Daily Prelims Notes 15 October 2020

October 15, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Table Of Contents

Subject : Environment

Context : Supreme Court upheld the Tamilnadu government authority to notify an elephant corridor and its migratory path.

Concept:

What are Elephant Corridors?

Elephant corridors are narrow strips of land that connect two large habitats of elephants. Elephant corridors are crucial to reduce animal fatalities due to accidents and other reasons. So fragmentation of forests makes it all the more important to preserve migratory corridors.

Why protect elephant corridors?

The movement of elephants is essential to ensure that their populations are genetically viable. It also helps to regenerate forests on which other species, including tigers, depend.
Nearly 40% of elephant reserves are vulnerable, as they are not within protected parks and sanctuaries. Also, the migration corridors have no specific legal protection.
Forests that have turned into farms and unchecked tourism are blocking animals’ paths. Animals are thus forced to seek alternative routes resulting in increased elephant-human conflict.

Additional Information : Keystone species

Keystone species is a species whose addition to or loss from an ecosystem leads to major changes in abundance or occurrence of at least one other species. They are considered more important in determining the presence of many other species in that ecosystem.
All top predators (Tiger, Lion, Crocodile, Elephant) are considered as keystone species because it regulates all other animals’ population indirectly. Hence top predators are given much consideration in conservation.

2. Borrowing for GST Compensation

Subject: Economy

Context: Finance Ministry granted TN government permission to borrow 9627 crore rupees to meet the shortfall in GST compensation.

Concept:

Due to pandemic situation , there is a heavy downfall in GST compensation cess collections.
To meet the shortfall , central government has given two options for states,

a) Letting the States borrow 1.1 lakh crore of the 2.35 lakh crore estimated shortfall in GST cess collections in 2020-2021 , without having to worry about principal and interest payments.

b) Allowing the states to raise 2.35 lakh crore while bearing the interest costs(Not opted by states)

Also, States are entitled to get additional borrowing flexibility of 0.5% of GSDP.

3. Storms and Cyclone

Subject : Geography

Context: The sub-cyclonic system or “deep depression” that inundated Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is likely to peter out in a day, but will regain in strength again once it crosses the Maharashtra coast according to IMD.

Concept:

October and November are cyclone months with several storms originating in the Bay of Bengal. Most that gain enough energy to become full-fledged cyclones eventually dissipate once they make landfall in a day or so.
However, it’s rare for a storm that never became a cyclone to manage a crossing across India’s east and west coasts. Moisture from the sea imparts energy to tropical storms and can make them stronger.
Cyclones Gaja (2018) and Vardah (2016) were both cyclonic storms that originated in the Bay of Bengal and crossed over all the way into the Arabian sea.
Only storms that whip up wind speeds greater than 62 kmph are classified as cyclones and the current disturbance is hovering over north Karnataka and Maharashtra with wind speeds of 30-40 kmph.

Source : IMD

India Meteorological Department (IMD)

Formed in 1875, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is the national meteorological service of the country and it is the chief government agency dealing in everything related to meteorology, seismology, and associated subjects.
The administrative responsibilities of the Department are under the supervision of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Indian Government. The IMD is headquartered in New Delhi.

4. UNHRC

Subject: International Organisation

Context :Pakistan has been re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council despite opposition from activist groups over its abysmal human rights records

Concept :

The UNHRC

The UNHRC describes itself as an inter-governmental body within the UN system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.
It addresses situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them.
The UNHRC has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year.
The UNHRC replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).

HRC Meetings

The Human Rights Council holds no fewer than three regular sessions a year, for a total of at least 10 weeks.
The sessions are held at the UN Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
If one-third of the Member States so request, the HRC can decide at any time to hold a special session to address human rights violations and emergencies.

Membership

The Council is made up of 47 UN Member States, which are elected by the UNGA through a direct and secret ballot.
The General Assembly takes into account the contribution of the candidate states to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard.
Members of the Council serve for a period of three years, and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms.

Seats distribution

African States: 13 seats, Asia-Pacific States: 13 seats, Latin American and Caribbean States: 8 seats, Western European and other States: 7 seats and Eastern European States: 6 seats.

5. STARS Programme

Subject: Govt Schemes

Context: Union Cabinet approves STARS programme for school eduaction reform. It is partially funded by World Bank.

Concept:

STARS Project

The STARS project will be implemented through the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship central scheme.
The six states include- Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
It will help improve learning assessment systems, strengthen classroom instruction and remediation, facilitate school-to-work transition, and strengthen governance and decentralized management.
A major component of the project is the establishment of PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) as a National Assessment Centre. It is included in the National Education Policy 2020,
This autonomous institution under the Union Education Ministry will set norms for student assessment and evaluation for all school boards across the country, most of which currently follow norms set by State governments.
Some 250 million students (between the age of 6 and 17) in 1.5 million schools and over 10 million teachers will benefit from the STARS program.
STARS will support India’s renewed focus on addressing the ‘learning outcome’ challenge and help students better prepare for the jobs of the future – through a series of reform initiatives.

6. AZD7442

Subject: Science and tech

Context : Swedish-British drug giant AstraZeneca recently said it was moving an antibody combination developed for Covid-19 treatment into late-stage human trials.

The firm has also received around $486 million from the US government.

Concept :

About:

AZD7442, a similar class of the drug cocktail used to treat US President recently, is a combination of two long-acting monoclonal antibodies (LAAB).
AstraZeneca developed it using its proprietary technology with the aim of preventing Covid-19 infection for a long duration.
LAABs mimic natural antibodies, and a combination of LAABs could be “complementary” to vaccines as a prophylactic agent.
This means it could either be used on people for whom a vaccine may not be appropriate or it could be given as added protection for those at high-risk.

7. DELISTING

Subject : Economy

Context : Vedanta Resources said that, hey have failed to garner the required number of shares to delist Indian subsidiary Vedanta.

Concept :

Delisting means the permanent removal of a stock from stock exchange.
Share delisting is the removal of a listed stock from a stock exchange platform, and thus it would no longer be traded.
It can be done either on voluntary decision of the company or forcibly done by SEBI on account of some wrong doing by the company.
There are certain norms which a company needs to follow while delisting on the stock exchange. In case of voluntary delisting,
The delisting shall be considered successful only when the shareholding of the acquirer together with the shares tendered by public shareholders
Some companies choose to become privately traded when they identify that the costs of being publicly listed exceed the benefits.
Reaches 90% of the total share capital of the company.

8. NEW SHEPHARD

Subject: Science and tech

Context : New Shephard has been named after astronaut Alan Shephard, the first American to go to space, and offers flights to space over 100 km above the Earth and accommodation for payloads.

Concept :

Blue Origin( company which built new shephard) will eventually allow space tourists to experience microgravity by taking them over 100 km above the Earth.
Essentially, it is a rocket system that has been designed to take astronauts and research payloads past the Karman line – the internationally recognised boundary of space.
The idea is to provide easier and more cost-effective access to space meant for purposes such as academic research, corporate technology development and entrepreneurial ventures among others.