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Type: Prelims Only

  • Indian Missile Program Updates

    [pib] ABHYAS Air Vehicle

    PIBPrelims Only | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Achievements Of Indians In S&T

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: ABHYAS-HEAT

    Mains level: Not Much

    Successful flight test of ABHYAS – High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) was today conducted by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from the Interim Test Range, Balasore in Odisha.

    Try this PYQ:

    What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news?

    (a) An Israeli radar system

    (b) India’s indigenous anti-missile programme

    (c) An American anti-missile system

    (d) A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea

    ABHYAS Air Vehicle

    • ABHYAS is designed & developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), DRDO.
    • The air vehicle is launched using twin underslung booster.
    • It is powered by a small gas turbine engine and has a MEMS-based Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control.
    • The vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight. The check out of air vehicle is done using laptop-based Ground Control Station (GCS).
    • During the test campaign, the user requirement of 5 km flying altitude, vehicle speed of 0.5 mach, the endurance of 30 minutes and 2g turn capability of the test vehicle were successfully achieved.

    Its uses

    • Abhyas’s radar cross-section (RCS), as well as its visual and infrared signatures, can be augmented to simulate a variety of aircraft for air-defence weapon practices.
    • It can also function as a jammer platform and decoy.
    • The HEAT system is utilized to do away with the post-launch recovery mode, which is time-consuming and difficult in a scenario as the sea.

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  • Global Geological And Climatic Events

    What are Medicanes?

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Medicanes

    Mains level: Frequent landfalls of tropical cyclones in India

    Very recently, a medicane named Ianos made landfall along the coast of Greece and caused heavy rainfall and flooding on the islands of Zakynthos, Kefalonia and Ithaca.

    Try this PYQ:

    In the South Atlantic and South-Eastern Pacific regions in tropical latitudes, cyclone does not originate. What is the reason?

    (a) Sea surface temperatures are low

    (b) Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone seldom occurs

    (c) Coriolis force is too weak

    (d) Absence of land in those regions

    What are Medicanes?

    • Medicanes are extra-tropical hurricanes observed over the Mediterranean Sea.
    • Medicanes occur more in colder waters than tropical cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons.
    • Hence, the cores of these storms are also cold, as compared to the warm cores of tropical cyclones.
    • Warmer cores tend to carry more moisture (hence rainfall), are bigger in size and have swifter winds.
    • The main societal hazard posed by Medicanes is not usually from destructive winds but through life-threatening torrential rains and flash floods.

    Why in news?

    • This year is a mild La Niña, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
    • La Niña is the cooling phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, as opposed to the warming El Niño phase.
    • It is characterized by the unusual cooling of the central and east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean.
    • A La Niña produces more rain in the central-eastern part, where most of the Mediterranean cyclones develop.

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  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    Brucellosis: A bacterial disease

    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: Brucellosis

    Mains level: NA

    As the novel coronavirus pandemic continues, the health commission has announced this week that a leak in a biopharmaceutical company last year caused an outbreak of brucellosis disease.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following kinds of organisms:

    1. Bacteria
    2. Fungi
    3. Flowering plants

    Some species of which of the above kinds of organisms are employed as bio-pesticides?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    What is Brucellosis?

    • Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that mainly infects cattle, swine, goats, sheep and dogs.
    • Humans can get infected if they come in direct contact with infected animals or by eating or drinking contaminated animal products or by inhaling airborne agents.
    • According to the WHO, most cases of the disease are caused by ingesting unpasteurized milk or cheese from infected goats or sheep.
    • Symptoms of the disease include fever, sweats, malaise, anorexia, and headache and muscle pain.
    • While some signs and symptoms can last for long periods of time, others may never go away. Human to human transmission of the virus is rare.
    • These include recurrent fevers, arthritis, swelling of the testicles and scrotum area, swelling of the heart, neurologic symptoms, chronic fatigue, depression and swelling of the liver or spleen.

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  • Judicial Reforms

    What is Queen’s Counsel?

    Prelims Only | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Queens Council

    Mains level: NA

    India has suggested Pakistan appointing a Queen’s Counsel for the Kulbhushan Jadhav case to ensure a free and fair trial.

    Queen’s Counsel

    • In the UK and in some Commonwealth countries, a Queen’s Counsel during the reign of a queen is a lawyer who is appointed by the monarch of the country to be one of ’Her Majesty’s Counsel learned in the law’.
    • The position originated in England.
    • Some Commonwealth countries have either abolished the position, or re-named it so as to remove monarchical connotations, for example, ’Senior Counsel’ or ’Senior Advocate’.
    • Queen’s Counsel is an office, conferred by the Crown that is recognised by courts.
    • Senior Advocate Harish Salve earlier this year has been appointed as Queen’s Counsel (QC) for the courts of England and Wales.

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  • Festivals, Dances, Theatre, Literature, Art in News

    National Hispanic Heritage Month

    Prelims Only | Trivia | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: National Hispanic Heritage Month

    Mains level: NA

    The National Hispanic Heritage Month has begun in the US.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The event National Hispanic Heritage Month recently seen in news is primarily celebrated in which of the following countries?

    (a) US (b) Spain (c) Mexico (d) Cuba

    National Hispanic Heritage Month

    • The annual event honours the history, culture and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors hailed from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
    • It is marked every year from September 15 to October 15.
    • The observation was started by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week and was extended to an entire month by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, the year it was enacted into law.

    Hispanics in the US

    • With a population of over 5.7 crores, Hispanic Americans are currently the largest minority group in the US, making up a fifth of the total US population.
    • More than half– 3.5 crore– are of Mexican origin, followed by Puerto Rican (53 lakh), and about 10 lakh each of Salvadorans, Cubans, Dominicans, Guatemalans and Colombians.
    • The community is referred to as Hispanic, Latino or Latinx– terms that refer to a person’s origin or culture, without considering their race.

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  • Global Geological And Climatic Events

    Re-scaling the height of Mt Everest

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Himalayan orogeny

    Mains level: NA

    China and Nepal are expected to announce the latest official height of Mt. Everest.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.When you travel to the Himalayas, you will see the following:

    1. Deep gorges
    2. U-turn river courses
    3. Parallel mountain ranges
    4. Steep gradients causing land-sliding

    Which of the above can be said to be the evidences for the Himalayas being young fold mountains?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 1, 2 and 4 only

    (c) 3 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

    Mt. Everest

    • Mount Everest or Sagarmatha, Earth’s highest mountain above sea level, is located in the Himalayas between China and Nepal -– the border between them running across its summit point.
    • Its current official elevation – 8,848m – places it more than 200m above the world’s second-highest mountain, K2, which is 8,611m tall and located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
    • The mountain gets its English name from Sir George Everest, a colonial-era geographer who served as the Surveyor General of India in the mid-19th century.
    • Considered an elite climbing destination, Everest was first scaled in 1953 by the Indian-Nepalese Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary.

    Everest’s first survey

    • The mission to measure the world’s highest peak was taken up on a serious note in 1847 and culminated with the finding of a team led by Andrew Waugh of the Royal Surveyor General of India.
    • The team discovered that ‘Peak 15’ — as Mt Everest was referred to then — was the highest mountain, contrary to the then-prevailing belief that Mt Kanchenjunga (8,582 m) was the highest peak in the world.
    • Another belief, prevailing even today, is that 8,840 m is not the height that was actually determined by the 19th-century team.
    • That survey, based on trigonometric calculations, is known as the Great Trigonometric Survey of India.

    Why is the height being measured again?

    • Everest’s current official height– 8,848m– has been widely accepted since 1956, when the figure was measured by the Survey of India.
    • The height of the summit, however, is known to change because of tectonic activity, such as the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
    • Its measurement over the decades has also depended on who was surveying.
    • Another debate is whether the height should be based on the highest rock point or the highest snow point.

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  • Capital Markets: Challenges and Developments

    What are Interest Rate Derivatives (IRDs)?

    Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Effects Of Liberalization On The Economy, Changes In Industrial Policy and their effects on Industrial Growth

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Foreign portfolio investment (FPI)

    Mains level: Not Much

    The RBI has proposed allowing foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to undertake exchange-traded rupee interest rate derivatives transactions subject to an overall ceiling of ₹5,000 crores.

    Every year, there is a question on a capital market instruments. Make note of all such separately. Also, try this PYQ:

    Q. Which of the following is issued by registered foreign portfolio investors to overseas investors who want to be part of the Indian stock market without registering themselves directly? (CSP 2019)

    (a) Certificate of Deposit

    (b) Commercial Paper

    (c) Promissory Note

    (d) Participatory Note

    Interest Rate Derivatives (IRDs)

    • An IDR is a financial instrument with a value that is linked to the movements of an interest rate or rates.
    • These may include futures, options, or swaps contracts.
    • They are often used by institutional investors, banks, companies, and individuals to protect themselves against changes in market interest rates.
    • The proposed directions by RBI are aimed at encouraging higher non-resident participation, enhance the role of domestic market makers in the offshore market, improve transparency, and achieve better regulatory oversight, according to the central bank.

    Back2Basics: Foreign portfolio investment (FPI)

    • FPI involves holding financial assets from a country outside of the investor’s own.
    • FPI holdings can include stocks, ADRs, GDRs, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.
    • Along with foreign direct investment (FDI), FPI is one of the common ways for investors to participate in an overseas economy, especially retail investors.
    • Unlike FDI, FPI consists of passive ownership; investors have no control over ventures or direct ownership of property or a stake in a company.

    FPI vs FDI

    • With FPI—as with portfolio investment in general—an investor does not actively manage the investments or the companies that issue the investments.
    • They do not have direct control over the assets or the businesses.
    • In contrast, foreign direct investment (FDI) lets an investor purchase a direct business interest in a foreign country.

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  • Wetland Conservation

    Etosha Salt Pan, Namibia

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Etosha Salt Pan and its location

    Mains level: NA

    NASA has recently captured images depicting the wet and dry cycles of Etosha Pan in Africa’s Namibia through the year.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which of the following has/have shrunk immensely/ dried up in the recent past due to human activities?

    1. Aral Sea
    2. Black Sea
    3. Lake Baikal

    Select the correct option using the code given below:

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 2 only

    (d) 1 and 3 only

    Etosha Salt Pan

    • The Etosha pan is hollow in the ground, wherein water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after the water has evaporated.
    • The 120-kilometre-long dry lakebed and its surroundings are protected as Etosha National Park, Namibia’s second-largest wildlife park.
    • The pan is mostly dry, but after a heavy rain, it acquires a thin layer of water that is heavily salted by the mineral deposits on the surface.

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  • Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

    Who was Subramania Bharatiyar?

    Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Subramania Bharati and his works

    Mains level: Not Much

    This newscard is an excerpt from an article originally published in TH.

    Try this question from CSP 2016:

    Q.A recent movie titled The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on the biography of-

    (a) S. Ramanujan
    (b) S. Chandrasekhar
    (c) S. N. Bose
    (d) C. V. Raman

    Subramania Bharati

    • Bharati was a Tamil writer, poet, journalist, Indian independence activist, social reformer and polyglot.
    • Popularly known as “Mahakavi Bharathi”, he was a pioneer of modern Tamil poetry and is considered one of the greatest Tamil literary figures of all time.
    • His numerous works included fiery songs kindling patriotism during the Indian Independence movement.

    Literary works

    • As a working journalist, Bharati necessarily employed prose to communicate, and his writings in Swadesamitran and India made an important contribution to Tamil political vocabulary.
    • He wrote stories, commentaries, and was also the pioneer of column writing in Tamil.
    • Active participation in the day-to-day politics of the nationalist movement notwithstanding, Bharati never lost sight of the future, the dream of how a free India should look like.
    • Aspects of this dream form part of his fantasy story, Gnanaratham (The Chariot of Wisdom), written when he was still in his late 20s.

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  • Plantation Agriculture – RISPC, Tea Act, etc.

    Panama Disease

    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: Panama disease

    Mains level: NA

    The scientists of Indian Council of Agriculture Research or ICAR have found a cure for one of the most dreaded diseases on Banana.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Recently, our scientists have discovered a new and distinct species of banana plant which attains a height of about 11 metres and has orange-coloured fruit pulp. In which part of India has it been discovered?

    (a) Andaman Islands

    (b) Anamalai Forests

    (c) Maikala Hills

    (d) Tropical rain forests of northeast

    Panama Disease

    • The fungal disease, called Fusarium Wilt, is popularly known as the ‘Panama Disease’ and afflicts banana plants.
    • For the first time, Indian scientists have brought out a biopesticide that can control the disease. This biopesticide has been made using another fungus.
    • For a long time, banana cultivators have been struggling with the Panama Disease.
    • This disease affects the Cavendish variety or the G9 Banana cultivar, which is the most widely grown banana in the world.

    Spread in India

    • In India, more than 60 per cent of bananas are of the G9 variety.
    • They go by names like ‘Grand Naine’, ‘Robusta’, ‘Bhusaval’, ‘Basrai’ and ‘Shrimanth’.
    • Farmers in at least four Indian states — Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh — have been badly affected by this disease.
    • All these are areas where the Cavendish variety is grown.

    Why is the disease so deadly?

    • Panama Disease is caused by a fungus with a long and complicated name called Fusarium oxysporum f. Sp cubense.
    • One of its strains which is called ‘Tropical Race 4’ or ‘TR4’ is creating the most havoc, threatening almost 80 per cent of the global banana production.
    • The disease is so deadly that it is sometimes referred to as ‘banana cancer’.
    • The fungus resides below ground and infects the plant through its roots. The infection then stops water and essential nutrients from being transported to the rest of the plant.
    • The leaves begin to wilt, and the stem of the plant starts turning dark brownish before the plant dies. If one plant gets it, then it is most likely that an entire plantation can be wiped out.

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