories working collectively to observe radio sources associated with black holes.
    • It showed a ring of light —super-heated disrupted matter and radiation circling at tremendous speed at the edge of the event horizon—around a region of darkness representing the actual black hole.
    • This is called the black hole’s shadow or silhouette.

    How did Einstein’s theory found its proof here?

    • According to Einstein’s theory, nothing can travel faster through space than the speed of light.
    • This means a black hole’s event horizon is essentially the point from which nothing can return.
    • The name refers to the impossibility of witnessing any event taking place inside that border, the horizon beyond which one cannot see.

    About EHT Facility

    • EHT project is a large telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes.
    • It combines data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around Earth, which form a combined array.
    • It provides an angular resolution sufficient to observe objects the size of a supermassive black hole’s event horizon.
    • In 2019, the eHT facility made history by releasing the first-ever image of a black hole, M87* — the black hole at the centre of a galaxy Messier 87, which is a supergiant elliptic galaxy.

     

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  • US to host ASEAN leaders

    US President Joe Biden will host leaders and top officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Washington DC.

    About ASEAN

    • ASEAN is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia.
    • It brings together ten Southeast Asian states – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – into one organisation.
    • It was established on 8th August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration by the founding fathers of the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
    • The preceding organisation was the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA) comprising of Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.
    • Five other nations joined the ASEAN in subsequent years making the current membership to ten countries.

    Why in news?

    (A) Political purpose

    • ASEAN’s ‘Five Point Consensus’ to end the turmoil in Myanmar has not progressed since it was released in April last year.
    • In addition to discussing Myanmar, leaders are also expected to discuss Ukraine as well as regional issues.

    (B) Economic purpose

    • It is expected to discuss his administration’s economic plan for the region — the Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) — during this week’s summit.
    • The framework will structure cooperation across several pillars from infrastructure and supply chains to taxation.

    What is Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF)?

    • The proposed IPEF is the Biden administration’s answer to questions about the United States’ economic commitment to the vital Indo-Pacific region.
    • IPEF will consist of four “pillars” of work:
    1. Fair and resilient trade (encompassing seven subtopics, including labor, environmental, and digital standards)
    2. Supply chain resilience
    3. Infrastructure, clean energy, and decarbonization
    4. Tax and anti-corruption

     

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  • India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI)

    A project called the India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI) finds that nearly 23% out of 2.1 million Indians have uncontrolled blood pressure.

    What is the IHCI?

    • Recognizing that hypertension is a serious, and growing, health issue in India, the Health Ministry, the ICMR, State Governments, and WHO-India began a five-year initiative to monitor and treat hypertension.
    • The programme was launched in November 2017.
    • In the first year, IHCI covered 26 districts across five States — Punjab, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra.
    • By December 2020, IHCI was expanded to 52 districts across ten States — Andhra Pradesh (1), Chhattisgarh (2), Karnataka (2), Kerala (4), Madhya Pradesh (6), Maharashtra (13), Punjab (5), Tamil Nadu (1), Telangana (13) and West Bengal (5).

    What is Hypertension?

    • Hypertension is defined as having systolic blood pressure level greater than or equal to 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure level greater than or equal to 90 mmHg.
    • The definition also assumes taking anti-hypertensive medication to lower his/her blood pressure.

    Why need IHCI?

    • India has committed to a “25 by 25” goal, which aims to reduce premature mortality due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 25% by 2025.
    • To achieve India’s target of a 25%, approximately 4.5 crore additional people with hypertension need to get their BP under control by 2025.

    What has the IHCI found so far?

    • Its most important discovery so far is that nearly one-fourth of (23%) patients under the programme had uncontrolled blood pressure, and 27% did not return for a follow-up in the first quarter of 2021.
    • There were an estimated 20 crore adults with hypertension in the country.
    • There weren’t enough validated high-quality digital blood pressure monitors in several health facilities, which affected accuracy of hypertension diagnosis.

    How prevalent is the problem of hypertension?

    • About one-fourth of women and men aged 40 to 49 years have hypertension.
    • Southern States have a higher prevalence of hypertension than the national average, according to the latest edition of the National Family Health Survey.
    • While 21.3% of women and 24% of men aged above 15 have hypertension in the country, the prevalence is the highest in Kerala where 32.8% men and 30.9% women have been diagnosed with hypertension.
    • Kerala is followed by Telangana where the prevalence is 31.4% in men and 26.1% in women.

     

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  • Ujjwala LPG Scheme: 90-lakh beneficiaries don’t take refills

    In the financial year 2021-22, 90-lakh beneficiaries of the flagship welfare scheme, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), did not take refill gas cylinders. And over one crore beneficiaries got their refills only once.

    About the PM Ujjwala Yojana

    • Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched in 2016, with the aim to provide Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections to five crore women members of below poverty line (BPL) households in the first phase.
    • he scheme was expanded in April 2018 to include women beneficiaries from seven more categories (SC/ST, PMAY, AAY, Most backward classes, tea garden, forest dwellers, Islands).
    • In the second phase the target was expanded to eight crore LPG connections.

    Why was this scheme launched?

    • Indoor air pollution is also responsible for a significant number of acute respiratory illnesses in young children.
    • Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country.
    • This measure has empowered women and protected their health. It reduced drudgery and the time spent on cooking.
    • It will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.

    Ujjwala 2.0

    • Now migrant workers would only be required to submit a self-declaration of their residential address to get the gas connection.
    • Along with a deposit-free LPG connection, Ujjwala 2.0 will provide the first refill and a hotplate free of cost to the beneficiaries.

     

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  • PAN, Aadhaar made mandatory for high-value cash deposits & withdrawals

    The government has made requirement of a Permanent Account Number (PAN) or Aadhaar number for depositing or withdrawing Rs 20 lakh or more in a financial year or for opening a current account mandatory.

    Regulating high-value transactions

    • The Central Board of Direct Taxes, in a notification, said furnishing PAN or biometric Aadhaar will be mandatory for such high-value cash deposits or withdrawals from banks in a financial year.
    • The same will be applied for opening of a current account or cash credit account with a bank or post office.
    • Banks, post offices and co-operative societies would be required to report the transactions of deposits and withdrawals aggregating to Rs 20 lakh or more in a financial year.
    • As of now, PAN is required to be furnished for cash deposits of Rs 50,000 or more in a day.
    • With these rules, a threshold of Rs 20 lakh has been defined for the full financial year.

    How will this help tax department?

    • This move will help the government in tracing the movement of cash in the financial system.
    • It is expected to help the income tax department monitor deposits/withdrawals where tax would not be getting paid by the individual otherwise on his or her income.

    Why PAN-Aadhaar interoperability?

    • The PAN-Aadhaar interoperability will help banks to record details for those who don’t have PAN.
    • The interchangeable provision in the rules would allow a bank or financial institution to ask for Aadhaar in case an individual states that he or she doesn’t have PAN.
    • The Finance Act, 2019, has provided for the interchangeability of PAN with Aadhaar.
    • It has been provided that every person who is required to furnish or intimate or quote his PAN under the Income-tax Act.
    • Those who, has not been allotted a PAN but possesses the Aadhaar number, may furnish or intimate or quote his Aadhaar in lieu of PAN.

     

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  • Citizenship and diversity of India

    Context

    Given the diversity and complexity of India, the only constitutionally valid common denominator is citizenship.

    Social security

    • An eminent sociologist and former president of the International Sociological Association, T.K. Oommen, has written extensively on the concept of social security.
    • Evolution of nation: He says the principal challenges to the evolution of a nation lie in minimising disparity, eradicating discrimination, and avoiding alienation.
    • Excluded groups in our society: He has listed nine categories of socially and/or politically and/or excluded groups in our society: “Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, cultural minorities — both religious and linguistic, women, refugees-foreigners-outsiders, people [of] Northeast India, the poor and the disabled”.
    • Sources of exclusion in India: He has suggested that “the three sources of exclusion in India — stratification, heterogeneity and hierarchy — create intersectionality.”
    • This insecurity manifests itself in genocide, culturocide and ecocide and in its absence, a society may be conceptualised as secure.
    • The Indian polity, he says, “has the most elaborate set of identities based on class, religion, gender, caste, region, language and their intersectionalities as well as consequent permutations and combinations.
    • Citizenship as a common denominator: Given the diversity and complexity of India, the only constitutionally valid common denominator is citizenship.
    • This is the point at which fraternity can and should be practiced among equals.
    • Prof. Oommen opines that it is “only through the conflation of state and nation” can our Republic be considered a nation.

    Conclusion

    Cultural monoism and secularism are insufficient, Prof. Oommen says; instead, “the idea of conceptualizing India as a multicultural polity is more amenable than a secular India.” The sheet anchor of this has to be citizenship.

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  • MTP Act 2021

    Context

    The issue of abortion is in the news again, internationally.

    Criminal law provisions related to termination of pregnancy

    • Under the general criminal law of the country, i.e. the Indian Penal Code, voluntarily causing a woman with child to miscarry is an offence attracting a jail term of up to three years or fine or both, unless it was done in good faith where the purpose was to save the life of the pregnant woman.
    • A pregnant woman causing herself to miscarry is also an offender under this provision apart from the person causing the miscarriage, which in most cases would be a medical practitioner.

    Background of the MTP Act

    • In 1971, after a lot of deliberation, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act was enacted.
    • This law is an exception to the IPC provisions above.
    • Who, when, where, why and by whom? The law sets out the rules — of when, who, where, why and by whom — for accessing an MTP.
    •  This law has been amended twice since, the most recent set of amendments being in the year 2021 which has, to some extent, expanded the scope of the law.
    • The law does not recognise and/or acknowledge the right of a pregnant person to decide on the discontinuation of a pregnancy.
    • The law provides for a set of reasons based on which an MTP can be accessed.

    Reasons allowed for MTP

    • Reasons: The continuation of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or result in grave injury to her physical or mental health.
    • The law explains that if the pregnancy is as a result of rape or failure of contraceptive used by the pregnant woman or her partner to limit the number of children or to prevent a pregnancy, the anguish caused by the continuation of such a pregnancy would be considered to be a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman.
    • The other reason for seeking an MTP is the substantial risk that if the child was born, it would suffer from any serious physical or mental abnormality.
    •  A pregnant person cannot ask for a termination of pregnancy without fitting in one of the reasons set out in the law.
    • Gestational age of pregnancy: The other set of limitations that the law provides is the gestational age of the pregnancy.
    • The pregnancy can be terminated for any of the above reasons, on the opinion of a single registered medical practitioner up to 20 weeks of the gestational age.
    • From 20 weeks up to 24 weeks, the opinion of two registered medical practitioners is required.
    • Any decision for termination of pregnancy beyond 24 weeks gestational age, only on the ground of foetal abnormalities can be taken by a Medical Board as set up in each State, as per the law.
    • The law, as an exception to all that is stated above, also provides that where it is immediately necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman, the pregnancy can be terminated at any time by a single registered medical practitioner.

    Issues with the MTP Act provisions

    • While India legalised access to abortion in certain circumstances much before most of the world did the same, unfortunately, even in 2020 we decided to remain in the logic of 1971.
    • Right to health and right to life: By the time the amendments to the MTP Act were tabled before the Lok Sabha in 2020, a number of cases came before the courts.
    • In these cases, the courts had articulated the right of a pregnant woman to decide on the continuation of her pregnancy as a part of her right to health and right to life, and therefore non-negotiable.
    • Violation of right to privacy: In right to privacy judgment of the Supreme Court of India it was held that the decision making by a pregnant person on whether to continue a pregnancy or not is part of such a person’s right to privacy as well and, therefore, the right to life.
    • The standards set out in this judgment were also not incorporated in the amendments being drafted.
    • Not in sync with central laws: The new law is not in sync with other central laws such as the laws on persons with disabilities, on mental health and on transgender persons, to name a few.
    • In conflict with other laws: The amendments also did not make any attempts to iron out the conflations between the MTP Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act or the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, to name a few.

    Conclusion

    While access to abortion has been available under the legal regime in the country, there is a long road ahead before it is recognised as a right of a person having the capacity to become pregnant to decide, unconditionally, whether a pregnancy is to be continued or not.

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