Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kathak
Mains level: NA
Kathak legend Pandit Birju Maharaj has recently passed away.
About Kathak
- Kathak is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance.
- The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in of ancient northern India known as Kathakars or storytellers.
- The term Kathak is derived from the Vedic Sanskrit word Katha which means “story”, and Kathakar which means “the one who tells a story”, or “to do with stories”.
- Wandering Kathakars communicated stories from the great epics and ancient mythology through dance, songs and music.
Its origin
- Kathak dancers tell various stories through their hand movements and extensive footwork, their body movements and flexibility but most importantly through their facial expressions.
- It evolved during the Bhakti movement, particularly by incorporating the childhood and stories of the Hindu god Krishna, as well as independently in the courts of north Indian kingdoms.
- Kathak is unique in having both Hindu and Muslim gharanas and cultural elements of these gharanas.
- Kathak performances include Urdu Ghazals and commonly used instruments brought during the Mughal period.
Major gharanas
- Kathak is found in three distinct forms, called “gharanas”, named after the cities where the Kathak dance tradition evolved – Jaipur, Banaras and Lucknow.
- While the Jaipur gharana focuses more on the foot movements, the Banaras and Lucknow gharanas focus more on facial expressions and graceful hand movements.
Performance details
- It involves both Nritta (pure dance) and Nritya (expressive dance).
- Stylistically, the Kathak dance form emphasizes rhythmic foot movements, adorned with small bells (Ghungroo) and the movement harmonized to the music.
- The legs and torso are generally straight, and the story is told through a developed vocabulary based on the gestures of arms and upper body movement, facial expressions, neck movements, eyes and eyebrow movement, stage movements, bends and turns.
- The main focus of the dance becomes the eyes and the foot movements.
- The eyes work as a medium of communication of the story the dancer is trying to communicate. With the eyebrows the dancer gives various facial expressions.
- A Kathak performance can be solo, duo or team. In a technical performance, the speed and energy the dancers exchange with the audience increases in multiples, that is the tempo doubles or quadruples.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Web3
Mains level: Web and Blockchain technology
The concept of Web3, also called Web 3.0, used to describe a potential next phase of the internet, created quite a buzz in 2021.
What is Web3?
- The model, a decentralized internet to be run on blockchain technology, would be different from the versions in use, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
- In web3, users will have ownership stakes in platforms and applications unlike now where tech giants control the platforms.
Previous versions of Web
To understand web3, we should start with Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
[1] Web 1
- Web 1.0 is the world wide web or the internet that was invented in 1989. It became popular from 1993.
- The internet in the Web 1.0 days was mostly static web pages where users would go to a website and then read and interact with the static information.
- Even though there were e-commerce websites in the initial days it was still a closed environment and the users themselves could not create any content or post reviews on the internet.
- Web 1.0 lasted until 1999.
[2] Web 2
- Web 2.0 started in some form in the late 1990s itself though 2004 was when most of its features were fully available. It is still the age of Web 2.0 now.
- The differentiating characteristic of Web 2.0 compared to Web 1.0 is that users can create content.
- They can interact and contribute in the form of comments, registering likes, sharing and uploading their photos or videos and perform other such activities.
- Primarily, a social media kind of interaction is the differentiating trait of Web 2.0.
What are some of the concerns?
- In Web 2.0, most of the data in the internet and the internet traffic are owned or handled by very few behemoth companies ex. Google.
- This has created issues related to data privacy, data security and abuse of such data.
- There is a sense of disappointment that the original purpose of the internet has been distorted.
- It is in this context that the buzz around Web3 is significant.
Dawn of Web3
- Gavin Wood, founder of Ethereum, a block chain technology company, used the term Web3 first in 2014 and in the past few years many others have added to the idea of Web3.
- In 2021, owing to the popularity of crypto-currency, more discussions happened on Web3.
How will Web3 address the problems of data monopoly?
Web3 will deliver decentralized and fair internet where users control their own data.
- Currently if a seller has to make a business to the buyer, both the buyer and seller need to be registered on a “shop” or “platform” like Amazon or Ebay or any such e-commerce portal.
- What this “platform” currently does is that it authenticates that the buyer and seller are genuine parties for the transaction.
- Web3 would try to remove the role of the “platform”.
- For the buyer to be authenticated, the usual proofs aided by block chain technology will be used. The same goes for the seller.
How is blockchain technology used here?
- With block chain, the time and place of the transaction are recorded permanently.
- Thus, Web3 enables peer to peer (seller to buyer) transaction by eliminating the role of the intermediary. This concept can be extended to other transactions also.
- Consider a social media application where you want to share pictures with your followers.
- It could be a broadcast operation from you aided by blockchain and you don’t need social media accounts for all the participants to be able to perform this.
Another key feature: Decentralized Autonomous Organization
- The key concepts in Web3 seen so far are peer to peer transaction and block chain.
- The spirit of Web3 is Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
- DAO is all about the business rules and governing rules in any transaction are transparently available for anyone to see and software will be written conforming to these rules.
- Crypto-currency and block chain are technologies that follow the DAO principle.
- With DAO, there is no need for a central authority to authenticate or validate.
Will it take off?
- We don’t know yet if Web3 will become the dominant mode of handling the internet but the questions it raises are relevant.
- Web3 is in its very initial days and there is no consensus if it will take off like Web 1.0 or Web 2.0 did.
- There is much skepticism from top tech brains in the industry and the academic community that Web3 does not solve the problems it purports to solve.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Asiatic Cheetah
Mains level: Species reintroduction and related issues
Experts have argued that the introduction of African cheetahs to Kuno National Park could endanger the Asiatic lion which has also been identified for re-introduction.
Do you know?
Cheetahs had a more extensive distribution than lions — there are no records of lions occurring south of the Narmada River, but Asiatic cheetahs roamed most of India until they were hunted to extinction by 1947.
About Asiatic Cheetah
- Cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal was declared extinct in India in 1952.
- The Asiatic cheetah is classified as a “critically endangered” species by the IUCN Red List, and is believed to survive only in Iran.
- It was expected to be re-introduced into the country after the Supreme Court lifted curbs for its re-introduction.
- From 400 in the 1990s, their numbers are estimated to have reached to 50-70 today, because of poaching, hunting of their main prey (gazelles) and encroachment on their habitat.
Why reintroduce Cheetahs?
- Reintroductions of large carnivores have increasingly been recognized as a strategy to conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions.
- The cheetah is the only large carnivore that has been extirpated, mainly by over-hunting in India in historical times.
- India now has the economic ability to consider restoring its lost natural heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons.
Why was the project halted?
- The court was worried whether the African cheetahs would find the sanctuary a favorable climate as far as the abundance of prey is concerned.
- Those who challenged the plan argued that the habitat of cheetahs needed to support a genetically viable population.
Issues with cheetah re-introduction
- Since 2018, dozens of lions have died from diseases, including canine distemper, opening up a frightening possibility of loss when confined to a single location.
- Establishing an additional free-ranging wild lion population in Kuno is of paramount importance and roadblocks, if any, must be transparently addressed.
- Clearly, the introduction of African cheetahs cannot take precedence over translocating Asiatic lions from Gujarat to Kuno National Park as ordered by none other than the apex court in 2013.
- However, simultaneous re-introduction can create a conflict for prey between these two wild cats.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cryptocurrencies
Mains level: Carbon footprint of cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin prices are rising these days and so will be its mining. As cryptocurrency will become mainstream, its carbon footprint cannot be ignored.
What are Cryptocurrencies?
Cryptocurrency
Global crypto market
- In 2019, the global cryptocurrency market was approximately $793 million.
- It’s now expected to reach nearly $5.2 billion by 2026, according to a report by the market research organization Facts and Factors.
- In just one year—between July 2020 and June 2021—the global adoption of cryptocurrency surged by more than 880 percent.
Carbon footprints of Bitcoins
- Increasing popularity of cryptocurrency has environmentalists on edge, as the digital “mining” of it creates a massive carbon footprint due to the staggering amount of energy it requires.
- A/c to the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is equivalent to that of New Zealand.
- Both emit nearly 37 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.
What is Mining?
- Mining is a process in which computational puzzles are solved in order to verify transactions between users, which are then added to the blockchain.
- In simpler terms, the works are created, or “minted,” through a process called proof-of-work (PoW), which establishes its unique identity.
How do cryptocurrencies create such a footprint?
- Unlike mainstream traditional currencies, bitcoin is virtual and not made from paper or plastic, or even metal.
- Bitcoin is virtual but power-hungry as it is created using high-powered computers around the globe.
- Bitcoin is created when high-powered computers compete against other machines to solve complex mathematical puzzles.
- This is an energy-intensive process that often relies on fossil fuels, particularly coal, the dirtiest of them all.
Conclusion
- What this means is that, unlike traditional currency or gold, Bitcoin is not solely a settlement layer, not solely a store of value, and not solely a medium of exchange.
- This makes Bitcoin’s relative energy consumption productive in comparison to comparative sectors, given its robust potential uses.
- The promise of such an endeavor offers hope for a more sustainable cryptocurrency future.
- Whether this will make much difference to the climate crisis in light of government and industrial inaction remains to be seen.
Back2Basics: Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 5G technology
Mains level: Delay in roll-out of 5g
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked for views on band plan, block size, and conditions for auction of spectrum in 5G bands, which includes Millimetre (mm) Wave band of 24.25-28.5 GHz.
Must read:
Status of 5G Rollout in India
What is 5G technology?
- 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
- It’s a unified platform that is much more capable than previous mobile services with more capacity, lower latency, faster data delivery rate and better utilisation of spectrum.
5G spectrum
5G mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high-frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.
(1) Low band spectrum
- It has a great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange but the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
- So Telcos can use and install it for commercial cell phone users who may not have specific demands for very high speed internet, the low band spectrum may not be optimal for specialized needs of the industry.
(2) Mid-band spectrum
- It offers higher speeds compared to the low band, but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals.
- This band may be used by industries and specialized factory units for building captive networks that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry.
(3) High-band spectrum
- It offers the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
- Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G has been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (giga bits per second), while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.
What is Millimetre (mm) Wave Band?
- Millimetre Wave band or mmWave is a particular segment of radio frequency spectrum that range between 24 GHz and 100 GHz.
- This spectrum, as the name suggests, has a short wavelength, and is apt to deliver greater speeds and lower latencies.
- This in turn makes data transfer efficient and seamless as the current available networks work optimally only on lower frequency bandwidths.
Significance of this mm band
- 5G services can be deployed using lower frequency bands.
- They can cover greater distances and are proven to work efficiently even in urban environments, which are prone to interference.
- But, when it comes to data speeds, these bands fail to hit peak potential needed for a true 5G experience.
- So, mmWave is that quintessential piece in the 5G jigsaw puzzle for mobile service providers.
Concerns with inclusion of mm-band
- The mm bands have been preserved for satellite-based broadband services as per the decision taken by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
- Providing excess spectrum could pose a downside risk of the bands going unsold, or even worse, underutilised by terrestrial players at the expense of satellite-based service providers.
- Offering excessive spectrum will result in Indian citizens being denied the benefits of high-demand, advanced satellite broadband services.
- In addition to this, it will result in a massive loss to the Indian economy of up to $184.6 billion by 2030, along with the loss of foreign direct investment (FDI) and employment generation benefits.
How could this disrupt the satellite communication industry?
- Internet has largely been provided to users via fibre-optic based broadband connectivity or mobile network.
- Of late, another class of Internet vendors is showing up. These are satellite-based communication service providers.
- For example, SpaceX’s Starlink and Bharti Airtel’s OneWeb are some of the players in this market.
- This segment uses Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to provide broadband to both urban and rural users. Their service could also be used for weather predictions.
- The mm band had been the subject of controversy due to out-of-band emissions into the passive satellite band used for weather satellites at 23.6-24 GHz.
HeaWay ahead
- The allocation of mmWave band is critical to the satellite communication industry, which needs a stronger regulatory support to ensure that 5G operations don’t interfere with their existing operations.
- The industry body pointed to Europe’s “5G Roadmap”, which is built on the ITU’s decision to hold these bands for satellite-based broadband services.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TRP
Mains level: Read the attached story
Ratings by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) for the news channels will resume, after the organisation revised its procedures and protocols.
The ratings were suspended after the Mumbai police busted a racket involving a private channel’s efforts to tamper the TRPs.
Try this question:
Q.What do you mean by “TRP Journalism”? Discuss the loopholes in the present system of self-regulation in Indian media.
What is TRP?
- In simple terms, anyone who watches television for more than a minute is considered a viewer.
- The TRP or Target Rating Point is the metric used by the marketing and advertising agencies to evaluate this viewership.
- In India, the TRP is recorded by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) using Bar-O-Meters that are installed in televisions in selected households.
- As on date, the BARC has installed these meters in 44,000 households across the country. Audio watermarks are embedded in video content prior to broadcast.
- These watermarks are not audible to the human ear, but can easily be detected and decoded using dedicated hardware and software.
- As viewing details are recorded by the Bar-O-Meters, so are the watermarks.
What is BARC?
- It is an industry body jointly owned by advertisers, ad agencies, and broadcasting companies, represented by The Indian Society of Advertisers, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the Advertising Agencies Association of India.
- Though it was created in 2010, the I&B Ministry notified the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India on January 10, 2014, and registered BARC in July 2015 under these guidelines, to carry out television ratings in India.
How are the households selected?
- Selection of households where Bar-O-Meters are installed is a two-stage process.
- The first step is the Establishment Survey, a large-scale face-to-face survey of a sample of approximately 3 lakh households from the target population. This is done annually.
- Out of these, the households which will have Bar-O-Meters or what the BARC calls the Recruitment Sample are randomly selected. The fieldwork to recruit households is not done directly by BARC.
- The BARC on its website has said that the viewing behaviour of panel homes is reported to BARC India daily. Coincidental checks either physically or telephonically are done regularly.
Vigilance activities by BARC
- Certain suspicious outliers are also checked directly by BARC India.
- BARC India also involves a separate vigilance agency to check on outliers that it considers highly suspicious.
- And as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, these households rotate every year.
- This rotation is in such a manner that older panel homes are removed first while maintaining the representativeness of the panel.
- The Ministry guidelines further say that the secrecy and privacy of the panel homes must be maintained, and asked the BARC to follow a voluntary code of conduct.
What are the loopholes in the process?
- Several doubts have been raised on many previous occasions about the working of the TRP.
- As per several reports, about 70% of the revenue for television channels comes from advertising and only 30% from subscriptions.
- It is claimed that households were being paid to manipulate the TRP.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various air pollutants
Mains level: NAAQ standards
Delhi and most of the other non-attainment cities under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) have shown only a marginal improvement, said a new analysis released.
About NCAP
- The NCAP was implemented across India in 2019 to reduce particulate matter levels in 132 cities by 20-30% in 2024.
- Cities are declared non-attainment if they consistently fail to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) over a five-year period.
What are NAAQ standards?
- The mandate provided to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act empowers it to set standards for the quality of air.
- Hence the current National Ambient Air Quality Standards were notified in November 2009 by the CPCB.
- Prior to this, India had set Air Quality standards in 1994, and this was later revised in 1998.
- The 2009 standards further lowered the maximum permissible limits for pollutants and made the standards uniform across the nation.
- Earlier, less stringent standards were prescribed for industrial zones as compared to residential areas.
Pollutants covered:
- Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)
- Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2),
- Particulate Matter (size less than 10 µm) or PM 10
- Particulate Matter (size less than 2.5 µm) or PM2.5
- Ozone (O3)
- Carbon Monoxide (CO)
- Ammonia (NH3)
(Air Pollutants that most of us NEVER heard of:)
- Lead
- Benzene (C6H6)
- Benzo(a)Pyrene (BaP)
- Arsenic(As)
- Nickel (Ni)
Source: Arthpaedia
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Samba Cultivation
Mains level: NA
Around four lakh more acres have been brought under the Crop Insurance Scheme for the Samba Cultivation season of 2021-22 in Tamil Nadu.
What is Samba Cultivation?
- It is a Tamil name for paddy cultivation season.
- Other paddy seasons in Tamil Nadu include:
- Kuruvai: June-July
- Samba: August
- Late Samba / Thaladi: September- October
- Navarai: December- January
Back2Basics: Major crop seasons
(1) Kharif Crop
- Kharif crops, monsoon crops, or autumn crops are cultivated and harvested in the monsoon season.
- The farmers sow seeds at the beginning of the monsoon season and harvest them at the end of the season. i.e., between September and October.
- Kharif crops need a lot of water and hot weather for proper growth.
- Examples: Rice, Maize, Millet, Soybean, Arhar, Cotton. etc.
(2) Rabi Crop
- Rabi means spring in Arabic. Crops grown in the winter season [October to December] and harvested in the spring season [Aril-May] are called Rabi crops.
- These crops require a warm climate for germination and maturation of seeds and need a cold environment for their growth.
- Rain in winter spoils the Rabi crop but is good for the Kharif crop.
- Examples: Wheat, Gram, Barley, Peas, Oats, Chickpea, Linseed, Mustard, etc.
(3) Zaid Crop
- Zaid crops are grown between Kharif and Rabi Seasons, i.e., between March to June.
- They require warm, dry weather as a vital growth period and longer day length for flowering.
- Zaid crop is significant for farmers as it gives fast cash to the farmers and is also known as gap-filler between two chief crops, Kharif and Rabi.
- Examples: Cucumber, Pumpkin, Bitter gourd, Watermelon, Muskmelon, Sugarcane, Groundnut, Pulses, etc.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Veer Bal Divas
Mains level: Not Much
Prime Minister has declared that December 26 shall henceforth be marked as Veer Baal Diwas to pay homage to the courage of the Sahibzades, four sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the last Sikh guru.
What is the legend of Sahibzades?
- The word “Sahibzada” means “son” in Punjabi and is a term commonly used to refer to the 4 sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru.
- The week of 21 to 27 December is celebrated as the Sacrificial Week in memory of the four Sahibzadas who made sacrifices for the protection of Sikhism and Hinduism.
- Sahibzada Ajit Singh, Jujhar Singh, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh got martyrdom while saving their religious faiths against forceful conversion.
Their martyrdom: A backgrounder story
- After the establishment of the Khalsa Panth, Guru Gobind Singh left the fort of Sri Anandpur Sahib with his family on 20-21 December 1704 to fight the invasion by Aurgangzeb.
- The elder sahibzade Ajit Singh, Jujhar Singh stayed with Guru ji, while the younger sons Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh were with Mata Gujri ji.
- Subedar Wazir Khan of Sirhind arrested the two Sahibzades subsequently and lured them for religious conversion.
- In the end, it was announced to get them elected in the living walls.
- The rest two sahibzades got assassinated in the battle of Chamkaur (1705).
Implications of their martyrdom
- When the news of this reached Guruji, he wrote a zafarnama (letter of victory) to Aurangzeb, in which he warned Aurangzeb that the Khalsa Panth was ready to destroy your empire.
- Baba Banda Singh Bahadur took revenge for the martyrdom of Guruji’s Sahibzadas.
- He punished Wazir Khan for his deeds in Sirhind and established Sikh hegemony over the entire area.
- The result of this sacrifice was that later a large Sikh empire emerged under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
A historic event in Indian History
- This event is an important part of Indian history and the occasion of their martyrdom is remembered and commemorated both with great vigor and sorrow.
- The names of Sahibzades are reverently preserved and are recalled every time Ardas (prayer) of supplication is recited at a congregation or privately by an individual.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Synapses, Human Brain
Mains level: NA
Recent work by researchers at the National Centre of Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, has thrown light on what stimulates the synapses (connection of nerve cells) to form.
What are Synapses?
- Neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain connect by means of junctions known as synapses through which they transmit signals.
- There are two types of synapses – chemical and electrical:
(1) Chemical Synapse
- In this, there is a space of about 20 nanometres between two neurons, and the way they communicate is this: One neuron converts electrical signal into chemical signals.
- This chemical is released into the synaptic space and the receiving neuron converts the chemical signal back into an electrical signal.
(2) Electrical synapse
- In these synapses, the two neurons have a physical connection and the conversion of electrical to chemical need not occur, and they communicate directly.
- Electrical synapses are like a physical wire, communication is faster but they are also fewer in number.
Observing these synapses
- Researchers from TIFR-National Centre of Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, have chosen Zebrafish as a model organism to study this process.
- Zebrafish are transparent and neuron development in larval zebrafish can be observed from day to day by injecting a dye or by engineering the fish to express fluorescent proteins.
- It was observed that electrical synapses are formed before chemical synapses, they are like a blueprint in which neurons make a handshake. This results in the making of chemical synapses.
- Research on organisms such as leeches showed that if you remove electrical synapses, the chemical synapses do not form.
- However, the mechanism of how it happens in higher organisms such as vertebrates was not known.
What induces these synapses?
- The group observed that knocking out a particular protein known as the gap junction delta 2b (gjd2b) in the cerebellum of zebrafish affected levels of the enzyme CaMKII.
- Levels of CaMKII were seen to increase in the Purkinje neurons in the cerebellum.
- These neurons and the cerebellum itself control coordination of movements in the organism.
Why study this?
- In humans for example, excess abuse of alcohol leads to damage of these cells, which results in lack of coordination in movement.
- The cerebellum shows an evolutionary continuity in all vertebrates, so, too, the Purkinje neurons.
- Even though fish and humans diverged from a common ancestor about 500 million years ago, the cerebellum has been evolutionarily conserved.
- While zebrafish have about 300-400 Purkinje neurons, humans have thousands of these.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GDP computation and various terminologies
Mains level: National Income Accounting
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released the First Advance Estimates (FAE) for the current financial year (2021-22 or FY22).
Tap to read more about:
National Income Determination, GDP, GNP, NDP, NNP, Personal Income
What is GDP?
- GDP measures the monetary value of all goods and services produced within the domestic boundaries of a country within a timeframe (generally, a year).
- It is slightly different from the other commonly used statistic for national income — the GNP.
- The Gross National Product (GNP) measures the monetary value of all goods and services by the people and companies of a country regardless of where this value was created.
GDP estimates for FY22
- According to MoSPI, India’s GDP will grow by 9.2 per cent in 2020-21.
- Last financial year, FY21, the GDP had contracted by 7.3%.
What are the First Advance Estimates of GDP?
- The FAE, which were first introduced in 2016-17, are typically published at the end of the first week of January.
- They are the “first” official estimates of how GDP is expected to grow in that financial year.
- But they are also the “advance” estimates because they are published long before the financial year (April to March) is over.
- It is important to note that even though the FAE are published soon after the end of the third quarter (October, November, December), they do not include the formal Q3 GDP data.
- Q3 data is published at the end of February as part of the Second Advance Estimates (SAE).
Significance of FAE
- Budgetary calculations: Since the SAE will be published next month, the main significance of FAE lies in the fact that they are the GDP estimates that the Union Finance Ministry uses to decide the next financial year’s budget allocations.
- Basis for nominal GDP: From the Budget-making perspective, it is important to note what has happened to nominal GDP — both absolute level and its growth rate. That’s because nominal GDP is the actual observed variable.
Note: Real GDP, which is the GDP after taking away the effect of inflation, is a derived metric. All Budget calculations start with the nominal GDP.
Real GDP = Nominal GDP — Inflation Rate
The difference between the real and nominal GDP shows the levels of inflation in the year.
How are the FAE arrived at before the end of the concerned financial year?
Ans. Benchmark-Indicator method
- The FAE are derived by extrapolating (uses ratio and proportion) the available data.
- The approach for compiling the Advance Estimates is based on Benchmark-Indicator method.
- In this, the estimates available for the previous year (2020-21 in this case) are extrapolated using relevant indicators reflecting the performance of sectors.”
What are the main takeaways?
#1 GDP Growth
- At 9.2%, the real GDP growth rate for FY22 is slightly lower than most expectations, including RBI’s, which pegged it at 9.5%.
- These estimates are based on data before the rise of the Omicron variant.
#2 Role of high inflation
- For FY22, while real GDP (with 2011-12 base prices) will grow by 9.2%, nominal GDP (calculated using current market prices) will grow by a whopping 17.6%.
- The difference between the two growth rates — about 8.5 percentage points — is essentially a marker of inflation (or the rate at which average prices have increased in this financial year).
#3 Private consumption continues to struggle
- The FAE analyses the three main contributors to GDP — private consumption demand, investments in the economy, and government expenditures.
- It shows that while the latter two are expected to claw back to the pre-Covid level, the first engine will continue to stay in a slump.
#4 Average Indian is much worse off
- For the bulk of the Indian population, thus, aggregate data recovering to pre-Covid levels are largely academic.
- An average Indian has lost almost 2 years in terms of income levels and 3 years in terms of spending levels.
Try this PYQ:
Q. In the context of Indian economy, consider the following statements:
- The growth rate of GDP has steadily increased in the last five years.
- The growth rate in per capita income has steadily increased in the last five years.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Note: There can be no absolute answers to such questions unless the year is mentioned. Still try to substantiate your answer with the FY21 context.
Do post it here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gene sequencing, RTPCR
Mains level: COVID diagnosis
Omisure — India’s first home-grown testing kit has recently received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India.
About Omisure
- Omisure is an omicron detecting RT-PCR kit developed by the Mumbai-based Tata Medical and Diagnostics Ltd (TATA MD) in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
- It can differentiate the omicron strain of the novel coronavirus from the delta, alpha and the other variants in under four hours.
- It can diagnose this variant in a single step
How does it work?
- This new kit can identify the Omicron variant by targeting two regions of the S or the spike gene.
- This gene codes for the spike protein, which helps the novel coronavirus enter and infect human cells.
- The S, the Enveloped (E), and Nucleocapsid (N) genes are some of the targets of conventional RT-PCR tests.
- When it detects these genes, a patient sample is labelled positive. As omicron bears heavy mutations in the S gene, the RT-PCR can sometimes miss it.
- The absence of S gene likely indicates omicron’s presence.
- This is called S gene dropout or S gene target failure — and is one of the targets of Omisure.
How does Omisure compare with gene sequencing?
- Gene sequencing reads the order of nucleotides, which are the building blocks of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA).
- Despite being considered the gold standard, sequencing has a few limitations.
- It is slow, expensive and complicated. It is a multi-step process.
- It begins with extracting the virus’ RNA from patient samples, converting it into DNA, amplifying or multiplying it through RT-PCR before finally sending it for gene sequencing.
- This entire process can take as many as three days.
Back2Basics:
PCR Test for Diagnosis of the COVID-19
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ex Sea Dragon 22
Mains level: Maritime cooperations for Indo-Pacific
India is among the six Indo-Pacific nations participating in Exercise Sea Dragon 22.
Sea Dragon 22
- It is a multi-lateral anti-submarine warfare exercise in the Pacific Ocean hosted by the US.
- The exercise includes the navies of India, Australia, Canada, Japan, the US and South Korea.
- India, Japan, Australia and America are also part of the Quad, and also participate in the Malabar exercise.
- It includes in-flight training, ranging from tracking simulated targets to the final problem of tracking a live US Navy submarine.
Significance of the exercise
- The exercise is significant as almost all of the participating countries have strained relations with China.
- China is expanding its prowess in the Indo-Pacific under its Look West Policy.
Also, take time to read about all major exercises:
Various Defence Exercises in News
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Scheduled Banks, Payment Banks
Mains level: Banking system in India
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has informed that Airtel Payments Bank Ltd. has been categorized as a Scheduled Bank.
Why such a move?
- With this, the bank can now pitch for government-issued Requests for Proposals (RFP) and primary auctions.
- It can undertake both Central and State Government businesses participating in government-operated welfare schemes.
What are Scheduled Banks?
- Scheduled Banks refer to those banks which have been included in the Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in turn includes only those banks in this Schedule which satisfy the criteria laid down vide section 42(6)(a) of the said Act.
- Every Scheduled bank enjoys two types of principal facilities: it becomes eligible for debts/loans at the bank rate from the RBI; and, it automatically acquires the membership of clearing house.
- Banks not under this Schedule are called Non-Scheduled Banks
Types of Scheduled Banks
There are two main categories of commercial banks in India namely:
- Scheduled Commercial banks
- Scheduled Co-operative banks
Scheduled commercial Banks are further divided into 5 types as below:
- Nationalised Banks
- Development Banks
- Regional Rural Banks
- Foreign Banks
- Private sector Banks
Payment bank (currently four banks Airtel Payments Bank, Fino Payments Bank, India Post Payments Bank, Paytm Payments Bank have been granted Scheduled bank status).
Scheduled Co-operative banks are further divided into 2 types namely:
- Scheduled State Co-operative banks
- Scheduled Urban Co-operative banks
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indian Rock System
Mains level: NA
The Ministry of Science & Technology has inaugurated India’s first open rock museum displaying different types of rocks gathered from different States of ages ranging from 3.3 billion years to around 55 million years.
Rock System in India
Based on this complex and varied geological history, the Geological Survey of India has classified rock systems of the country into 4 major divisions:
- Archaean Rock System
- Dravidian Rock System
- Purana Rock System
- Aryan Rock System
[I] Archaean Rock System:
The Archaean group of rocks consists of two systems-(a) Achaean granites and gneisses, and (b) Dharwarian sedimentary:
Archaean Gneisses and Schists (pre-2500 million years)
- The Archean System contains the first formed rocks of the earth.
- The rocks are primarily gneisses and granites, having no marks of fossils.
- They often underlie the strata formed subsequently and the system is generally known as the basement complex or fundamental gneisses.
- The Archaean rocks cover two-thirds of peninsular India. They also occur in the roots of the mountain peaks all along the Greater Himalayas, trans-Himalayan ranges of Zaskar, Ladakh and Karakoram.
Dharwar System (2500-1800 million years ago)
- The weathering of the Archaean rocks yielded the earliest sediments and formed the oldest sedimentary strata, the Dharwar system.
- These are found today in metamorphic forms and do not contain fossils.
- These rocks occur in scattered patches in parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, central and eastern parts of Chotanagpur plateau, Meghalaya plateau, Aravalis, Himalayan region etc
Mineral contents:
- They contain gneisses (which range from granite to gabbro) and schists (crystalline rocks such as mica, talc etc.).
- These rocks have metallic and non-metallic minerals like copper, tin, graphite, lead, zinc, etc.
[II] Dravidian Rock System:
- This is also known as carboniferous rock system and formed during the Paleozoic era, i.e., from 600- 300 million years ago.
- They are not much abundant in India.
- They have plentiful fossils and beginning of coal formation can be seen in this period. The quality of carboniferous coal is high.
- They are found in extra- Peninsular regions of the Himalayas and the Gangetic plains.
Mineral content
- This type of rock system comprises of limestones, shale and quartzite and Mount Everest is formed of upper Carboniferous limestones.
- Most of the coal is not of the Carboniferous period, which is found in India.
- The meaning of Carboniferous in geology is coal-bearing.
[III] Purana Rock System:
The Purana rock system has two divisions: Cuddapah system and Vindhyan system. The word ‘Purana’ was used in place of a Proterozoic era in India.
Cuddapah Rock system:
- They are observed in Cuddapah districts of Andhra Pradesh.
- The non-fossiliferous clay, slates, sandstones and limestones were accumulated in the depression between two-fold mountains which is known as synclinal basins.
- They also have a large accumulation of building purpose cement grade limestones and quartzites.
- This type of rock contains ore of iron, cobalt, nickel, manganese etc.
Vindhya Rock System:
- This type of rock system is also ancient or old sedimentary rocks which are superimposed on the Archaean rock base and derived its name from Vindhya mountains.
- The recognition of fossils is negligible, only traces of few animal and plant life were found.
- This rock system has diamond-bearing regions from which Golconda and Panna diamond mined.
[IV] Aryan Rock System
The Aryan rock system in India has the following four subsystems:
- Gondwana rock system
- Jurassic Rock System
- Cretaceous system/ Deccan Trap
- Tertiary rock system
(1) Gondwana Rock System:
- These are found mainly in Raniganj, Jharia regions of Jharkhand, Damodar valley, Pench valley in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
- They are called so after the name of Gondwana tribe (indigenous people especially residing in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh region).
- In this type of rock system, you found metallic minerals like iron, manganese, uranium etc. other than coal.
- They have low carbon content as it is much younger than Carboniferous coal. These rocks have nearly 98% of India’s coal reserve.
(2) Jurassic Rock System
- During the latter part of Jurrasic when sea level rises as compared to land and shoreline moves towards ground or land which result in a flood. In geology, this phenomenon is called marine transgression.
- This gives rise to a thick series of shallow-water deposits kin Rajasthan and Kutch. Between the Guntur and Rajamundry, another transgression in the east coast of Peninsula.
- In Kuchchh, coral limestone, shales and conglomerates are found.
(3) Deccan traps
- These are formed by the flow of magma over the solidified rock system in layers.
- Deccan trap gets rise due to volcanic outburst over a major area of Peninsular India from the end of Cretaceous till the beginning of Eocene.
- The meaning of trap is “stair” or “step” in Swedish and called due to deposition of the volcanic outburst which has a flat top and steep sides.
- It is mainly found in parts of Kuchchh, Saurashtra, Maharashtra, the Malwa plateau and Northern Karnataka and presently cover near 5 lakh sq. Km.
- Regur, which is black soil, is formed due to the weathering of these rocks for a long time.
(4) Tertiary rock system
- The formation of this type of rock system occurs from 60 to 7 million years ago.
- It is the most noteworthy period in India’s geological history as the Himalayas were born and recent form came in this period.
Also read:
The Geological Structure of India
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Antrix
Mains level: Read the attached story
A Canadian court has ordered the seizure of more than $30 million worth of Airport Authority of India’s assets.
Background
- In 2005, Devas Multimedia signed an agreement with Antrix —a commercial arm of the IISRO —to provide multimedia services to mobile users using the leased S-band satellite spectrum to be provided by Antrix.
- In 2011, the UPA-2 government canceled this agreement on the ground that it needed the S-band satellite spectrum for national security and other social purposes.
- This led to arbitration between Antrix and Devas at the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) and two bilateral investment treaty (BIT) arbitrations. India lost all three disputes.
India’s non-compliance
- AAI and Air India are being targeted because they are Indian public sector entities with overseas assets and serve as a proxy for the government of India.
- The Canada court can do so through the concept of restrictive immunity.
- In the meanwhile, the National Company Law Tribunal (India) ordered the liquidation of Devas Multimedia on the ground that the affairs of the company were being carried on fraudulently.
Why did India cancel the deal?
- The scandal first came to light when in 2011, the news reported that there were some irregularities in the agreement between Antrix and Devas.
- They reported the findings of a draft audit report and pointed out discrepancies including financial mismanagement, conflict of interest, non-compliance of rules, and favoritism.
- This revelation came at the heel of the 2G spectrum scam which was condemned for the high level of corruption.
How can a Canadian court order the attachment of Indian assets?
- State immunity — a well-established principle of international law — shields a state and its property against legal proceedings in the courts of other countries.
- This covers immunity from both jurisdiction and execution.
- However, there is no international legal instrument in force dealing with state immunity in the municipal legal systems of different countries, which has created an international void.
- Consequently, countries have filled this void through their national legislations and domestic judicial practices on state immunity.
- Typically, prominent jurisdictions such as Canada follow the concept of restrictive immunity (a foreign State is immune only for sovereign functions) and not absolute immunity.
How can assets of AAI be seized when the claim is against India?
- In execution proceedings, assets of an entity can be seized if that entity is an alter ego of the State that fails to comply with the arbitral award.
- In other words, if the foreign sovereign exercises such extensive control over the entity, then the presumption that the entity has a separate corporate character is set aside.
- Thus, the Canadian court must have concluded that the Indian government extensively controls AAI.
What options does India have?
- The first option is to comply with the two adverse BIT awards. However, it is highly unlikely that India would do so.
- The second option is to challenge this decision in an appellate court in Canada as per Canadian law where India can try proving that the ‘extensive control requirement’ is not met in the case of AAI.
- However, state immunity from execution is purely a procedural hurdle to the enforcement of the BIT award.
- It cannot justify India’s breach of its international law obligations enshrined in the two BITs and the continued failure to comply with the arbitral awards.
Back2Basics: New Space India Limited (NSIL)
- It functions under the administrative control of the Department of Space (DOS).
- It aims to commercially exploit the research and development work of ISRO Centres and constituent units of DOS.
- The NSIL would enable Indian Industries to scale up high-technology manufacturing and production base for meeting the growing needs of the Indian space program.
- It would further spur the growth of Indian Industries in the space sector.
ANTRIX
- Antrix Corporation Limited (ACL), Bengaluru is a wholly-owned Government of India Company under the administrative control of the Department of Space.
- It is as a marketing arm of ISRO for promotion and commercial exploitation of space products, technical consultancy services and transfer of technologies developed by ISRO.
- Antrix is engaged in providing Space products and services to international customers worldwide.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 348
Mains level: Official language of Judiciary
A Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court has asked a convict to speak only in English as that was the language in the higher judiciary referring to Article 348 of the Constitution which mandates that the language of the High Court would be English.
What is Article 348?
- It provides for languages to be used in the Supreme Court and in the High Courts and for Acts, Bills, etc
- Article 348 (1) provides that all proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every High court shall be in English Language until Parliament by law otherwise provides.
- Under Article 348 (2), the Governor of the State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorize the use of the Hindi language or any other language used for any official purpose of the State.
- It states that in the proceedings of the High Court having its principal seat in that State provided that decrees, judgments or orders passed by such High Courts shall be in English.
When is use of other languages permitted?
- Section 7 of the Official Languages Act, 1963, provides that the use of Hindi or official language of a State in addition to the English language may be authorized.
- This has to be done with the consent of the President of India, by the Governor of the State for purpose of judgments etc. made by the High Court for that State.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Takhts in Sikhism
Mains level: Not Much
The Delhi Assembly has passed an amendment Bill to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1971, recognizing Takht Damdama Sahib as the fifth Takht of Sikhs.
What is a Sikh Takht?
- A Takht, which means a throne, is a seat of temporal authority for Sikhs.
- There are five Sikh Takhts, three in Punjab and one each in Maharashtra and Bihar.
(1) Akal Takht
- Located in Amritsar, it is the oldest of the Takhts, and considered supreme among the five.
- It was set up in 1606 by Guru Hargobind, whose succession as the sixth Guru after the execution of his father, Guru Arjan Dev, is considered a turning point in Sikh history.
- The Akal Takht, a raised platform that he built in front of the causeway leading to the sanctum sanctorum of the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple).
- It symbolised the coming together of the temporal authority and the political sovereignty of the Sikh community (miri) with the spiritual authority (piri).
- It is seen as the first marker of Sikh nationalism.
The other four Takhts are linked to Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru.
(2) Takht Keshgarh Sahib
- Located in Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. It was here that Guru Gobind Singh raised Khalsa, the initiated Sikh warriors, in 1699.
(3) Takht Patna Sahib
- Guru Gobind Singh was born here in 1666.
(4) Takht Hazur Sahib
- In Nanded, where Guru Gobin Singh spent time and where he was cremated in 1708.
(5) Takht Damdama Sahib
- In Talwandi Sabo of Bathinda. Guru Gobind Singh spent several months here.
What does the amendment to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act mean?
- Simply put, it adds one more ex officio member in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Managament Committee (DSGMC) house.
- Earlier, there were four ex officio members in the house — the chiefs (jathedars) of the other four Sikh Takhts.
Is it the first time it has been recognised as the fifth Takht?
- It was back in 1999 that Takht Damdama Sahib was recognised as the fifth Sikh Takht by the Union Home Ministry.
- It included it as such in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 (Punjab Act VIII of 1925) with a notification dated April 23, 1999.
- Before that, an SGPC sub-committee had declared it the fifth Takht of Sikhs back in November 1966 after Punjab was carved out as a separate state through the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966.
How politically significant is the move?
- It comes ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections, where the, Delhi’s ruling party, has high stakes.
What is the role of the Sikh Takhts?
- The Takhts are known to issue hukumnamas (morality orders) from time to time on issues that concern the Sikh community.
- Akal Takht is supreme among them because it is the oldest and was created by a Sikh Guru himself, say Sikh scholars.
- Any edict or order concerning the entire community is issued only from Akal Takht.
- It is from Akal Takht that Sikhs found to be violating the Sikh doctrine and code of conduct are awarded religious punishment (declared tankhaiya).
Who appoints the jathedars of the Takhts?
- The three Takhts in Punjab are directly controlled by the SGPC, which appoints the jathedars.
- The SGPC is dominated by SAD members.
- It is widely understood that SAD puts the final seal on the appointment of these three jathedars.
- The two Takhts outside Punjab have their own trusts and boards.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Types of vaccines
Mains level: Effectiveness of various vaccines against COVID
Vaccines like Biological E’s Corbevax and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin that are made by traditional methods are “just as effective” as the latest mRNA technology-based vaccines a/c to US scientists.
What are Vaccines?
- A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease.
- It typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins.
Types of Vaccines
There are several types of vaccines, including:
- Inactivated vaccines
- Live-attenuated vaccines
- Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines
- Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines
- Viral vector vaccines
[1] Inactivated vaccines
- Inactivated vaccines use the killed version of the germ that causes a disease.
- Inactivated vaccines usually don’t provide immunity (protection) that’s as strong as live vaccines.
- So you may need several doses over time (booster shots) in order to get ongoing immunity against diseases.
- Inactivated vaccines are used to protect against: Hepatitis A, Flu (shot only), Polio (shot only), Rabies etc.
[2] Live-attenuated vaccines
- Live vaccines use a weakened (or attenuated) form of the germ that causes a disease.
- Because these vaccines are so similar to natural infection that they help prevent, they create a strong and long-lasting immune response.
- Just 1 or 2 doses of most live vaccines can give you a lifetime of protection against a germ and the disease it causes.
- They need to be kept cool in refrigerated conditions.
- Live vaccines are used to protect against Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), Rotavirus, Smallpox, Chickenpox, Yellow fever
[3] Messenger RNA vaccines
- Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for decades and this technology was used to make some of the COVID-19 vaccines.
- mRNA vaccines make proteins in order to trigger an immune response.
- mRNA vaccines have several benefits compared to other types of vaccines, including shorter manufacturing times and, because they do not contain a live virus, no risk of causing disease in the person getting vaccinated.
How does mRNA vaccine work?
- The mRNA vaccines function differently from traditional vaccines.
- Traditional vaccines stimulate an antibody response by injecting a human with antigens.
- mRNA vaccines inject a fragment of the RNA sequence of a virus directly into the cells, which then stimulate an adaptive immune response mRNA fragment is a specific piece of the virus that carries instructions to build the antigen of the virus.
- An advantage of RNA vaccines is that they stimulate cellular immunity.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Western Disturbances
Mains level: Not Much
Under the influence of two consecutive western disturbances, New Delhi is in for a wet spell.
Western Disturbances
- A western disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings sudden winter rain to the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent.
- It is a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern driven by the westerlies.
- The moisture in these storms usually originates over the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.
- Extratropical storms are global phenomena with moisture usually carried in the upper atmosphere, unlike their tropical counterparts where the moisture is carried in the lower atmosphere.
- In the case of the Indian subcontinent, moisture is sometimes shed as rain when the storm system encounters the Himalayas.
- Western disturbances are more frequent and strong in the winter season.
Impact: Winter Rainfall and Extreme Cold
- Western disturbances, specifically the ones in winter, bring moderate to heavy rain in low-lying areas and heavy snow to mountainous areas of the Indian Subcontinent.
- They are the cause of most winter and pre-monsoon season rainfall across northwest India.
- An average of four to five western disturbances forms during the winter season.
Its significance
- Precipitation during the winter season has great importance in agriculture, particularly for the rabi crops.
- Wheat among them is one of the most important crops, which helps to meet India’s food security.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Consider the following statements:
- The winds which blow between 30°N and 60°S latitudes throughout the year are known as westerlies.
- The moist air masses that cause winter rains in the North-Western region of India are part of westerlies.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Post your answers here.
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