Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: International Space Station (ISS), Nauka
Mains level: Not Much
Pirs, a Russian module on the International Space Station (ISS) used as a docking port for spacecraft and as a door for cosmonauts to go out on spacewalks. In its place, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos will be attaching a significantly larger module called Nauka.
What does Russia’s new Nauka module do?
- Nauka, which is 42 feet long and weighs 20 tonnes, was supposed to be launched as early as 2007, as per the ISS’s original plan.
- Nauka — meaning “science” in Russian — is the biggest space laboratory Russia has launched to date, and will primarily serve as a research facility.
- It is also bringing to the ISS another oxygen generator, a spare bed, another toilet, and a robotic cargo crane built by the European Space Agency (ESA).
- The new module was sent into orbit using a Proton rocket — the most powerful in Russia’s space inventory — on July 21 and will take eight days to reach the ISS.
What kind of research goes on at the International Space Station?
- A space station is essentially a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time.
- It is like a large laboratory in space and allows astronauts to come aboard and stay for weeks or months to carry out experiments in microgravity.
- For over 20 years since its launch, humans have continuously lived and carried out scientific investigations on the $150 billion ISS under microgravity conditions, being able to make breakthroughs in research not possible on Earth.
Back2Basics: International Space Station (ISS)
- The International Space Station, which launched its first piece in 1998, is a large spacecraft that orbits around the Earth and is home to the astronauts.
- The ISS is currently the only active space station in the earth’s orbit.
- The first crew on the space station arrived on November 2, 2000.
- The space station is home to a minimum of six astronauts, with two bathrooms, a gymnasium, and a big bay window.
- It is a joint project between five participating space agencies -NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary
Mains level: Not Much
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region is likely to get its first Ramsar site at the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary.
Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary
- The Maharashtra Government has declared the area along the western bank of Thane Creek as the “Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary” since 2015.
- It is Maharashtra’s second marine sanctuary after the Malvan sanctuary.
- It is recognized as an “Important Bird Area” by the Bombay Natural History Society.
About Ramsar Convention
- The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (better known as the Ramsar Convention) is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
- It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem.
- The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
- Traditionally viewed as a wasteland or breeding ground of disease, wetlands actually provide fresh water and food and serve as nature’s shock absorber.
- Wetlands, critical for biodiversity, are disappearing rapidly, with recent estimates showing that 64% or more of the world’s wetlands have vanished since 1900.
- Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals, and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.
What does one mean by Ramsar Site?
- A Ramsar Site is a wetland area designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
- It provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gold Reserves in India
Mains level: Not Much
The Minister of Mines and Coal has provided useful information regarding gold reserves in India.
Gold Reserves in India
- As per National Mineral Inventory data, the total reserves/resources of gold ore (primary) in the country have been estimated at 501.83 million tonnes as of 2015.
- Out of these, 17.22 million tonnes were placed under the reserves category and the remaining 484.61 million tonnes were under the remaining resources category.
- In India, the largest resources of gold ore (primary) are located in Bihar (44%) followed by Rajasthan (25%), Karnataka (21%), West Bengal (3%), Andhra Pradesh (3% ), Jharkhand (2 %).
- The remaining 2% resources of ore are located in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
Who takes up their mapping?
- Geological Survey of India (GSI) is actively engaged in geological mapping followed by mineral exploration (survey) for various mineral commodities including gold.
- GSI aims to identify potential mineral-rich zones and establish resources.
- Every year, as per the approved annual Field Season Program, GSI takes up mineral exploration projects in various parts of the country for augmenting mineral resources.
- Recently, GoI has amended the MEMC Rules to allow auction of composite license at G4 level for deep-seated minerals including Gold.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Consider the following statements:
- In India, State Governments do not have the power to auction non -coal mines.
- Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand do not have goldmines.
- Rajasthan has iron ore mines.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 3 only
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Exoplanets
Mains level: Core accretion
Scientists for the first time have spotted a Moon-forming region around an exo-planet beyond our solar system.
What are Exoplanets?
- More than 4,400 planets have been discovered outside our solar system, called exoplanets.
- Most orbit other stars, but free-floating exoplanets, called rogue planets, orbit the galactic center and are untethered to any star.
- No circumplanetary discs had been found until now because all the known exoplanets resided in “mature” – fully developed – solar systems, except the two infant gas planets orbiting PDS 70.
What is the new finding?
- The researchers have detected a disc of swirling material accumulating around one of two newborn planets.
- They were seen orbiting a young star called PDS 70, located a relatively close 370 light-years from Earth.
- It is called a circumplanetary disc, and it is from these those moons are born.
- The discovery offers a deeper understanding of the formation of planets and moons.
Focus of the finding: Formation of disc
- In our solar system, the impressive rings of Saturn, a planet around which more than 80 moons orbit, represent a relic of a primordial moon-forming disc.
- The orange-colored star PDS 70, roughly the same mass as our Sun, is about 5 million years old– a blink of the eye in cosmic time.
- The two planets are even younger. Both planets are similar (although larger) to Jupiter, a gas giant.
- It was around one of the two planets, called PDS 70c, that a Moon-forming disc was observed.
Observing birth of a moon: Core Accretion
- Stars burst to life within clouds of interstellar gas and dust scattered throughout galaxies.
- Leftover material spinning around a new star then coalesces into planets, and circumplanetary discs surrounding some planets similarly yield moons.
- The dominant mechanism thought to underpin planet formation is called “core accretion”.
- In this scenario, small dust grains, coated in ice, gradually grow to larger and larger sizes through successive collisions with other grains.
- This continues until the grains have grown to a size of a planetary core, at which point the young planet has a strong enough gravitational potential to accrete gas which will form its atmosphere.
- Some nascent planets attract a disc of material around them, with the same process that gives rise to planets around a star leading to the formation of moons around planets.
- The disc around PDS 70c, with a diameter about equal to the distance of the Earth to the sun, possesses enough mass to produce up to three moons the size of Earth’s moon.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Microplastic pollution
Mains level: Water Pollution
The Ganga is heavily polluted with microplastics at Varanasi, Haridwar, and Kanpur, Delhi-based non-profit Toxics Link claimed.
What are Microplastics?
- Microplastics are plastics that are less than 5 mm in size but are a major source of marine pollution.
- Untreated sewage from many cities along the river’s course, industrial waste, and religious offerings wrapped in non-degradable plastics pile pollutants into the river as it flows through several densely populated cities.
- The plastic products and waste materials released or dumped in the river break down and are eventually broken down into microparticles.
- The rivers finally transport significantly large quantities downstream into the ocean, which is the ultimate sink of all plastics being used by humans.
Microplastics in Ganga
- They are non-degradable plastics that often entered the Ganga through industrial waste or packaging of religious offerings, its research found.
- The density of population in the three cities also added to the problem because a large chunk of pollutants got directly discharged into the river by people living on the banks.
- Among the three cities, the Toxics Link’s study found that sites at Varanasi showed the maximum load of microplastics in the water of the Ganga, as compared to the other two cities.
- This might be due to cumulative downstream pollution as well as industrial and human activities.
On a global high
- The researchers tried to compare the microplastics concentration in Ganga water with similar studies on other rivers across the globe.
- It included the Rhine in Europe, the Patapsco, Magothy, Rhode in North America, and the Elqui, Maipo, Biobio, and Maule in South America.
- They found the Ganga microplastics pollution was much higher.
- This was in spite of a higher per capita consumption of plastic in the European countries, North and South America, as compared to India.
How does it impact people?
- The Ganga is a source of water for not just drinking and bathing purposes but also for irrigation to a large extent.
- Microplastics in river water, if ingested in humans or other organisms, can cause toxicity through various means.
- Not only are these microplastics toxic themselves, they also have a tendency to absorb various toxins present in water, including harmful chemicals.
- Although some of the effects of microplastics on public health are understood, a lot still needs to be done.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q. Why is there a great concern about the ‘microbeads’ that are released into the environment? (CSP 2019)
(a) They are considered harmful to marine ecosystems.
(b) They are considered to cause skin cancer in children.
(c) They are small enough to be absorbed by crop plants in irrigated fields.
(d) They are often found to be used as food adulterants.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Harela Festival
Mains level: Paper 1- Festivals in India
Villagers across Uttarakhand celebrated Harela, a festival of greenery, peace, prosperity and environmental conservation.
Harela Festival
- Harela means ‘day of green’ and is celebrated in the month of Shravan (the fifth month of the Hindu lunar calendar) to worship Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.
- People across Uttarakhand, especially the Kumaun region, associate greenery with prosperity.
- The seeds of five to seven types of crops — maize, til (sesame), urad (black gram), mustard, oats — are sown in donas (bowl made of leaves) or ringalare (hill bamboo baskets) nine days before the festival.
- They are harvested on the ninth day and distributed to neighbours, friends and relatives.
- The flourish of the crops symbolizes prosperity in the year ahead.
- People make clay statues of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, known as Dikare, and worship them a day before the festival.
- Harela is also linked to the Barahnaza system (12 types of crops), a crop diversification technique followed in the region.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Consider the following pairs:
Tradition: State
1. Chapchar Kut: festival Mizoram
2. Khongjom Parba ballad: Manipur
3. Thang Ta dance: Sikkim
Which of the pairs given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2
(c) 3 only
(d) 2 and 3
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Monkey B Virus
Mains level: Zoonotic Diseases
China has reported the first human death case with the Monkey B virus (BV).
What is Monkey B virus?
- The virus, initially isolated in 1932, is an alphaherpesvirus enzootic in macaques of the genus Macaca.
- B virus is the only identified old-world-monkey herpes virus that displays severe pathogenicity in humans.
Answer this question from our AWE initiative:
There is been an increase in occurance of zoonotic human infectious diseases are zoonotic . Give reasons for this. Also suggest ways to contain and decrease the frequency of such events.(250 Words)
How is it transmitted?
- The infection can be transmitted via direct contact and exchange of bodily secretions of monkeys and has a fatality rate of 70 per cent to 80 per cent.
- According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Macaque monkeys commonly have this virus, and it can be found in their saliva, feces, urine, or brain or spinal cord tissue.
- The virus may also be found in cells coming from an infected monkey in a lab. B virus can survive for hours on surfaces, particularly when moist.
When can a human get infected with B virus?
- Humans can get infected if they are bitten or scratched by an infected monkey.
Symptoms
- Symptoms typically start within one month of being exposed to B virus but could appear in as little as three to seven days.
- The first indications of B virus infection are typically flu-like symptoms such as fever and chills, muscle ache, fatigue and headache.
- Following this, a person may develop small blisters in the wound or area on the body that came in contact with the monkey.
- Some other symptoms of the infection include shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and hiccups.
- As the disease progresses, the virus spreads to and causes inflammation (swelling) of the brain and spinal cord, leading to neurologic and inflammatory symptoms.
Is there a vaccine against B virus?
- Currently, there are no vaccines that can protect against B virus infection.
Who are at higher risk for infection?
- The virus might pose a potential threat to laboratory workers, veterinarians, and others who may be exposed to monkeys or their specimens.
- To date, only one case has been documented of an infected person spreading the B virus to another person.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Near-Earth Asteroid Scout
Mains level: Study of asteroids
Last week, NASA announced that its new spacecraft, named NEA Scout, has completed all required tests and has been safely tucked inside the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
For landing on Moon
- NEA Scout is one of several payloads that will hitch a ride on Artemis I, which is expected to be launched in November.
- Artemis I will be an uncrewed test-flight of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket.
- Under the Artemis programme, NASA has aimed to land the first woman on the Moon in 2024 and also establish sustainable lunar exploration programs by 2030.
What is NEA Scout?
- Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, or NEA Scout, is a small spacecraft, about the size of a big shoebox. Its main mission is to fly by and collect data from a near-Earth asteroid.
- It will also be America’s first interplanetary mission using special solar sail propulsion.
- This type of propulsion is especially useful for small, lightweight spacecraft that cannot carry large amounts of conventional rocket propellant.
- NEA Scout will use stainless steel alloy booms and deploy an aluminium-coated sail measuring 925 square feet.
- The large-area sail will generate thrust by reflecting sunlight.
- Energetic particles of sunlight bounce off the solar sail to give it a gentle, yet constant push.
How will it study the asteroid?
- NEA Scout is equipped with special cameras and can take pictures ranging from 50 cm/pixels to 10 cm/pixels.
- It can also process the image and reduce the file sizes before sending them to the earth-based Deep Space Network via its medium-gain antenna.
- The spacecraft will take about two years to cruise to the asteroid and will be about 93 million miles away from Earth during the asteroid encounter.
Why should we study near-Earth asteroids?
- Despite their size, some of these small asteroids could pose a threat to Earth.
- Understanding their properties could help us develop strategies for reducing the potential damage caused in the event of an impact.
- Scientists will use this data to determine what is required to reduce risk, increase effectiveness, and improve the design and operations of robotic and human space exploration.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Our planetary system
Mains level: Not Much
Researchers have developed a model showing that the density, mass and iron content of a Mercury’s core is influenced by its distance from the Sun’s magnetic field.
About Mercury
- Mercury is the first and the smallest planet in our solar system.
- It is also the closest planet to Earth.
- Like the other three terrestrial planets, Mercury contains a core surrounded by a mantle and a crust.
- But unlike any other planet, Mercury’s core makes up a larger portion of the planet.
- MESSENGER was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury’s chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field.
- It was the analysis from the MESSENGER mission that tells: Mercury’s core is solid.
Mystery over the core
- It has long been known that Mercury’s core composition is made of liquid metal.
- The core itself is about 3,600 km across. Surrounding that is a 600 km thick mantle.
- And around that is the crust, which is believed to be 100-200 km thick.
- The crust is known to have narrow ridges that extend for hundreds of kilometres.
- This large core has long been one of the most intriguing mysteries about Mercury.
Why does Mercury have a large core?
- A new study reveals that the sun’s magnetism is the reason.
- The sun’s magnetic field influences the density, mass, and iron content of Mercury’s core.
- The four inner planets of our solar system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are made up of different proportions of metal and rock.
- A gradient in which the metal content in the core drops off as the planets get farther from the sun.
- The researchers explain how this happened by showing that the sun’s magnetic field controlled the distribution of raw materials in the early forming solar system.
What are the key propositions?
- During the early formation of the solar system, when a swirling dust storm and gas encircled the sun, iron’s grain was drawn toward the centre by the sun’s magnetic field.
- At the time of planet formation from clumps of that dust and gas, planets nearer to the sun consolidated more iron into their centres than those farther away.
- Scientists also found that the density and proportion of iron in the planet’s core correlate with the strength of the magnetic field around the sun during planetary formation.
- Existing models on planetary formation were used to determine the speed at which gas and dust were pulled into the centre of our solar system during its formation.
- The magnetic field that the sun would have generated as it burst into being and calculated how that magnetic field would draw iron through the dust and gas cloud.
Cooling led solidification
- As the early solar system began to cool, dust and gas that were not drawn into the sun started to clump together.
- The clumps closer to the sun would have been exposed to a stronger magnetic field and thus would contain more iron than those farther away from the sun.
- As the clumps coalesced and cooled into spinning planets, gravitational forces drew the iron into their core.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Moon wobble
Mains level: Moon wobble and climate change
US coastlines will face increasing flooding in the mid-2030s due to a regular lunar cycle called the wobble effect that will magnify rising sea levels caused by climate change.
What is the Moon Wobble?
- The moon wobble is nothing but a regular swaying in the moon’s orbit.
- It was first documented way back in 1728.
- This wobble takes over an 18.6-year period to complete and continues in a cyclic fashion.
How does this wobble occur?
- High tides on this planet are caused mostly by the pull of the moon’s gravity on a spinning Earth. On most beaches, you would see two high tides every 24 hours.
- The moon also revolves around the Earth about once a month, and that orbit is a little bit tilted.
- moon’s orbital plane around the Earth is at an approximate 5-degree incline to the Earth’s orbital plane around the sun.
- Because of that, the path of the moon’s orbit seems to fluctuate over time, completing a full cycle — sometimes referred to as a nodal cycle — every 18.6 years.
- At certain points along the cycle, the moon’s gravitational pull comes from such an angle that it yanks one of the day’s two high tides a little bit higher, at the expense of the other.
- This does not mean that the moon itself is wobbling, nor that its gravity is necessarily pulling at our oceans any more or less than usual.
What impact does this wobble have on Earth?
- Influences the ebb and flow of tides: The moon wobbles impacts the gravitational pull of the moon, and therefore, indirectly influences the ebb and flow of tides here on the Earth.
- One half of the 18.6-year cycle suppresses the tides, which means that the high tides get lower, while the low tides get higher than normal.
- Once this cycle completes, the situation flips—in the subsequent cycle, the tides are amplified, with high tides getting higher and low tides, lower.
- The lunar cycle is expected to shift again by mid-2030, and in the coming phase, the tides will amplify once again.
Moon wobble and climate change
- The upcoming changes in the lunar cycle will pose a serious threat, as the amplified high tides coupled with the rising sea levels will make the risk of flooding far greater across all coastal regions of the globe.
- The study predicts that the high tide-associated floods—also known as nuisance floods or sunny day floods—may occur in clusters that could last for months or even for longer periods!
- This surge will be closely associated with the position of the Moon, Earth and the Sun.
- When the Moon and Earth line up in specific ways with each other and the Sun, the resulting gravitational pull and the ocean’s corresponding response may leave city-dwellers coping with floods every day or two.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pegasus
Mains level: Whatsapp snooping
Telephone numbers of some noted Indian journalists were successfully snooped upon by an unidentified agency using Pegasus software.
Pegasus Spyware
- All spyware do what the name suggests — they spy on people through their phones.
- Pegasus works by sending an exploit link, and if the target user clicks on the link, the malware or the code that allows the surveillance is installed on the user’s phone.
- A presumably newer version of the malware does not even require a target user to click a link.
- Once Pegasus is installed, the attacker has complete access to the target user’s phone.
- The first reports on Pegasus’s spyware operations emerged in 2016, when Ahmed Mansoor, a human rights activist in the UAE, was targeted with an SMS link on his iPhone 6.
What is the new threat?
- Pegasus has evolved from its earlier spear-phishing methods using text links or messages to ‘zero-click’ attacks which do not require any action from the phone’s user.
- This had made what was without a doubt the most powerful spyware out there, more potent and almost impossible to detect or stop.
How do zero-click attacks work?
- A zero-click attack helps spyware like Pegasus gain control over a device without human interaction or human error.
- Zero-click attacks are hard to detect given their nature and hence even harder to prevent.
- Detection becomes even harder in encrypted environments where there is no visibility on the data packets being sent or received.
- Most of these attacks exploit software that receive data even before it can determine whether what is coming in is trustworthy or not, like an email client.
Answer this PYQ from CSP 2018:
Q.The terms ‘WannaCry, Petya, Eternal Blue’ sometimes mentioned news recently are related to
(a) Exoplanets
(b) Crypto currency
(c) Cyber attacks
(d) Mini satellites
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sedition in colonial times
Mains level: Not Much
Recently, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana observed that the “colonial law” was used by the British to silence Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Must read:
Sedition Law and its discontents
Use of sedition law through history
- According to the LOC blog, the first known instance of the application of the law was the trial of newspaper editor Jogendra Chandra Bose in 1891.
- Other prominent examples of the application of the law include the trials of Tilak and Gandhi.
- Apart from this, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar were also charged with sedition.
When was sedition law used against Gandhi and Tilak?
- In 1922, Gandhi was arrested on charges of sedition in Bombay for taking part in protests against the colonial government.
- He was sentenced to six years in prison but was released after two years because of medical reasons.
- Before Gandhi, Tilak faced three trials in cases related to sedition and was imprisoned twice.
- He was charged with sedition in 1897 for writing an article in his weekly publication called Kesari and was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.
- He has tried again in 1908 and was represented by MA Jinnah. But his application for bail was rejected and he was sentenced to six years.
- The second time he was tried was also because of his writings, one of which referred to the murder of European women in Muzzafarpur when bombs were thrown by Bengali revolutionaries.
- Interestingly, the judge who announced Tilak’s sentence in the second trial, Justice DD Davar, had represented him in his first trial in 1897.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Amazon forests
Mains level: Climate Change
The Amazon forests in South America, which are the largest tropical forests in the world, have started emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of absorbing carbon emissions.
Note the countries bordered by the Amazon forests.
Amazon forests
- The Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America.
- This basin encompasses 7,000,000 sq km of which 5,500,000 sq km are covered by the rainforest.
- The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.
- It represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world.
Why in news?
- A significant amount of deforestation in eastern and southeastern Brazil has turned the forest into a source of CO2 that has the ability to warm the planet.
- Not only the Amazon rainforests, some forests in Southeast Asia have also turned into carbon sources in the last few years as a result of the formation of plantations and fires.
What have the researchers found?
- Over the years as fossil-fuel emissions across the world have increased, the Amazon forests have absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to moderate the global climate.
- But researchers are not saying that because of significant levels of deforestation (over the course of 40 years) there has been a long-term decrease in rainfall and increase in temperatures during the dry season.
- Because of these reasons the eastern Amazon forests are no longer carbon sinks, whereas the more intact and wetter forests in the central and western parts are neither carbon sinks nor are they emitters.
- Another reason for the eastern region not being able to absorb as much CO2 as it did previously is the conversion of forests into agricultural land.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Doppler Radar
Mains level: Not Much
The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Doppler Radar in Mumbai, which surveys weather patterns and forecasts, stopped working after heavy rainfalls.
How does a Doppler radar work?
- In radars, a beam of energy– called radio waves– is emitted from an antenna.
- When this beam strikes an object in the atmosphere, the energy scatters in all directions, with some reflecting directly back to the radar.
- The larger the object deflecting the beam, the greater is the amount of energy that the radar receives in return.
- Observing the time required for the beam to be transmitted and returned to the radar allows weather forecasting departments to “see” raindrops in the atmosphere, and measure their distance from the radar.
What makes a Doppler radar special?
- It can provide information on both the position of targets as well as their movement.
- It does this by tracking the ‘phase’ of transmitted radio wave pulses; phase meaning the shape, position, and form of those pulses.
- As computers measure the shift in phase between the original pulse and the received echo, the movement of raindrops can be calculated.
- Thus it is possible to tell whether the precipitation is moving toward or away from the radar.
Types of Doppler radar
- In India, Doppler radars of varying frequencies — S-band, C-band and X-band — are commonly used.
- They help track the movement of weather systems and cloud bands and gauge rainfall over its coverage area of about 500 km.
- The radars guide meteorologists, particularly in times of extreme weather events like cyclones and associated heavy rainfall.
- An X-band radar is used to detect thunderstorms and lightning whereas C-band guides in cyclone tracking.
Why are they called ‘Doppler’ radars?
- The phase shift in these radars works on the same lines as the “Doppler effect” observed in sound waves.
- It tells that the sound pitch of an object approaching the observer is higher due to the compression of sound waves (a change in their phase).
- As this object moves away from the observer, the sound waves stretch, resulting in lower frequency.
- This effect explains why an approaching train’s whistle sounds louder than the whistle when the train moves away.
- The discovery of the phenomenon is attributed to Christian Doppler, a 19th-century Austrian physicist.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 311
Mains level: Civil services reforms
Lt Governor has dismissed 11 Jammu and Kashmir government employees for alleged terror links under provisions of Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution.
What is Article 311?
- Article 311 of the Constitution deals with ‘Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a State’.
- Under Article 311(2), no civil servant can be “dismissed or removed or reduced in rank except after an inquiry in which he has been informed of the charges and given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of those charges’’.
- Subsection (c) of the provision, however, says this clause shall not apply “where the President or the Governor, as the case may be, is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the State it is not expedient to hold such inquiry”.
Remedy available
- The only available remedy to a terminated employee is to challenge the government’s decision in the High Court.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BHIM, UPI, IMPS
Mains level: Mobile banking facilities in India
Bhutan becomes the first country, in India’s immediate neighbourhood, to use the BHIM app for mobile-based payments and “to adopt UPI standards for its QR deployment”.
Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM)
- BHIM is an Indian mobile payment App developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
- Named after B. R. Ambedkar and launched on 30 December 2016 it is intended to facilitate e-payments directly through banks and encourage cashless transactions.
- The application supports all Indian banks which use UPI, which is built over the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) infrastructure and allows the user to instantly transfer money between bank accounts of any two parties.
- It can be used on all mobile devices.
Note: Bhutan has become the first country to adopt India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) standards for its quick response (QR) code. It is also the second country after Singapore to have BHIM-UPI acceptance at merchant locations, NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL).
What is UPI?
- Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system developed by NPCI facilitating inter-bank transactions.
- The interface is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and works by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q. With reference to digital payments, consider the following statements:
- BHIM app allows the user to transfer money to anyone with a UPI-enabled bank account.
- While a chip-pin debit card has four factors of authentication, BHIM app has only two factors of authentication.
Which of the statements given above is/ are correct? (CSP 2018)
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UV technology for disinfection
Mains level: Not Much
The Union Ministry for Science and Technology has informed that Ultraviolet-C or UV-C Disinfection Technology will soon be installed in Parliament for the mitigation of airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2.
UV-C air duct disinfection system
- The UV-C air duct disinfection system was developed by CSIR-CSIO (Central Scientific Instruments Organisation).
- The system is designed to fit into any existing air-ducts and the virucidal dosages using UV-C intensity and residence time can be optimized according to the existing space.
- The release adds that the virus is deactivated in any aerosol particles by the calibrated levels of UV-C light. It can be used in auditoriums, malls, educational Institutions, AC buses, and railways.
What is Ultraviolet (UV)?
- Ultraviolet (UV) is a type of light or radiation naturally emitted by the Sun. It covers a wavelength range of 100-400 nm. The human visible light ranges from 380–700 nm.
- UV is divided into three bands: UV-C (100-280 nm), UV-B (280-315 nm) and UV-A (315-400 nm).
- UV-A and UV-B rays from the Sun are transmitted through our atmosphere and all UV-C is filtered by the ozone layer.
- UV-B rays can only reach the outer layer of our skin or epidermis and can cause sunburns and are also associated with skin cancer.
- UV-A rays can penetrate the middle layer of your skin or the dermis and can cause ageing of skin cells and indirect damage to cells’ DNA.
- UV-C radiation from man-made sources has been known to cause skin burns and eye injuries.
So, can UV-C kill coronavirus?
- UV-C radiation (wavelength around 254 nm) has been used for decades to disinfect the air in hospitals, laboratories, and also in water treatment.
- But these conventional germicidal treatments are done in unoccupied rooms as they can cause health problems.
- It can destroy the outer protein coating of the SARS-Coronavirus.
Is it safe for humans?
- The device is specifically developed to disinfect non-living things.
- UV-C radiation used in this device could be harmful to the skin and eyes of living beings.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.What is the role of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the water purification systems?
- It inactivates/kills the harmful microorganisms in water.
- It removes all the undesirable odours from the water.
- It quickens the sedimentation of solid particles, removes turbidity and improves the clarity of water.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2010)
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Lightening and Thunderstorms
Mains level: Not Much
With the monsoon making a slow revival over several parts of India, except the northwest region, there is a rise in lightning-linked deaths.
What is lightning?
- Lightning is a very rapid — and massive — discharge of electricity in the atmosphere, some of which is directed towards the Earth’s surface.
- These discharges are generated in giant moisture-bearing clouds that are 10-12 km tall.
- The base of these clouds typically lies within 1-2 km of the Earth’s surface, while their top is 12-13 km away.
- Temperatures towards the top of these clouds are in the range of minus 35 to minus 45 degrees Celsius.
How does it strike?
- As water vapour moves upward in the cloud, the falling temperature causes it to condense.
- Heat is generated in the process, which pushes the molecules of water further up.
- As they move to temperatures below zero degrees Celsius, the water droplets change into small ice crystals. They continue to move up, gathering mass — until they are so heavy that they start to fall to Earth.
- This leads to a system in which, simultaneously, smaller ice crystals are moving up and bigger crystals are coming down.
- Collisions follow and trigger the release of electrons — a process that is very similar to the generation of sparks of electricity.
- As the moving free electrons cause more collisions and more electrons, a chain reaction ensues.
- This process results in a situation in which the top layer of the cloud gets positively charged, while the middle layer is negatively charged.
Making of the thunder
- The electrical potential difference between the two layers is huge — of the order of a billion to 10 billion volts.
- In very little time, a massive current, of the order of 100,000 to a million amperes, starts to flow between the layers.
- An enormous amount of heat is produced, and this leads to the heating of the air column between the two layers of the cloud.
- This heat gives the air column a reddish appearance during lightning. As the heated air column expands, it produces shock waves that result in thunder.
How does this current reach the Earth from the cloud?
- While the Earth is a good conductor of electricity, it is electrically neutral.
- However, in comparison to the middle layer of the cloud, it becomes positively charged.
- As a result, about 15%-20% of the current gets directed towards the Earth as well.
- It is this flow of current that results in damage to life and property on Earth.
- There is a greater probability of lightning striking tall objects such as trees, towers or buildings.
- Once it is about 80-100 m from the surface, lightning tends to change course towards these taller objects.
- This happens because air is a poor conductor of electricity, and electrons that are travelling through air seek both a better conductor and the shortest route to the relatively positively charged Earth’s surface.
What precautions should be taken against lightning?
- Lightning rarely hits people directly — but such strikes are almost always fatal.
- People are most commonly struck by what are called “ground currents”.
- The electrical energy, after hitting a large object (such as a tree) on Earth, spreads laterally on the ground for some distance, and people in this area receive electrical shocks.
- It becomes more dangerous if the ground is wet (which it frequently is because of the accompanying rain), or if there is metal or other conducting material on it.
- Water is a conductor, and many people are struck by lightning while standing in flooded paddy fields.
- For the reasons given above, taking shelter under a tree is dangerous. Lying flat on the ground too can increase risks.
- People should move indoors in a storm; however, even indoors, they should avoid touching electrical fittings, wires, metal, and water.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.During a thunderstorm, the thunder in the skies is produced by the:
- meeting of cumulonimbus clouds in the sky
- lightning that separates the nimbus clouds
- violent upward movement of air and water particles
Select the correct option using the codes given below (CSP 2011):
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) None of the above
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cryptocurrencies
Mains level: Issues with Cryptocurrencies
Last week, Twitter CEO announced his payments firm Square would soon build a hardware wallet to store bitcoin.
Bitcoin Hardware Wallet
- The wallet will be a type of plug-in device, much like a USB pen drive that stores, manages and secures a user’s crypto assets.
- Each digital asset is linked to a cryptographic password called a ‘private key’ to allow users to access it.
- This key safeguards cryptocurrencies from theft and unauthorized access.
- The asset owner, with the help of a secure hardware wallet, can access the private key to buy and sell crypto assets from anywhere.
- Most hardware wallets allow users to manage multiple accounts; some even allow users to connect to their Google or Facebook accounts.
- Popular hardware wallets include Trezor, Ledger, KeepKey and Prokey.
How is it different from a software wallet?
- Cryptocurrency keys can be stored in two kinds of wallets – software and hardware.
- Software wallets are like smartphone apps that digitally store private keys.
- Most software wallets don’t charge users to store private keys but may collect a commission for trading via the app.
- These wallets can be vulnerable to malware.
- Hardware wallets and physical devices act like cold storage for confidential keys. The passwords are protected by a PIN, making it difficult for hackers to extract private keys as the information is not exposed to the Internet.
The upsides of a hardware wallet
- Hardware wallets are said to be convenient as they can be connected to trading exchanges to complete transactions.
- Hardware wallets are often stored in a protected microcontroller and cannot be transferred out of the device, making them secure.
- Their isolation from the Internet also mitigates the risk of the assets being compromised. Moreover, it does not rely on any third-party app.
Limitations
- Since the wallet is in physical form, the device could be stolen or destroyed.
- They could be used by malicious actors to steal confidential data.
- The device can also be expensive as compared to software wallets.
- Some hardware wallets can also have complex features, making it difficult for first-timers to understand.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.With reference to “Blockchain Technology”, consider the following statements:
- It is a public ledger that everyone can inspect but which no single user controls.
- The structure and design of block chain is such that all the data in it are about crypto currency only.
- Applications that depend on basic features of blockchain can be developed without anybody’s permission.
Which of the statement given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(d) 1 and 3
Back2Basics: Cryptocurrencies
- A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of a computerized database.
- It uses strong cryptography to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins, and verify the transfer of coin ownership.
- It typically does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority.
- Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency and central banking systems.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: G-Secs
Mains level: Not Much
The RBI has announced a scheme under which retail investors will be allowed to open retail direct gilt accounts (RDG) directly with the central bank.
Retail Direct Scheme
- The scheme is a one-stop solution to facilitate investment in government securities (G-secs) by individual investors.
- Under RDG schemes, accounts can be opened through a dedicated online portal, which will provide registered users access to primary issuance of government securities and to NDS-OM.
What is a gilt account?
- A “Gilt Account” means an account opened and maintained for holding Government securities, by an entity or a person including ‘a person resident outside India’ with a “Custodian” permitted by the RBI.
About Government Securities
- These are debt instruments issued by the government to borrow money.
- The two key categories are:
- Treasury bills (T-Bills) – short-term instruments which mature in 91 days, 182 days, or 364 days, and
- Dated securities – long-term instruments, which mature anywhere between 5 years and 40 years
Note: T-Bills are issued only by the central government, and the interest on them is determined by market forces.
Why G-Secs?
- Like bank fixed deposits, g-secs are not tax-free.
- They are generally considered the safest form of investment because they are backed by the government. So, the risk of default is almost nil.
- However, they are not completely risk-free, since they are subject to fluctuations in interest rates.
- Bank fixed deposits, on the other hand, are guaranteed only to the extent of Rs 5 lakh by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC).
Retail investors and G-Secs
- Small investors can invest indirectly in g-secs by buying mutual funds or through certain policies issued by life insurance firms.
- To encourage direct investment, the government and RBI have taken several steps in recent years.
- Retail investors are allowed to place non-competitive bids in auctions of government bonds through their Demat accounts.
- Stock exchanges act as aggregators and facilitators of retail bids.
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