Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Declaration on Forests and Land Use
Mains level: Not Much
At COP-26 in Glasgow, countries got together to sign the Declaration on Forests and Land Use (or the Deforestation Declaration). However, India was among the few countries that did not sign the declaration.
What is this Deforestation Declaration?
- It was signed by 142 countries, which represented over 90 percent of forests across the world.
- The declaration commits to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation.
- The signatories committed $19 billion in private and public funds to this end.
Why did India abstain from joining?
- India had concerns about the linkage the declaration makes between deforestation, infrastructure development and trade.
- Any commitment to the environment and climate change should not involve any reference to trade, cited India.
- Analysts in India have linked the decision to a proposed amendment to the Forest Conservation Act 1980 that would ease the clearances presently required for acquiring forest land for new infrastructure projects.
India abstained from many things
- A look at India’s positions on some other recent critical pledges and decisions related to climate change reveals a clear pattern of objections or absence.
- At CoP26, India was not part of the dialogue on Forests, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT).
- FACT, which is supported by 28 countries seeks to encourage “sustainable development and trade of agricultural commodities while protecting and managing sustainably forests and other critical ecosystems”.
- India also voted against a recent draft resolution to allow for discussions related to climate change and its impact on international peace and security to be taken up at the UNSC.
Why should India join this declaration?
- Broadly speaking, all of India’s objections are based on procedural issues at multilateral fora.
- Although justifiable on paper, these objections seem blind to the diverse ways in which climate change is linked to global trade, deforestation, agriculture, and international peace, among other issues.
- For context, consider India’s palm oil trade. India is the largest importer of crude palm oil in the world.
- Palm oil cultivation, covering roughly 16 million acres of land in Indonesia and Malaysia, has been the biggest driver of deforestation in the two countries.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Read the attached story
Mains level: Hurdles in 5G Rollout
Air India said Boeing had cleared its B777 aircraft for flights to the US following concerns that the 5G roll-out there could interfere with critical aircraft functions.
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 which is much more capable than previous mobile services with more capacity, lower latency, faster data delivery rate and better utilization of spectrum.
How can 5G affect flight safety?
- Airlines take off and land using auto-pilot systems, which use data from radar altimeters to determine the altitude of the aircraft.
- Altimeters emit radio waves at 4.2-4.3 Gigahertz (GHz) frequency, which could interfere with a 5G band called C-Band, which lies between 3.7-4.4 GHz.
- This interference can mess up the data. That’s the safety concern. Radio altimeters are used at airports and other low-altitude locations.
- A different kind of altimeter, called pressure altimeter, is used for high altitude areas.
- Not using auto-pilot would lead to more fuel consumption and higher costs for airlines.
What happens to Air India’s operations?
- While scheduled international flights, to and from India, remain suspended due to the pandemic, Air India operates flights to the US under an air bubble agreement.
- These routes are served by the airline’s wide-body fleet of Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 planes.
- The roll out of 5G is expected to primarily impact the operations of Boeing 777 and 747.
Can this impact India’s 5G roll-out?
- India’s 5G auctions are expected to include spectrum bands of 3.3GHz -3.6GHz, which means the C-Band may not be operational, at least in the near future.
- Plus, aircraft equipment is manufactured globally, with certain standards.
- The FAA tests will likely lead to standards for altimeters and applied internationally.
- For aircraft makers, altimeters are key equipment. But they’re bought off-the-rack instead being designed in-house.
- Once a standard is known, it can be implemented in all aircraft.
Also read
[Burning Issue] 5G Technology
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Anti-Microbial Resistance
Mains level: Overdose of anti-biotics
The Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) report published in The Lancet provides the most comprehensive estimate of the global impact of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) so far.
What is AMR?
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR or AR) is the ability of a microbe to resist the effects of medication that once could successfully treat the microbe
- Antibiotic resistance occurs naturally, but misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is accelerating the process.
- A growing number of infections – such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, and salmonellosis – are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them become less effective.
- It leads to higher medical costs, prolonged hospital stays, and increased mortality.
How does it occur?
- Antibiotics are medicines used to prevent and treat bacterial infections.
- Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the use of these medicines.
- Bacteria, not humans or animals, become antibiotic-resistant.
- These bacteria may infect humans and animals, and the infections they cause are harder to treat than those caused by non-resistant bacteria.
What did the GRAM report find?
- AMR is a leading cause of death globally, higher than HIV/AIDS or malaria.
- As many as 4.95 million deaths may be associated with bacterial AMR in 2019.
- Lower respiratory tract infections accounted for more than 1.5 million deaths associated with resistance in 2019, making it the most common infectious syndrome.
The six leading pathogens for deaths associated with resistance were:
- Escherichia coli (E. Coli)
- Staphylococcus aureus
- Klebsiella pneumonia
- Streptococcus pneumonia
- Acinetobacter baumannii
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa
What are the implications of this study?
- Common infections such as lower respiratory tract infections, bloodstream infections, and intra-abdominal infections are now killing hundreds of thousands of people every.
- This includes historically treatable illnesses, such as pneumonia, hospital-acquired infections, and foodborne ailments.
Way forward
- Doctors recommend greater action to monitor and control infections, globally, nationally and within individual hospitals.
- Access to vaccines, clean water and sanitation ought to be expanded.
- The use of antibiotics unrelated to treating human disease, such as in food and animal production must be “optimised” and finally they recommend being “more thoughtful”.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sammakka-Sarakka Jatara
Mains level: Not Much
Medaram, a tiny village in Telangana’s tribal heartland of Mulugu district, is getting ready to host the Sammakka-Sarakka jatara, billed as the country’s biggest tribal fair.
Sammakka-Sarakka Jatara
- The mega four-day jatara, scheduled to begin on February 16 in Medaram. It takes place once in two years.
- It is perhaps the only tribal fair devoted to pay tribute to tribal warriors who made supreme sacrifices defending the rights of aboriginal tribal people.
- It symbolises the traditions and heritage of the Koya tribal people.
- The sacred site in Medaram and its surrounding Jampanna vagu, named after tribal martyr Jampanna, son of Sammakka, comes alive with lakhs of devotees during the four-day jatara.
Why do tribals come to Medaram?
- This festival commemorates a tribal revolt led by Sammakka and Saralamma, a mother-daughter duo, against levy of taxes on tribal people during drought conditions by the then Kakatiya rulers in the 12th century.
- Tribals (and others) flock to Medaram during the jatara not just from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh but also from as far as Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
- Sammakka and Saralamma are revered by devotees as tribal goddesses, and devotees make offerings to propitiate them to bestow health and wealth.
- All the rituals at the jatara site are held in tune with tribal traditions under the aegis of tribal priests.
Features of the celebrations
- One of the striking features of the tribal fair is the offering of jaggery to the tribal goddess at the altars (bamboo poles).
- It encompasses common features of tribal fairs – die-hard devotees going into a trance, the sacrifice of fowls and goats, besides pulsating traditional drum beats accompanying folk songs.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tamiraparani Civilization
Mains level: Ancient Indian Civilizations
A reconnaissance survey in the sea off the coast of Korkai in Thoothukudi district where Tamiraparani River joins the sea, which finds mention in Sangam literature, will be undertaken by the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department.
About Tamiraparani River
- The Thamirabarani or Tamraparni or Porunai is a perennial river that originates from the Agastyarkoodam peak of the Pothigai hills of the Western Ghats.
- It flows through the Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts of the Tamil Nadu state of southern India into the Gulf of Mannar.
- It was called the Tamraparni River in the pre-classical period, a name it lent to the island of Sri Lanka.
- The old Tamil name of the river is Porunai.
Its history
- Its many name derivations of Tan Porunai include Tampraparani, Tamirabarni, Tamiravaruni.
- Tan Porunai nathi finds mention by classical Tamil poets in ancient Sangam Tamil literature Purananuru.
- Recognised as a holy river in Sanskrit literature Puranas, Mahabharata and Ramayana, the river was famed in the Early Pandyan Kingdom for its pearl and conch fisheries and trade.
- The movement of people, including the faithful, trade merchants and toddy tapers from Tamraparni river to northwestern Sri Lanka led to the shared appellation of the name for the closely connected region.
- One important historical document on the river is the treatise Tamraparni Mahatmyam.
- It has many ancient temples along its banks. A hamlet known as Appankoil is located on the northern side of the river.
Back2Basics: Keeladi Civilization
- The Keeladi tale began to unravel in March 2015 when first round of excavation was undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
- It unearthed antiquities providing crucial evidence to understanding the missing links of the Iron Age [12th century BCE to 6th century BCE] to the Early Historic Period [6th century BCE to 4th century BCE].
- Further excavations threw up strong clues about the existence of a Tamil Civilization that had trade links with other regions in the country and abroad.
- This civilization has been described by Tamil poets belonging to the Sangam period.
- Results of carbon dating of a few artifacts traced their existence to 2nd century BCE (the Sangam period).
Key findings in excavations
- These included brick structures, terracotta ring wells, fallen roofing with tiles, golden ornaments, broken parts of copper objects, iron implements, terracotta chess pieces, ear ornaments, spindle whorls, figurines.
- It also had black and redware, rouletted ware and a few pieces of Arretine ware, besides beads made of glass, terracotta and semi-precious stones.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nusantara
Mains level: NA
Indonesia passed a bill replacing its capital Jakarta with East Kalimantan, situated to the east of Borneo island. The new capital city of the country will be called Nusantara.
About Nusantara
- The New State Capital Law Bill has been drafted by a special committee set up by Widodo’s government and makes Nusantara, also called IKN, the capital of the Republic of Indonesia.
- The transfer of the status of Jakarta as Indonesia’s capital to Nusantara, where 256,142 hectares of land has been set aside for the project, will take place in the “first semester” of 2024.
- East Kalimantan, where the new capital will be, as per the bill is said to have a world-city vision.
- It will be designed and managed with the objective of becoming a sustainable city in the world.
Why is Indonesia changing its capital city?
- The new location is very strategic – it’s in the centre of Indonesia and close to urban areas.
- The burden Jakarta is holding right now is too heavy as the centre of governance, business, finance, trade and services.
- Jakarta is also infamous for being the worlds’ first sinking capital city due to rising sea levels.
- The city’s pollution levels are so bad that it has been ranking as one of the most polluted cities in the world for years.
- Another important reason to shift the capital from Java island to Borneo island has been the growing inequality – financial and otherwise.
Where is East Kalimantan?
- East Kalimantan is 2,300 kilometres from Jakarta on the eastern side of Borneo island, shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
- The new capital will be located in the North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara regions.
- East Kalimantan is an area with immense water resources and habitable terrain.
- East Kalimantan is rich in flora and fauna.
Why Nusantara?
- Nusantara is an old Javanese term that means ‘archipelago’.
- Nusantara has historical, sociological, and philosophical aspects attached to the name.
- The name would represent Indonesia as a whole and would show the potential of the nation.
What are the other countries that have changed capitals?
- Indonesia is not the first country to change its capital city.
- There has been a long list of countries that have changed their capitals for various reasons. Brazil changed its capital city from Rio De Janerio to Brasilia, a more centrally-located city, in 1960.
- In 1991, Nigeria hanged the country’s capital from Lagos to Abuja.
- Kazakhstan moved its capital city from Almaty, which is still its commercial centre, to Nur-Sultan in 1997.
- Myanmar changed its capital from Rangoon to Naypyidaw in 2005.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Chintamani Padya Natakam
Mains level: Not Much
The Andhra Pradesh government has brought the curtains down on the popular Telugu play ‘Chintamani Padya Natakam’, which has enthralled people for almost 100 years.
Chintamani Padya Natakam
- It is a stage play penned by social reformer, writer and poet Kallakuri Narayana Rao about 100 years ago.
- In the play, the writer explains how people neglect their families by falling prey to certain social evils.
- It was aimed to create awareness on the Devadasi system and how the flesh trade was ruining many families at that particular period.
- Subbisetty, Chintamani, Bilvamangaludu, Bhavani Shankaram, and Srihari are some of the characters in the play.
Its performance
- The play is named after the main character, Chintamani, a woman born into a family involved in the flesh trade.
- The play focuses on how she attained salvation after repentance.
- Subbi Shetty, a character in the play, loses his wealth to Chintamani and his character is utilised in a way that engages the audience.
- Chintamani play is popular across the state. It has been performed at thousands of places.
- The play continues to engage the audience even today and has become a must stage play in villages during Dasara celebrations.
Why it got banned?
- Began as a social sermon, this play has been increasingly going vulgar.
- Subbi Shetty, who resembles a person of a transgender community, is used to portray the social group in a bad way.
- Obscene dialogues are added to the play in the name of creativity.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Swamp Deer
Mains level: NA
The population of the vulnerable eastern swamp deer, extinct elsewhere in South Asia, has dipped (from 907 in 2018 to 868 in 2020 ) in the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.
Swamp Deer
- The swamp deer also called as barasingha is a deer species distributed in the Indian subcontinent.
- Populations in northern and central India are fragmented, and two isolated populations occur in southwestern Nepal.
- It has been locally extinct in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and its presence is uncertain in Bhutan.
- In Assamese, barasingha is called dolhorina; dol meaning swamp.
Note: Swamp deers do occur in the Kanha National Park of Madhya Pradesh, in two localities in Assam, and in only 6 localities in Uttar Pradesh.
Conservation status
- IUCN Red List: Endangered
- CITES: Appendix I
- Wildlife Protection Act of 1972: Schedule I
Try this PYQ:
Q. Consider the following fauna of India:
- Gharial
- Leatherback turtle
- Swamp deer
Which of the above is/are endangered?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 1, 2 and 3
(d) None
Post your answers here.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Smog Tower
Mains level: Effectiveness of smog towers
Some researchers in New Delhi have observed paradoxical phenomena near the smog towers. The air closest to the tower should be cleanest, but the device recorded the opposite in several instances.
What are Smog Towers?
- Smog towers are structures designed to work as large-scale air purifiers. They are fitted with multiple layers of air filters and fans at the base to suck the air.
- After the polluted air enters the smog tower, it is purified by multiple layers before being re-circulated into the atmosphere.
Structure of the Delhi smog tower
- The structure is 24 m high, about as much as an 8-storey building — an 18-metre concrete tower, topped by a 6-metre-high canopy. At its base are 40 fans, 10 on each side.
- Each fan can discharge 25 cubic metres per second of air, adding up to 1,000 cubic metres per second for the tower as a whole. Inside the tower in two layers are 5,000 filters.
- The filters and fans have been imported from the United States.
How does it work?
- The tower uses a ‘downdraft air cleaning system’ developed by the University of Minnesota.
- Polluted air is sucked in at a height of 24 m, and filtered air is released at the bottom of the tower, at a height of about 10 m from the ground.
- When the fans at the bottom of the tower operate, the negative pressure created sucks in air from the top.
- The ‘macro’ layer in the filter traps particles of 10 microns and larger, while the ‘micro’ layer filters smaller particles of around 0.3 microns.
- The downdraft method is different from the system used in China, where a tower uses an ‘updraft’ system — air is sucked in from near the ground, and is propelled upwards by heating and convection.
- Filtered air is released at the top of the tower.
Likely impact
- Computational fluid dynamics modelling suggests the tower could have an impact on the air quality up to 1 km from the tower.
- The actual impact will also determine how the tower functions under different weather conditions, and how levels of PM2.5 vary with the flow of air.
Issues with smog towers
- Many experts say that the smog towers are not a viable method to clean city’s air.
- The government had talked about 80% pollution reduction at inlet and outlet of the tower but never mentioned about the effect of distance from the tower.
- Instead of spending ₹40 crore on two towers, the government could have spent the funds on several other options such as replacing the small and polluting industrial boilers or chimneys etc.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Republic Day celebration
Mains level: Not Much
Recently, West Bengal’s tableau for the Republic Day parade was rejected without assigning any reasons or justifications.
Who manages the R-Day Parade?
- The Defence Ministry is the responsible authority for the Republic Day parade and the celebrations.
- Around September, it invites all the states, the UTs, Central Government departments, and a few constitutional authorities to participate in the parade through tableaux.
Managing Tableaux
- The Defence Ministry shares the basic guidelines about what all the tableaux can or should include.
- The tableaux of two different states/ UTs cannot be too similar, as the tableaux, together, should showcase the diversity of the country.
- The tableaux cannot have any writing or use of logos, except for the name of the state/ UT/ department, which should be written in Hindi on the front, English on the back, and a regional language on the sides.
- The Ministry also asks the participants to use eco-friendly material for the tableaux, and avoid the use of plastic or plastic-based products.
How are the tableaux selected?
- The selection process is elaborate and time-consuming.
- The Defence Ministry constitutes an expert committee of distinguished persons from fields like art, culture, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography, etc.
Process of selection
(1) Submission of sketches
- First, the submitted sketches or designs of the proposals are scrutinised by this committee, which can make suggestions for any modifications in the sketch or design.
- The sketch should be simple, colourful, easy to comprehend and should avoid unnecessary detail.
- It should be self-explanatory, and should not need any written elaboration.
(2) Music and Visuals
- If there is a traditional dance involved with the tableau, it should be a folk dance, and the costumes and musical instruments should be traditional and authentic.
- The proposal should include a video clipping of the dance.
(3) 3D Models
- Once approved, the next stage is for the participants to come up with three-dimensional models for their proposals.
- These are again examined by the expert committee for final selection, taking in view several criteria.
- In making the final selection the committee looks at a combination of factors, looking at the visual appeal, impact on the masses, idea/ theme of the tableaux, degree of detail involved.
Do they have to be of a particular size?
The Defence Ministry provides each participant with one tractor and one trailer, and the tableau should fit on that.
- The ministry prohibits use of any additional tractor or trailer, or even any other vehicle to be part of it.
- However, the participant can replace their ministry-provided tractor or trailer with other vehicles, but the total number should not be more than two vehicles.
- The tractor has to be camouflaged in harmony with the tableau’s theme, and the ministry stipulates a distance of around six feet between the tractor and the trailer for turning and manoeuvering.
- The dimensions of the trailer on which the tableau will be placed is 24 feet, 8 inches long; eight feet wide; four feet two inches high; with a load-bearing capacity of 10 tonnes.
- The tableaux should not be more than 45 feet long, 14 feet wide and 16 feet high from the ground.
(Republic Day celebrations from this year will start on January 23 instead of January 24 to include the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.)
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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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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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Note4Students
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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Note4Students
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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Note4Students
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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Note4Students
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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