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Type: Prelims Only

  • Air Pollution

    What are Green Crackers?

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Green crackers

    Mains level: Not Much

    cracker

    Many states have outlawed firecrackers and mandated the production, sale, and usage of only green firecrackers in light of Diwali’s impending arrival and the air pollution crisis.

    What are green crackers?

    • Green Crackers are fireworks that are healthy to the environment and can lessen the air pollution that conventional firecrackers produce.
    • The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) created these.
    • These green crackers, designed by the National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), a CSIR lab, contain flower pots, pencils, fireworks, maroons, bombs, and chakkar.

    How are they made?

    • Green crackers, also known as eco-friendly crackers, are made from alternative raw materials to have a smaller negative impact on the environment and to pose fewer health hazards.
    • It has been stated that green crackers are environmentally friendly because they don’t contain aluminum, barium, potassium nitrate, or carbon.

    Are they totally pollution free?

    • Green crackers are 30% less polluting than regular ones.
    • Green crackers have less or no barium, and that the chemical barium nitrate is what causes the smoke and emissions.
    • In addition to lowering air pollution, green crackers are said to have a lower sound level than the ordinary crackers—between 110 and 125 decibels as opposed to roughly 160 decibels for conventional crackers.
    • Despite all of their benefits, these environmentally friendly firecrackers are more expensive than standard ones.

    Types of green crackers

    (1) SWAS – Safe Water Releaser

    • They will discharge water vapour into the atmosphere, which will dampen the discharged dust.
    • It won’t contain sulphur or potassium nitrate.
    • There will be a release of a diluent for gaseous emissions.
    • There will be a 30% reduction in the amount of particle dust emitted.

    (2) STAR – Safe Thermite Cracker

    • Does not contain sulphur and potassium nitrate
    • Discharge of less particulate matter
    • Lowered noise level

    (3) SAFAL – Safe Minimal Aluminum

    • Does not contain sulphur and potassium nitrate
    • Discharge of less particulate matter
    • Lowered noise level as compared to traditional ones

    Judicial observation over fire-crackers

    • It is made clear that there is no total ban on the use of firecrackers.
    • Only those firecrackers are banned (joined, chemical) which are found to be injurious to health and affect the health of the citizens particularly the senior citizens and the children.

    What are the traders’ concerns?

    • Traders have expressed concerns about the crackers’ shelf life due to the new green cracker composition.
    • Manufacturers also need to overcome the rigorous certification process run by the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO).

     

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  • Innovations in Biotechnology and Medical Sciences

    Dr. Mahalanabis: the man behind ORS no more

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Achievements Of Indians In S&T

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: ORS, Dr. Mahalanabis

    Mains level: NA

    ors

    While Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) as a simple, effective remedy for dehydration is known around the world, the physician who pioneered the treatment, Dr. Dilip Mahalanabis, passed away.

    What is ORS?

    • Oral rehydration therapy is a type of fluid replacement used to prevent and treat dehydration, especially due to diarrhea.
    • It involves drinking water with modest amounts of sugar and salts, specifically sodium and potassium.
    • Oral rehydration therapy can also be given by a nasogastric tube.

    About Dr. Mahalanabis

    • Born on November 12, 1934 in West Bengal, Dr Mahalanabis studied in Kolkata and London.
    • He joined the Johns Hopkins University International Centre for Medical Research and Training in Kolkata in the 1960s, where he carried out research in oral rehydration therapy.
    • When the 1971 war broke out, millions of people from then East Pakistan took refuge in India.
    • Clean drinking water and sanitation were problems at these refugee camps, and cholera and diarrhoea broke out among people anyway exhausted and dehydrated.
    • Dr Mahalanabis and his team were working in one such camp at Bongaon.
    • Stocks of intravenous fluids were running out, on top of which there weren’t enough trained personnel to administer the IV treatment.

    How he discovered ORS?

    • From his research, Dr Mahalanabis knew that a solution of sugar and salt, which would increase water absorption by the body, could save lives from Cholera.
    • He and his team then prepared solutions of salt and glucose in water and began storing them in large drums, from where patients or their relatives could help themselves.
    • The oral solution then consisted of 22 gm glucose (as commercial monohydrate), 3.5 gm sodium chloride (as table salt) and 2.5 gm sodium bicarbonate (as baking soda) per liter of water.
    • This was the simplest formula, containing the minimum number of ingredients, previously found to be effective in severely ill patients with cholera.

    His legacy

    • While initially, the medical fraternity was septical, the WHO eventually adopted ORS as the standard method for treating cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.
    • Today, the WHO recommends a combination of sodium chloride, anhydrous glucose, potassium chloride and Trisodium citrate dihydrate as the ORS formula.
    • In India, July 29 is observed as ORS Day.

     

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  • Indian Navy Updates

    SLBM launch by INS Arihant

    Prelims Only | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Various Security Forces, Agencies & Their Mandates

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: SLBM, INS Arihant

    Mains level: India's nuclear triad

    slbm

    The indigenous ballistic missile nuclear submarine INS Arihant has successfully launched a nuclear capable Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) in the Bay of Bengal with very high accuracy.

    About INS Arihant

    • Launched in 2009 and Commissioned in 2016, INS Arihant is India’s first indigenous nuclear powered ballistic missile.
    • It is capable submarine built under the secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project, which was initiated in the 1990s.
    • INS Arihant and its class of submarines are classified as ‘SSBN’, which is the hull classification symbol for nuclear powered ballistic missile carrying submarines.
    • While the Navy operates the vessel, the operations of the SLBMs from the SSBN are under the purview of India’s Strategic Forces Command, which is part of India’s Nuclear Command Authority.

    Its role in India’s nuclear triad

    • In November 2019, after INS Arihant completed its first deterrence patrol, the government announced the establishment of India’s “survivable nuclear triad”.
    • It completed India’s capability of launching nuclear strikes from land, air and sea platforms.
    • This places India in the league of the few countries that can design, construct and operate Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarines (SSBN).

    Significance of the test

    • The SLBM was launched from the country’s first indigenous Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine INS Arihant.
    • The test is significant for the nuclear ballistic submarine, or SSBN, programme, which is a crucial element of India’s nuclear deterrence capability.

    Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs)

    • The SLBMs, sometimes called the ‘K’ family of missiles, have been indigenously developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
    • The family is codenamed after Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the centre figure in India’s missile and space programmes who also served as the 11th President of India.
    • Because these missiles are to be launched from submarines, they are lighter, more compact and stealthier than their land-based counterparts.
    • They are lighter compared to the Agni series of missiles which are medium and intercontinental-range nuclear-capable ballistic assets.

    Marine Version of SLBM: Sagarika

    • Part of the K family is the SLBM K-15, which is also called B-05 or Sagarika.
    • It has a range of 750 km.
    • INS Arihant can carry a dozen K-15 missiles on board. India has also developed and successfully tested K-4 missiles from the family, which have a range of 3,500 km.
    • It is also reported that more members of K-family — reportedly carrying the code names K-5 and K-6, with a range of 5,000 km and 6,000 km respectively — are under development.

    Strategic significance of the launch

    • The capability of being able to launch nuclear weapons submarine platforms has great strategic significance in the context of achieving a nuclear triad.
    • This is especially in the light of the “No First Use” policy of India.
    • The sea-based underwater nuclear capable assets significantly increases the second strike capability, and thus validates the nuclear deterrence.
    • These submarines can not only survive a first strike by the adversary, but can also launch a strike in retaliation, thus achieving ‘Credible Nuclear Deterrence’.

    Message to our hostile neighbours

    • The development of these capabilities is important in the light of India’s relations with China and Pakistan.
    • India’s capacity building on the nuclear powered submarines and of the nuclear capable missile which can be launched from them is crucial for nuclear deterrence.
    • China has deployed many of its submarines, including some that are nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable.

    Conclusion

    • In an era such as this, credible nuclear deterrence is the need of the hour.
    • The success of INS Arihant gives a fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail.

     

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  • New Species of Plants and Animals Discovered

    Species in news: Neelakurinji

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Neelakurinji

    Mains level: Read the attached story

    neelakurinji

    As visitors keep pouring in to witness the blooming of neelakurinji on a vast area on the Kallippara hills at Santhanpara in Idukki, Kerala, an expert team has identified six varieties of the plant across the region.

    Neelakurinji

    • Kurinji or Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthianus) is a shrub that is found in the shola forests of the Western Ghats in South India.
    • Nilgiri Hills, which literally means the blue mountains, got their name from the purplish blue flowers of Neelakurinji that blossoms only once in 12 years.
    • It is the most rigorously demonstrated, with documented bloomings in 1838, 1850, 1862, 1874, 1886, 1898, 1910, 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 and 2018
    • Some Kurinji flowers bloom once every seven years, and then die. Their seeds subsequently sprout and continue the cycle of life and death.
    • The Paliyan tribal people living in Tamil Nadu used it as a reference to calculate their age.

    Threats to Neelakurinji

    • About 1,000 ha of forestland, grantis and eucalyptus plantations and grasslands have been destroyed in the fire.
    • These large-scale wildfires on the grasslands where Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiiana) blossomed widely last year after a period of 12 years could have wiped out all the seeds of the endemic flowers.
    • There are allegations that the areas coming under the proposed Kurinji sanctuary were set on fire with a motive to destroy the germination of Neelakurinji seeds.

     

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  • Wildlife Conservation Efforts

    Living Planet Report 2022: Wildlife populations decline by 69% in 50 years

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Living Planet Report, Index

    Mains level: Not Much

    There has been a 69 per cent decline in the wildlife populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, across the globe in the last 50 years, according to the latest Living Planet Report by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

    What is Living Planet Report?

    • The Living Planet Report is published every 2 years by the World Wide Fund for Nature since 1998.
    • It is based on the Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculations.
    • The report is the world’s leading, science-based analysis, on the health of our planet and the impact of human activity.

    Issues raised by various versions of the report

    • The 2018 report found a “decline of 60% in population sizes” of vertebrate species overall from 1970 to 2014.
    • The tropics of South and Central America had an 89% loss compared to 1970.
    • The 2018 report calls for new goals post-2020 alongside those of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
    • The 2020 report says systemic changes are necessary to stop the destruction of global wildlife populations, including a complete overhaul of food production and consumption industries.
    • The 2022 report found that vertebrate wildlife populations have declined by an average of almost 70% since 1970, and attributes the loss primarily to agriculture and fishing.

    What is the Living Planet Index (LPI)?

    • The Living Planet Index (LPI) is a measure of the state of the world’s biological diversity based on population trends of vertebrate species from terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats.
    • The LPI was adopted by the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) as an indicator of progress towards its 2011-2020 targets.
    • It can play an important role in monitoring progress towards the post-2020 goals and targets negotiated at COP15 this December.
    Features of the LPI Common misconceptions
    The LPI is shows the average rate of change in animal population sizes The LPI doesn’t show numbers of species lost or extinctions, although some populations do decline to local extinction
    Species and populations in the LPI show increasing, declining and stable trends Not all species and populations in the LPI are in decline
    About half of the species we have in the LPI show an average decline in population trend The LPI statistic does not mean that 69 per cent of species or populations are declining
    The average change in population size in the LPI is a decline of 69 per cent The LPI statistic does not mean that 69% populations or individual animals have been lost
    The LPI represents the monitored populations included in the index The LPI doesn’t necessarily represent trends in other populations, species or biodiversity as a whole
    The LPI includes data for threatened and non-threatened species – if it’s monitored consistently over time, it goes in! The species in the LPI are not selected based on whether they are under threat, but as to whether there is robust population trend data available

     

     

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  • Wildlife Conservation Efforts

    Eco-Sensitive Zones: SC may take up Kerala’s review

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Eco-sensitive Zones (ESZs)

    Mains level: Not Much

    The Supreme Court has indicated that it may consider taking up Kerala’s review of the Supreme Court’s judgment to have a 1km eco-sensitive zone ringing protected forests, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across the country.

    What are the Eco-sensitive Zones (ESZs)?

    • Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are areas notified by the MoEFCC around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
    • The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.
    • They also act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.

    How are they demarcated?

    • The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 does NOT mention the word “Eco-Sensitive Zones”.
    • However, Section 3(2)(v) of the Act, says that Central Government can restrict areas in which any industries, operations or processes or class of industries, operations or processes shall be carried out or shall not, subject to certain safeguards.
    • Besides Rule 5(1) of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 states that central government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries and carrying on certain operations or processes on the basis of certain considerations.
    • The same criteria have been used by the government to declare No Development Zones (NDZs).

    Defining its boundaries

    • An ESZ could go up to 10 kilometres around a protected area as provided in the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002.
    • Moreover, in the case where sensitive corridors, connectivity and ecologically important patches, crucial for landscape linkage, are beyond 10 km width, these should be included in the ESZs.
    • Further, even in the context of a particular Protected Area, the distribution of an area of ESZ and the extent of regulation may not be uniform all around and it could be of variable width and extent.

    Activities Permitted and Prohibited

    • Permitted: Ongoing agricultural or horticultural practices, rainwater harvesting, organic farming, use of renewable energy sources, and adoption of green technology for all activities.
    • Prohibited: Commercial mining, saw mills, industries causing pollution (air, water, soil, noise etc), the establishment of major hydroelectric projects (HEP), commercial use of wood, Tourism activities like hot-air balloons over the National Park, discharge of effluents or any solid waste or production of hazardous substances.
    • Under regulation: Felling of trees, the establishment of hotels and resorts, commercial use of natural water, erection of electrical cables, drastic change of agriculture system, e.g. adoption of heavy technology, pesticides etc, widening of roads.

    What is the recent SC judgment that has caused an uproar in Kerala?

    • On June 3, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court heard a PIL that sought to protect forest lands in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, but was later expanded to cover the entire country.
    • In its judgment, the court while referring to the 2011 guidelines as “reasonable”, directed all states to have a mandatory 1-km ESZ from the demarcated boundaries of every protected area.
    • It also stated that no new permanent structure or mining will be permitted within the ESZ.
    • If the existing ESZ goes beyond 1-km buffer zone or if any statutory instrument prescribes a higher limit, then such extended boundary shall prevail, the court, as per the Live Law report, said.

    Why are people protesting against it?

    • There is a high density of human population near the notified protected areas.
    • Farmer’s groups and political parties have been demanding that all human settlements be exempt from the ESZ ruling.
    • The total extent of the wildlife sanctuaries in Kerala is eight lakh acres.
    • If one-km of ESZ is demarcated from their boundaries, around 4 lakh acres of human settlements, including farmlands, would come within that purview.

     

     

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  • Historical and Archaeological Findings in News

    What is Carbon Dating?

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Carbon Dating

    Mains level: Not Much

    carbon dating

    A Varanasi district court has rejected the plea to conduct carbon-dating of the disputed structure known to have been found inside the premises of the Gyanvapi mosque.

    What is Carbon Dating?

    • Carbon dating, also called radiocarbon dating is method of age determination that depends upon the decay to nitrogen of radiocarbon (Carbon-14).
    • This method was developed by the American physicist Willard F. Libby about 1946.
    • Carbon-14 is continually formed in nature by the interaction of neutrons with nitrogen-14 in the Earth’s atmosphere.
    • The neutrons required for this reaction are produced by cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere.

    How it works?

    • Radiocarbon present in molecules of atmospheric carbon dioxide enters the biological carbon cycle: it is absorbed from the air by green plants and then passed on to animals through the food chain.
    • Radiocarbon decays slowly in a living organism, and the amount lost is continually replenished as long as the organism takes in air or food.
    • Once the organism dies, however, it ceases to absorb carbon-14, so that the amount of the radiocarbon in its tissues steadily decreases.

    The half-life concept

    • Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 ± 40 years—i.e., half the amount of the radioisotope present at any given time will undergo spontaneous disintegration during the succeeding 5,730 years.
    • Because carbon-14 decays at this constant rate, an estimate of the date at which an organism died can be made by measuring the amount of its residual radiocarbon.

    Its uses

    • It has proved to be a versatile technique of dating fossils and archaeological specimens from 500 to 50,000 years old.
    • The method is widely used by geologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and investigators in related fields.

     

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  • ISRO Missions and Discoveries

    Next-Gen Launch Vehicle- NGLV to assume PSLV’s role

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: NGLV, PSLV, SSLV, GSLV

    Mains level: Not Much

    The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is developing a Next-Gen Launch Vehicle (NGLV), which will one day replace operational systems like the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

    What is the news?

    • PSLV, often dubbed the ‘trusted workhorse’, “will have to retire” one day, said ISRO chairman.

    What is NGLV?

    • NGLV will feature a simple, robust design that allows bulk manufacturing, modularity in systems, sub-systems and stages and minimal turnaround time.
    • Potential uses will be in the areas of launching communication satellites, deep space missions, future human spaceflight and cargo missions.

    What all modifications would be required?

    • In NGLV, ISRO is understood to be looking at a cost-efficient, three-stage, reusable heavy-lift vehicle with a payload capability of 10 tonnes to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).
    • NGLV will feature semi-cryogenic propulsion for the booster stages which is cheaper and efficient.
    • For that, at least 10 tonne capability to GTO is needed.
    • Correspondingly, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) capability will be twice that.
    • However, payload capability will be lower when the rocket is reusable.

    Back2Basics: Various satellite launch vehicles in India

    nglv

     

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  • Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

    Person in news: Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)

    Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Jaiprakash Narayan-JP

    Mains level: Not Much

    jp

    Union Home Minister unveiled a 15-foot statue of Jayaprakash Narayan or JP on his 120th birth anniversary at the socialist icon’s birthplace, Sitab Diara village in Bihar’s Saran district.

    Who was Jayaprakash Narayan?

    • JP was born in 1902 in Bihar’s Sitab Diara, a village prone to frequent-flooding, after which his family moved to a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Balia district.
    • He quit college to join the non-cooperation movement, before going to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx.

    Political affiliations

    • JP returned to India in 1929 and joined the freedom struggle and the Indian National Congress, upon the invitation of Jawaharlal Nehru and drawn by a speech by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
    • He went on to become the founding members of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP).
    • However after independence took it out of the Congress and formed the Socialist Party, which was merged with J B Kripalani’s Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party to form the Praja Socialist Party.

    Dissociation from active politics

    • While Nehru was keen on JP joining the Union government, JP sought to distance himself from electoral politics, opting to focus on social causes instead.
    • He was disillusioned with political parties and called for communitarian democracy.
    • Parties, he believed, were centralized and susceptible to moral and financial corruption.

    The JP movement

    • Students in Gujarat began demonstrating in late 1973, in response to mounting mess bills.
    • The protests became widespread in the state, with workers, teachers and several other groups joining in the movement, calling for a change in government.
    • JP saw the youth of Gujarat that had been able to bring about political change as an alternative route from electoral.
    • The protests against corruption grew widespread, and students of Bihar began their movement in March 1974.
    • The students approached JP, who left his self-imposed political exile and led the movement. At a rally in Patna he called for Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution).

    Opposition to the Emergency

    • When Indira Gandhi imposed an Emergency on June 25, 1975, JP shifted his focus to opposing the authoritarian rule and opposition parties looked to him for leadership.
    • The Socialists were naturally drawn to him ideologically, while the RSS and its political front the Jana Sangh sought to return to the mainstream, and were happy to be dissolved into the Janata Party that JP had formed.
    • JP is celebrated for launching a popular, mass movement against the Indira Gandhi government, which led to the formation of the Janata Party government in the 1977 general election.
    • This was the first non-Congress government in the country.

    Try this PYQ:

    Who among the following were the founders of the “Hind Mazdoor Sabha” established in 1948?

    (a) B. Krishna Pillai, E.M.S. Namboodiripad and K.C. George

    (b) Jayaprakash Narayan, Deen Dayal Upadhyay and M.N. Roy

    (c) C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, K. Kamaraj and Veeresalingam Pantulu

    (d) Ashok Mehata, T.S. Ramanujan and G.G. Mehta

     

    Post your answers here.

     

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  • Wildlife Conservation Efforts

    Species in news: Sloth Bear

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Sloth Bear

    Mains level: NA

    sloth bear

    The first World Sloth Bear Day was observed yesterday to generate awareness and strengthen conservation efforts around the unique bear species endemic to the Indian subcontinent.

    Sloth Bear

    • The sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) is an important species and endemic to the Indian subcontinent with small populations in Nepal and Sri Lanka.
    • Classified as “vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List, sloth bears are endemic to the Indian sub-continent and 90% of the species population is found in India.
    • Listed under Schedule I of the (Wildlife Protection) Act of India, 1972, the species has the same level of protection as tigers, rhinos and elephants.
    • Commercial international trade of the sloth bear (including parts and derivatives) is prohibited as it is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
    • The sloth bears are omnivorous and survived on termites, ants and fruits.

    Why protect sloth bears?

    • For a long time, sloth bears were exploited as dancing bears. Though the practice has been banned there are still a few cases of rescue.
    • Sloth bears are one of the most aggressive extant due to large human populations often closely surrounding reserves that hold bears.
    • Aggressive encounters and attacks are relatively frequent, though in some places, attacks appear to be a reaction to encountering people accidentally.

     

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