Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Other Service Providers (OSP)
Mains level: Various sectors of the economy
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has eased the rules for registration, submission of bank guarantee and other norms for other service providers (OSP) in the business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology-enabled services (ITes).
Recall your basics from NCERT books… Sectors of the Economy … More precisely, the Tertiary, Quaternary and Quinary Sectors.
What are Other Service Providers (OSP)?
- OSPs or other service providers are companies or firms which provide secondary or tertiary services such as telemarketing, telebanking or telemedicine for various companies, banks or hospital chains, respectively.
- As computers made their foray into the Indian information technology space, a number of such OSPs, which were either voice or non-voice based, came into the market.
- The sector required minimal investment but gave great returns in business, which prompted a large number of individuals and companies to float other service providing firms.
Registration of OSPs
- The new telecom policy of 1999 suggested that all OSPs register themselves so that the government could keep a check on the usage of its resources.
- Since most of these firms used leased telephone lines, this in turn used the telecom spectrum auctioned by the DoT, hence facing the regulation.
- Further, the registration was also made mandatory to ensure that firms did not establish fake OSPs which swindled customers under the garb of providing telebanking and other such sensitive services.
What were the various registration norms for OSPs?
- To start services in India, OSPs had to register themselves with the DoT and declare to the government as to how many employees were working in the firm as well as the area of service it was engaged in.
- For example, if a firm wished to provide telebanking services, it had to tell the government the number of people working with the BPO and the state that firms catered to.
- Further, the OSPs also have to declare whether they were providing services to domestic firms or international firms, and the nature of services being offered.
Significance of the new guidelines
- The guidelines will make it easier for BPOs and ITes firms in many ways, such as cutting down on the cost of location, rent for premises and other ancillary costs such as electricity and internet bills.
- The doing away of registration norms will also mean that there will be no renewal of such licenses and therefore will invite foreign companies to set up or expand their other service providing units in India.
- This change, in line with the norms of countries in the West can also allow employees to opt for freelancing for more than one company while working from home, thereby attracting more workers in the sector.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UN ACABQ
Mains level: Success and failures of United Nations
In a significant victory for India at the United Nations, Indian diplomat Vidisha Maitra was elected to the U.N. Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).
Try this PYQ:
Which one of the following is not related to the United Nations?
(a) Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
(b) International Finance Corporation
(c) International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
(d) Bank for International Settlements
About UN- ACABQ
- It is a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly. The 193-member Assembly appoints members of the Advisory Committee.
- ACABQ consists of 16 members appointed by the Assembly in their individual capacity.
- Members are selected on the basis of broad geographical representation, personal qualifications and experience.
Its functions
- ACABQ ensures that fund contributions to the U.N. system are put to good effect and that mandates are properly funded.
- It examines, on behalf of the General Assembly, the administrative budgets of the specialised agencies and proposals for financial arrangements with such agencies; and to consider and report to the General Assembly on the auditors’ reports on the accounts of the UN and of the specialised agencies.
Why is the seat given to India?
- India has a stellar record of bringing professional auditing experience to the U.N. and contributing outstanding professionals to U.N. bodies.
- With India’s rising obligations in both assessed as well as voluntary contributions to the U.N., India holds key responsibility of administrative and budgetary management of U.N.
Significance of the move
- The victory gives a strong display of support by U.N. member states for India.
- It comes as India gets ready to sit in the U.N. Security Council as a non-permanent member for a two-year term beginning January 2021.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Einstein’s Eclipse
Mains level: General Relativity
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in the DownToEarth.
Einstein’s Eclipse
- Albert Einstein’s prediction of the bending of light by the gravity of the Sun, one of the components of his general theory of relativity, can be tested during a solar eclipse.
- Following an unsuccessful attempt to validate this prediction during the Solar eclipse of June 8, 1918, two expeditions were made to measure positions of stars during this eclipse.
- The eclipse presented a rare chance to verify one of the essential consequences of general relativity, the bending of light by gravity.
- Einstein’s theory predicted that rays of light passing near a massive body in space would be visibly bent as they followed the curve in space-time created by the body’s mass.
- In the case of a ray of light originating from a distant star and passing near the edge of the Sun, Einstein calculated a deflection of about 1.75 arc seconds.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following phenomena:
- Light is affected by gravity.
- The Universe is constantly expanding.
- Matter warps its surrounding space-time.
Which of the above is/are the predictions of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, often discussed in media?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
What was studied during the eclipse?
- Einstein published his theory and predictions in 1915, and in 1919 the British physicist Sir Arthur Eddington took advantage of a total solar eclipse to attempt to detect the shifting images of stars near the limb of the sun.
- The problem was that during totality the sky does not get perfectly dark, and only a handful of stars were visible near the sun from which to make the measurement.
- The darkness of an eclipse, though, would allow the astronomers to observe and photograph the field of stars around the Sun.
- By comparing the photographs with reference images taken at night, it would be possible to measure how much the presence of the Sun had bent the stars’ light.
- Conveniently, a cluster of bright stars known as the Hyades would appear near the Sun during the eclipse.
Significance
- After several months of analysis, researchers announced in November that their findings supported the theory of general relativity.
- Media coverage tended to dwell on the recondite nature of Einstein’s work, emphasizing that there were only a handful of people in the world who could understand it.
- It could be argued that 1919 was the year when Einstein’s name became a byword for superhuman intellectual ability—making possible the small industry of Einstein-themed merchandise that still exists today.
Back2Basics: General Relativity
- Einstein’s theory proposes that gravity is not an actual force, but is instead a geometric distortion of space-time not predicted by ordinary Newtonian physics.
- The more mass you have to produce the gravity in a body, the more distortion you get.
- This distortion changes the trajectories of objects moving through space, and even the paths of light rays, as they pass close-by the massive body.
- Even so, this effect is very feeble for an object as massive as our own sun, so it takes enormous care to even detect that it is occurring.
- General Relativity predicts how much of this bending of light you should see given the mass of the object.
- Called ‘gravitational lensing’ it has been detected on the cosmological scale as entire clusters of galaxies distort the light from more distant galaxies behind them as this image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RO-RO ferry services
Mains level: Not Much
PM has virtually inaugurated the Ghogha-Hazira Ro-Pax ferry service in Gujarat.
Try this question from CSP 2016:
Q.Recently, which of the following States has explored the possibility of constructing an artificial inland port to be connected to the sea by a long navigational channel?
(a) Andhra Pradesh
(b) Chhattisgarh
(c) Karnataka
(d) Rajasthan
Ghogha-Hazira Ferry Service
- It will work as a Gateway to South Gujarat and Saurashtra region. It will reduce the distance between Ghogha and Hazira from 370 km to 90 km.
- It has a load capacity of 30 trucks (of 50 MT each) on the main deck, 100 passenger cars on the upper deck and 500 passengers plus 34 crew and hospitality staff on the passenger deck.
- The reduced cargo travel time from 10 to 12 hours to about four hours will result in huge savings of fuel (approx 9,000 litres per day) and lower the maintenance cost of vehicles drastically.
- The ferry service, while making three round trips per day on the route, would annually transport about 5 lakh passengers, 80,000 passenger vehicles, 50,000 two-wheelers and 30,000 trucks.
Benefits
- It will reduce the fatigue of truck drivers and enhance their incomes by giving them more opportunity to do extra trips.
- It will give an impetus to the tourism industry with ease of access to the Saurashtra region and lead to the creation of new job opportunities.
- With the onset of ferry services, the port sector, furniture and fertilizer industries in Saurashtra and Kutch region will get a big boost.
- Eco-tourism and religious-tourism in Gujarat, especially in Porbandar, Somnath, Dwarka and Palitana will grow exponentially.
- The benefits of enhanced connectivity through this ferry service will also result in increased inflow of tourists in the famous Asiatic lion wildlife sanctuary at Gir.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pusa Biodecomposer
Mains level: Alternatives solutions for stubble burning
Delhi CM has said that the “Pusa bio-decomposer” is a success in Delhi and he will inform the Supreme Court that it is an effective way to prevent stubble burning.
Pusa Bio-decomposer provides a unique alternative against the stubble burning practices.
Pusa Bio-decomposer
- It is a solution developed by the scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, which can turn crop residue into manure in 15 to 20 days and therefore, can prevent stubble burning.
- It involves making a liquid formulation using Pusa decomposer capsules and readily available inputs, fermenting it over 8-10 days, and then spraying the mixture on fields.
- It is a mix of seven fungi that produce enzymes to digest cellulose, lignin and pectin in paddy straw.
- The fungi thrive at 30-32 degree Celsius, which is the temperature prevailing when paddy is harvested and wheat is sown.
Back2Basics: Decomposition
- Decomposition refers to a biological process of breaking down organic material into smaller constituent parts.
- The decomposition of organic substances is ecologically significant. It plays a part in the nutrient cycle. It is an essential process of recycling matter in the biosphere.
- A decomposer is an organism whose ecological function involves the recycling of nutrients by performing the natural process of decomposition as it feeds on decaying organisms.
- Examples of decomposers are fungi and bacteria that obtain their nutrients from a dead plant or animal material.
- They break down cells of dead plants and animals into simpler substances, which become organic nutrients available to the ecosystem.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Char chapori
Mains level: Not Much
A proposed museum reflecting the “culture and heritage of the people living in char-chaporis” has stirred up a controversy in Assam.
Do you know?
Phumdis are a series of floating islands, exclusive to the Loktak Lake in Manipur. They cover a substantial part of the lake area and are heterogeneous masses of vegetation, soil and organic matter, in different stages of decay.
What are char-chaporis?
- A char is a floating island while chaporis are low-lying flood-prone riverbanks.
- They are used interchangeably as they keep changing shapes — a char can become a chapori, or vice versa, depending on the push and pull of the Brahmaputra.
- Prone to floods and erosion, these areas are marked by low development indices.
- While Bengali-origin Muslims primarily occupy these islands, other communities such as Misings, Deoris, Kocharis, Nepalis also live here.
- In the popular imagination, however, chars have become synonymous to the Bengali-speaking Muslims of dubious nationality.
Who are the Miyas?
- The ‘Miya’ community comprises descendants of Muslim migrants from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to Assam.
- They came to be referred to as ‘Miyas’, often in a derogatory manner.
- The community migrated in several waves — starting with the British annexation of Assam in 1826, and continuing into Partition and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Irish mutiny in India
Mains level: Decolonization (World History)
Ireland is commemorating 100 years of the mutiny by a British Army battalion stationed in Jalandhar and Solan in Punjab in support of the Irish freedom movement.
Try this PYQ:
Q.With reference to the Indian freedom struggle, consider the following events:
- Mutiny in Royal Indian Navy
- Quit India Movement launched
- Second Round Table Conference
What is the correct chronological sequence of the above events?
(a) 1-2-3
(b) 2-1-3
(c) 3-2-1
(d) 3-1-2
Irish mutiny in India
- The Connaught Rangers were raised during the British Army reforms of 1881.
- A British Army battalion belonging to the Connaught Rangers was the one in which Irish soldiers mutinied in Jalandhar and Solan in Punjab.
- Solan now lies in Himachal Pradesh but in 1920 it was part of Punjab. The Ist Battalion of the Connaught Rangers was stationed in Jalandhar since January 1920 after it had taken part in the First World War.
Why did the mutiny take place?
- The troops were protesting against the behaviour of the ‘Black and Tans’ during the Irish War of Independence (1919-22).
- The Black and Tan were members of the Irish constabulary which had been recruited from Great Britain and mostly comprised demobilized soldiers who had fought in the First World War.
- The Irish soldiers felt that they must rise in solidarity with their compatriots back in Ireland and hence in June and July 1920 some of the regiment’s men mutinied.
- Some of the mutinied soldiers were later put through a court-martial.
Who were the Black and Tans?
- They were constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) as reinforcements during the Irish War of Independence.
- Recruitment began in Great Britain in January 1920 and about 10,000 men enlisted during the conflict.
- The vast majority were unemployed former soldiers from Great Britain who fought in the First World War, although some were from Ireland.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Malabar Naval Exercise, Quad, 2+2
Mains level: Global alliance against China
Phase 1 of the Malabar Naval Exercise has kicked begun with the participation of Australian navy for the first time since 2007.
Go through the list for once. UPSC may ask a match the pair type question asking exercise name and countries involved.
https://www.civilsdaily.com/prelims-spotlight-defence-exercises/
What is Malabar Exercise?
- It is a multilateral naval exercise that includes simulated war games and combat manoeuvres.
- It started in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between the Indian and US navies. Japan joined in 2015.
- This year the exercise will be held in two phases, the first from Tuesday off the coast near Visakhapatnam, and the second in the Arabian Sea in mid-November. Last year it was held in early September off the coast of Japan.
Major highlight: Quad Participation
- For the first time in over a decade, the exercise will see the participation of all four Quad countries.
- This will be the second time Australia will participate. In 2007, there were two Malabar Exercises.
- The first was held off Okinawa island of Japan in the Western Pacific — the first time the exercise was held away from Indian shores — and the second in September 2007.
- The following year, Australia stopped participating. Japan became a regular participant only in 2015, making it a trilateral annual exercise since then.
Why is Australia’s participation important?
- The 2+2 dialogue ended with an agreement to uphold the rules-based international order, respect for the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the international seas and upholding the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states.
- As the standoff in eastern Ladakh continues, the participation of four large navies from the Indo-Pacific region will send a message to China.
- It was the possibility of riling up China that had prevented India from expanding the Malabar Exercise, and from Australia joining it.
Quad is an exception
- Over the last few months, the Indian Navy has conducted a number of Passage Exercises (PASSEX) with navies from Japan, Australia and the US.
- But those were basic exercises to increase operability between the navies, while Malabar involves simulated war games.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Maharani Jindan Kaur, Anglo-Sikh Wars
Mains level: Not Much
Maharani Jindan Kaur, the last wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, is in news for the auction of some of her jewellery in London.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following Bhakti Saints:
- Dadu Dayal
- Guru Nanak
- Tyagaraja
Who among the above was/were preaching when the Lodi dynasty fell and Babur took over?
(a) 1 and 3
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3
(d) 1 and 2
Who was Rani Jindan (1817-1863)?
- She was the youngest wife of Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh empire, whose boundaries stretched from Kabul to Kashmir and the borders of Delhi.
- She was also the mother of Duleep Singh, the last ruler of the empire, who was raised by the British.
- Duleep Singh was five years old when he was placed on the throne in 1843 after the death of two heirs to Ranjit Singh. Since he was just a child, Maharani Jindan was made the regent.
- Not a rubber stamp, she took an active interest in running the kingdom, introducing changes in the revenue system.
Anglo-Sikh War and Jindan
- The British declared war on the Sikh empire in December 1845. After their victory in the first Anglo-Sikh war, they retained Duleep Singh as the ruler but imprisoned Jind Kaur.
- She escaped and arrived at Kathmandu on April 29, 1849, where she was given asylum by Jung Bahadur, the prime minister.
- She was given a house on the banks of river Bhagmati. She stayed in Nepal till 1860, where she continued to reach out to rebels in Punjab and Jammu-Kashmir.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kawasaki Disease
Mains level: NA
Children in the world over have shown to be affected by either Kawasaki Disease (KD) since the reopening of schools.
Try this PYQ:
Q.H1N1 virus is sometimes mentioned in the news with reference to which one of the following diseases?
(a) AIDS
(b) Bird flu
(c) Dengue
(d) Swine flu
What is Kawasaki Disease?
- Kawasaki disease is an illness that causes blood vessels to become inflamed, almost always in young children.
- Its cause is yet unknown. It is one of the leading causes of heart disease in kids.
- But doctors can treat it if they find it early. Most children recover without any problems.
Symptoms
Kawasaki disease comes on fast, and symptoms show up in phases. Signs of the first phase of Kawasaki disease include:
- High fever that lasts more than 5 days
- Swelling and redness in hands and bottoms of feet
- Red eyes
- Swollen glands, especially in the neck
- Irritated throat, mouth, and lips
In the second phase, symptoms include:
- Joint pain
- Stomach trouble, such as diarrhoea and vomiting
- Peeling skin on hands and feet
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: D614G mutation
Mains level: Not Much
While novel coronavirus is undergoing many mutations, one particular mutation called D614G, according to a study, has become the dominant variant in the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following statements is not correct?
(a) Hepatitis B virus is transmitted much like HIV.
(b) Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine.
(c) Globally, the number of people infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses is several times more than those infected with HIV.
(d) Some of those infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses do not show the symptoms for many years.
D614G mutation
- When the virus enters an individual’s body, it aims at creating copies of itself. When it makes an error in this copying process, we get a mutation.
- In this case, the virus replaced the aspartic acid (D) in the 614th position of the amino acid with glycine (G). Hence the mutation is called the D614G.
- This mutated form of the virus was first identified in China and then in Europe. Later it spread to other countries like the U.S. and Canada and was eventually reported in India.
Threats posed
- This particular mutation aids the virus in attaching more efficiently with the ACE2 receptor in the human host, thereby making it more successful in entering a human body than its predecessors.
- D614G show increased infectivity but it also displayed greater ability at attaching itself to the cell walls inside an individual’s nose and throat, increasing the viral load.
How prevalent is it in India?
- A study (reveals that the D614G was one of the most prevalent spike mutations even during the initial phase of the pandemic.
- Since then, D614G mutation’s ‘relative abundance’ has increased over time to 70% and above, in most states except Delhi.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Asteroids, Bennu, Psyche
Mains level: Not Much
A recent study has found that asteroid 16 Psyche, which orbits between Mars and Jupiter, could be made entirely of metal and is worth an estimated $10,000 quadrillion.
A NASA mission has recently landed on and collected samples from an asteroid. Do you remember that? Yes. Its the Asteroid Bennu
16 Psyche
- Located around 370 million km away from Earth, asteroid 16 Psyche is one of the most massive objects in the asteroid belt in our solar system.
- The somewhat potato-shaped asteroid has a diameter of around 140 miles.
- It was first discovered on March 17, 1853, by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and was named after the ancient Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche.
- Unlike most asteroids that are made up of rocks or ice, scientists believe that Psyche is a dense and largely metallic object thought to be the core of an earlier planet that failed in formation.
- Its surface may mostly comprise iron and nickel, similar to the Earth’s core, according to a study.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: “Normal” body temperature
Mains level: NA
For several years now, doctors and researchers have known that 98.6°F is not really the gold-standard “normal” body temperature it was once considered to be.
The “normal” body temperature
- In 1851, Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich pioneered the use of the clinical thermometer.
- It was a rod a foot long, which he would stick under the armpits of patients at the hospital attached with Leipzig University, and then wait for 15 minutes for the temperature to register.
- He took over a million measurements of 25,000 patients, and published his findings in a book in 1868, in which he concluded that the average human body temperature is 98.6°F.
- Most modern scientists feel Wunderlich’s experiments were flawed, and his equipment inaccurate.
- Another study concluded that the average human body temperature is closer to 98.2°F, and suggested that the 98.6°F benchmark be discarded.
The anomaly
- Studies in the US and Europe have found average body temperatures declining over time.
- In recent years, however, different studies have found the human body temperature averaging out differently, including at 97.7°, 97.9° and 98.2°F.
- One of the largest such studies, published last year, found that body temperatures among Americans have been declining over the last two centuries.
Now try this PYQ based on health sciences
Q.Which of the following diseases can be transmitted from one person to another through tattooing?
- Chikungunya
- Hepatitis B
- HIV-AIDS
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) Only 1
(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: Great Barrier Reef
Mains level: Impact of climate changes on coral reefs
Australian scientists have found a detached coral reef on the Great Barrier Reef that exceeds the height of the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- Most of the world’s coral reefs are in tropical waters.
- More than one-third of the world’s coral reefs are located in the territories of Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
- Coral reefs host far more number of animal phyla than those hosted by tropical rainforests.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1 and 3 only
About Great Barrier Reef
- The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands.
- It is stretched for over 2,300 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres.
- The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
- It was world heritage listed in 1981 by UNESCO as the most extensive and spectacular coral reef ecosystem on the planet.
Why it is significant?
- This is first such discovery in over 100 years.
- The “blade-like” reef is nearly 500 metres tall and 1.5 kilometres wide.
- It lies 40 metres below the ocean surface and about six kilometres from the edge of the Great Barrier Reef.
Tap to read more about:
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EOS-01
Mains level: Not Much
India would launch its latest earth observation satellite EOS-01 and nine international customer spacecraft onboard it’s PSLV-C49.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The term ‘IndARC’, sometimes seen in the news, is the name of:
(a) An indigenously developed radar system inducted into Indian Defence
(b) India’s satellite to provide services to the countries of Indian Ocean Rim
(c) A scientific establishment set up by India in Antarctic region
(d) India’s underwater observatory to scientifically study the Arctic region
EOS-01
- EOS-01 is intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support.
- This is the first launch by the Indian Space Research Organisation since the COVID-19-induced lockdown came into force in March.
- This will be the 51st mission of ISRO’s workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
What is Earth Observation Satellite (EOS)?
- An EOS or remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, cartography and others.
- Starting with IRS-1A in 1988, ISRO has launched many operational remote sensing satellites.
- Today, India has one of the largest constellations of remote sensing satellites in operation.
- Currently, *thirteen* operational satellites are in Sun-synchronous orbit and *four* in Geostationary orbit.
- The data from these satellites are used for several applications covering agriculture, water resources, urban planning, rural development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, ocean resources and disaster management.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pelagornithids
Mains level: Not Much
Scientists have identified the fossil of a giant bird that lived about 50 million years ago, with wingspans of up to 21 feet that would dwarf today’s largest bird, the wandering albatross.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The term “Sixth mass extinction/ sixth extinction is often mentioned in the news in the context of the discussion of
(a) Widespread monoculture practices in agriculture and large-scale commercial farming with indiscriminate use of chemicals in many parts of the world that may result in the loss of good native ecosystems.
(b) Fears of a possible collision of a meteorite with the Earth in the near future in the manner it happened 65 million years ago that caused the mass extinction of many species including those of dinosaurs.
(c) Large scale cultivation of genetically modified crops in many parts of the world and promoting their cultivation in other parts of the world which may cause the disappearance of good native crop plants and the loss of food biodiversity.
(d) Mankind’s over-exploitation/misuse of natural resources, fragmentation/loss of natural habitats, destruction of ecosystems, pollution and global climate change.
Pelagornithids
- Called Pelagornithids, the birds filled a niche much like that of today’s albatrosses and travelled widely over Earth’s oceans for at least 60 million years.
- They are known as ‘bony-toothed’ birds because of the bony projections, or struts, on their jaws that resemble sharp-pointed teeth, though they are not true teeth, like those of humans and other mammals.
- The bony protrusions were covered by a horny material, keratin, which is like our fingernails, the researchers said.
- Called pseudoteeth, the struts helped the birds snag squid and fish from the sea as they soared for perhaps weeks at a time over much of Earth’s oceans, they said.
Their extinction
- The pelagornithids came along to claim the wingspan record in the Cenozoic, after the mass extinction and lived until about 2.5 million years ago. Around that same time, teratogens, now extinct, ruled the skies, they said.
- The newly described fossil — a 50 million-year-old portion of a bird’s foot — shows that the larger Pelagornithids arose just afterlife rebounded from the mass extinction 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs, went extinct.
- The last known pelagornithid is from 2.5 million years ago, a time of changing climate as Earth cooled, and the ice ages began.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST
Mains level: Changes in taxation after GST regime
Officials have indicated that the government is considering bringing natural gas under the ambit of the GST regime.
Try this question from CSP 2018:
Q.Consider the following items:
- Cereal grains hulled
- Chicken eggs cooked
- Fish processed and canned
- Newspapers containing advertising material
Which of the above items is/are exempt under GST (Goods and Services Tax)?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1, 2 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Why such demands?
- Global energy MNCs have called on the government to bring natural gas under the GST regime.
- Currently petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel, natural gas and crude oil fall outside India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
Why is it important to bring natural gas under the GST regime?
- Bringing natural gas under the GST would lead to a reduction in the cascading impact of taxes on industries such as power and steel, which used natural gas as an input.
- This would do away with the central excise duty and different value-added taxes imposed by states.
- This would lead to an increase in the adoption of natural gas in line with the government’s stated goal to increase the share of natural gas in the country’s energy basket from 6.3% to 15%.
Back2Basics: GST
- GST launched in India on 1 July 2017 is a comprehensive indirect tax for the entire country.
- It is charged at the time of supply and depends on the destination of consumption.
- For instance, if a good is manufactured in state A but consumed in state B, then the revenue generated through GST collection is credited to the state of consumption (state B) and not to the state of production (state A).
Must read:
https://www.civilsdaily.com/goods-and-services-tax-2/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Superconductivity
Mains level: Not Much
A study has shown that a new material superconducts at 15 degrees Celsius but at extremely high pressure.
In India, we often get to hear about the transmission losses in DISCOMS. Such losses can be zeroed with the application of superconducting cables (which is practically impossible unless we find a normal working one). The phenomena, superconductivity, however, is not new to us, UPSC may end up asking some tricky statements in the prelims regarding it.
What is Superconductivity?
- A superconductor is a material, such as a pure metal like aluminium or lead, that when cooled to ultra-low temperatures allows electricity to move through it with absolutely zero resistance.
- Kamerlingh Onnes was the first scientist who figured out exactly how superconductor works in 1911.
- Simply put, superconductivity occurs when two electrons bind together at low temperatures.
- They form the building block of superconductors, the Cooper pair.
- This holds true even for a potential superconductor like lead when it is above a certain temperature.
What is the new material?
- A new material composed of carbon, hydrogen and sulphur superconducts at 15 degrees Celsius.
- However, it needs ultrahigh pressure of about 2 million atmospheres to achieve this transition, putting off any thoughts of application to the future.
- The pressure they needed was 267 Gigapascals (GPa), or 2.6 million atmospheres.
- The pressure at the centre of the Earth is 360 GPa, so it is 75% of the pressure at the centre of the Earth.
What are Superconductors?
- Superconductors are materials that address this problem by allowing energy to flow efficiently through them without generating unwanted heat.
- They have great potential and many cost-effective applications.
- They operate magnetically levitated trains, generate magnetic fields for MRI machines and recently have been used to build quantum computers, though a fully operating one does not yet exist.
Issues with superconductors
- They have an essential problem when it comes to other practical applications: They operate at ultra-low temperatures.
- There are no room-temperature superconductors. That “room-temperature” part is what scientists have been working on for more than a century.
- The amount of energy needed to cool a material down to its superconducting state is too expensive for daily applications.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IVC
Mains level: Dairy production in IVC
A new study has shown that dairy products were being produced by the Harappans as far back as 2500 BCE.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following is not a Harappan site?
(a) Chanhudaro
(b) Kot Diji
(c) Sohgaura
(d) Desalpur
Dairy production in IVC
- By analysing residues on ancient pots, researchers show the earliest direct evidence of dairy product processing, thus throwing fresh light on the rural economy of the civilization.
- The studies were carried out on 59 shards of pottery from Kotada Bhadli, a small archaeological site in present-day Gujarat.
How did they find it?
- The team used molecular analysis techniques to study the residues from ancient pottery.
- Pots are porous. The pot preserves the molecules of food such as fats and proteins. Using techniques like C16 and C18 analysis we can identify the source of lipids.
- Traces were seen in cooking vessels indicating that milk may have been boiled and consumed.
Significant outcome of the study
- The study has found residues in a bowl showing that either heated milk or curd could have been served.
- There are also remains of a perforated vessel, and similar vessels were used in Europe to make cheese.
- The Harappans did not just use dairy for their household.
- The large herd indicates that milk was produced in surplus so that it could be exchanged and there could have been some kind of trade between settlements.
- This could have given rise to an industrial level of dairy exploitation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Yellow dust
Mains level: Air pollution
North Korean authorities have urged citizens to remain indoors to avoid contact with a mysterious cloud of ‘yellow dust’ blowing in from China, which they have warned could bring Covid-19 with it.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following
- Birds
- Dustblowing
- Rain
- Windblowing
Which of the above spread plant diseases?
(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 3 and 4 only
(c) 1, 2 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
What is yellow dust?
- Yellow dust is actually sand from deserts in China and Mongolia that high-speed surface winds carry into both North and South Korea during specific periods every year.
- The sand particles tend to mix with other toxic substances such as industrial pollutants, as a result of which the ‘yellow dust’ is known to cause a number of respiratory ailments.
- Usually, when the dust reaches unhealthy levels in the atmosphere, authorities urge people to remain indoors and limit physical activity, particularly heavy exercise and sport.
- Sometimes, when the concentration of yellow dust in the atmosphere crosses around 800 micrograms/cubic meter, schools are shut and outdoor events cancelled in the affected areas.
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