Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Siddi Tribals
Mains level: NA
The Siddi community gets its first lawmaker in Karnataka. They are included as the Scheduled Tribes in Karnataka.
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Q.Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:
- PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
- A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.
- There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
- Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1, 2 and 3
(b) 2, 3 and 4
(c) 1, 2 and 4
(d) 1, 3 and 4
Siddi Tribe
- The Siddi also known as Sidi, Siddhi, Sheedi or Habshi, are an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan.
- They are sometimes referred to as Afro-Indians. They are descended from the Bantu peoples of the East African region.
- Similarly, another term for Siddis, habshi, is held to be derived from the common name for the captains of the Abyssinian ships that also first delivered Siddi slaves to the subcontinent.
- They are primarily Muslims, although some are Hindus and others belong to the Catholic Church.
How they came to India?
- The first Siddis are thought to have arrived in India in 628 AD at the Bharuch port. Several others followed with the first Arab conquest of the subcontinent in 712 AD.
- The latter groups are believed to have been soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim’s Arab army and were called Zanjis.
- In the Delhi Sultanate period prior to the rise of the Mughals in India, Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut was a prominent Siddi slave-turned-nobleman who was a close confidant of Razia Sultana.
- Siddis were also brought as slaves by the Deccan Sultanates. They also served in the Navy of Shivaji Maharaj.
- Several former slaves rose to high ranks in the military and administration, the most prominent of which was Malik Ambar.
- Later the Siddi population was added to via Bantu peoples from Southeast Africa that had been brought to the Indian subcontinent as slaves by the Portuguese.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Criticality of the nuclear reactors
Mains level: India's nuclear energy policy
The indigenously designed 700 MWe reactor at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project has achieved Criticality.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2013:
Q. The known forces of nature can be divided into four classes, viz, gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force. With reference to them, which one of the following statements is not correct?
(a) Gravity is the strongest of the four
(b) Electromagnetism act only on particles with an electric charge
(c) Weak nuclear force causes radioactivity
(d) Strong nuclear force holds protons and neutrons inside the nuclear of an atom.
What is ‘Criticality’ in Atomic/Nuclear Power Plants?
- Reactors are the heart of an atomic power plant, where a controlled nuclear fission reaction takes place that produces heat, which is used to generate steam that then spins a turbine to create electricity.
- Fission is a process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or smaller nuclei, and usually some by-product particles.
- When the nucleus splits, the kinetic energy of the fission fragments is transferred to other atoms in the fuel as heat energy, which is eventually used to produce steam to drive the turbines.
- For every fission event, if at least one of the emitted neutrons on average causes fission, a self-sustaining chain reaction will take place.
- A nuclear reactor achieves criticality when each fission event releases a sufficient number of neutrons to sustain an ongoing series of reactions.
Controlling Criticality
- When a reactor is starting up, the number of neutrons is increased slowly in a controlled manner. Neutron-absorbing control rods in the reactor core are used to calibrate neutron production.
- The control rods are made from neutron-absorbing elements such as cadmium, boron, or hafnium.
- The deeper the rods are lowered into the reactor core, the more neutrons the rods absorb and the less fission occurs.
- Technicians pull up or lower down the control rods into the reactor core depending on whether more or less fission, neutron production, and power are desired.
- If a malfunction occurs, technicians can remotely plunge control rods into the reactor core to quickly soak up neutrons and shut down the nuclear reaction.
Why is this achievement significant?
- It is the biggest indigenously developed variant of the Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR).
- The PHWRs, which use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as moderator, is the mainstay of India’s nuclear reactor fleet.
- Until now, the biggest reactor size of the indigenous design was the 540 MWe PHWR, two of which have been deployed in Tarapur, Maharashtra.
- India works to ramp up its existing nuclear power capacity of 6,780 MWe to 22,480 MWe by 2031.
- The 700MWe capacity constitutes the biggest component of the expansion plan.
Back2Basics: India’s PHWR technology
- PHWR technology started in India in the late 1960s with the construction of the first 220 MWe reactor, Rajasthan Atomic Power Station, RAPS-1 under the joint Indo-Canadian nuclear co-operation.
- Canada supplied all the main equipment for this first unit, while India retained responsibility for construction, installation, and commissioning.
- For the second unit (RAPS-2), import content was reduced considerably, and indigenization was undertaken for major equipment.
- Following the withdrawal of Canadian support in 1974 after Pokhran-1, Indian nuclear engineers completed the construction, and the plant was made operational with a majority of components being made in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Madhubani paintings
Mains level: Not Much
An artist known as the ‘mask man’ of Bihar dispatches masks with hand-painted Madhubani motifs all over India.
Also read:
[Prelims Spotlight] Indian Paintings and Handicrafts
Madhubani Paintings
- Madhubani art (or Mithila painting) is a style of Indian painting, practised in the Mithila region of Bihar.
- This painting is done with a variety of tools, including fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks and using natural dyes and pigments.
- It is characterized by its eye-catching geometrical patterns.
- It was traditionally created by the women of various communities in the Mithila region of the Indian subcontinent.
- This painting as a form of wall art was practised widely throughout the region; the more recent development of painting on paper and canvas mainly originated among the villages around Madhubani.
- It is these latter developments that led to the term “Madhubani art” being used alongside “Mithila Painting.”
Its features
- It uses two-dimensional imagery, and the colours used are derived from plants. Ochre, Lampblack and Red are used for reddish-brown and black, respectively.
- It mostly depicts people and their association with nature and scenes and deities from the ancient epics.
- Natural objects like the sun, the moon, and religious plants like tulsi are also widely painted, along with scenes from the royal court and social events like weddings.
- Generally, no space is left empty; the gaps are filled by paintings of flowers, animals, birds, and even geometric designs.
- Madhubani art has five distinctive styles: Bharni, Kachni, Tantrik, Godna and Kohbar.
- This painting has also received a GI (Geographical Indication) status.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Lonar Crater Lake, Pleistoscene epoch
Mains level: Not Much
The colour of Lonar lake water in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district turned pink due to a large presence of the salt-loving ‘Haloarchaea’ microbes, a probe carried out by a Pune-based institute has concluded.
Make a note of all saltwater lakes in India. Few of them are Pulicat, Pangong Tso, Chilika, and Sambhar Lakes etc.
Haloarchaea’ microbes
- Haloarchaea or halophilic archaea is a bacteria culture which produces pink pigment and is found in water saturated with salt.
- The increased salinity and pH facilitated the growth of halophilic microbes, mainly Haloarchaea.
- Basically, it is the biomass of these microbes and because of that, the surface of the water turned red or pink and as soon as the biomass subsided, the colour disappeared.
- The scientist said the colour of the lake is now returning to original as the rainy season has kicked in, allowing dilution of the water.
- Initially, it was thought for the red-pigmented Dunaliella algae due to which the water might have turned pink.
- Because of that, the salinity and pH/alkalinity levels have also come down and green algae have started growing in the water body.
About Lonar Lake
- Lonar Lake, also known as Lonar crater, is a notified National Geo-heritage Monument, saline (pH of 10.5), Soda Lake, located at Lonar in Buldhana district, Maharashtra.
- It was created by an asteroid collision with earth impact during the Pleistocene Epoch.
- It is one of the four known, hyper-velocity, impact craters in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth.
- It sits inside the Deccan Plateau—a massive plain of volcanic basalt rock created by eruptions some 65 million years ago.
- Its location in this basalt field suggested to some geologists that it was a volcanic crater.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Malwares
Mains level: Data privacy issues
Various security firms have alerted about new malware, called BlackRock.
Try this question from CSP 2018:
Q.The terms ‘WannaCry, Petya, Eternal Blue’ sometimes mentioned news recently are related to
(a) Exoplanets
(b) Cryptocurrency
(c) Cyberattacks
(d) Mini satellites
BlackRock
- BlackRock isn’t exactly a new malware. In fact, it is based on the leaked source code of the Xeres malware, itself derived from a malware called LokiBot.
- The only big difference between BlackRock and other Android banking trojans is that it can target more apps than previous malwares.
How does it work?
- BlackRock works like most Android malware. Once installed on a phone, it monitors the targeted app.
- When the user enters the login and/or credit card details, the malware sends the information to a server.
- BlackRock uses the phone’s Accessibility feature and then uses an Android DPC (device policy controller) to provide access to other permissions.
- It can be used to send and steal SMS messages, hide notifications, keylogging, AV detection, and much more.
Threats posed
- The new malware can steal information like passwords and credit card information from about 377 smartphone applications, including Amazon, Facebook, and Gmail.
- It is so powerful that it makes antivirus applications useless.
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NASA has issued a warning that a huge “Asteroid 2020 ND” will move past Earth on July 24.
Try this question from CSP 2014:
Q.What is a coma, in the content of astronomy?
(a) Bright half of material on the comet
(b) Long tail of dust
(c) Two asteroids orbiting each other
(d) Two planets orbiting each other
What are Asteroids?
- Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. They are leftover from the formation of our solar system.
- Although asteroids orbit the Sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets.
- There are lots of asteroids in our solar system. Most of them live in the main asteroid belt—a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
- Some asteroids go in front of and behind Jupiter. They are called Trojans.
- Asteroids that come close to Earth are called Near-Earth Objects, NEOs for short. NASA keeps a close watch on these asteroids.
Asteroid 2020 ND
- The 2020 ND is about 170 metres-long.
- It will be as close as 0.034 astronomical units (5,086,328 kilometres) to our planet and is travelling at a speed of 48,000 kilometres per hour.
- Its distance from Earth has placed it in the “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs)” category.
How are PHAs defined?
- PHAs are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth.
- NASA classifies objects like these as ‘near-Earth objects’ (NEOs) as they get nudged by other planets’ gravitational attraction resulting in their proximity to our solar system.
- It is not necessary that asteroids classified as PHAs will impact the Earth. It only means there is a possibility for such a threat.
Can they be deflected?
- Over the years, scientists have suggested different ways to ward off such threats, such as blowing up the asteroid before it reaches Earth or deflecting it off its Earth-bound course by hitting it with a spacecraft.
- The most drastic measure undertaken so far is the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA), which includes NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and the ESA’s Hera.
- Both mission’s target is Didymos, a binary near-Earth asteroid, one of whose bodies is of the size that could pose the most likely significant threat to Earth.
- In 2018, NASA announced that it had started the construction of DART, which is scheduled to launch in 2021 with an aim to slam into the smaller asteroid of the Didymos system at around 6 km per second in 2022.
- Hera, which is scheduled to launch in 2024, will arrive at the Didymos system in 2027 to measure the impact crater produced by the DART collision and study the change in the asteroid’s orbital trajectory.
Back2Basics: Near-Earth objects (NEOs)
- NEOs are comets and asteroids nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits which allows them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood.
- These objects are composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, and occasionally approach close to the Earth as they orbit the Sun.
- NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Study (CNEOS) determines the times and distances of these objects as and when their approach to the Earth is close.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Itolizumab
Mains level: NA
The Drug Controller General of India recently approved Itolizumab as a novel biologic therapy for restricted emergency use.
Various drugs in news these days are:
1) Remdesivir: Ebola
2) Lopinavir: HIV
3) Hydroxychloroquine: Malaria
What is Itolizumab?
- Itolizumab is an existing drug used for psoriasis, a chronic skin disease involving unregulated growth of some skin cells that develop into red patches mostly on knees and elbows, but also on some other parts of the body.
- The drug, developed by Bengaluru-based Biocon, was approved in 2013.
- It is a monoclonal antibody which is used to treat acute psoriasis.
Why it is being used for COVD-19?
- The coronavirus has been observed to induce an overreaction of the immune system, generating a large number of cytokines that can cause severe damage to the lungs and other organs.
- Itolizumab is safe and efficient in preventing cardio-renal complications in Covid-19 patients who also have acute respiratory distress.
What are monoclonal antibodies?
- Monoclonal antibodies are proteins cloned in the lab to mimic antibodies produced by the immune system to counter infection.
- They have their genesis in serum, the colourless constituent of blood that contains antibodies.
- These proteins bind to an antigen, the fragment of an infectious virus in the case of SARS-CoV-2, and either destroy it or block its action.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Vitamin D
Mains level: NA
There have been considerable discussions in scientific circles on the importance of vitamin D in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Try this question from CSP 2017:
Q.Regular intake of fresh fruits and vegetables is recommended in the diet since they are a good source of antioxidants. How do antioxidants help a person maintain health and promote longevity?
(a) They activate the enzymes necessary for vitamin synthesis in the body and help prevent vitamin deficiency.
(b) They prevent excessive oxidation of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in the body and help avoid unnecessary wastage of energy.
(c) They neutralize the free radicals produced in the body during metabolism.
(d) They activate certain genes in the cells of the body and help delay the ageing process.
Vitamin D and its prevalence
- It is produced when sunlight (or artificial light, particularly in the ultraviolet region of 190-400 nm wavelength) falls on the skin.
- Light triggers a chemical reaction to a cholesterol-based molecule and converts it into calcidiol in the liver and into calcitriol in the kidney.
- It is these two molecules that are physiologically active.
- Since sunlight is important for the generation of vitamin D, tropical countries have an advantage over the northern countries.
- India, being a tropical country, one would expect naturally derived vitamin D levels to be good.
Why Vitamin D is important?
- Vitamin D deficiency can affect COVID-19 high-risk patients, particularly those who are diabetic, have heart conditions, pneumonia, obesity and those who smoke.
- It is also associated with infections in the respiratory tract and lung injury.
- Besides, vitamin D is known to help in having the right amount of calcium in the bones, catalyse the process of protecting cell membranes from damage, preventing the inflammation of tissues.
- Moreover, it helps stop tissues from forming fibres and weakening bones from becoming brittle, leading to osteoporosis.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kaziranga NP
Mains level: Floods in India
As a fresh wave of floods ravages Assam, killing, 85 per cent of the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) remains submerged.
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- Asiatic lion is naturally found in India only.
- Double-humped camel is naturally found in India only.
- One-horned rhinoceros is naturally found in India only.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve
- The KNTPR is a national park in the Golaghat, Karbi Anglong and Nagaon districts of the state of Assam.
- The sanctuary, which hosts two-thirds of the world’s great one-horned rhinoceroses, is a World Heritage Site.
- Kaziranga is home to the highest density of tigers among protected areas in the world and was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006 (now the highest tiger density is in Orang National Park, Assam).
- The park is home to large breeding populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer.
- It is also recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International for the conservation of avifaunal species.
Significance of floods in Kaziranga’s ecosystem
- The entire area of Kaziranga — formed by alluvial deposits from the Brahmaputra and its tributaries — is centred on the river.
- There is a consensus that floods are necessary for Kaziranga by virtue of it being riverine ecosystem.
- The regenerative nature of floods helps replenish Kaziranga’s water bodies and maintain its landscape, a mix of wetlands, grasslands and semi-evergreen deciduous forests.
- The floodwaters also function as a breeding ground for fish.
- The same fish are carried away by the receding waters into the Brahmaputra — in a way, the park replenishes the river’s stock of fish too.
- The waters also help get rid of unwanted plants such as water hyacinth which collect in huge masses in the landscape.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hope Mission
Mains level: Quest for Mars and its possibility to host life
The launch of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first mission to Mars has been delayed by two days due to bad weather conditions which were scheduled to take off from its launch site, Tanegashima Space Center, in Japan.
Try this question from CSP 2014:
Q.Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched?
| Spacecraft |
Purpose |
| 1. Cassini-Huygens |
Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth |
| 2. Messenger |
Mapping and investigating the Mercury |
| 3. Voyager 1 and 2 |
Exploring the outer solar system |
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
a) 1 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Hope Mission
- The Emirates Mars Mission called “Hope” was announced in 2015 with the aim of creating mankind’s first integrated model of the Red planet’s atmosphere.
- Hope weighs over 1500 kg and will carry scientific instruments mounted on one side of the spacecraft, including the Emirates exploration Imager (EXI), which is a high-resolution camera among others.
- The spacecraft will orbit Mars to study the Martian atmosphere and its interaction with outer space and solar winds.
- Hope will collect data on Martian climate dynamics, which should help scientists understand why Mars’ atmosphere is decaying into space.
Objectives of the mission
- Once it launches, Hope will orbit Mars for around 200 days, after which it will enter the Red planet’s orbit by 2021, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of UAE.
- The mission is being executed by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, UAE’s space agency.
- It will help answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year.
Back2Basics: Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)
- The MOM also called Mangalyaan is a space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
- It aims at studying the Martian surface and mineral composition as well as scans its atmosphere for methane (an indicator of life on Mars).
- It is India’s first interplanetary mission and it made it the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after Roscosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency.
- It made India the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the first nation in the world to do so on its maiden attempt.
- It was initially meant to last six months, but subsequently, ISRO had said it had enough fuel for it to last “many years.”
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Melghat Tiger Reserve
Mains level: Tiger conservation
Maharashtra CM has sought alternative routes for the proposed broad gauge conversion of a railway line passing through the Melghat Tiger Reserve in Amravati district.
Try this question from CSP 2012:
Consider the following protected areas:
1. Bandipur 2. Bhitarkanika 3. Manas 4. Sunderbans
Which of the above are declared Tiger Reserves?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1, 3 and 4 only
(c) 2, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Melghat Tiger Reserve
- Melghat, part of the Satpura-Maikal landscape was among the first nine tiger reserves notified in 1973-74 under the Project Tiger.
- The Tapti River and the Gawilgadh ridge of the Satpura Range form the boundary of the reserve.
- The forest is tropical dry deciduous in nature, dominated by teak.
- The reserve is a catchment area for five major rivers: the Khandu, Khapra, Sipna, Gadga and Dolar. These all rivers are tributaries of the river Tapti.
Back2Basics: Project Tiger
- Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 during PM Indira Gandhi’s tenure.
- In 1970 India had only 1800 tigers and Project Tiger was launched in Jim Corbett National Park.
- The project is administrated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
- It aims at ensuring a viable population of Bengal tigers in their natural habitats, protecting them from extinction etc.
- Under this project the govt. has set up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers and funded relocation of villagers to minimize human-tiger conflicts.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Azad Pattan hydel project
Mains level: Dams in PoK
Pakistan and China have signed an agreement for the 700 MW Azad Pattan hydel power project on the Jhelum River in Sudhoti district of PoK.
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Q.What is common to the places known as Aliyar, Isapur and Kangsabati?
(a) Recently discovered uranium deposits
(b) Tropical rain forests
(c) Underground cave systems
(d) Water reservoirs
Azad Pattan hydel project
- The project is a run-of-the-river scheme with a reservoir located near Muslimabad village, 7 km upstream from the Azad Pattan bridge, in district Sudhnoti, one of the eight districts of PoK.
- It is one of five hydropower schemes on the Jhelum.
- Upstream from Azad Pattan are the Mahl, Kohala, and Chakothi Hattian projects; Karot is downstream. Like Kohala and Azad Pattan, Karot too is being developed under the CPEC framework.
- The project will comprise a 90-metre-high dam, with a 3.8 sq km reservoir.
- The $ 1.5-billion project is the second power project under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Other projects in PoK
- Kohala project is a 1,124 MW hydel project that will come upon the Jhelum near Muzaffarabad. This project is one of the biggest investments by China in PoK.
- The Karot Hydropower station, the third project being executed by China on the Jhelum is on the boundaries of Kotli district in PoK and Rawalpindi district in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
- Two hydel projects are planned in Gilgit Baltistan – Phandar Hydro Power, and Gilgit KIU.
- Most recent in the news was Diamer-Bhasha dam in the PoK.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Google for India Digitization Fund (GIDF)
Mains level: Digital India
Technology giant Google will invest $10 billion (₹75,000 crores) in India as part of the ‘Google for India Digitization Fund (GIDF)’.
Practice question for mains:
Q.Discuss the role of foreign investment in the digital transformation of India.
About GIDF
- The GIDF focuses on digitizing the economy and building India-first products and services.
- The plan is in line with big-tech’s bullish outlook on India. Earlier this year, Amazon said it would invest an additional $1 billion in India.
- This was followed by a marquee investment announcement of $5.7 billion by Facebook in the country’s largest telecom company Reliance Jio.
- Last month, Microsoft’s venture fund M12 said it would open an office in India to pursue investment opportunities focusing on B2B software startups.
Focus areas
The investment will focus on four areas important to digitization including:
- Enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language,
- Building products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs,
- Empowering businesses in their digital transformation journey and
- Leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: APTTA
Mains level: India-Afghanistan trade facilitation
Pakistan has allowed Afghanistan to send goods to India using the Wagah border. The decision is a part of Islamabad’s commitment under the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA).
A statement based question can be asked upon the agreement on terms like:
1. Reciprocal trade with India
2. Railways/Road/Air transit whether allowed
About the agreement
- The APTTA is a bilateral trade agreement signed in 2010 by Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- It calls for greater facilitation in the movement of goods amongst the two countries.
- The 2010 agreement supersedes the 1965 Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement, which granted Afghanistan the right to import duty-free goods through Pakistani seaports, mostly notably from Karachi.
Features of the agreement
- Trade-in goods smuggled into Pakistan once constituted a major source of revenue for Afghanistan.
- The 2010 APTTA allows for both countries to use each other’s airports, railways, roads, and ports for transit trade along designated transit corridors.
- The agreement does not cover road transport vehicles from any third country, be it from India or any Central Asia country.
- However, the signed Agreement permits Afghanistan trucks access to the Wagah border with India, where Afghan goods will be offloaded onto Indian trucks.
- This agreement does not permit Indian goods to be loaded onto trucks for transit back to Afghanistan.
- Instead, Afghan trucks offloaded at Wagah may return to Afghanistan loaded only with Pakistani, rather than Indian goods in an attempt to prevent the formation of a black market for Indian goods in Pakistan.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dehing Patkai WLS
Mains level: Wildlife conservation and various policy efforts
The Assam government has decided to upgrade Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary into a National Park.
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Which one of the following National Parks lies completely in the temperate alpine zone?
(a) Manas National Park
(b) Namdapha National Park
(c) Neora Valley National Park
(d) Valley of Flowers National Park
Dehing Patkai WLS
- Dehing Patkai WLS is located in the Dibrugarh and Tinsukia Districts of Assam and covers an area of 111.19 sq. km rainforest.
- It is located in the Dehing Patkai landscape which is a dipterocarp-dominated lowland rainforest.
- It spreads across the coal- and oil-rich districts of Upper Assam (Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Sivasagar) and is believed to be the last remaining contiguous patch of lowland rainforest area in Assam.
- The WLS due to their importance for elephant habitat was declared as Dehing-Patkai Elephant Reserve under Project Elephant.
- Post upgradation, Dehing Patkai will be the sixth national park in Assam — the other five being Kaziranga, Nameri, Manas, Orang and Dibru-Saikhowa.
Back2Basics:
[Prelims Spotlight] National Parks, Biosphere Reserves, Wildlife Sanctuaries in India – Part 2
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Islands of Polynesia
Mains level: NA
How did the Polynesian peoples come to live on the far-flung islands of the Pacific? The question has intrigued researchers for centuries.
The newscard contains some trivial facts. However, aspirants are advised to observe the map.
Study on Polynesia
- Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl brought the topic to public attention when he sailed a balsa-wood raft called the Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia in 1947.
- His goal was to demonstrate such voyages were possible, supporting theories linking Polynesian origins to the Americas.
- Decades of research in archaeology, linguistics and genetics now show that Polynesian origins lie to the west, ultimately in the islands of Southeast Asia.
New evidence for American interlopers
- A new study published in Nature reports genetic evidence of Native American ancestry in several Polynesian populations.
- Other researchers have previously found evidence of indigenous American DNA in the genomes of the modern inhabitants of Rapa Nui.
- Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is the part of Polynesia closest to South America.
- This suggests the “Amerindian” genetic component was likely introduced later via Chilean colonists.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mont Blanc
Mains level: Alps and its orogeny
The melting Mont Blanc glacier in the French Alps yielded a clutch of newspapers with banner headlines from when Indira Gandhi became India’s first and so far only woman Prime Minister in 1966.
Try this MCQ
Q.The Mont Blanc in the Alps can be located near the conflux of which of the following two countries?
a)France and Spain
b)France and Italy
c)Spain and Italy
d)Greece and Slovenia
Mont Blanc
- Mont Blanc is the second-highest mountain in Europe after Mount Elbrus. It is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe.
- It rises 4,808 m above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence.
- The mountain stands in a range called the Graian Alps, between the regions of Aosta Valley, Italy, and Savoie and Haute-Savoie, France.
- It is the tallest peak in the Alps and the highest summit in Western Europe, hence its epithet the “Roof of Europe”.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: T-Cells Immunity
Mains level: Coronovirus outbreak and associated medical research
A recent study has shown that people unexposed to and not infected with novel coronavirus may still exhibit T cell responses specific to this virus. It is thought that Coronavirus specific T cell responses seen in healthy people might arise from memory T cells derived from exposure to ‘common cold’ coronaviruses.
Try this question from CSP 2010:
Q. Widespread resistance of malaria parasite to drugs like chloroquine has prompted attempts to develop a malaria vaccine to combat malaria. Why is it difficult to develop an effective malaria vaccine?
(a) Malaria is caused by several species of Plasmodium
(b) Man does not develop immunity to malaria during natural infection
(c) Vaccines can be developed only against bacteria
(d) Man is only an intermediate host and not the definitive host
What are T Cells?
- T Cells also called T lymphocyte, type of leukocyte (white blood cell) that is an essential part of the immune system.
- T cells are one of two primary types of lymphocytes—B cells being the second type—that determine the specificity of the immune response to antigens (foreign substances) in the body.
- T cells originate in the bone marrow and mature in the thymus.
Why are they called memory cells?
- In the thymus, T cells multiply and differentiate into helper, regulatory, or cytotoxic T cells or become memory T cells.
- They are then sent to peripheral tissues or circulate in the blood or lymphatic system.
- Once stimulated by the appropriate antigen, helper T cells secrete chemical messengers called cytokines, which stimulate the differentiation of B cells into plasma cells (antibody-producing cells).
How do they control immunity?
- Regulatory T cells act to control immune reactions, hence their name.
- Cytotoxic T cells, which are activated by various cytokines, bind to and kill infected cells and cancer cells.
- Because the body contains millions of T and B cells, many of which carry unique receptors, it can respond to virtually any antigen.
Vaccination outcomes on T cells
- There is a possibility that pre-existing T cell memory might influence vaccination outcomes.
- Pre-existing immunity could help elicit better immune responses against novel coronavirus, and these responses can manifest faster.
- Meanwhile, pre-existing immunity could be mistaken as an enhanced efficacy of the vaccine in eliciting immune responses.
- This could be particularly confusing in Phase-1 trials where the vaccine is tested on a small group of healthy participants.
Its drawbacks
- The pre-existing immunity can reduce the immune responses that the vaccine causes through a mechanism called the “original antigenic sin”.
- It can also lead to antibody-mediated disease enhancement, where antibodies present at sub-neutralizing concentrations can actually augment virus infection and cause more severe disease.
- This was seen in the case of chikungunya and dengue.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: KZ-11
Mains level: Not Much
China’s 19th launch of 2020, the Kuaizhou-11 rocket, failed in its mission.
Try this question from CSP 2014:
Q.Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched?
| Spacecraft |
Purpose |
| 1. Cassini-Huygens |
Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth |
| 2. Messenger |
Mapping and investigating the Mercury |
| 3. Voyager 1 and 2 |
Exploring the outer solar system |
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
a) 1 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
The Kuaizhou-11
- Kuaizhou, meaning “fast ship” in Chinese, was operated by the commercial launch firm Expace and was originally scheduled for 2018 after being developed three years earlier.
- Also known as KZ-11, it had a lift-off mass of 70.8 tonnes, and was designed to launch low-Earth and Sun-synchronous orbit satellites.
- It was carrying two satellites — the first being a remote sensing satellite that would provide data to clients on a commercial basis for forecasting and managing geological disasters.
- It would also provide the information required for natural resource exploration. The second was part of a series of satellites for low-Earth orbit navigation.
- Both satellites were built by Changguang Satellite Co. Ltd., a commercial entity born out of the state-owned firms.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various terminologies mentioned
Mains level: Not Much
The C/2020 F3 comet also dubbed NEOWISE will be visible with the naked eye for around 20 minutes every day for 20 days across India.
Try this question from CSP 2014:
Q.What is a coma, in the content of astronomy?
(a) Bright half of material on the comet
(b) Long tail of dust
(c) Two asteroids orbiting each other
(d) Two planets orbiting each other
What are Comets?
- Comets or “dirty snowballs” are mostly made of dust, rocks and ice, the remnants from the time the solar system was formed over 4.6 billion years ago.
- The word comet comes from the Latin word “Cometa” which means “long-haired” and the earliest known record of a comet sighting was made by an astrologer in 1059 BC.
- Comets can range in their width from a few miles to tens of miles wide.
- While there are millions of comets orbiting the sun, there are more than 3,650 known comets as of now, according to NASA.
How do they illuminate?
- Comets do not have the light of their own and what humans are able to see from Earth is the reflection of the sun’s light off the comet as well as the energy released by the gas molecules after it is absorbed from the sun.
- The visibility cannot be precisely predicted since a lot depends on the way the “outbursts” of gas and dust play out determining how much of a “good show” the comet will put out for observers.
- As they orbit closer to the sun, they heat up and release debris of dust and gases that form into a “glowing head” that can often be larger than a planet.
Why do they get close to the sun?
- Comets may be occasionally pushed into orbits closer to the sun and the Earth’s neighbourhood due to forces of gravity of other planets.
- The appearance of some comets, like those that take less than 200 years to orbit around the sun is predictable since they have passed by before.
- These may be referred to as short-period comets and can be found in the Kuiper belt, where many comets orbit the sun in the realm of Pluto, occasionally getting pushed into orbits that bring them closer to the sun.
- One of the most famous short-period comets is called Halley’s Comet that reappears every 76 years. Halley’s will be sighted next in 2062.
- Comets in this cloud can take as long as 30 million years to complete one rotation around the sun.
Significance of the comets
- NASA tracks all Near Earth Objects (NEOs) that includes comets and asteroids using telescopes placed all around the Earth, as part of its NEO Observation Program.
- Comets hold important clues about the formation of the solar system and it is possible that comets brought water and other organic compounds, which are the building blocks of life to Earth.
Back2Basics
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