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Subject: Trivia

  • Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Prachand inducted into IAF

    lch

    The indigenous Light Combat Helicopter LCH-Prachand was formally inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF).

    LCH- Prachand

    • The LCH has been designed as a twin-engine, dedicated combat helicopter of 5.8-ton class, thus categorized as light.
    • It features a narrow fuselage and tandem — one behind the other — configuration for pilot and co-pilot. The co-pilot is also the Weapon Systems Operator (WSO).
    • While LCH inherits many features of the ALH-Dhruv, it mainly differs in tandem cockpit configuration, making it sleeker.
    • It also has many more state-of-art systems that make it a dedicated attack helicopter.

    Features, the significance of LCH

    • LCH has the maximum take-off weight of 5.8 tonnes, a maximum speed of 268 kilometers per hour, range of 550 kilometers.
    • It has endurance of over three hours and service ceiling the maximum density altitude to which it can fly — of 6.5 kilometres.
    • LCH is powered by two French-origin Shakti engines manufactured by the HAL.

    Combat capabilities

    • The helicopter uses radar-absorbing material to lower radar signature and has a significantly crash-proof structure and landing gear.
    • A pressurised cabin offers protection from nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) contingencies.
    • With these features, the LCH has the capabilities of combat roles such as destruction of enemy air defence, counter-insurgency warfare, combat search and rescue, anti-tank, and counter surface force operations.

    Why need indigenous LCH?

    • It was during the 1999 Kargil war that the need was first felt for a homegrown lightweight assault helicopter that could hold precision strikes in all Indian battlefield scenarios.
    • This meant a craft that could operate in very hot deserts and also in very cold high altitudes, in counter-insurgency scenarios to full-scale battle conditions.
    • India has been operating sub 3 ton category French-origin legacy helicopters, Chetak and Cheetah, made in India by the HAL.

     

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  • Micronesia: the remote Pacific Islands

    The Federated States of Micronesia is one of the latest places on Earth to experience an outbreak of Covid-19, after two and a half years of successfully protecting itself from the virus.

    Where is Micronesia?

    • FSM is located in the Western Pacific, in the Micronesia sub-region of Oceania.
    • It consists of four island states, Yap, Chuuk, Kosrae and Pohnpei (where the capital Palikir is located), all in the Caroline Islands.
    • Also known as the Carolines, it is a scattered archipelago of small islands that are divided between Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.
    • FSM is composed of 607 islands and islets with a total land area of 702 square km.

    Its geography

    • While this area is rather small, the islands stretch across an estimated 2,900 sq. km of sea, giving the nation the 14th largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world.
    • EEZs grant countries special right over marine resources up to 370 km from their coasts.
    • The Federated States of Micronesia shares its sea borders with other small island nations and territories in the Micronesia region like Guam, the Republic of Marshall Islands, Palau, Kiribati, and the Mariana Islands.
    • Its larger neighbouring states — separated by large swathes of the Pacific Ocean — including the Philippines in the west, Hawaii in the east, Papua New Guinea and Australia to the south, and Japan to the north.

     

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  • United Nations’ World Population Prospects (WPP)

    The 2022 edition of the United Nations’ World Population Prospects (WPP) was released.

    Why in news?

    • India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023.

    What is the World Population Prospects?

    • The Population Division of the UN has been publishing the WPP in a biennial cycle since 1951.
    • Each revision of the WPP provides a historical time series of population indicators starting in 1950.
    • It does so by taking into account newly released national data to revise estimates of past trends in fertility, mortality or international migration.

    Main takeaways for the global population

    (1) Slow pace of growth

    • The world’s population continues to grow, but the pace of growth is slowing down.
    • The global population is expected to grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.
    • In 2020, the global growth rate fell under 1% per year for the first time since 1950.

    (2) Region-wise differential

    • Rates of population growth vary significantly across countries and regions.
    • More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries- Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
    • Disparate growth rates among the world’s largest countries will re-order their ranking by size.

    (3) Ageing population

    • The population of older persons is increasing both in numbers and as a share of the total.
    • The share of the global population aged 65 years or above is projected to rise from 10% in 2022 to 16% in 2050.
    • The report suggests measures for ageing population by improving the sustainability of social security and pension systems and by establishing universal health care and long-term care systems.

    (4) Decline in fertility rate

    • A sustained drop in fertility has led to an increased concentration of the population at working ages (between 25 and 64 years), creating an opportunity for accelerated economic growth per capita.
    • This shift in the age distribution provides a time-bound opportunity for accelerated economic growth known as the “demographic dividend”.

    (5) International migration

    • This is having important impacts on population trends for some countries.
    • For high-income countries between 2000 and 2020, the contribution of international migration to population growth (net inflow of 80.5 million) exceeded the balance of births over deaths (66.2 million).
    • Over the next few decades, migration will be the sole driver of population growth in high-income countries.
    • In many of these countries, the outflows were due to temporary labour movements, such as for Pakistan (net flow of -16.5 million), India (-3.5 million), Bangladesh (-2.9 million), Nepal (-1.6 million) etc.

    How reliable is the UN projection, and how do they compare with India’s Census?

    • In India, of course, the Registrar General comes out with a population projection based on the Census.
    • The last such projection was released in 2019 and it was based on Census 2011.
    • The Census projection is slightly lower than the UN projection.
    • Still UN projection is widely acknowledged across the world

    What is the significance of India overtaking China?

    • That India would overtake China has been known for a while.
    • Moreover, in the past, when the world population was still at 5-billion or 6-billion levels, there was a concern about overcrowding.
    • Those concerns no longer exist because the global population is already 8 billion and several countries (including India) have achieved a replacement rate of fertility.
    • The concern now is not about the absolute numbers — India’s population is already 1.4 billion and may go up to 1.6 billion before declining.

     

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  • Summer Solstice 2022: What is it and how is it significant?

    Yesterday, June 21 was the day of the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere.

    What is Summer Solstice?

    • Solstice means “sun stands still” in Latin.
    • The longest day of 2021 for those living north of the Equator is June 21.
    • This day is characterized by a greater amount of energy received from the sun.
    • In technical terms, this day is referred to as the summer solstice, the longest day of the summer season.
    • It occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, or more specifically right over 23.5-degree north latitude.

    The Southern Hemisphere receives most sunlight on December 21, 22 or 23 when the northern hemisphere has its longest nights– or the winter solstice.

    Why do we have summer solstice?

    • Since Earth rotates on its axis, the Northern Hemisphere gets more direct sunlight between March and September over the course of a day.
    • This also means people living in the Northern Hemisphere experience summer during this time.
    • The rest of the year, the Southern Hemisphere gets more sunlight.
    • During the solstice, the Earth’s axis — around which the planet spins, completing one turn each day — is tilted in a way that the North Pole is tipped towards the sun and the South Pole is away from it.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.On 21st June, the Sun (CSP 2019):

     

    (a) Does not set below the horizon at the Arctic Circle

    (b) Does not set below the horizon at Antarctic Circle

    (c) Shines vertically overhead at noon on the Equator

    (d) Shines vertically overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”hxnesi3y0h” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

    Some interesting facts

    • During the June solstice compared to any other time of the year, the North Pole is tipped more directly toward the sun, and the south pole is tipped more directly away from the sun.
    • As a result, all locations north of the equator see days longer than 12 hours and all locations south see days shorter than 12 hours.
    • The sun’s path across the sky is curved—NOT a straight line on the summer solstice.
    • Based on Earth’s current orbit, the summer solstice date rotates between June 20, 21 and 22 and is not fixed since it depends on the physics of our solar system and not on human calendar.

     

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  • Places in news: Aegean Islands

    Turkey has warned Greece to demilitarise islands in the Aegean Sea.

    What is the news?

    • Turkey says Greece has been building a military presence in violation of treaties that guarantee the unarmed status of the Aegean islands.
    • It argues the islands were ceded to Greece on the condition they remained demilitarized.

    Where is the Aegean Sea?

    • The Aegean Sea has a surface area of about 215,000 km2 and a depth of 3,544 m at the deepest end.
    • It has a maximum length of about 700 km and a width of 400 km.
    • The Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits connect the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea respectively.
    • The Aegean is subdivided into the Myrtoan Sea and the Thracian Sea and lies on the African and Eurasian tectonic plates’ collision path.

    Control of the region

    • The sea is situated between the Anatolia and Balkan peninsulas and lies between Turkey and Greece.
    • Nine out of 12 of Greece’s administrative regions border the sea.
    • Turkish provinces, such as Balikesir, Canakkale, Edirne, and Izmir, borders the Aegean to the east.
    • The Aegean Sea is a source of dispute and controversy between Turkey and Greece, affecting their relationship since the 1970s.

    What is the dispute?

    • Greece and Turkey are NATO allies.
    • However they have a history of disputes over a range of issues, including mineral exploration in the eastern Mediterranean and rival claims in the Aegean Sea.
    • Greece maintains Turkey has deliberately misinterpreted the treaties and says it has legal grounds to defend itself following hostile actions by Ankara.

     

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  • Booker Prize awarded to first Indian language book

    Author Geetanjali Shree’s translated Hindi novel, Tomb of Sand, became the first Indian language book to win the International Booker Prize.

    Note: Such topics hold very little relevance for CSE prelims. However, last year experience make such topics more uncertain. Still such topics hold relevance for other exams such as CAPF and state PSCs.

    What is the Booker Prize?

    • The Booker Prize is one of the best-known literary awards for fiction writing in English, including both novels and collections of short stories.
    • It was first awarded in 1969.
    • Every year a panel of judges decides the best work of the year, with the criteria being that it must be written in English and published in the UK and Ireland.
    • This panel of judges is picked from among eminent cultural historians, writers, professors, and novelists, and others from related fields.
    • For the Booker Prize, the winner receives ÂŁ50,000.

    About the book

    • The 2018 novel titled ‘Ret Samadhi’ was translated by Daisy Rockwell and published as ‘Tomb of Sand’ in 2021.
    • The prize is one of two literary awards given out annually by the Booker Prize Foundation, a charity whose stated aim is to “promote the art and value of literature for the public benefit”.

    What about the International Booker Prize?

    • The International Booker Prize began in 2005.
    • A biennial prize initially, it was then awarded for a body of work available in English, including translations, with Alice Munro, Lydia Davis and Philip Roth becoming some of the early winners.
    • In 2015, the rules of the International prize changed to make it an annual affair.
    • The new rules stipulated that it will be awarded annually for a single book, written in another language and translated into English.
    • The ÂŁ50,000 prize money is divided equally between the author and translator each year.

    Why is it called the ‘Booker’?

    • The Booker Prize, from 1969 to 2001, was named simply after the Booker Group Limited – a British food wholesale operator that was its initial sponsor.
    • The Man Group, an investment management firm based in the UK, began to sponsor the prize in 2002 and it thus came to be known as The Man Booker Prize.
    • The Man Group ended their sponsorship in 2019.
    • Crankstart, an American charitable foundation, has been the sponsor after that. The prize name has changed back to the ‘Booker’ since then.

    Who have been some prominent winners?

    • Prominent winners of the coveted prize include Margaret Atwood (‘The Testaments’), Yann Martel (‘Life of Pi’), and Julian Barnes (‘The Sense of an Ending’).
    • Many Indian-origin writers have won the Booker in the past, such as Arundhati Roy (‘The God of Small Things’), Salman Rushdie (‘Midnight’s Children’), Kiran Desai (‘The Inheritance of Loss’), and Aravind Adiga (‘The White Tiger’).
    • Shree is the first Indian to win an international prize.

     

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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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  • Pulitzer Prize and the Indians who have won it

    A team of four Indian photographers have won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of the Covid-19 crisis in India.

    About Pulitzer Prize

    • The Pulitzer is the most coveted award for journalists from across the world.
    • It is announced by America’s Columbia University and bestowed on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board.

    Who was Joseph Pulitzer, after whom the awards are named?

    • Born to a wealthy family of Magyar-Jewish origin in Mako, Hungary, in 1847, Joseph Pulitzer had a stint in the military before he built a reputation of being a “tireless journalist”.
    • In the late 1860s he joined the German-language daily newspaper Westliche Post, and by 25 he had become a publisher.
    • In 1884, he was elected to the US House of Representatives from New York’s ninth district as a Democrat.

    When were the Pulitzer awards instituted?

    • The awards were instituted according to Pulitzer’s will, framed in 1904, where he made a provision for the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes as an incentive to excellence.
    • Pulitzer specified solely four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one for education, and five travelling scholarships.
    • After his death in 1911, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in June, 1917.

    Indians who have won the Pulitzer

    • A member of the Ghadar Party in America, journalist Gobind Behari Lal, was the first from India to win the Prize in 1937.
    • In 2000, London-born Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies.
    • In 2003, Mumbai-born Geeta Anand was part of the team at Wall Street Journal that won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on corporate corruption.
    • In 2016, Indian-American Sanghamitra Kalita, then managing editor of Los Angeles Times, won the Pulitzer.

    The list goes on to date 
.

     

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  • Literacy and delivery of services, not religion, influences fertility

    Context

    The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 report that was awaited for nearly six months is finally out. And it provides a heartening outlook.

    About NHFS

    • Started in 1992-93, it has culminated in the fifth round 2019-21.
    • The NFHS is a large, multi-round survey that, inter alia, provides information on fertility, infant and child mortality, the practice of family planning, reproductive health, nutrition, anaemia, quality and utilisation of health and family planning services.
    • The surveys provide essential data needed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other agencies for policy and programme purposes.
    • The Ministry assigned the nodal responsibility for the task to the International Institute for Population Sciences(IIPS), Mumbai.
    • Several international agencies are involved in providing technical and financial assistance, mainly USAID, DFID, UNICEF, and UNFPA.

    Replacement rate achieved

    • Replacement rate achieved: The report shows that India has finally achieved the replacement rate of 2.1TFR (Total Fertility Rate is the total number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime).
    • In fact, it has gone below the mark to 2.0.
    • There are, of course, large interstate variations.
    • The lagging states are UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Meghalaya.
    • Significantly, there were four states which were keeping the figures poor, namely, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
    • Two states, Rajasthan and MP, have struggled to get out of this group, while Jharkhand and the two northeastern states have replaced them.
    • UP and Bihar because of their sheer size are pulling down the national average.
    • Rajasthan and MP have reached the TFR of 2, which shows the success of their efforts.

    Influencing factors

    • It is not religion as commonly propounded but literacy, especially of girls, income and delivery of family planning, and health services.
    • 1] Delivery of services: The figures would have been even better if all those who have been made aware of the benefits of family planning had received the services they desire.
    • Making people informed of the need and methods of family planning and motivating them to adopt family planning is difficult enough.
    •  Having achieved the difficult task, we are not able to provide the services communities need — the “unmet need” — which is still very high at 9.4 per cent.
    • If we focus on this issue in a mission mode, the family planning performance will dramatically improve.
    • 2] Male attitude towards family planning: They tend to put the onus for birth control on women.
    • As many as 35 per cent men believe that using contraceptives is a woman’s responsibility. They ignore the fact that male vasectomy is a much simpler procedure than female tubectomy.
    • 3] Acceptance of family planning:  Muslim acceptance of family planning has continued through the five surveys spread over three decades at a rate faster than all other communities.
    • Though birth control practice among Muslims is still the least – 47.4 per cent (up from 45 per cent in NFHS-4).
    • Other communities — for example, Hindus — are not far behind with 58 per cent (up from 56 per cent).
    • This means that 42 per cent of the 80 per cent of the population are not practising family planning.
    • Education:  Women who have not attended school have 2.8 TFR as against 1.8 for those who have completed class XII.
    • Poverty: Similar gap of figure one is visible in the context of poverty with the poorest segment having higher TFR than the richest.

    Conclusion

    The time has come to leave politics behind and work together for achieving the goals set by National Population Policy 2000. Instead of misleading narratives, we need to address the real determinants of fertility behaviour – literacy, income generation and improvement of health and family planning services.

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  • Places in news: East Timor

    Asia’s youngest nation, East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, holds the second and final round of its presidential election.

    About East Timor

    • The territory was colonized by Portugal in the 18th century and remained under is control until 1975.
    • When the Portuguese withdrew, troops from Indonesia invaded and annexed East Timor as its 27th province.
    • A long and bloody struggle for independence ensued, during which at least 100,000 people died.
    • The East Timorese voted for independence in a 1999 U.N.-supervised referendum, but that unleashed even more violence until peace-keeping forces were allowed to enter.
    • The country was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2002.
    • East Timor has applied to be a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It currently holds observer status.

    Its geography

    • East Timor comprises the eastern half of Timor Island, the western half of which is part of Indonesia.
    • It spans a 15,000 square km (5,792 square mile) land area – slightly smaller than Israel – and it’s 1.3 million people are predominantly Roman Catholic.

    Politics and economy

    • In nearly 20 years since independence, East Timor’s presidential and parliamentary elections have been dominated by many of the same faces.
    • Its revolutionary have run for and held various positions of power and continue to feature prominently in the running of the country.
    • East Timor depends on revenues from its offshore oil and gas reserves which account for 90% of its gross domestic product.
    • Its main revenue stream, the Bayu Undan gas field, is set to dry up by 2023 and the country is now planning to collaborate with companies like Australia’s Santos to turn it into carbon capture facilities.

     

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