Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bomb Cyclone, Bombogenesis
Mains level: Not Much
Major cities such as New York and Boston in US are witnessing a “Bomb Cyclone” characterized by the explosive power of rapid drops in atmospheric pressure.
What is Bomb Cyclone?
- A bomb cyclone is a large, intense mid-latitude storm that has low pressure at its center, weather fronts and an array of associated weather, from blizzards to severe thunderstorms to heavy precipitation.
- It becomes a bomb when its central pressure decreases very quickly—by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.
- When a cyclone “bombs,” or undergoes bombogenesis, this tells us that it has access to the optimal ingredients for strengthening, such as high amounts of heat, moisture and rising air.
Why is it called a bomb?
- Most cyclones don’t intensify rapidly in this way.
- Bomb cyclones put forecasters on high alert, because they can produce significant harmful impacts.
Its etymology
- The word “bombogenesis” is a combination of cyclogenesis, which describes the formation of a cyclone or storm, and bomb, which is, well, pretty self-explanatory.
- This can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters.
- The formation of this rapidly strengthening weather system is a process called bombogenesis, which creates what is known as a bomb cyclone.
How does it occur?
- Over the warmer ocean, heat and moisture are abundant.
- But as cool continental air moves overhead and creates a large difference in temperature, the lower atmosphere becomes unstable and buoyant.
- Air rises, cools and condenses, forming clouds and precipitation.
Where does it occur the most?
- The US coast is one of the regions where bombogenesis is most common.
- That’s because storms in the mid-latitudes – a temperate zone north of the tropics that includes the entire continental US – draw their energy from large temperature contrasts.
- Along the US East Coast during winter, there’s a naturally potent thermal contrast between the cool land and the warm Gulf Stream current.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAA
Mains level: Paper 2- Pendency of important cases
Context
Unless the Court strives in every possible way to assure that the Constitution, the law, applies fairly to all citizens, the Court cannot be said to have fulfilled its custodial responsibility.
Landmark judgments
- In the last few years, the Indian Supreme Court has delivered some judgments of far-reaching consequence.
- It declared the right to privacy a fundamental right; decriminalized consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex; recognized transgender persons as the third gender; and outlawed triple talaq.
- These decisions shore up the belief in republican values like liberty and equality reified in our Constitution.
Important cases pending in the Supreme Court
- Constitutionality of CAA: Many petitions were filed before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, that provides non-Muslim communities from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan a fast-track route to Indian citizenship.
- More than two years later, the matter continues to languish in the apex court.
- Dilution of Article 370: Innumerable petitions have been filed challenging the Presidential Order of August 5, 2019, that effectually diluted Article 370 of the Constitution.
- To date, the court has done precious little to decide this vexed question of law.
- Constitutionality of 103rd amendment: Petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Constitution(One Hundred and Third Amendment)Act,2019 that provides reservations in public educational institutions and government jobs for economically weaker sections are also languishing in the Supreme Court.
- Challenges to the electoral bond scheme: The Supreme Court has failed to accord proper hearing in the last four years to the constitutional challenge to the electoral bonds scheme.
Conclusion
Unless the Court strives in every possible way to assure that the Constitution, the law, applies fairly to all citizens, the Court cannot be said to have fulfilled its custodial responsibility”.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- P5 joint statement on nuclear weapons
Context
The leaders of five nuclear-weapons States — the US, Russia, China, the UK, and France, also known as the P5 issued a joint statement on preventing nuclear war and avoiding the ongoing global arms race.
Overview of the P5 statement
- It is not a binding resolution and reiterates some of the core obligations of the NPT.
- The P5 statement reaffirms that a “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought” because of its “far-reaching consequences”.
- The statement also expresses a commitment to the group’s Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) obligations and “to prevent the unauthorized or unintended use of nuclear weapons”.
- Declaring that an arms race would benefit none and endanger all, the P5 have undertaken to:
- (1) work with all states to create a security environment more conducive to progress on disarmament with the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons.
- (2) continue seeking bilateral and multilateral diplomatic approaches to avoid military confrontations, strengthen stability and predictability, increase mutual understanding and confidence”.
- (3) pursue “constructive dialogue with mutual respect and acknowledgment of each other’s security interests and concerns”.
Bold action on 6 measures
- Bold action on six fronts is necessary.
- 1) Chart a path for nuclear disarmament: That member states should chart a path forward on nuclear disarmament.
- 2) Transparency and dialogue: They should agree to new measures of “transparency and dialogue”.
- 3) Address nuclear crises: They should address the “simmering” nuclear crises in the Middle East and Asia.
- 4) Strengthen global bodies: They should strengthen the existing global bodies that support non-proliferation, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
- 5) Peaceful use of nuclear technology: They should promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
- 6) Elimination of nuclear weapons: they should remind “the world’s people that eliminating nuclear weapons is the only way to guarantee that they will never be used.
Peace education and the right to peace
- Peace is necessary for rights, freedom, equality, and justice, and for that reason, we need what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. called “education in the obvious”— namely, peace education.
- This is required at multiple levels, ranging across the planetary, global, supranational, regional, national, and local levels of social cognition and action.
- UN Resolution 39/11 (November 12, 1984) proclaims that the peoples of our planet have a sacred right to peace and equally solemnly declares that the “preservation of the right of peoples to peace and the promotion of its implementation constitute a fundamental obligation of each State”.
- The subsequent UN Resolution 53/243 B, declaring a program of action for a culture of peace (1999) also owes a great deal to Gandhi’s legacy and mission.
Conclusion
The statement is politically significant given the unimaginable danger posed by the 13,000 nuclear weapons currently believed to be held by a handful of countries, and the growing specter of loose nukes, which may be deployed by armed terrorist groups for nefarious purposes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Adapting to geopolitical and geoeconomic changes
Context
As India returns to a high growth path after a slowdown in the last decade, its geopolitical salience in the world will continue to rise.
India’s growth story
- Today, India’s GDP is $3.1 trillion and could cross, according to some estimates, $8 trillion by the end of this decade.
- India’s total trade, which was about $38 billion in 1991-92, is expected to touch $1.3 trillion this year.
- This is about 40 percent of India’s GDP and underlines the fact that India is more deeply tied to the world than ever before.
- The world itself is in a geo-economic churn making the transition to $8 trillion a challenging one.
Geo-economic and geopolitical changes in the global order
Geo-economic changes
- It was Edward Luttwak, the well-known American strategist, who triggered a global discourse on the idea of geoeconomics in a seminal article in 1990 amidst the end of the Cold War.
- Using economic dominance for political gain: The rapid economic rise of China in the last three decades and Beijing’s success in leveraging its growing economic clout for political gain is widely seen as a classic example of geoeconomics.
- Economic interdependence: Luttwak’s warning against illusions of economic interdependence and globalization have been borne out by major changes in US-China relations in recent years.
- The dramatic expansion of economic interdependence between China and America over the last four decades — what some called “Chimerica” — was the principal evidence for the thesis that geopolitics and ideology no longer mattered.
- Chimerica was held up as an efficient economic fusion that underscored the virtues of economic globalization.
- However, economic nationalism has re-emerged in both countries today.
- The US is also strengthening domestic research and industrial capabilities to compete more effectively with China.
- China too has adopted the economic strategy of “dual circulation” that focuses on strengthening domestic capabilities and reducing exposure to external factors.
How geopolitical and geoeconomic changes are influencing India’s free trade policies
- At the end of 2019, India has walked out from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) suggesting that the costs of joining a China-centered regional economic order are unacceptable.
- Deepening engagement with complementary economies: India’s move towards free trade agreements with countries like Australia, Britain, UAE, and Israel.
- Domestic orientation: Much like the US and China, India is now taking a number of initiatives to promote domestic manufacturing in a range of sectors under the banner of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.
Way forward for India
- Until now, India had the luxury of treating its foreign, economic, and strategic policies as separate domains.
- An integrated approach to policies: Adapting to the current global geo-economic churn demands that Delhi finds better ways to integrate its financial, trade, technological, security, and foreign policies.
- Above all India needs a strategy that can respond to the imperatives of building domestic capabilities, developing geo-economic partnerships, and constructing geopolitical coalitions with like-minded countries.
Consider the question “How the current geo-political and geo-economic policies are shaping India’s trade policies? Suggest the approach India need to adapt to the structural changes taking place in the global order?”
Conclusion
India’s selective trade arrangements and the policies to promote domestic manufacturing have drawn much criticism. While those arguments must continue, they must be related more closely to the structural changes in the international economic order.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IBC, UNCITRAL
Mains level: Resolving cross-border insolvency
The Economic Survey 2021-22 has called for a standardized framework for cross-border insolvency as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) at present does not have an instrument to restructure firms involving cross-border jurisdictions.
What is the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)?
- The IBC, 2016 is the bankruptcy law of India that seeks to consolidate the existing framework by creating a single law for insolvency and bankruptcy.
- It is a one-stop solution for resolving insolvencies which previously was a long process that did not offer an economically viable arrangement.
- The code aims to protect the interests of small investors and make the process of doing business less cumbersome.
Cross-border insolvency proceedings
- Cross-border insolvency proceedings are relevant for the resolution of distressed companies with assets and liabilities across multiple jurisdictions.
- A framework for cross border insolvency proceedings allows for:
- Location of such a company’s foreign assets
- Identification of creditors and their claims
- Establishing payment towards claims and
- Process for coordination between courts in different countries
Current status of foreign stakeholders and courts in other jurisdictions under IBC
- Foreign creditors can make claims against a domestic company.
- However, the IBC currently does not allow for automatic recognition of any insolvency proceedings in other countries.
- Current provisions do not allow Indian courts to address the issue of foreign assets of a company being subjected to parallel insolvency proceedings in other jurisdictions.
What is the UNCITRAL Model?
- The UNCITRAL model is the most widely accepted legal framework to deal with cross-border insolvency issues.
- It has been adopted by 49 countries, including the UK, the US, South Africa, South Korea, and Singapore.
- It is designed to assist States in reforming and modernizing their laws on the arbitral procedure so as to take into account the particular features and needs of international commercial arbitration.
Key provisions
This law works on four main principles: access, recognition, cooperation and coordination:
- Direct access to foreign insolvency professionals and foreign creditors to participate in or commence domestic insolvency proceedings against a defaulting debtor.
- Recognition of foreign proceedings & provision of remedies.
- Cooperation between domestic and foreign courts & domestic and foreign insolvency practitioners.
- Coordination between two or more concurrent insolvency proceedings in different countries: The main proceeding is determined by the concept of Centre of Main Interest (COMI).
Implications for India
- The framework for cross-border insolvency adopted in India may like in the case of some other countries require reciprocity from any country which seeks to have its insolvency proceedings recognised by Indian courts.
- This would allow Indian proceedings for foreign corporate debtors to be recognised in foreign jurisdictions.
How is IBC different from the model law?
- Many countries that adopt the UNCITRAL model law do make certain changes to suit their domestic requirements.
- The Indian cross-border insolvency framework excludes financial service providers from being subjected to cross-border insolvency proceedings.
- This is because many countries exempt businesses providing critical financial services, such as banks and insurance companies, from the provisions of cross-border insolvency frameworks.
Back2Basics: UNCITRAL
- It is an affiliate organization to the UN made up of business and legal professionals.
- This group develops model standards and procedures for dealing with issues affecting international business.
- Perhaps most notably, UNCITRAL promulgated the Convention on International Sale of Goods (CISG).
- The CISG is a model law commonly used as the governing provisions in contracts between parties from different nations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: DLI scheme
Mains level: Electronic manufacturing in India
India has invited applications from 100 domestic companies, startups, and small and medium enterprises to become a part of the design-linked incentive (DLI) scheme.
What is the DLI scheme?
- Aims to provide financial and infrastructural support to companies setting up fabs or semiconductor making plants in India.
- It aims to attract existing and global players as it will support their expenditures related to design software, IP rights, development, testing, and deployment.
- Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), a scientific society operating under MeitY, will serve as the nodal agency for the implementation of the DLI scheme.
Components of the scheme
It has three components which are
- Chip Design infrastructure support: C-DAC will set up the India Chip Centre to host the state-of-the-art design infrastructure (viz. EDA Tools, IP Cores, and support for MPW (Multi Project Wafer fabrication) & post-silicon validation) and facilitate its access to supported companies.
- Product Design Linked Incentive: Reimbursement of up to 50% of the eligible expenditure subject to a ceiling of Rs. 15 Crore per application will be provided as financial support to the approved applicants who are engaged in semiconductor design.
- Deployment Linked Incentive: An incentive of 6% to 4% of net sales turnover over 5 years subject to a ceiling of Rs. 30 Crore per application will be provided to approved applicants whose semiconductor design for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked design are deployed in electronic products.
Why need such a scheme?
Ans. Growing semiconductor demand in India
- The semiconductor industry is growing fast and can reach $1 trillion dollars in this decade. India can grow fast and reach $64 billion by 2026 from $27 billion today.
- Mobiles, wearables, IT, and industrial components are the leading segments in the Indian semiconductor industry contributing around 80% of the revenues in 2021.
- The mobile and wearables segment is valued at $13.8 billion and is expected to reach $31.5 billion in 2026.
A boost to semiconductor manufacturing
- The sudden surge in demand for chips and semiconductor components has underpinned the need to establish a robust semiconductor ecosystem in India.
- Several sectors, including auto, telecom, and medical technology suffered due to the unexpected surge leading to the scarcity of chips manufactured by only a few countries.
- The inception of new companies will help in meeting the demand and supply and encourage innovation in India.
What are other countries doing to be dominant in the race of chip-making?
- Currently, semiconductor manufacturing is dominated by companies in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel, and the Netherlands.
- They are also making efforts in solving the chip shortage problem.
- The US wants to bring manufacturing back to America and reduce the country’s reliance on a small number of chipmakers based largely in Taiwan and South Korea.
- These chipmakers produce up to 70% of the world’s semiconductors.
Challenges in India
- No incubation: In India, more than 90% of global companies already have their R&D and design centers for semiconductors but never established their fabrication units.
- Strategic sector: Although India has semiconductor fabs in Mohali and Bangalore, they are purely strategic for defense and space applications only
- Capital requirement: Setting up fabs is capital intensive and needs investment in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion.
- Lack of supportive policies: Lack of investments and supportive government policies are some of the challenges to setting up fabs in India.
- Geopolitical limitations: A combination of capital and the geopolitical situation comes into play to build new fabs.
Way forward
- Further incentivization: Schemes like the DLI are crucial to avoid high dependencies on a few countries or companies.
- Raw material supply: Several gases and minerals which are a part of the global semiconductor supply chain are produced in India.
- Large talent pool: Availability of highly-skilled engineers for semiconductor manufacturing.
Conclusion
- The 21st century will be an era of Digital revolution signifying an increased use of mobile phones and computer devices. This enhanced usage can be met only with a robust availability of semiconductor chips that sustains their functioning. Therefore India needs to focus on the indigenous development of semiconductors in order to realize its digital potential and emerge as a strong power in the present era.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Thirukkural
Mains level: Ancient sangam literature
President Ram Nath Kovind quoted a couplet from Thirukkural while addressing the joint Houses of Parliament for Budget Session.
What did the President quote?
- ‘Karka Kasadara Karpavai Kattrapin Nirka Atharku Thaka’ was the couplet chosen by him to reiterate the importance of the New Education Policy.
- The couplet insists on thorough and flawless learning and adhering to what one has learnt.
What is Thirukkural?
- The Tirukkuṟaḷ (meaning ‘sacred verses’), or shortly the Kural, is a classic Tamil language text consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or kurals, of seven words each.
- The text is divided into three books with aphoristic teachings on virtue (aram), wealth (porul) and love (inbam), respectively.
- Considered one of the greatest works ever written on ethics and morality, it is known for its universality and secular nature.
Three major parts of the book
- Aram : Book of Virtue (Dharma), dealing with moral values of an individual and essentials of yoga philosophy
- Porul : Book of Polity (Artha), dealing with socio-economic values, polity, society and administration
- Inbam: Book of Love (Kama), dealing with psychological values and love
Who authored it and when?
- Its authorship is traditionally attributed to Valluvar, also known in full as Thiruvalluvar.
- The text has been dated variously from 300 BCE to 5th century CE.
- The traditional accounts describe it as the last work of the third Sangam, but linguistic analysis suggests a later date of 450 to 500 CE and that it was composed after the Sangam period.
Cultural significance of Thirukkural
- The Kural is traditionally praised with epithets and alternative titles, including “the Tamil Veda” and “the Divine Book.”
- Written on the foundations of ahimsa, it emphasizes non-violence and moral vegetarianism as virtues for an individual.
- In addition, it highlights truthfulness, self-restraint, gratitude, hospitality, kindness, goodness, duty, giving, and so forth.
- It covers a wide range of social and political topics such as king, ministers, taxes, justice, forts, war, greatness of army and soldier’s honor.
- It emphasizes death sentence for the wicked, agriculture, education, abstinence from alcohol and intoxicants.
- It also includes chapters on friendship, love, sexual unions, and domestic life.
Read these quotes and bookmark them. They can be used in essays:
- Nothing is impossible for those who act after wise counsel and careful thought.
- Real kindness seeks no return.
- The only gift is giving to the poor; All else is exchange.
- Friendship with the wise gets better with time, as a good book gets better with age.
- Worthless are those who injure others vengefully, while those who stoically endure are like stored gold.
- Among a man’s many good possessions, A good command of speech has no equal. Prosperity and ruin issue from the power of the tongue. Therefore, guard yourself against thoughtless speech.
- A fortress is of no use to cowards.
- Even the ignorant may appear very worthy, If they keep silent before the learned.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas
Mains level: Temple architecture of India
The Hoysala Temples of Belur, Halebid and Somnathapura in Karnataka have been finalized as India’s nomination for consideration as World Heritage for the year 2022-2023.
Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas
- The sacred ensembles of the Hoysalas are extraordinary expressions of spiritual purpose and vehicles of spiritual practice and attainment.
- The sacred ensembles of the Hoysalas at Belur and Halebid are the finest, most exquisite, and most representative examples of the artistic genius and cultural accomplishments of the Hoysalas remaining today.
[I] Belur: Chennakeshava Temple Complex
- The Chennakeshava temple complex was at the center of the old walled town located on the banks of the Yagachi River.
- The complex itself was walled in a rectangular campus with four rectilinear streets around it for ritual circumambulation of the deity.
- Construction of the temple commenced in 1117 AD and took a 103 years to complete.
- The temple was devoted to Vishnu.
- The richly sculptured exterior of the temple narrate scenes from the life of Vishnu and his reincarnations and the epics, Ramayana, and Mahabharata.
- However, some of the representations of Shiva are also included.
- Consecrated on a sacred site, the temple has remained continuously worshipped since its establishment and remains until today as a site of pilgrimage for Vaishnavites.
[II] Halebid: Hoysaleshwara Temple
- At the zenith of the Hoysala empire, the capital was shifted from Belur to Halebid that was then known as Dorasamudhra.
- The Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebidu is the most exemplary architectural ensemble of the Hoysalas extant today.
- Built in 1121CE during the reign of the Hoysala King, Vishnuvardhana Hoysaleshwara.
- The temple, dedicated to Shiva, was sponsored and built by wealthy citizens and merchants of Dorasamudra.
- The temple is most well-known for the more than 240 wall sculptures that run all along the outer wall.
- Halebid has a walled complex containing of three Jaina basadi (temples) of the Hoysala period as well as a stepped well.
[III] Somnathpur: Kesava Temple
- The Keshava temple at Somanathapura is another magnificent Hoysala monument, perhaps the last.
- This is a breathtakingly beautiful Trikuta Temple dedicated to Lord Krishna in three forms – Janardhana, Keshava and Venugopala.
- Unfortunately, the main Keshava idol is missing, and the Janardhana and Venugopala idols are damaged.
- Still this temple is worth a visit just to soak in the artistry and sheer talent of the sculptors who created this magnificent monument to the Divine.
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