Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Opium cultivation
The Central government has decided to rope in the private sector to commence production of concentrated poppy straw from India’s opium crop.
What is the move?
- The move aims to boost the yield of alkaloids, used for medical purposes and exported to several countries.
- Among the few countries permitted to cultivate the opium poppy crop for export and extraction of alkaloids, India currently only extracts alkaloids from opium gum at facilities controlled by the Revenue Department.
- This entails farmers extracting gum by manually lancing the opium pods and selling the gum to government factories.
- The Ministry has now decided to switch to new technologies after trial cultivation reports submitted last year by two private firms showed higher extraction of alkaloids using the concentrated poppy straw (CPS).
Opium Poppy
- The milky fluid that seeps from cuts in the unripe poppy seed pod has, since ancient times, been scraped off and air-dried to produce what is known as opium.
- The seedpod is first incised with a multi-bladed tool.
- This lets the opium “gum” ooze out.
- The semi-dried “gum” is harvested with a curved spatula and then dried in open wooden boxes.
- The dried opium resin is placed in bags or rolled into balls for sale.
Why such a move?
- India’s opium crop acreage has been steadily declining over the years.
- The CPS extraction method is expected to help cut the occasional dependence on imports of products like codeine (extracted from opium) for medical uses.
Amendments to NDPS Act
- Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are the three traditionally opium-growing States, where poppy crop cultivation is allowed based on licences issued annually by the Central Bureau of Narcotics.
- While roping in private players in producing CPS and extracting alkaloids from it is likely to require amendments to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
- The Revenue Department has decided to appoint a consultant to help frame the bidding parameters and concession agreements for the same.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CVC
Mains level: Not Much
The CVC has modified the guidelines pertaining to the transfer and posting of officials in the vigilance units of government organisations, restricting their tenure to three years at one place.
Revise all statutory and constitutional bodies from your Polity Book at least 2-3 times before the prelims.
Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)
- CVC is an apex governmental body created in 1964 to address governmental corruption.
- In 2003, the Parliament enacted a law conferring statutory status on the CVC.
- It has the status of an autonomous body, free of control from any executive authority, charged with monitoring all vigilance activity under the Central Government of India.
- It advises various authorities in central Government organizations in planning, executing, reviewing and reforming their vigilance work.
Its establishment
- It was set up by the Government Resolution on 11 February 1964, on the recommendations of the Committee on Prevention of Corruption, headed by Shri K. Santhanam.
- N Srinivasa Rau was selected as the first Chief Vigilance Commissioner of India.
Composition
- The Commission shall consist of:
- A Central Vigilance Commissioner – Chairperson;
- Not more than two Vigilance Commissioners – Members.
- The CVC and other VCs shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of a Committee consisting of the PM (Chairperson), the Minister of Home Affairs (Member) and the Leader of the Opposition in the House of the People (Lok Sabha).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SUOPACE
Mains level: Not Much
The Supreme Court has unveiled its Artificial Intelligence (AI) portal SUPACE, designed to make research easier for judges, thereby easing their workload.
SUPACE
- A pet project of the former Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, the SUPACE is a tool that collects relevant facts and laws and makes them available to a judge.
- The Supreme Court’s system is not designed to take decisions, but only to process facts and to make them available to judges looking for input for a decision.
- The CJI had then said that AI is to the intellect, what muscle memory is to the mind.
Its’ utility
- SUPACE will produce results customized to the need of the case and the way the judge thinks.
- This will be time-saving. It will help the judiciary and the court in reducing delays and pendency of cases.
- AI will present a more streamlined, cost-effective and time-bound means to the fundamental right of access to justice.
- It will make the service delivery mechanism transparent and cost-efficient.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Muan
Mains level: Particle physics and its various anomalies
The results from the Muon g-2 experiment show that fundamental particles called muons behave in a way that is not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics.
After genetics, AI and the blockchain, Particle Physics is making several headlines these days. This is something intuitive.
What is Muon?
- Fermilab, the American particle accelerator, has released first results from its “muon g-2” experiment.
- These results spotlight the anomalous behaviour of the elementary particle called the muon.
- The muon is a heavier cousin of the electron and is expected to have a value of 2 for its magnetic moment, labelled “g”.
- Now, the muon is not alone in the universe.
- It is embedded in a sea where particles are popping out and vanishing every instant due to quantum effects.
- So, its g value is altered by its interactions with these short-lived excitations.
Main characteristic: Anomalous magnetic moment
- The Standard Model of particle physics calculates this correction, called the anomalous magnetic moment, very accurately.
- The muon g-2 experiment measured the extent of the anomaly and announced that “g” deviated from the amount predicted by the Standard Model.
- That is, while the calculated value in the Standard Model is 2.00233183620 approximately, the experimental results show a value of 2.00233184122.
- They have measured “g” to an accuracy of about 4.2 sigma when the results are combined with those from a 20-year-old experiment.
- This makes physicists sit up and take note, but it is not yet significant enough to constitute a discovery – for which they need a significance of 5 sigma.
The g factor
- The muon is also known as the fat electron.
- It is produced copiously in the Fermilab experiments and occurs naturally in cosmic ray showers.
- Like the electron, the muon has a magnetic moment because of which, when placed in a magnetic field, it spins and processes, or wobbles, slightly, like the axis of a spinning top.
- Its internal magnetic moment, the g factor, determines the extent of this wobble.
- As the muon spins, it also interacts with the surrounding environment, which consists of short-lived particles popping in and out of a vacuum.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Government Securities Acquisition Programme (G-SAP)
Mains level: Open market operations
What is the first phase of operation?
- The RBI has officially notified that it would conduct the first phase of G-SAP 1.0 operations on April 15, 2021.
- It will begin with the purchase of five dated securities for an amount aggregating to Rs 25,000 crore.
- The first phase of G-SAP purchase will happen using the multiple price method under which the bidders pay at the respective rate they had bid.
- The RBI has notified four securities for the G-Sec purchase in different maturities.
- In addition to the G-SAP plan, the RBI will also continue to deploy regular operations.
- This would be under the LAF, longer-term repo/reverse repo auctions, forex operations and open market operations including special OMOs.
- This is to ensure that the liquidity conditions evolve in consonance with the stance of monetary policy.
What are the concerns?
- Interest rates – For the Government, the RBI keeping the yield down is a good news because the overall borrowing costs go down.
- But, the RBI artificially keeping the interest rates lower in the financial system has caused concerns.
- In healthy economic system, the interest rates pricing should be driven by demand-supply.
- It shouldn’t be artificially suppressed by the central bank; this might lead to distortions and have other consequences.
- Savers – Cheaper rates will be good news to big, top rated companies who can issue bonds to raise money and to the government.
- But low interest rates coupled with high inflation is a systemic worry for savers.
- Already, savers are getting negative returns on their deposits if one takes into account the inflation adjusted rates or real rates.
- Rupee – Government resorting to massive bond purchase to keep the rates low is not good news for the local currency.
- The Indian Rupee, notably, came under pressure after the RBI announced the massive Rs 1 lakh crore bond purchase programme.
- The fear of investors pulling capital out of India in a low interest environment is hurting the local currency.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Seechewal model
Mains level: Wastewater management
A new wastewater treatment plant opened recently in a village in Punjab’s Patiala district uses a unique method devised to treat, recycle and reuse wastewater.
Seechewal Model
- The plant in the village of Patiala aims to achieve the following objective using the ‘Seechewal Model’ of wastewater management:
- Recycling and reusing the treated wastewater for irrigation
- Preventing further contamination of groundwater
- The model is a pipe-and-pump formula used to remove heavy solid particles, oil and other material from water.
- It was introduced by Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal and was first used in Seechewal, Punjab.
- The project aims to implement a combination of processes through four-well systems of wastewater treatment for reuse apart from human consumption.
- The water wells need to be cleaned regularly; otherwise, they produce extremely poor effluents with high suspended solids, which can be detrimental to the constructed wetland and cause clogging of beds.
- To ensure continuous and effective operation, the accumulated material must be emptied periodically.
Benefits offered
- The project will reduce the usage of freshwater by providing an option of treated water to farmers. It will aim at water sustainability with appropriate technologies of water recycle-reuse-recharge.”
- The project has engaged, empowered and evolved community sustained processes for water management and strengthened community collectives.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sadabahar mango
Mains level: GMO crops
A farmer from Kota, Rajasthan, has developed a round-the-year dwarf variety of mango called Sadabahar, which is resistant to most major diseases and common mango disorders.
Try this PYQ:
Q.With reference to the Genetically Modified mustard (GM mustard) developed in India, consider the following statements:
- GM mustard has the genes of a soil bacterium that give the plant the property of pest-resistance to a wide variety of pests.
- GM mustard has the genes that allow the plant cross-pollination and hybridization.
- GM mustard has been developed jointly by the IARI and Punjab Agricultural University.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2018)
(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Sadabahar
- The fruit is sweeter in taste, comparable to langra and being a dwarf variety, is suitable for kitchen gardening, high-density plantation, and can be grown in pots for some years too.
- Besides, the flesh of the fruits, which is bourn round the year, is deep orange with a sweet taste, and the pulp has very little fiber content which differentiates it from other varieties.
- The bountiful nutrients packed in mango are immensely good for health.
- This variety has been verified by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), India, an autonomous institution of the Department of Science & Technology.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: HSN Code
Mains level: Not Much
It has been made mandatory for a GST taxpayer having a turnover of more than Rs 5 crore in the preceding financial year, to furnish 6 digits HSN Code (Harmonized System of Nomenclature Code). This comes into effect from April 1.
HSN code
- The Harmonized System, or simply ‘HS’, is a six-digit identification code developed by the World Customs Organization (WCO).
- Called the “universal economic language” for goods, it is a multipurpose international product nomenclature.
- Over 200 countries use the system as a basis for their customs tariffs, gathering international trade statistics, making trade policies, and monitoring goods.
- The system helps in harmonizing customs and trade procedures, thus reducing costs in international trade.
What makes the 6 digit code?
- A unique six-digit code has numbers arranged in a legal and logical structure, with well-defined rules to achieve uniform classification.
- Of the six digits, the first two denote the HS Chapter, the next two give the HS heading, and the last two give the HS subheading.
- The HS Code for pineapple, for example, is 0804.30, which means it belongs to Chapter 08 (Edible fruit & nuts, peel of citrus/melons), Heading 04 (Dates, figs, pineapples, avocados, etc. fresh or dried), and Subheading 30 (Pineapples).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Exercise 'Shantir Ogroshena'
Mains level: NA
Indian Army team comprising officers, junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and soldiers from the Dogra regiment will participate in the multilateral exercise ‘Shantir Ogroshena’ (front runner of peace).
The name very much suggests that the exercise is hosted by Bangladesh. But one must note, it’s a multilateral exercise.
Shantir Ogroshena
- Indian Army will participate in Multinational Military Exercise namely SHANTIR OGROSHENA -2021 in Bangladesh.
- The nine days exercise will start on the 4th of this month to commemorate the birth centenary of Bangladesh Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and mark glorious 50 years of liberation.
- The theme of the exercise is ‘Robust Peace Keeping Operations’. Military observers from the US, UK, Turkey, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Singapore will also be in attendance throughout the exercise.
- Military observers from the USA, UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Singapore will also be in attendance throughout the exercise.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PIO, OCI
Mains level: Indian Diaspora
People of Indian origin (PIO) and the Indian diaspora having Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards are now not required to carry their old, expired passports for travel to India.
UPSC can ask statement based question in prelims based on the definition and privileges of OCI card-holders.
Who is an Overseas Citizen?
- An OCI is a category introduced by the government in 2005.
- Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) of certain categories as specified in the Citizenship Act, 1955 are eligible for being OCI cardholders.
- Some of the benefits for PIO and OCI cardholders were different until 2015 when the government merged these two categories.
- The MHA defines an OCI as a person who was a citizen of India on or after January 26, 1950; or was eligible to become a citizen of India on that date; or who is a child or grandchild of such a person, among other eligibility criteria.
- According to Section 7A of the OCI card rules, an applicant is not eligible for the OCI card if he, his parents or grandparents have ever been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Privileges to an OCI
- OCI cardholders can enter India multiple times, get a multipurpose lifelong visa to visit India, and are exempt from registering with Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) no matter how long their stay.
- If an individual is registered as an OCI for a period of five years, he/she are eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.
- At all Indian international airports, OCI cardholders are provided with special immigration counters.
- OCI cardholders can open special bank accounts in India, they can buy the non-farm property and exercise ownership rights and can also apply for a driver’s license and PAN card.
- However, OCI cardholders do not get voting rights, cannot hold a government job and purchase agricultural or farmland.
- They cannot run for public office either, nor can they travel to restricted areas without government permission.
Why such a move?
- There had been inconvenience caused to members of the Indian diaspora due to certain OCI card rules as they undertook to travel to India during the pandemic.
- He said some of the passengers were not allowed to board flights to India and were sent back from airports as they were not carrying their old foreign passports, which was required as per government rules.
- The OCI card, among other benefits, allows multiple entries, multi-purpose lifelong visa to an Indian-origin foreign national to visit India.
- Under the provisions of the OCI card, which gives the cardholder a lifelong visa to India, those below 20 years and above 50 years need to renew their OCI card every time they have their passport renewed.
Back2Basics: PIO vs. OCI
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Military farms, Project Freiswal
Mains level: NA
Military farms have been closed after 132 years of service.
Read till the end to know what Project Freiswal is.
What are Military Farms?
- The farms were set up with the sole requirement of supplying hygienic cow milk to troops in garrisons across British India.
- The first military farm was raised on February 1, 1889, at Allahabad.
- Post-independence, the farms flourished with 30,000 heads of cattle in 130 farms all over India.
- They were even established in Leh and Kargil in the late 1990s.
Why are they shutdown?
- The major task was the management of large tracts of defence land, production and supply of baled hay to animal holding units.
- There have been several recommendations in the past to shut down the farms.
- In 2012, the Quarter Master General branch had recommended their closure.
- Again in December 2016 by Lt. Gen. DB Shekatkar (retd) committee was appointed to recommend measures to enhance combat capability and rebalance defence expenditure of the armed forces.
Their significance
- For more than a century, the farms with dedication and commitment supplied 3.5 crore litres of milk and 25,000 MT of hay yearly.
- It is credited with pioneering the technique of artificial insemination of cattle and the introduction of organised dairying in India, providing yeoman service during the 1971 war.
- It also supplied milk at the Western and Eastern war fronts as well as during the Kargil operations to the Northern Command.
Another initiative: Project Freiswal
- It utilizes Friesian-Sahiwal cross-breeds as a base for the evolution of a new milch strain – “Frieswal” – through interbreeding, selection and progeny testing of bulls.
- It was introduced on 3 November 1987 at the Military Farm School and Research Centre in Meerut.
- It had the objective of studying the genetic aspects of Holstein x Sahiwal crossbreeds and those of important indigenous cattle breeds for their improvement through selection.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Taliban Peace Deal
Mains level: Restoration of democracy in Afghanistan
As the May 1 deadline for pulling out all American troops from Afghanistan nears, US President Joe Biden faces some difficult decisions.
Key tasks for the US before they exit
- The U.S. could abide by the promise made in the U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in February 2020 to withdraw the last of the around 2,500 American Marines stationed in Afghanistan.
- However, Mr Biden has said it would be tough given the levels of violence there.
- The US could negotiate with the Taliban for an extension of the agreement, offering other incentives like the release of more prisoners and the delisting of sanctioned Taliban terrorists.
- The other option is to scrap the 2020 agreement and back the Ashraf Ghani government to continue towards a negotiated settlement, even as US troops remain in Afghanistan to stabilize the security situation.
What is the US likely to do?
- The US exit plan is still underway and that no decision on the length of stay or troop numbers have been made to this point, cleared the US Secy of Defence.
- No U.S. troops have been targeted by Taliban militants in the past year, but violence against Afghan civilians, particularly women, journalists, students and activists has gone up manifold despite the peace agreement.
- More than 3,000 civilians were killed in 2020.
- The US has shown some impatience with the Ghani government as well, believing that it is dragging its feet on intra-Afghan negotiations that began last year in Doha but have stalled for the moment.
Plans for Ashraf Ghani
- A US plan proposes that Mr Ghani step up negotiations with the Taliban for “power-sharing”, discuss principles of future governance and step aside eventually for a “more inclusive” or interim government. The
- The tone of the letter seems to make it clear that the US is not in favour of completely scrapping the 2020 agreement.
- Therefore, it is most likely to pursue the option of negotiating for an extension of the agreement, according to experts, as it builds other dialogue platforms.
Try this question from our AWE Initiative:
What is President Ghani’s plan?
- Ghani has proposed his own peace plan.
- It would involve a full ceasefire, inviting the Taliban to participate in early elections in Afghanistan, and then for Mr Ghani to hand over power to the elected government.
- He also said no regional talks could be successful if they did not include India, which is a development partner and a stakeholder.
Where does India stand?
- India’s position has been to back an “Afghan-owned, Afghan-led, Afghan-controlled” peace process, backing the elected government in Kabul, and it has not yet held talks with the Taliban directly.
- As a result, its option remains to stand with the Ghani government and support the constitution that guarantees a democratic process and rights of women and minorities, over any plans the Taliban might have if they come to power.
- At the same time, India has not foreclosed on the option of talking to the Taliban if it does join the government in Afghanistan.
- India too has made it clear that it seeks to be an integral part of the process, as the outcomes will have a deep impact on India’s security matrix as well.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ULPIN Scheme
Mains level: Land records management in India
The Centre plans to roll out the Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) Scheme.
ULPIN Scheme
- The ULPIN scheme has been launched in ten States this year and will be rolled out across the country by March 2022, the Department of Land Resources told the Standing Committee on Rural Development.
- It would allot a 14-digit identification number to every plot of land in the country within a year’s time.
- It will subsequently integrate its land records database with revenue court records and bank records, as well as Aadhaar numbers on a voluntary basis.
- The scheme will enhance the service deliveries to the citizen of the country and will also function as inputs to the schemes of the other sectors like Agriculture, Finance Disaster Management etc.
“Aadhaar number” for Land
- Officials described it as “the Aadhaar for land”, a number that would uniquely identify every surveyed parcel of land and prevent land fraud, especially in the hinterlands of rural India, where land records are outdated and often disputed.
- The identification will be based on the longitude and latitude coordinates of the land parcel and is dependent on detailed surveys and geo-referenced cadastral maps, according to a presentation the Department made to States in September 2020.
- This is the next step in the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP), which began in 2008 and has been extended several times as its scope grew.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- Aadhaar card can be used as proof of citizenship or domicile.
- Once issued, the Aadhaar number cannot be deactivated or omitted by the Issuing Authority.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
A cost-effective approach
- Linking Aadhaar with land records through ULPIN would cost ₹3 per record while seeding and authentication of landowner Aadhaar data would cost ₹5 each.
- It added that the integration of the Aadhaar numbers with the land record database would be done on a voluntary basis.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Lehman Crisis
Mains level: Not Much
The fire sale of about $20 billion of Archegos assets, comprising Chinese and US stocks, has sent jitters in the global financial markets, raising worries that the event could be a possible “Lehman moment”.
What is the Lehman Crisis?
- The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, was the climax of the subprime mortgage crisis.
- After the financial services firm was notified of a pending credit downgrade due to its heavy position in subprime mortgages, the Federal Reserve summoned several banks to negotiate to finance for its reorganization.
- These discussions failed, and Lehman filed a petition that remains the largest bankruptcy filing in US history, involving more than US$600 billion in assets.
Note: The subprime mortgage crisis occurred when the real estate market collapsed and homeowners defaulted on their loans.
What defines the moment?
- It signalled a limit to the government’s ability to manage the crisis and prompted a general financial panic.
- Money market mutual funds, a key source of credit, saw mass withdrawal demands to avoid losses, and the interbank lending market tightened, threatening banks with imminent failure.
- The government and the Federal Reserve system responded with several emergency measures to contain the panic.
Other terminologies:
Margin Call
- Typically, a margin call occurs when the value of an investor’s margin account falls below the broker’s required amount during a market correction or sell-off.
- As the margin account contains securities bought with borrowed money, a margin call occurs when lenders demand that an investor deposit additional money or securities into the account so that it is brought up to the minimum value.
- A margin call is usually an indicator that the securities held in the margin account have decreased in value.
- When a margin call occurs, the investor must choose to either deposit more money in the account or sell some of the assets held in their account.
- If the investor fails to pay up the margin amount, the lender will resort to the sale of assets lying in the investor’s account.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: LHCb experiments and its findings
Mains level: Formation of the universe and the Big Bang
The LHCb experiment at CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research) has announced the results of their latest analysis of data.
LHCb Experiment: An easy explanation
- LHCb is an experiment set up to explore what happened after the Big Bang that allowed the matter to survive and build the Universe we inhabit today.
- Fourteen billion years ago, the Universe began with a bang.
- Crammed within an infinitely small space, energy coalesced to form equal quantities of matter and antimatter.
- But as the Universe cooled and expanded, its composition changed.
- Just one second after the Big Bang, antimatter had all but disappeared, leaving the matter to form everything that we see around us — from the stars and galaxies to the Earth and all life that it supports.
What is the new finding?
- CERN scientists are excited enough to reveal that if the anomaly they had detected was confirmed.
- Because, if confirmed, it would require a new physical process, such as the existence of new fundamental particles or interactions.
What is this excitement all about?
It is necessary to delve into the world of elementary particles to understand this.
(1) Particle zoo
Until now it is believed that the electron, muon and tauon and their antiparticles, though they differ in mass, behave similarly in particle interactions.
- Broadly speaking, elementary particles are classified into the particles called baryons – which include protons, neutrons and their antiparticles the antiprotons etc.
- The “middle mass” particles, roughly speaking, are called the mesons and they include members such as the K and B particles.
- We then have the leptons, which include the electron and its cousins the muon and tau particles and the anti-particles.
- At a still smaller scale, there are tiny particles called quarks and gluons.
- There are six flavours of quarks: up, down, truth, beauty, charm and strange. They too have antiquarks associated with them.
In this particle zoo, while the baryons are made up of combinations of three quarks, the mesons contain two quarks, more accurately a quark and antiquark pair, and the leptons are truly fundamental and are thought to be indivisible.
Do you know?
Higgs Boson is called the god particle.
(2) Colliding particle beams
By interactions here, is meant the following:
- If a huge particle accelerator such as the LHC were to accelerate beams of hadrons (such as protons) to very high speeds, a fraction of that of light, and then cause them to collide.
- Basically, smash through the repulsive nuclear forces and shatter them, the hadrons would break up into constituents which would recombine to form short-lived particles, which would decay into stabler states.
- Roughly speaking, during this process, they are imaged in a huge multistorey detector and the number of specific processes and particles are counted.
(3) Lepton universality principle
- One such process that was measured was the decay of a meson B (which contained the beauty quark) into K-meson (which contains the strange quark) and a muon-antimuon pair, and this was compared with the decay of B into K and an electron-antielectron pair.
- The expectation is that the ratio of the strengths of these two sets of interactions would be just one.
- This is because the muons are not essentially different from the electrons as per the Standard Model, the presently accepted theoretical model of all elementary particle interactions.
- This is called the lepton universality principle.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Red algae
Mains level: Seaweeds and their significance
Two new species of seaweed have been discovered by a group of marine biologists from the Central University of Punjab, Bathinda.
What are the species?
- Named Hypnea indica (after India) and Hypnea bullata (because of the blisterlike marks on its body – bullate), the seaweeds are part of the genus Hypnea or red seaweeds.
- They grow in the intertidal regions of the coast, namely the area that is submerged during the high tide and exposed during low tides.
Do you know?
Red Algae have great ecological importance. They form a vital part of the food chain and are also involved in producing about 40 to 60 per cent of the total global oxygen for both terrestrial habitat and other aquatic habitats.
Details of the genus
- The genus Hypnea consists of calcareous, erect, branched red seaweeds.
- While Hypnea indica was discovered Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, and Somnath Pathan and Sivrajpur in Gujarat, Hypnea bullata was discovered from Kanyakumari and Diu island of Daman and Diu.
- There are 61 species of which 10 were reported in India.
Significance for the food industry
- Species of Hypnea contain the biomolecule carrageenan, which is widely used in the food industry.
- As the two species have been found on the west and south-east coasts of India, it suggests good prospects for their cultivation which can be put to good use economically.
- The extensive calcareous deposit on the body that has been observed also provides room for thought.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Concurrent List
Mains level: India's healthcare
Health should be shifted to the Concurrent list under the Constitution, and a developmental finance institution (DFI) dedicated to healthcare investments set up, Fifteenth Finance Commission Chairman N.K. Singh has said.
Other key recommendations
- Bringing health into the Concurrent list would give the Centre greater flexibility to enact regulatory changes and reinforce the obligation of all stakeholders towards providing better healthcare.
- He has urged the government spending to enhance expenditure on health to 2.5% of GDP by 2025.
- He said primary healthcare should be a fundamental commitment of all States in particular and should be allocated at least two-thirds of such spending.
The Concurrent List or List-III (of Seventh Schedule) is a list of 52 items (though the last subjects are numbered 47) given in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India.
What is the Seventh Schedule?
- This Schedule of the Indian Constitution deals with the division of powers between the Union government and State governments.
- It defines and specifies the allocation of powers and functions between Union & States. It contains three lists; i.e. 1) Union List, 2) State List and 3) Concurrent List.
The Union List
- It is a list of 98 (Originally 97) numbered items as provided in the Seventh Schedule.
- The Union Government or Parliament of India has exclusive power to legislate on matters relating to these items.
The State List
- It is a list of 59 (Originally 66) items.
- The respective state governments have exclusive power to legislate on matters relating to these items.
The Concurrent List
- There are 52 (Originally 47) items currently in the list.
- This includes items which are under the joint domain of the Union as well as the respective States.
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Healthcare in India
- The Indian Constitution has incorporated the responsibility of the state in ensuring basic nutrition, basic standard of living, public health, protection of workers, special provisions for disabled persons, and other health standards, which were described under Articles 39, 41, 42, and 47 in the DPSP.
- Article 21 of the Constitution of India provides for the right to life and personal liberty and is a fundamental right.
- Public Health comes under the state list.
- India’s expenditure on healthcare has shot up substantially in the past few years; it is still very low in comparison to the peer nations (at approx. 1.28% of GDP).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Chilika Lake
Mains level: Ramsar wetlands in India
The Chilika Lake in Odisha, Asia’s largest brackish water lake, was once part of the Bay of Bengal, a study by the marine archaeology department of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, has found.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- In India, the Himalayas are spread over five States only.
- Western Ghats are spread over five States only.
- Pulicat Lake is spread over two States only.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1 and 3 only
Chilika Lake
- Chilika Lake is a brackish water lagoon, spread over the Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Odisha.
- It is located at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal, covering an area of over 1,100 km2.
- It is the largest coastal lagoon in India and the largest brackish water lagoon in the world after The New Caledonian barrier reef.
- It has been listed Ramsar Site as well as a tentative UNESCO World Heritage site.
Its formation
- The process of the formation of the Chilika might have begun in the latter part of the Pleistocene epoch, around 20,000 years ago.
- India’s peninsular river Mahanadi carried a heavy load of silt and dumped part of it at its delta.
- As the sediment-laden river met the Bay of Bengal, sand bars were formed near its mouth.
- These created a backflow of the seawater into the sluggish fresh water at the estuary, resulting in the huge brackish water lake.
- Marine archaeological studies on the Odisha coast clearly show that the Chilika once acted as a safe harbour for cargo ships bound for Southeast Asia and other parts of the world.
Historical accounts on Chilika
The lake has been a useful centre for maritime activities since the third millennium before the Common Era (CE).
- Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemy (150 CE) described Palur as an important port of Kalinga and referred to it as ‘Paloura’.
- This port was situated close to the ‘point of departure’ located outside the southern tip of the lake at Kantiagarh, from where ships used to sail directly for Southeast Asia.
- Stone anchors and hero stones from Manikapatna, Palur and the adjoining onshore regions of the Chilika suggest that the present brackish water lagoon was in fact a part of the Bay of Bengal.
- Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (7th century CE) recorded ‘Che-li-ta-lo-Ching’ as a flourishing port.
- This port was located at Chhatargarh on the banks of the Chilika.
- The Brahmanda Purana (10th century CE approximately) says the Chilika was an important centre of trade and commerce, with ships sailing to Java, Malaya and Ceylon.
- The famous Sanskrit poet Kalidas called the king of Kalinga ‘Madhodhipati’ or ‘Lord of the Ocean’.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Genetics and climate change
Mains level: Impacts of climate change on plant dynamics
Changing climate has transformed the time spring unfolds in front of us.
Early bud-break
- Bud-break — which is when trees leaf out — has undergone a change.
- Several trees initiate bud-break too early or too late, which affects the harvest.
- Spring, for example, arrived earlier than usual in Kashmir this year due to higher temperatures in February and March.
- Gul-tour, a spring-flowering herb started blooming in mid-February in Kashmir. Its yellow flowers would usually blossom in March, heralding Spring.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Other than resistance to pests, what are the prospects for which genetically engineered plants have been created?
- To enable them to withstand drought
- To increase the nutritive value of the produce
- To enable them to grow and do photosynthesis in spaceships and space stations
- To increase their shelf life
Select the correct answer using the code given below
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 and 4 only
(c) 1, 2 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer: (d)
What causes early bud-break?
- This is why understanding the genetics of bud-break helps scientists modify or select crop varieties that can be more resilient to the climate threat.
- The properties of transcription factors are genes that regulate other genes by binding to deoxyribonucleic acid and giving activation instructions.
- It helps scientists determine what other genes might be involved in a process such as a bud-break.
EBB genes
- Researchers of the study had earlier identified transcription factors for early bud-break 1 (EBB1) and short vegetative phase (SVL), which directly interact to control bud-break.
- EBB1 is a positive regulator of bud-break, whereas SVL is a negative regulator of bud-break.
- Now, the research team has identified and characterized the early bud-break 3 (EBB3) gene.
Identified mechanism of Bud-break
- EBB3 is a temperature-responsive, positive regulator of bud-break that provides a direct link to activation of the cell cycle during bud-break.
- EBB3 provides a direct link through the signalling pathway for how these cells divide.
- The analysis reveals how particular genes activate through the season or in response to specific environmental factors.
Significance of the study
- New approaches for accelerated tree adaptation to climate change helps ensure bud-break happens at the right time each spring.
- Using their understanding of the genetic pathways that control bud-break, scientists hope to genetically modify crops to adapt to warmer winters and unpredictable frosts.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Shigmo Festival
Mains level: NA
The Shigmo or the Goan Carnival celebrations may be terminated this year due to rising covid cases.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2017:
Q.Consider the following pairs:
Traditions Communities
- Chaliha Sahib Festival — Sindhis
- Nanda Raj Jaat Yatra — Gonds
- Wari-Warkari — Santhals
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) None of the above
What is Shigmo or Shigmotsav?
- Shigmo is the celebration of a ‘rich, golden harvest of paddy’ by the tribal communities of Goa.
- Agricultural communities including the Kunbis, Gawdas and Velips celebrate the festival that also marks the onset of spring.
- Shigmo celebrations last over a fortnight in the months of Phalgun-Chaitra months of the Hindu calendar that correspond with March-April every year.
Various activities in celebrations
- The festival begins with ‘Naman’ that is the invocation of the local folk deities on the village ‘maand’ or the village stage.
- It is held to the beats of percussion instruments like the Ghumat, Dhol, Mhadle and Tashe by the male folk.
- This is called the ‘romta mell’ that moves from one village to another.
- The celebration is replete with traditional, colourful costumes, mythological installations, painted faces and costumes of various hues.
- Folk dances like Ghodemodini (a dance of equestrian warriors), Gopha and Phugadi are among the many dances performed by the participating communities.
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