Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Slender Loris
Mains level: Various endemic species of India
The Kadavur hills in central Tamil Nadu’s Karur district are home to the Kadavur Reserve Forest. These forests are home to the shy and reclusive slender loris, a species of primate.
Slender Loris
- Slender loris (Loris tardigradus) is secretive and has nocturnal habits. It usually travels from the canopy of one tree to another. But, at times, it also comes down to bushes at the ground level to feed.
- It is also found in the adjoining forest areas on the eastern, southern and western slopes of the Kadavur hills.
- It sleeps by day in the foliage or in a hole or crevice. It comes out at dusk in search of prey.
- They are fond of lantana berries and also eat insects, lizards, small birds, tree frogs, tender leaves and buds.
- They are usually solitary but sometimes found in pairs.
Conservation
- The slender loris has been listed as ‘Endangered’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
- It has been brought under Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 in order to provide the highest level of legal protection.
Threats
- As it is believed that these animals have some medicinal properties, they are captured and sold.
- Since there is great demand for keeping these animals as pets, they are illegally smuggled.
- Habitat loss, electrocution of live wires, and road accidents are other threats that have caused its populations to dwindle.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various Naga tribes
Mains level: Tribal assertiveness in NE region
The Parliament has passed a bill that seeks to amend the nomenclature of certain tribes from Arunachal Pradesh mentioned in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950.
What does the Bill amend?
- The Bill seeks to modify Part-XVIII of the Schedule to the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950.
- Part-XVIII lists 16 tribes of Arunachal, in order: Abor, Aka, Apatani, Nyishi, Galong, Khampti, Khowa, Mishmi [Idu, Taroon], Momba, Any Naga tribes, Sherdukpen, Singpho, Hrusso, Tagin, Khamba, and Adi.
- The Bill corrects the names of tribes spelled incorrectly and adds names of a few tribes that were either named ambiguously or had their parent group named only.
Why is it significant?
- Self-identification: It is an essence for much-needed respect for small indigenous communities in the Northeast.
- Indigenous nomenclature of tribes: This has been a long-standing demand in Arunachal Pradesh for two reasons: for the recognition of individual identity and to do away with the ambiguity as a result of errors in their names.
- Identity assertion: For long, communities — whether civil society members or student leaders — have demanded that they must be known by their respective names.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gati Shakti Master Plan
Mains level: Infrastructure development
In his I-day speech, the PM has announced a ₹100 lakh crore “Gati Shakti” infrastructure plan.
What is Gati Shakti Master Plan?
- The PM has pegged the project as a source of employment opportunities for the youth in the future.
- The plan will make a foundation for holistic infrastructure and give an integrated pathway to our economy.
- More details and the launch date of the project are awaited.
What are the focus areas of the project?
- The Gati Shakti plan will help raise the global profile of local manufacturers and help them compete with their counterparts worldwide.
- It also raises possibilities of new future economic zones.
- The PM also said that India needs to increase both manufacturing and exports.
Why need such a plan?
- The push for infrastructure is in line with the government’s efforts to step up capital expenditure in infrastructure to promote economic growth.
- Infrastructure development has the ability to create a multiplier effect with every rupee invested, yielding much higher returns.
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Back2Basics:
National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Karez/ Qanat
Mains level: Not Much
The Taliban are set to seize Kabul, but some expert believes they will spare the age-old Karez system of underground aqueducts in the country given its importance.
What is a Qanat / Karez?
- This system of underground vertical shafts in a gently sloping tunnel that is built from an upland aquifer to ground level.
- Some historians and archaeologists have attributed people in the southeast Arabian Peninsula as the first developers. Others, however, ascribe it to the ancient Persians.
- The Qanat / Karez system, wherever it was developed, soon spread to many Persian, Arab and Turkic lands.
- It even came to the Indian Subcontinent during the 800-year-old Islamic Period.
Karez in India
- The system was brought in the Indian Subcontinent during the Bahamani Sultanate, founded by Alaudin Bahman Shah.
- It later broke into five other Sultantates: Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar and Berar.
- The Bahamani Sultanate was Persianate in nature and encouraged many things Persian, among them, the Karez.
- They was built in the city of Bidar during the reign of Bahamani Sultan Ahmad Shah Wali (1422-1436), who shifted the capital from Gulbarga to Bidar.
- By the 15th century, Bijapur city had a network of pipelines. Everyone got 24×7 supply of water.
- It also worked as confidence-building measure between the Sultan and his subjects since the Karez was built the state.
Try answering this PYQ:
With reference to the economic history of medieval India, the term Araghatta’ refers to:
(CSP 2016)
(a) bonded labour
(b) land grants made to military officers
(c) waterwheel used in the irrigation of land
(d) wastel and converted to cultivated land
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IndiGau
Mains level: Not Much
The National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), Hyderabad has launched a chip called IndiGau.
IndiGau
- IndiGau is India’s first Cattle Genomic Chip for the conservation of pure varieties of indigenous cattle breeds like, Gir, Kankrej, Sahiwal, Ongole etc.
- It is purely indigenous and the largest cattle chip in the world.
- It has 11,496 markers more than that placed on 777K Illumina chip of US & UK breeds.
- The manufacturing of this chip is in synergy with Rashtriya Gokul Mission and is a great example of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Utility of IndiGau
- Indigenous bovines are robust and resilient and are particularly suited to the climate and environment of their respective breeding tracts,
- Their productivity is less likely to be impacted by the adversities of climate change.
- The milk of indigenous animals is high in fat and SNF (solids-not-fat) content.
(SNF content are the substances in milk other than butterfat and water in the form of casein, lactose, vitamins, and minerals which contribute significantly to the nutritive value of milk.)
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Back2Basics: National Programme for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development
- The NPBBDD has been formulated by merging four ongoing schemes of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries in the dairy sector.
- It was launched in Feb 2014.
- This merger has been done to integrate milk production and dairying activities in a scientific and holistic manner to meet the increasing demand for milk in the country.
Components of the scheme
NPBBDD has the following three components.
- National Programme for Bovine Breeding (NPBB)
- National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) and
- Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
Differences between all these schemes:
1) National Programme for Bovine Breeding
It aims-
- To arrange quality Artificial Insemination services at farmers’ doorstep
- To bring all breedable females under organized breeding through Artificial Insemination or natural service using germplasm of high genetic merits
2) National Programme for Dairy Development
It aims-
- To create and strengthen infrastructure for the production of quality milk including cold chain infrastructure linking the farmer to the consumer
- To strengthen dairy cooperative societies/Producers Companies at the village level
- To increase milk production by providing technical input services like cattle-feed, and mineral mixture etc.
3) Rashtriya Gokul Mission
It aims-
- To undertake breed improvement programme for indigenous cattle breeds so as to improve the genetic makeup and increase the stock.
- To enhance milk production and productivity of indigenous bovines.
- To upgrade nondescript cattle using elite indigenous breeds like Gir, Sahiwal, Rathi, Deoni, Tharparkar, Red Sindhi.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ramsar wetlands in India
Mains level: Wetlanc conservation
Four more wetlands from India get recognition from the Ramsar Secretariat as Ramsar sites.
What are Wetlands?
- A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded by water, either permanently or seasonally, where oxygen-free processes prevail.
- The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other landforms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil.
Significance of Wetlands
- Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control, and climate regulation.
- They are, in fact, are a major source of water and our main supply of freshwater comes from an array of wetlands that help soak rainfall and recharge groundwater.
- They provide many societal benefits: food and habitat for fish and wildlife, including threatened and endangered species; water quality improvement; flood storage; shoreline erosion control; economically beneficial natural products for human use; and opportunities for recreation, education, and research, etc.
Which are the new sites added to the Ramsar List?
- Thol and Wadhwana from Gujarat and
- Sultanpur and Bhindawas from Haryana
With this, the number of Ramsar sites in India are 46 and the surface area covered by these sites is now 1,083,322 hectares.
(1) Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary
- Bhindawas WLS, the largest wetland in Haryana is a human-made freshwater wetland.
- Over 250 bird species use the sanctuary throughout the year as a resting and roosting site.
- The site supports more than ten globally threatened species including the endangered Egyptian Vulture, Steppe Eagle, Pallas’s Fish Eagle, and Black-bellied Tern.
(2) Sultanpur National Park
- Sultanpur NP from Haryana supports more than 220 species of resident, winter migratory and local migratory waterbirds at critical stages of their life cycles.
- More than ten of these are globally threatened, including the critically endangered sociable lapwing, and the endangered Egyptian Vulture, Saker Falcon, Pallas’s Fish Eagle and Black-bellied Tern.
(3) Thol Lake Wildlife Sanctuary
- Thol Lake WLS from Gujarat lies on the Central Asian Flyway and more than 320 bird species can be found here.
- The wetland supports more than 30 threatened waterbird species, such as the critically endangered White-rumped Vulture and Sociable Lapwing, and the vulnerable Sarus Crane, Common Pochard, and Lesser White-fronted Goose.
(4) Wadhvana Wetland
- Wadhvana Wetland from Gujarat is internationally important for its birdlife as it provides wintering ground to migratory waterbirds, including over 80 species that migrate on the Central Asian Flyway.
- They include some threatened or near-threatened species such as the endangered Pallas’s fish-Eagle, the vulnerable Common Pochard, and the near-threatened Dalmatian Pelican, Grey-headed Fish-eagle and Ferruginous Duck.
Back2Basics: Ramsar Convention
- The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (better known as the Ramsar Convention) is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
- It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem.
- The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
- Traditionally viewed as a wasteland or breeding ground of disease, wetlands actually provide fresh water and food and serve as nature’s shock absorber.
- Wetlands, critical for biodiversity, are disappearing rapidly, with recent estimates showing that 64% or more of the world’s wetlands have vanished since 1900.
- Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals, and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Read the attached story
Mains level: NA
From December, India will move to a system that will count tigers and elephants as part of a common survey.
Common survey for elephants and tiger
- Given that 90% of the area occupied by elephants and tigers is common, and once estimation methods are standardized, having a common survey can significantly save costs.
- The tiger survey is usually held once in four years and elephants are counted once in five years.
- According to the most recent 2018-19 survey, there were 2,997 tigers in India while in the last count in 2017, there were 29,964 elephants in India.
Answer this PYQ:
With reference to Indian Elephants, consider the following statements :
1. The leader of an elephant group is a female.
2. The maximum gestation period can be 22 months.
3. An elephant can normally go on calving till the age of 40 years only.
4. Among the States in India, the highest population is in Kerala.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
(a) 1and 2 only
(b) 2 and 4 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1,3 and 4 only
Post your answers here:
Why need a common survey?
- Based on sightings in camera traps and indirect estimation methods, tiger numbers are computed.
- Elephant numbers largely rely on States directly counting the number of elephants.
- In recent years, techniques such as analyzing dung samples have also been deployed to estimate birth rates and population trends in elephants.
About All India Tiger Estimation
- The tiger count is prepared after every four years by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) provides details on the number of tigers in the 18 tiger reign states with 50 tiger reserves.
- It is conducted by the NTCA and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in collaboration with the State Forest Departments.
- The entire exercise spanned over four years is considered to be the world’s largest wildlife survey effort in terms of coverage and intensity of sampling.
- Over 15, 000 cameras are installed at various strategic points to capture the movement of tigers.
- This is supported by extensive data collected by field personnel and satellite mapping.
Back2Basics: Asian Elephants
- Asian elephants are listed as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.
- This has been done as most of the range States except India have lost their viable elephant populations due to loss of habitat, poaching, etc.
- Current population estimates indicate that there are about 50,000-60,000 Asian elephants in the world.
- More than 60% of the world’s elephant population is in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Exercise Al–Mohed Al–Hindi
Mains level: NA
The maiden bilateral naval exercise between India and Saudi Arabia named ‘AL–Mohed AL–Hindi’ has got underway.
Must read:
[Prelims Spotlight] Various Defence Exercises in News
Ex Al-Mohed AI-Hindi 2021
- This is the first edition of a bilateral naval exercise between India and Saudi Arabia.
- It comprises several shore and sea-based drills between the two navies.
- It reflects the growing defense ties between the two nations in the wake of the Indian Army chiefs’ first visit to the West Asian country last year.
- INS Kochi is the Indian warship participating in the exercise.
- The exercise is being held against the backdrop of growing tensions in the Persian Gulf following a drone attack on the tanker MV Mercer Street off Oman.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Government e-Marketplace
Mains level: Not Much
The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) system has resulted in a 10% savings in public procurement costs in five years.
Government e-Marketplace
- GeM is an online platform for public procurement in India by various Government Departments / Organizations / PSUs.
- The initiative was launched on August 9, 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with the objective to create an open and transparent procurement platform for government buyers.
- It is owned by GeM SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) which is a 100 per cent Government-owned, non-profit company under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries
- GeM aims to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement.
- It provides the tools of e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users achieve the best value for their money.
- The purchases through GeM by Government users have been authorized and made mandatory by Ministry of Finance.
Note: The government has made it mandatory for sellers on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal to clarify the country of origin of their goods when registering new products.
Advantages for Buyers
- Offers rich listing of products for individual categories of Goods/Services
- Makes available search, compare, select and buy facility
- Enables buying Goods and Services online, as and when required.
- Provides transparency and ease of buying
- Ensures continuous vendor rating system
- Up-to-date user-friendly dashboard for buying, monitoring supplies and payments
- Provision of easy return policy
Advantages for Sellers
- Direct access to all Government departments.
- One-stop shop for marketing with minimal efforts
- One-stop shop for bids / reverse auction on products / services
- New Product Suggestion facility available to Sellers
- Dynamic pricing: Price can be changed based on market conditions
- Seller friendly dashboard for selling, and monitoring of supplies and payments
- Consistent and uniform purchase procedures
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dara Shikhoh and his legacy
Mains level: Secular polity in Medieval India
The final resting place of Mughal prince Dara Shikoh remains a mystery, with the Archaeological Survey of India saying it has not located the grave within the Humayun’s Tomb complex.
Dara Shikoh
- Dara Shikoh, who was Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s son and expected heir, was killed on the orders of his brother Aurangzeb in 1659 after losing the war of succession.
- He was the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.
- Dara was designated with the title Padshahzada-i-Buzurg Martaba (Prince of High Rank) and was favored as a successor by his father and his older sister, Princess Jahanara Begum.
- In the war of succession which ensued after Shah Jahan’s illness in 1657, Dara was defeated by his younger brother Prince Muhiuddin (Aurangzeb).
- He was executed in 1659 on Aurangzeb’s orders in a bitter struggle for the imperial throne.
His legacy
- Dara was a liberal-minded unorthodox Muslim as opposed to the orthodox Aurangzeb.
- He authored the work The Confluence of the Two Seas, which argues for the harmony of Sufi philosophy in Islam and Vedanta philosophy in Hinduism.
- It was Dara Shikoh who was responsible for making the Upanishads available to the West as he had them translated.
- He had commissioned a translation of Yoga Vasistha.
- A great patron of the arts, he was also more inclined towards philosophy and mysticism rather than military pursuits.
- The course of the history of the Indian subcontinent, had Dara Shikoh prevailed over Aurangzeb, has been a matter of some conjecture among historians.
Q.Who among the following Mughal Emperors shifted emphasis from illustrated manuscripts to album and individual portrait?
(a) Humayun
(b) Akbar
(c) Jahangir
(d) Shah Jahan
Answer this PYQ here:
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CHAPEA Mission
Mains level: Not Much
NASA is seeking applications for its new mission called the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA), which is related to Mars.
CHAPEA
- The mission is set to begin in 2022 and will give four successful applicants the chance to live and work in a 1,700 square-foot module that is created by a 3D printer and is called the Mars Dune Alpha.
- The simulated quarters include a kitchen, areas for medical, recreation, fitness, work, crop growth, a technical work area and two bathrooms.
- This habitat will simulate what it feels like to carry out missions on Mars including resource limitations, equipment failure, communication delays and any other environmental stressors.
- The crew will be expected to perform simulated spacewalks, scientific research and use virtual reality and robotic controls and exchange communications.
What is the purpose of this mission?
- The habitat in which the crew members will stay will be as Mars-realistic as possible.
- The results from this analog mission will provide scientific data that will help in validating the systems that will be used for actual missions to Mars and also help in solving problems for spaceflight research.
- CHAPEA is not the only analog mission, there are others including Aquarius/NEEMO, Concordia, Desert RATS, and HESTIA.
- Analog missions are required because not all experiments can be carried out in space because resources and money are limited.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Absorption Spectroscopy
Mains level: Not Much
Researchers from IIT Madras and IISER Kolkata have developed a method to detect minute quantities of chemicals in solution using Absorption Spectroscopy.
Note: These days there has been a rise in questions from biology (rather cell biology in particular).
Absorption Spectroscopy
- Absorption spectroscopy is a tool to detect the presence of elements in a medium.
- Light is shone on the sample, and after it passes through the sample is examined using a spectroscope.
- Dark lines are seen in the observed spectrum of the light passed through the substance, which correspond to the wavelengths of light absorbed by the intervening substance and are characteristic of the elements present in it.
- In usual methods, about a cubic centimeter of the sample is needed to do this experiment.
- In the method developed here, minute amounts of dissolved substances can be detected easily.
- Usually in absorption spectroscopy, the principle used is that light because of its wavelike nature, shows diffraction patterns, that is, dark and light fringes, when it scatters off any object.
Studying small objects
- A related concept called the Abbe criterion sets a natural limit on the size of the object being studied.
- According to this criterion, the size of the observed object has to be at least of the order of the wavelength of the light being shone on it.
- If one wants to perform absorption spectroscopy using visible light, namely, blue, green and red, the wavelengths [of these colours] are about 400 nm, 500 nm and 600 nm, respectively.
What has Indian researchers achieved?
- In the method used by the researchers here, tiny, nano-sized particles that can absorb light being shone on them and re-emit red, blue and green light were employed.
- The particles emit electric fields that are analogous to how a tiny magnet would give off magnetic lines of force – this is called a dipole, and the particle is like a tiny mobile phone’s antenna.
- This dipole generates an electromagnetic field depending upon the quantum properties of the erbium dopants in the glass.
- The absorption leaves a gap in the reflected light, which is what is observed and used to analyse the nature of the absorbing material.
Applications of this technology
- There are many potential applications.
- Small molecules almost ten-millionth of an mm in diameter can be detected while these pass the emission region of the glass particle.
- The future is to use it to measure individual molecules, see absorption spectroscopy of a single DNA or protein molecule.
Try this
Q.Which of the following statements are correct regarding the general difference between plant and animal cells?
- Plant cells have cellulose cell walls whilst animal cells do not.
- Plant cells do not have plasma membranes unlike animal cells which do.
- Mature plant cell has one large vacuole whilst an animal cell has many small vacuoles.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer this PYQ here:
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Retractable Roof Polyhouse
Mains level: Not Much
The CSIR-CMERI has recently inaugurated a “naturally ventilated polyhouse facility” and laid the foundation stone of “retractable roof polyhouse”.
What is a Polyhouse?
- A polyhouse is a specially constructed structure like a building where specialized polythene sheet is used as a covering material under which crops can be grown in partially or fully controlled climatic conditions.
- It is covered with a transparent material as to permit the entry of natural light. Polyhouses are also helpful in reducing threats such as extreme heat and pest attacks in crops.
- This is especially important for crops growing in the open field with no protection from the weather, and therefore its yield, quality, and crop maturity timings are changed.
Retractable Roof Polyhouse
- The retractable roof system is a modular screen system for greenhouses that helps in saving costs and time along with providing stability, flexibility & durability for the greenhouse structure.
- Such polyhouse will have an automatic retractable roof which will be operated based on weather conditions and crop requirements from the conditional database using the software.
Advantages offered
- Ability to use the benefits of natural weather conditions
- Long life of the system and material used
- Easy assembly and installation
- Maximum insulation and complete protection from insecticides
- Easy maintenance & even easier repair work during operation
Why need such polyhouse?
- With rapidly rising temperatures due to mounting greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activities, crops are increasingly facing both threats — extreme heat and pest attacks — simultaneously.
- Crop losses in India due to insect pests are about 15 percent at present and this loss may increase as climate change lowers the plant defense system against insects and pests.
- Conventional greenhouses have a stationary roof to reduce the effect of weather anomalies and pests.
- However, there are still disadvantages due to roof covering which sometimes lead to excessive heat and insufficient light (early morning).
- Besides this, they are also prone to insufficient levels of carbon dioxide, transpiration, and water stress.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Abanindranath Tagore
Mains level: Not Much
Year-long celebrations marking 150 years of Abanindranath Tagore have been kicked off in Kolkata.
Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951)
- Tagore CIE was the principal artist and creator of the “Indian Society of Oriental Art”.
- A nephew of Rabindranath Tagore and a decade younger to the poet, he helped shape modern Indian art and was the creator of the iconic ‘Bharat Mata’ painting.
- He was also the first major exponent of Swadeshi values in Indian art, thereby finding the influential Bengal school of art, which led to the development of modern Indian painting.
- He was also a noted writer, particularly for children.
- Tagore sought to modernize Mughal, Rajput styles to counter the influence of Western models of art, as taught in art schools under the British Raj.
- Along with other artists from the Bengal school of art, Tagore advocated in favor of a nationalistic Indian art derived from Indian art history, drawing inspiration from the Ajanta Caves.
Q. Which among the following event happened earliest? (CSP 2018)
(a) Swami Dayanand established Arya Samaj.
(b) Dinabandhu Mitra wrote Neeldarpan.
(c) Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Anandmath.
(d) Satyendranath Tagore became the first India to succeed in the Indian Civil Services Examination.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: INS Vikrant
Mains level: Indigenization of defense production
The much-awaited sea trials of India’s maiden indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-1), built by the public sector Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) have begun.
Indigenous Aircraft Carrier 1
- IAC is the first aircraft carrier designed and built in India.
- It has been designed by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design (DND), and is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), a public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Shipping.
- The IAC-1, the biggest warship made indigenously, has an overall length of 263 m and a breadth of 63 m.
- It is capable of carrying 30 assorted aircraft including combat jets and helicopters.
- Propelled by four gas turbines, it can attain a top speed of 30 knots (about 55 kmph).
- The vessel will have a complement of 1,500 personnel.
Significance of IAC 1
- An aircraft carrier is one of the most potent marine assets for a nation, which enhances a Navy’s capability to travel far from its home shores to carry out air domination operations.
- Many experts consider having an aircraft carrier as essential to be considered a ‘blue water’ navy — one that has the capacity to project a nation’s strength and power across the high seas.
- An aircraft carrier generally leads as the capital ship of a carrier strike/battle group.
- As the carrier is a valuable and sometimes vulnerable target, it is usually escorted in the group by destroyers, missile cruisers, frigates, submarines, and supply ships.
Why does it matter that this is a Made-in-India warship?
- Only five or six nations currently have the capability of manufacturing an aircraft carrier — India joins this elite club now.
- According to the Navy, over 76 per cent of the material and equipment on board IAC-1 is indigenous.
- India’s earlier aircraft carriers were either built by the British or the Russians.
- The INS Vikramaditya, currently the Navy’s only aircraft carrier that was commissioned in 2013, started out as the Soviet-Russian Admiral Gorshkov.
- The country’s two earlier carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Viraat, were originally the British-built HMS Hercules and HMS Hermes before being commissioned into the Navy in 1961 and 1987 respectively.
Why will this warship be named INS Vikrant?
- INS Vikrant, a Majestic-class 19,500-tonne warship, was the name of India’s much-loved first aircraft carrier, a source of immense national pride over several decades of service before it was decommissioned in 1997.
- India acquired the Vikrant from the United Kingdom in 1961, and the carrier played a stellar role in the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the birth of Bangladesh.
Now that India has the capability, will it build more carriers?
- Since 2015, the Navy has been seeking approval to build a third aircraft carrier for the country, which, if approved, will become India’s second Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC-2).
- This proposed carrier, to be named INS Vishal, is intended to be a giant 65,000-tonne vessel, much bigger than IAC-1 and the INS Vikramaditya.
- The Navy has been trying to convince the government of the “operational necessity” of having a third carrier.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Strategic Petroleum Reserves Programme
Mains level: Oil prices volatility and its impact on India
Under Phase II of the petroleum reserve program, the Government has approved two additional commercial-cum-strategic facilities at Chandikhol (Odisha) and Padur (TN) on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Strategic Petroleum Reserves Programme
- To ensure energy security, the govt had decided to set up 5 million metric tons (MMT) of strategic crude oil storage at three locations namely, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore, and Padur (near Udupi).
- These strategic storages would be in addition to the existing storage of crude oil and petroleum products with the oil companies and would serve as a cushion during any supply disruptions.
- The petroleum reserves established are strategic, and the crude oil stored in these reserves will be used during an oil shortage event, as and when declared so by the Government of India.
- The construction of the Strategic Crude Oil Storage facilities is being managed by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a Special Purpose Vehicle.
Why need SPR?
- The Gulf War in 1990 caused a sharp rise in oil prices and a massive increase to India’s imports.
- During the subsequent 1991 Indian economic crisis, foreign exchange reserves could barely finance three weeks’ worth of imports while the government came close to defaulting on its financial obligations.
- India was able to resolve the crisis through policies that liberalized the economy. However, India continued to be impacted by the volatility of oil prices.
- In 1998, the AB Vajpayee administration proposed building petroleum reserves as a long-term solution to managing the oil market.
- Three storage facilities were built in underground locations in Mangalore, Visakhapatnam and Padur.
Construction of ISPR
- The crude oil storages are constructed in underground rock caverns and are located on the East and West coasts of India.
- Crude oil from these caverns can be supplied to the Indian Refineries either through pipelines or through a combination of pipelines and coastal movement.
- Underground rock caverns are considered the safest means of storing hydrocarbons.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NASA-ISRO SAR
Mains level: Not Much
The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, aimed at making global measurement of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging, is proposed to be launched in early 2023, informed Earth Sciences Minister.
Note the key features of the Mission. Every statement has a unique information.
NASA-ISRO SAR
- NISAR is a joint collaboration for a dual-frequency L and S-band SAR for earth observation.
- NASA and Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO signed a partnership on September 30, 2014, to collaborate on and launch NISAR.
- The mission is targeted to launch in early 2022 from ISRO’s Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district, about 100km north of Chennai.
- It is capable of producing extremely high-resolution images for a joint earth observation satellite mission with NASA.
- It will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in our planet’s surface less than a centimeter across.
Objectives of the NISAR
- NISAR will observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes, sampling Earth on average every six days for a baseline three-year mission.
- It will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses, providing information about biomass, natural hazards, sea-level rise, and groundwater, and will support a host of other applications.
- It would also provide data on natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides.
What are L and S Bands?
- L band waves are used for GPS units because they are able to penetrate clouds, fog, rain, storms, and vegetation.
- The S-band is used by airport surveillance radar for air traffic control, weather radar, surface ship radar, and some communications satellites, especially those used by NASA to communicate with the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.
- NISAR uses a sophisticated information-processing technique known as SAR to produce extremely high-resolution images.
- Radar penetrates clouds and darkness, enabling NISAR to collect data day and night in any weather.
What is collaboration?
- NASA is providing the mission’s L-band SAR, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem.
- ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band radar, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services for the mission, whose goal is to make global measurements of the causes and consequences of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Stellar Middle Age
Mains level: Not Much
Stars like our Sun can go through a mid-life crisis, according to new research carried out by scientists from IISER Kolkata.
Stellar Middle Age
- At about 4.6 billion years of age, the sun is middle-aged, that is, it will continue to live for roughly the same period.
- There are accurate methods for estimating the age of the Sun, such as by using radioactive dating of very old meteorites that have fallen on the Earth.
- However, for more distant stars which are similar in mass and age to the Sun, such methods are not possible.
- One of the methods used is called gyrochronology.
- There is a relationship between rotation rate and age, that is the rotation rate of a star slows down with age.
How does it occur?
- When the stellar wind escapes from the star, it carries away with it a part of the angular momentum of the star, which results in its slowing down.
- The stellar wind has two drivers: one is the high temperature of the outer atmosphere of stars – the corona – which results in an outward expansion and hence plasma winds that emanate out.
- The other is the magnetic field.
- The magnetic field actually heats the corona and so when magnetic activity is strong the winds are strong and since wind carries away the internal (rotational) angular momentum of the star, it slows down its rotation.
- This is called magnetic braking.
- As the star ages, due to this mechanism, its rotation slows down and this relationship is used in gyrochronology to estimate the age of the star.
Impact
- This can lead to dramatic changes in their activity and rotation rates.
- The study also provides an explanation for the breakdown of the long-established relation between rotation rate and age in middle-aged sunlike stars.
- However, there is a breakdown of the gyrochronology relationship, because, after midlife, a star’s rate of spin does not slow down with age as fast as it was slowing down earlier.
- Another intriguing fact is that the Sun’s activity level has been observed to be much lower than other stars of similar age.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EOS-03, SSLV
Mains level: Not Much
Geo-imaging satellite for earth observation EOS-03, which would enable near real-time monitoring of natural disasters like floods and cyclones, is scheduled for launch in the third quarter of 2021.
EOS-03
- ISRO has realized a geo-imaging satellite, “EOS-03”, for Earth Observation from Geostationary Orbit.
- EOS-03 is capable of imaging the whole country four-five times daily and would enable near real-time monitoring of natural disasters like floods and cyclones.
- In addition to natural disasters, EOS-03 would also enable monitoring of water bodies, crops, vegetation condition, forest cover changes.
Other developments: Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV)
- The first developmental flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2021 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
- The SSLV is a cost-effective, three-stage and all-solid launch vehicle with a payload capability of 500 kg to 500 km planar orbit or 300 kg to Sun-Synchronous Polar Orbit.
- It is ideal for the on-demand, quick turn-around launch of small satellites.
- The major technologies developed as part of SSLV are flexible nozzle control with electro-mechanical actuators for all stages, miniaturized avionics, and a velocity trimming module in the upper stage for precise satellite injection.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: International Space Station (ISS), Nauka
Mains level: Not Much
Pirs, a Russian module on the International Space Station (ISS) used as a docking port for spacecraft and as a door for cosmonauts to go out on spacewalks. In its place, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos will be attaching a significantly larger module called Nauka.
What does Russia’s new Nauka module do?
- Nauka, which is 42 feet long and weighs 20 tonnes, was supposed to be launched as early as 2007, as per the ISS’s original plan.
- Nauka — meaning “science” in Russian — is the biggest space laboratory Russia has launched to date, and will primarily serve as a research facility.
- It is also bringing to the ISS another oxygen generator, a spare bed, another toilet, and a robotic cargo crane built by the European Space Agency (ESA).
- The new module was sent into orbit using a Proton rocket — the most powerful in Russia’s space inventory — on July 21 and will take eight days to reach the ISS.
What kind of research goes on at the International Space Station?
- A space station is essentially a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time.
- It is like a large laboratory in space and allows astronauts to come aboard and stay for weeks or months to carry out experiments in microgravity.
- For over 20 years since its launch, humans have continuously lived and carried out scientific investigations on the $150 billion ISS under microgravity conditions, being able to make breakthroughs in research not possible on Earth.
Back2Basics: International Space Station (ISS)
- The International Space Station, which launched its first piece in 1998, is a large spacecraft that orbits around the Earth and is home to the astronauts.
- The ISS is currently the only active space station in the earth’s orbit.
- The first crew on the space station arrived on November 2, 2000.
- The space station is home to a minimum of six astronauts, with two bathrooms, a gymnasium, and a big bay window.
- It is a joint project between five participating space agencies -NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
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