Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Maternal Mortality Rate, Infant Morality Rate
Mains level: Paper 2- Disparity among states in health parameters
The article focuses on the wide variation across the state in terms of the important health parameters and suggests prioritising health.
Variation across the states
- The efficacy of the public health system varies widely across the country since it is a State subject.
- Public health system can be judged just by looking at certain health parameters such as Infant Mortality Rate, Maternal Mortality Ratio and Total Fertility Rate.
- In Madhya Pradesh, the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births is as high as 48 compared to seven in Kerala. In U.P. the Maternal Mortality Ratio is 197 compared to Kerala’s 42 and Tamil Nadu’s 63.
- The northern States are performing very poorly in these vital health parameters.
- The percentage of deliveries by untrained personnel is very high in Bihar, 190 times that of Kerala.
- Since health is a State subject, the primary onus lies with the State governments.
- Each State government must focus on public health and aim to improve the health indicators mentioned above.
- Unless all the States perform well, there will be no dramatic improvement in the health system.
Steps needed to be taken
- The governments — both at the Centre and the Empowered Action Group States — should realise that public health and preventive care is a priority and take steps to bring these States on a par with the southern States.
- The Government of India has a vital role to play.
- Public and preventive health should be his focus by holding the Empowered Action Group States accountable to the SDGs.
- They must be asked to reach the levels of the southern States within three to five years.
- An important measure that can make a difference is a public health set-up in these States that addresses primary and preventive health.
Conclusion
Unless we invest in human capital, FDI will not help. Investing in health and education is the primary responsibility of any government. It is time the governments — both at the Centre and States — gave health its due importance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Rate of siltation
Mains level: Paper 3- Ageing dams and challenges associated with it
Ageing dams threaten India’s water security, affect farmers’ income and increases the frequency of flooding.
What is a dam?
- A dam is a barrier that stops the flow of water and results in the creation of a reservoir. Dams are mainly built in order to produce electricity by using water. This form of electricity is known as hydroelectricity.
- Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aquaculture, and navigability.
Types of Dams
There are many dams in India, and hence there is a need to know about them as there are questions based on the dams of India. The Bank Exams like IBPS or SBI contains questions from this section.
Based on the structure the types of dams are as mentioned below:
- Arch Dam: An arch dam is a concrete dam that is curved upstream in the plan. It is designed so that the hydrostatic pressure (force of the water against it) presses against the arch, causing the arch to straighten slightly and strengthening the structure as it pushes into its foundation or abutments. An arch dam is most suitable for narrow canyons or gorges with steep walls of stable rock to support the structure and stresses.
- Gravity Dam: Dams constructed from concrete or stone masonry are Gravity dams. They are designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation to oppose the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it. These are designed in such a way that each section of the dam is stable and independent of other section.
- Arch-Gravity Dam: This dam has the characteristics of both an arch dam and a gravity dam. It is a dam that curves upstream in a narrowing curve that directs most of the water pressure against the canyon rock walls. The inward compression of the dam by the water reduces the lateral (horizontal) force acting on the dam.
- Barrages: A barrage is a type of low-head, diversion dam which consists of a number of large gates that can be opened or closed to control the amount of water passing through. This allows the structure to regulate and stabilize river water elevation upstream for use in irrigation and other systems.
- Embankment Dams: An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil, sand, clay, or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and a dense, impervious core.
- Rock-Fills Dams: Rock-fill dams are embankments of compacted free-draining granular earth with an impervious zone. The earth utilized often contains a high percentage of large particles, hence the term “rock-fill”.
- Concrete-face rock-fill dams: A concrete-face rock-fill dam (CFRD) is a rock-fill dam with concrete slabs on its upstream face. This design provides the concrete slab as an impervious wall to prevent leakage and also a structure without concern for uplift pressure.
- Earth-fill dams: Earth-fill dams, also called earthen dams, rolled-earth dams or simply earth dams, are constructed as a simple embankment of well-compacted earth. A homogeneous rolled-earth dam is entirely constructed of one type of material but may contain a drain layer to collect seep water.
Major Dams in India
The major dams in India have helped the inhabitants in a number of ways like:
- Providing adequate water for domestic, industry and irrigation purposes.
- Hydroelectric power production and river navigation.
- These major dams in India and their reservoirs provide recreation areas for fishing and boating.
- They have helped in the reduction of floods.
Some facts about the issue of ageing dams
- India is ranked third in the world in terms of building large dams.
- Of the over 5,200 large dams built so far, about 1,100 large dams have already reached 50 years of age and some are older than 120 years.
- The number of such dams will increase to 4,400 by 2050.
- This means that 80% of the nation’s large dams face the prospect of becoming obsolete as they will be 50 years to over 150 years old.
- The situation with hundreds of thousands of medium and minor dams is even more precarious as their shelf life is even lower than that of large dams.
Impact on the storage capacity
- As dams age, soil replaces the water in the reservoirs technically known as silt or sediment.
- Therefore, the storage capacity cannot be claimed to be the same as it was in the 1900s and 1950s.
- To make matters worse, studies show that the design of many of our reservoirs is flawed.
- Almost every scholarly study on reservoir sedimentation shows that Indian reservoirs are designed with a poor understanding of sedimentation science.
- The designs underestimate the rate of siltation and overestimate live storage capacity created.
- Therefore, the storage space in Indian reservoirs is receding at a rate faster than anticipated.
Consequences
- When soil replaces the water in reservoirs, supply gets choked.
- The net sown water area either shrinks in size or depends on rains or groundwater, which is over-exploited.
- Crop yield gets affected severely and disrupts the farmer’s income.
- The farmer’s income may get reduced as water is one of the crucial factors for crop yield along with credit, crop insurance and investment.
- It is important to note that no plan on climate change adaptation will succeed with sediment-packed dams.
- The flawed siltation rates demonstrated by a number of scholarly studies reinforce the argument that the designed flood cushion within several reservoirs across many river basins may have already depleted substantially due to which floods have become more frequent downstream of dams.
Consider the question “Ageing dams poses several challenges for India. Identify these challenges and suggest the measures to deal with these challenges.”
Conclusion
The nation will eventually be unable to find sufficient water in the 21st century to feed the rising population by 2050, grow abundant crops, create sustainable cities, or ensure growth. Therefore, it is imperative for all stakeholders to come together to address this situation urgently.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Finance Commission
Mains level: Paper 2- Transformation of financial governance of municipalities
Transforming the financial governance of India’s municipalities
- Interim report of the Fifteenth Finance Commission of India (XV FC) indicates that it could fundamentally transform the financial governance of India’s municipalities.
- Final report for FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26 is expected to be tabled along with the forthcoming Budget 2021-22.
- Building on the track record of previous finance commissions, the XV FC Commission has significantly raised the bar on financial governance of India’s municipalities in the interim report in at least four specific ways.
4 Provisions in the interim report
1) Increase in the outlay for municipalities
- It has set aside Rs 29,000 crore for FY 2020-21 and indicated the intent to raise the share of municipalities in the total grants’ of local bodies including panchayats gradually over the medium term, from the existing 30 per cent to 40 per cent.
- This could result in the outlay over five years being in the range of Rs 1,50,000-Rs 2,00,000 crore compared to Rs 87,000 crore during the XIV FC period.
2) Ensuring financial accountability through conditions
- Two very important entry conditions have been set for any municipality in India to receive FC grants:
- 1) Publication of audited annual accounts.
- 2) Notification of floor rates for property tax.
- These two entry conditions lay strong foundations for financial accountability of municipalities and own revenue enhancement respectively.
- Similarly, the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan links Rs 50,000 crore of additional borrowing limits for states to reforms in property taxes and user charges for water and sanitation.
- There is also a thrust on municipal bonds and municipal finance reform conditions under AMRUT.
3) Distinguishing between million-plus urban agglomerations, and other cities
- The XV FC has adopted an approach of distinguishing between million-plus urban agglomerations, and other cities.
- This is well-founded, based on the pattern of urbanisation in India, where 53 million-plus urban agglomerations comprising 250-plus municipalities account for approximately 44 per cent of the total urban population.
- The remaining 4,250-plus municipalities comprise 56 per cent of the total urban population.
- Of the remaining 56 per cent, there is a “long tail” of approximately 3,900 municipalities with 33 per cent of the total urban population.
- The XV FC has now provided for 100 per cent outcome-based funding of approximately Rs 9,000 crore to 50 million-plus urban agglomerations (excluding Union Territories) with specific emphasis on air quality, water supply and sanitation and basic grants to the rest of the cities, with 50 per cent of the end-use tied to water supply and sanitation.
- For the first time, there is also an acknowledgement of the metropolitan area as a unified theatre of action to solve complex challenges of air quality, water and sanitation, with implicit emphasis on inter-agency coordination.
4) Common digital platform for municipal accounts
- The report recommends a common digital platform for municipal accounts, a consolidated view of municipal finances and sectoral outlays at the state level, and digital footprint of individual transactions at source, the FC has broken new ground and demonstrated farsightedness.
Role of the state governments
- The ultimate responsibility for municipal finance reforms remains with state governments.
- Constitutional bodies such as the finance commission can, at best, prepare the ground and provide incentives and disincentives.
- We need municipal legislation to reflect progressive and enabling financial governance of our cities through five reform agendas:
- 1) Fiscal decentralisation including strengthening state finance commissions.
- 2) Revenue optimisation to enhance own revenues.
- 3) Fiscal responsibility and budget management to accelerate municipal borrowings.
- 4) Institutional capacities towards an adequately skilled workforce.
- 5) Transparency and citizen participation (for democratic accountability at the neighbourhood level).
- The first step needs to be predictable fiscal transfers from state governments to municipalities and other civic agencies on a formula-based approach as against the present practice of ad hoc, discretionary grants.
- State finance commissions would need to emulate the XV FC and its predecessors, and emerge as credible institutions.
- State governments need to ensure that state finance commissions are constituted on time, resourced right, and their recommendations taken seriously.
Consider the questions “Financial governance of our cities faces several challenges. Discuss the reforms that could transform the financial governance of municipalities”
Conclusion
The state government must act on these reform agenda and ensure the transformation of financial governance of their municipalities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Art 123, Art 213
Mains level: Not Much
The ordinance on unlawful religious conversions, promulgated by the UP government last year, has not been sent to the Centre for examination, according to a reply from the Union Home Ministry.
What is the news?
- The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) examines bills passed by State assemblies that are repugnant with Central laws before they get the President’s assent to become a law.
- This is done in accordance with Article 213 of the Constitution which provides for an ordinance making power of the Governor of a state.
What does Article 213 say?
- Governor of an Indian state draws ordinance making power from Article 21.
- This Article empowers the Governor to promulgate Ordinance, during the recess of the legislature, if circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action.
- To issue an Ordinance, the Governor must be satisfied with the circumstances that make it necessary for him to take immediate action.
- All Ordinances promulgated by the Governor in the State have the same effect and force as an Act of Legislature of the State.
- The Ordinance must be laid before the State Legislature when it reassembles and it must be upheld by the State legislature, failure to which the Ordinance would be invalid.
Governor CANNOT promulgate an ordinance if:
- The Ordinance has the provisions which of embodied in a bill would require President’s sanction.
- The Ordinance has the provisions which the governor would reserve as a Bill containing them for the President’s sanction.
- If an act of the State Legislature has the same provisions that would be invalid without the assent of the President.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which of the following are the discretionary powers given to the Governor of a State?
- Sending a report to the President of India for imposing the President’s rule
- Appointing the Ministers
- Reserving certain bills passed by the State Legislature for consideration of the President of India
- Making the rules to conduct the business of the State Government
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Centre’s scrutiny of ordinances
- MHA sends State bills for inter-ministerial consultation before they get the President’s nod.
- This is done only when it has repugnancy with central laws, deviates from national or central policy and when it can be challenged for legal and constitutional validity.
Controversy with UP’s ordinance
- The controversial ordinance was promulgated in November 2020 and so far more than 90 people, most of them minorities, have been booked.
- The law makes religious conversion a non-bailable offence, inviting penalties of up to 10 years in prison.
- It is on the ground if guilty is found to be effected for marriage or through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or other alleged fraudulent means.
- According to the Ordinance, in case of conversion done by a woman for the sole purpose of marriage, the marriage would be declared null and void.
Back2Basics: Ordinance
- Article 123 of the Constitution of India gives the power and authority to the President of India to issue an ordinance only when both the Houses of Parliament are not in session.
- In addition, it states that any ordinance can have the same force and effect as a statute of Parliament only if it is laid before both the houses of the Parliament.
- Further, Ordinance so made will hold good only for the duration of six weeks from the reassembly of Parliament.
- Article 213 mandates near-identical terms with respect to the ordinances on the subject of State authority.
- It is understood that the authority to issue ordinances shall be used only to meet the emergent demands arising out of extraordinary situations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MTP Bill
Mains level: Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) and associated issues
A panel of doctors to decide on the termination of pregnancy beyond 24 weeks as proposed in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Amendment Bill, 2020, is “unfeasible” as 82% of these posts are lying vacant in the country, finds a new study.
Q. What are the differing opinions with regards to the Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Amendment Bill, 2020? Discuss.
About the MTP Amendment Bill
The MTP Bill was passed in Lok Sabha in March 2020 and is likely to be brought before Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Budget Session. Its salient features included:
- Proposing requirement for the opinion of one provider for termination of pregnancy, up to 20 weeks of gestation and introducing the requirement of the opinion of two providers for termination of pregnancy of 20-24 weeks of gestation.
- Enhancing the upper gestation limit from 20 to 24 weeks for special categories of women which will be defined in the amendments to the MTP Rules and would include ‘vulnerable women including survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women (like differently-abled women, Minors) etc.
- Upper gestation limit not to apply in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities diagnosed by Medical Board. The composition, functions and other details of Medical Board to be prescribed subsequently in Rules under the Act.
- Anonymity of the person: Name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed except to a person authorised in any law for the time being in force.
Benefits sought with the bill
- It is seen as a step towards the safety and well-being of the women and many women will be benefitted by this.
- Recently several petitions were received by the Courts seeking permission for aborting pregnancies at a gestational age beyond the present permissible limit on grounds of foetal abnormalities or pregnancies due to sexual violence faced by women.
- The proposed increase in gestational age will ensure dignity, autonomy, confidentiality and justice for women who need to terminate the pregnancy.
Flaws in the bill
- The Bill allows abortion after 24 weeks only in cases where a Medical Board diagnoses substantial foetal abnormalities.
- This implies that for a case requiring abortion due to rape, that exceeds 24-weeks, the only recourse remains through a Writ Petition.
- The Bill does not specify the categories of women who may terminate pregnancies between 20-24 weeks and leaves it to be prescribed through Rules.
- The Act (and the Bill) require an abortion to be performed only by doctors with specialization in gynaecology or obstetrics.
- As there is a 75% shortage of such doctors in community health centres in rural areas, pregnant women may continue to find it difficult to access facilities for safe abortions.
Key Issues and Analysis
- There are differing opinions with regard to allowing abortions. One opinion is that terminating a pregnancy is the choice of the pregnant woman and a part of her reproductive rights.
- The other is that the state has an obligation to protect life, and hence should provide for the protection of the foetus.
- Across the world, countries set varying conditions and time limits for allowing abortions, based on foetal health, and risk to the pregnant woman.
- Several Writ Petitions have been filed by women seeking permission to abort pregnancies beyond 20-weeks due to foetal abnormalities or rape.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Decline of Mughal Empire
As the Assembly elections in West Bengal draw closer, the ‘insider-outsider’ theme has grown to become one of the topics of political debate. Bengali politicians have been terming outsider campaigners as ‘bargis’.
Bargis: Etymology of the term
- The term ‘Bargi’is of special significance in Bengal’s history.
- It is a reference to the several Maratha invasions of West Bengal between 1741 and 1751, which resulted in looting, plundering and massacres of what was then Mughal territory.
- The happenings of this specific period have affected Bengal’s consciousness so much that they have an established presence in Bengali folklore and literature.
- Today this term is used as a casual reference to troublesome outsider forces.
Who were the bargis?
- Simply speaking, the word bargi referred to cavalrymen in Maratha and Mughal armies.
- The word comes from the Persian “bargir”, literally meaning “burden taker”, notes historian Surendra Nath Sen in his 1928 work The Military System Of The Marathas.
- But in the Mughal and Maratha armies, the term signified a soldier who rode a horse furnished by his employer.
- In the Maratha cavalry, any able-bodied person could enlist as a bargir, unless he had the means to buy a horse and military outfit.
- Both the bargirs and silhedars were under the overall control of the Sarnobat (Persian for “Sar-i-Naubat”, or Commander in Chief).
Why did the Marathas raid Bengal?
- Maratha incursions into the Mughal province of Bengal (which included the regions of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa) between 1741 and 1751 came at a time of intense political uncertainty of then Mughal India.
- At the Maratha capital in Satara, Chhatrapati Shahu was trying in vain to resolve the differences between his two top power centres– the Peshwa dynasty of Pune and Raghoji I Bhonsale of Nagpur.
- As the Mughal Empire was crumbling by the 18th century, the two Maratha chieftains were scrambling to secure taxation rights in its far-flung regions, and violently disagreed over their spheres of influence.
- In Bengal – a Mughal Subah (subdivision) during this era– Nawab Subahdar Sarfaraz Khan had been overthrown by his deputy Alivardi Khan.
Try this PYQ:
What was the immediate cause for Ahmad Shah Abdali to invade and fight the Third Battle of Panipat:
(a) He wanted to avenge the expulsion by Marathas of his viceroy Timur Shah from Lahore
(b) The frustrated governor of Jullundhar Adina Beg khan invited him to invade Punjab
(c) He wanted to punish Mughal administration for non-payment of the revenues of the Chahar Mahal (Gujrat Aurangabad, Sialkot and Pasrur)
(d) He wanted to annex all the fertile plains of Punjab upto borders of Delhi to his kingdom
Stir within the Maratha empire
- After Khan’s inauguration, the provincial governor of Orissa, Zafar Khan Rustam Jung, more commonly known as Murshid Quli II, rebelled against the usurper.
- The revolt failed, and Jung enlisted Raghoji’s help to oust Khan.
- Raghoji was also motivated by internal politics within the Maratha camp, fearful as he was of Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao, also known as of Nana Saheb who trying to establish his claim over Bengal first at this time of political disturbance in the province.
Maratha invasions of Bengal
- The Marathas first entered the Mughal province in August 1741, when Raghoji’s infantry troops accompanied Mirza Baqar Ali, the son-in-law of Jung, to conquer Orissa.
- In 1743, the Bengal province faced the wrath of two Maratha armies – both, as it happened, at loggerheads with each other.
- The Peshwa forces proceeded further, committing all sorts of atrocities on the way in a land which they had ostensibly come to protect.
- Raghoji’s armies were also doing the same, but at least he had openly arrived as an invader.
Ousting the ‘local’ invaders
- Finally, in 1751, after remaining encamped in western Bengal for a significant amount of time, the Marathas reached an agreement with Alivardi Khan.
- The Nawab promised an annual tribute of 12 lakh rupees and the cession of Orissa to the Marathas. In return, the Bhonsales gave word to not return to Bengal.
Damage caused
- Ten years of Maratha invasions had crippled Bengal’s economy.
- The Dutch believed that 400,000 people had been killed. Losses of weavers, silk winders and those who cultivated mulberry were particularly high.
- Historian P J Marshall noted that people were so distressed that they would take flight even on imaginary alarms, and wander around.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Social stock exchange
Mains level: NGO/NPO and their financing solutions
The Economic Survey 2021 has backed setting up of Social Stock Exchange in India.
Q. What are Social Stock Exchanges? Discuss how it will help finance social enterprises in India.
What are Social Stock Exchanges (SSEs)?
- An SSE is a platform which allows investors to buy shares in social enterprises vetted by an official exchange.
- The Union Budget 2019 proposed setting up of first of its kind SSE in India.
- The SSE will function as a common platform where social enterprises can raise funds from the public.
- It will function on the lines of major stock exchanges like BSE and NSE. However, the purpose of the Social Stock Exchange will be different – not profit, but social welfare.
- Under the regulatory ambit of SEBI, a listing of social enterprises and voluntary organizations will be undertaken so that they can raise capital as equity, debt or as units like a mutual fund.
Why SSEs?
- India needs massive investments in the coming years to be able to meet the human development goals identified by global bodies like the UN.
- This can’t be done through government expenditure alone. Private enterprises working in the social sector also need to step up their activities.
- Currently, social enterprises are very active in India. However, they face challenges in raising funds.
- One of the biggest hurdles they face is, apparently, the lack of trust from common investors.
Benefits
- There is a great opportunity to unlock funds from donors, philanthropic foundations and CSR spenders, in the form of zero-coupon zero principal bonds. These bonds will be listed on the SSE.
- At first, the SSE could become a repository of social enterprises and impact investors.
- The registration could be done through a standard process.
- The SEs could be categorized into different stages such as as- Idea, growth stage and likewise, investors can also be grouped based on the type of investment.
Development so far
- The Economic Survey 2021 highlighted the concept of setting up a social stock exchange (SSE) in India.
- It will be under the regulatory ambit of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
- SEBI constituted a working group (WG) on social stock exchanges back in September 2019.
- The WG has outlined its vision and made recommendations, which include the participation of NPOs and for-profit enterprises (FPE) on SSE subject to committing to minimum reporting requirements.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CPI
Mains level: Prevalence of corruption in India
The Transparency International (TI)’s corruption perception index (CPI) was recently released for 2020.
Another set of useful data in news to be noted by aspirants. Such data are essential and need to be memorized. One must note here. Such data recur every year. So it is not a big task to deal with such numbers along with other critical indices.
About the Corruption Perception Index
- The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.
- It uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
Global prospects
- Denmark and New Zealand top the index, with 88 points. Syria, Somalia and South Sudan come last, with 14, 12 and 12 points, respectively.
- Nearly half of countries have been stagnant on the index for almost a decade, indicating stalled government efforts to tackle the root causes of corruption.
- More than two-thirds score below 50.
India’s performance
- The CPI score for India is constant this year as well as the previous year’s score.
- India’s rank is 86 out of 180 nations with a score of 40.
- It was ranked at 80th position out of 180 countries in 2019 with a score of 41.
A comparison with neighbours
- At 40, India’s score is below the average score of the Asia-Pacific region (31 countries) and global average, the CPI 2020 report stated.
- India’s overall score is also two points less than that of China, which docked at 78th position, with a score of 42.
- Pakistan, however, scored just 31 points, falling at the 144th position on the index.
What does it mean for India?
- India is still very low on corruption Index, the report said, noting that experts feel the CPI does not reflect the actual corruption level in any country.
- The integrity score determines the corruption situation of a country.
Recommendations made by TI
To reduce corruption and better respond to future crises, Transparency International recommends that all governments:
- Strengthen oversight institutions to ensure resources reach those most in need. Anti-corruption authorities and oversight institutions must have sufficient funds, resources and independence to perform their duties.
- Ensure open and transparent contracting to combat wrong-doing, identify conflicts of interest and ensure fair pricing.
- Defend democracy and promote civic space to create the enabling conditions to hold governments accountable.
- Publish relevant data and guarantee access to information to ensure the public receives easy, accessible, timely and meaningful information.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Neutrino, Supernovae
Mains level: NA
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in The Hindu.
Another space-based abstract terminology has appeared in TH.
What is the news about?
- Many stars, towards the end of their lifetimes, form supernovas – massive explosions that send their outer layers shooting into the surrounding space.
- Most of the energy of the supernova is carried away by neutrinos – tiny particles with no charge and which interact weakly with matter.
- Researching the mechanisms of the so-called Type II supernovas, a team from IIT Guwahati has come up with new insights into the part played by neutrinos in this dramatic death of massive stars.
What are Neutrinos?
- Proton, neutron, and electron are tiny particles that makeup atoms.
- The neutrino is also a tiny elementary particle, but it is not part of the atom.
- Neutrino has a very tiny mass, no charge and spins half.
- It interacts very weakly with other matter particles.
- Neutrinos come from the sun (solar neutrinos) and other stars, cosmic rays that come from beyond the solar system, and from the Big Bang from which our Universe originated.
- They can also be produced in the lab.
Their types
- Neutrinos come in three ‘flavours’, another name for ‘types’, and each flavour is associated with a light elementary particle.
- For instance, the electron-neutrino is associated with the electron; the muon-neutrino with the muon and the tau-neutrino with the tau particle.
What is Supernova?
- All the stars burn nuclear fuel in their cores to produce energy.
- The heat generates internal pressure which pushes outwards and prevents the star from collapsing inward due to the action of gravity on its own mass.
- But when the star ages and runs out of fuel to burn, it starts to cool inside.
- This causes a lowering of its internal pressure and therefore the force of gravity wins; the star starts to collapse inwards.
- This builds up shock waves because it happens very suddenly, and the shock wave sends the outer material of the star flying. This is what is perceived as a supernova. This happens in very massive stars.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Which of the following is/are cited by the scientists as evidence/evidence for the continued expansion of the universe?
- Detection of microwaves in space
- Observation of redshirt phenomenon in space
- Movement of asteroids in space
- Occurrence of supernova explosions in space code
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1, 3 and 4
(d) None of the above can be cited as evidence
The Type-II Supernova
- In stars that are more than eight times as massive as the Sun, the supernova is accompanied by a collapsing of the inner material of the dying star – this is also known as core-collapse supernova or Type II supernova.
Role of neutrinos
- The collapsing core may form a black hole or a neutron star, according to its mass.
- As they spew out of the raging supernova, the neutrinos can change from one flavour to another in a process known as neutrino oscillations.
- Due to the high density and energy of the supernova, it generates neutrino oscillations happening simultaneously over different energies (unlike normal neutrino oscillation), termed collective neutrino oscillation.
- The oscillation result may dramatically change when one allows the evolution with the angular asymmetry, the oscillations can happen at a nanosecond time scale, termed fast oscillation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Saturn's tilt
Mains level: NA
The tilt of the rotation axis of the gas giant Saturn may in fact be caused by its moons, space scientists have reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.
About Saturn
- Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter.
- It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine times that of Earth.
- It only has one-eighth the average density of Earth; however, with its larger volume, Saturn is over 95 times more massive.
Reasons for Saturn’s tilt
- Saturn’s axis interacted with the path of the planet Neptune and gradually tilted until it reached the inclination of 27 degrees observed today.
- This current tilt of Saturn’s rotation axis is caused by the migration of its satellites, and especially by that of its largest moon, Titan.
- Recent observations have shown that Titan and the other moons are gradually moving away from Saturn much faster than astronomers had previously estimated.
- By incorporating this increased migration rate into their calculations, the researchers concluded that this process affects the inclination of Saturn’s rotation axis.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which phenomenon has Venusian winds rotating 60 times faster than the planet below on the dark side?
(a) Super rotation
(b) Monrotation
(c) Dual rotation
(d) Macrrotation
Continuous tilting
- As its satellites move further away, the planet tilts more and more.
- In fact, Saturn’s axis is still tilting, and what we see today is merely a transitional stage in this shift.
- Over the next few billion years, the inclination of Saturn’s axis could more than double.
Why it matters?
- The decisive event that tilted Saturn is thought to have occurred relatively recently.
- For over three billion years after its formation, Saturn’s rotation axis remained only slightly tilted.
- It was only roughly a billion years ago that the gradual motion of its satellites triggered a resonance phenomenon that continues today.
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