Daily Prelims Notes 21 June 2022

Daily Prelims Notes

21 June 2022

Table Of Contents

1. Megaliths
2. Crop holiday
3. Sterlite plant Copper of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu
4. Single-use plastic ban in India
5. Bird strikes: common threats to aircraft safety
6. Resurrecting a dead law
7. Too many tourists in Himalayas; new report presses for pre-empting disasters
8. ‘Black swan’ event may trigger around Rs 7.8-lakh-cr outflow

1. Megaliths

Subject: History

Section: Ancient India

• While “megalith” is often used to describe a single piece of stone, it also can be used to denote one or more rocks hewn in a definite shape for special purposes.
• It has been used to describe structures built by people from many parts of the world living in many different periods.
• Megaliths were constructed either as burial sites or commemorative (non-sepulchral) memorials.

Types of Megalith structures

• Menhir: Menhir is the name used in Western Europe for a single upright stone erected in prehistoric times; sometimes called a “standing stone”.
• Monolith: Any single standing stone erected in prehistoric times. Sometimes synonymous with “megalith” and “menhir”; for later periods, the word monolith is more likely to be used to describe single stones.
• Capstone style: Single megaliths placed horizontally, often over burial chambers, without the use of support stones.
• Stone circles: In most languages, stone circles are called “cromlechs” (a word in the Welch language); the word “cromlech” is sometimes used with that meaning in English.
• Dolmen: A Dolmen is a megalithic form created by placing a large capstone on two or more support stones creating a chamber below, sometimes closed in on one or more sides. Often used as a tomb or burial chamber.
• Cist: Cist is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Burials are megalithic forms very similar to dolmens in structure. These types of burials were completely underground. There were single- and multiple-chambered cists.

Megaliths in India

• Megaliths in India are dated before 3000 BC, with recent findings dated back to 5000 BC in southern India.
• Megaliths are spread across the Indian subcontinent, though the bulk of them are found in peninsular India, concentrated in the states of Maharashtra (mainly in Vidarbha), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
• There is also a broad time evolution with the megaliths in central India and the upper Indus valley where the oldest megaliths are found, while those in the east are of much later date.
• A large fraction of these is assumed to be associated with burial or post burial rituals, including memorials for those whose remains may or may not be available.
• The case-example is that of Brahmagiri, which was excavated in 1975 and helped establish the culture sequence in south Indian prehistory.
• However, there is another distinct class of megaliths that do not seem to be associated with burials.
• Even today, a living megalithic culture endures among some tribes such as the Gonds of central India and the Khasis of Meghalaya.

Theory behind megaliths

• For a while, scientific consensus was in favour of the theory that ideas emanated from a single cultural centre and were transported across the world by migrating populations—trans-cultural diffusion.
• Radical diffusionists went a step further, denying the possibility of parallel evolution of ideas completely, and asserting that all cultures and inventions can be tracked down to a single culture.
• Modern research, however, increasingly disputes this view, with a tilt in favour of independent origin of ideas and inventions.

Megalithic Culture in India

• As megalithic societies were preliterate, the racial or ethnic origins of the megalithic people are thus difficult to pin down.
• The discovery of a stone axe with what seemed to be inscriptions in the Harappan script from a burial chamber in Tamil Nadu did bring up the tantalizing possibility of cultural contact between Harappans and the megalithic people.
• Some historians believe that Megaliths were not built for commoners. They signify the emergence of a ruling class or elite who presided over a surplus economy.
• Megalithic people carried out agricultural activity in both the rabi and kharif seasons.
• A large variety of grains such as rice, wheat, kodo millet, barley lentil, black gram, horse gram, common pea, pigeon pea and Indian jujube have been recovered from habitations.
• The very idea of burying the dead along with burial goods indicates strong belief in life after death and possibly rebirth among megalithic people.
• Banded agate beads with eye patterns have been recovered from megalithic sites.
• These were generally used by them as protection against evil spirits, a belief that survives to this day in India in the form of nazar battus such as amulets or strings of limes and chillies.

Historical continuity

• According to Korisettar, the collapse of trade gave rise to a change in the urban character of the Harappan civilization.
• The Harappans then diffused eastwards and came into contact with the early agricultural settlements in the Gangetic plain and moved southwards, and gradually reverted to a more primitive way of life.
• This is indicated by the smaller, but greater number of settlements found after 1800 BC, compared to earlier sites.
• Megalithism indicates the developments of a second urbanization, a chieftain society or chiefdoms, as reflected in monumental architecture as well as other aspects: surplus being generated, multiple crops including cash crops and horticultural crops, minerals, stones.
• Essentially, the emergence of the Megalithic period marks the beginning of second urbanization in various parts of India beyond what was covered by Indus Valley Civilization.
• While their association with the Iron Age breaks down in the case of some older megaliths dating to 2000 BC, megaliths in peninsular India are more strongly associated with a characteristic wheel-made pottery type known as Black and Red Ware, which is found across sites.
• The range of iron artifacts recovered indicate that the megalithic people practiced a wide range of occupations and included carpenters, cobblers, bamboo craftsmen, lapidaries engaged in gemstone work, blacksmiths, coppersmiths and goldsmiths, proof of complex social organization.
• Beads made of various semi-precious stones and steatite have also been found.
• Bronze figurines of animals like buffalos, goats, tigers, elephants and antelopes have been recovered from inside urn burials at the site of Adichanallur in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.
• Significantly, Roman coins have been found in some megalithic burials in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• In fact, megalithic culture finds several references in ancient Tamil Sangam literature. For instance, menhirs are referred to as nadukal(Hero Stones).
• Manimekalai (5th century AD), refers to the various kinds of burials namely cremation (cuṭuvōr), post excarnation burial (iṭuvōr), burying the deceased in a pit (toṭukuḻip paṭuvōr), rock chamber or cist burial (tāḻvāyiṉ aṭaippōr), urn burial with lid (tāḻiyiṟ kavippōr).

2. Crop holiday

Subject : Geography

Section : Economic Geography

Context:

• Lack of payment of dues, no change in MSPs and creaking infrastructure has caused farmers in Andhra Pradesh’s Godavari delta region to refrain from sowing paddy

Crop holiday

• Farmers in the fertile and water-rich delta of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh are contemplating a ‘crop holiday’, not growing this year’s Kharif crop, citing non-payment of dues, bad policies and shoddy infrastructure.
• They had not been paid for their crop; the rise in input costs had not been matched with a rise in minimum support prices (MSP) and water from canals was flooding their fields. Also, there was a shortage of labour in the area.
• There are farmers who left their crops without harvesting due to lack of labour.
• Many tenant farmers in the region also said most of the benefits accrued to the land owners, leaving little for them.
• Farmers in Konaseema had declared a crop holiday way back in 2011 too. Non-payment of MSP was a reason then as well. And it has been awaiting resolution since.
  • The then-government had appointed a committee under Chief Secretary Mohan Kanda, which made some 30 recommendations. These have remained unaddressed though three governments have completed their tenure since then.

Fetilisers, seeds and canals

• The rates of fertilisers have risen some 60-70 per cent in the last 10 years. But the price of paddy hasn’t risen commensurately.
• One of the reasons for the 2011 crop holiday was the role of canals. Narrow canals had led to water ingressing into fields.The canal drainage system is bad and leads to flooding of fields.

3. Sterlite plant Copper of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu

Subject : Geography

Section: Economic geography

Context:

• Sterlite Copper of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu has become a moral issue after the police firing on protesters resulted in the deaths of 13 people in May 2018 .

Complaints against the plant

• Over some 20 years of plant operation, the company had violated many pollution regulations and faced at least two major allegations of excessive emissions.
• Residents around Sterlite say that when the plant was operating, there would be a release of gas at 3 a.m. every day. They would wake up short of breath and to a foul smell.
• Even cattle were refusing to drink groundwater since it was contaminated by Sterlite effluents. Now, the air is cleaner.
• The business community complains that Sterlite did not employ enough local people and did not give enough contracts for local businessmen. It was a high-handed management that talked down to them.
• Though Sterlite has constructed toilets, water tanks and community centers, it has not invested much in serving the educational or health needs of the local population.

Sterlite’s product

• Sterlite’s product, copper, is a strategic metal.
• Important applications are energy, electrical equipment and electronics. 
• Nations are switching more and more to wind and solar. This means new projects and transmission lines. There is a push for electrical vehicles.
• Globally, and in India, copper demand is only set to ramp up. Imports can cause supply bottlenecks. End consumers such as electrical equipment manufacturers sometimes pay a high premium as a result.
• Copper production provides strategic balance and price stability. The shuttering of the Sterlite plant quickly made India, a copper exporter, an importer.
• A copper smelter would serve India well. The only other major smelter in India is Hindalco.

Copper:

Copper is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. copper is one of the few metals that occurs in nature in directly usable metallic form (native metals) and is an important non-ferrous base metal having wide industrial applications, ranging from defence, space programme, railways, power cables, mint, telecommunication cables, etc. India is not self-sufficient in the production of copper ore. In addition to domestic production of ore and concentrates, India imports copper concentrates for its smelters. The domestic demand for copper and its alloys is met through domestic production, recycling of scrap and by imports. Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), a Public Sector Undertaking, is the only integrated company in the country that is involved in mining & beneficiation of ore and is engaged in smelting, refining and casting of refined copper. Hindalco Industries Ltd and Vedanta Limited are the major copper producers in the Private Sector that mainly rely on imported copper concentrates. These companies own copper mines in other countries.

Reserves

The total reserves/resources of copper ore as on 1.4.2015 as per NMI database based on UNFC system are estimated at 1.51 billion tonnes. Of these, 207.77 million tonnes (13.74%) fall under ‘reserves category’ while the balance 1.30 billion tonnes (86.25%) are ‘remaining resources’ category. Gradewise there are no reserves with 1.85% or more copper grade. However, 203.83 million tonnes reserves fall under 1% to below 1.85% Cu grade. Of the total ore resources 8.28 million tonnes (0.55%) comprise ore containing 1.85% Cu or more and 657.92 million tonnes (43.53%) resources fall under 1% to below 1.85% Cu grade. The total metal content out of the total copper resources is 12.16 million tonnes of which 2.73 million tonnes constitute reserves. Largest reserves/resources of copper ore to a tune of 813 million tonnes (53.81%) are in the state of Rajasthan followed by Jharkhand with 295 million tonnes (19.54%) and Madhya Pradesh with 283 million tonnes (18.75%). Copper reserves/ resources in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand and West Bengal accounted for remaining 7.9% of the total all India resources

Famous mines:

Pollution from copper smelters  

• Copper smelting plants separate elemental copper from copper concentrates through multiple sulphide oxidizing stages
• Emissions from primary copper smelters are principally particulate matter and sulfur oxides (SOx). Emissions are generated from the roasters, smelting furnaces, and converters. Fugitive emissions are generated during material handling operations. Roasters, smelting furnaces, and converters are sources of both particulate matter and SOx.
• Copper and iron oxides are the primary constituents of the particulate matter, but other oxides, such as arsenic, antimony, cadmium, lead, mercury, and zinc, may also be present, along with metallic sulfates and sulfuric acid mist. Fuel combustion products also contribute to the particulate emissions from multiple hearth roasters and reverberatory furnaces.

An opportunity: Way forward

• While the economic and national interest case for a copper smelter is proven, the trust deficit between Vedanta and the people of Thoothukudi needs to be bridged if the smelter has to restart.
• The framework for a solution could focus on adherence to norms and creating harmony between the company, government and the people.
• Sterlite presents an opportunity for the people of Thoothukudi to move forward in national and local economic interest.
• It is an opportunity for a corporate group to act responsibly and take people along while conducting its business.

4. Single-use plastic ban in India

Subject :Environment

Section : Pollution

Context:

• The Centre has defined a list of single-use plastic items that will be banned from July 1.
• The Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change had issued a gazette notification last year announcing the ban, and has now defined a list of items that will be banned from next month.

Concept:

What is single-use plastic?

• It refers to plastic items that are used once and discarded. Single-use plastic has among the highest shares of plastic manufactured and used — from packaging of items, to bottles (shampoo, detergents, cosmetics), polythene bags, face masks, coffee cups, cling film, trash bags, food packaging etc.
• A 2021 report by one of the Australian philanthropic organisations the Minderoo Foundation said single-use plastics account for a third of all plastic produced globally, with 98% manufactured from fossil fuels.
• On the current trajectory of production, it has been projected that single-use plastic could account for 5-10% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
• The report found that India features in the top 100 countries of single-use plastic waste generation – at rank 94 (the top three being Singapore, Australia and Oman.
• With domestic production of 11.8 million metric tonnes annually, and import of 2.9 MMT, India’s net generation of single-use plastic waste is 5.6 MMT, and per capita generation is 4 kg.

What are the items being banned?

• The items on which the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have announced a ban are earbuds; balloon sticks; candy and ice-cream sticks; cutlery items including plates, cups, glasses, forks, spoons, knives, trays; sweet boxes; invitation cards; cigarette packs; PVC banners measuring under 100 microns; and polystyrene for decoration.
• The Ministry had already banned polythene bags under 75 microns in September 2021, expanding the limit from the earlier 50 microns.
• According to the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, there is also a complete ban on sachets using plastic material for storing, packing or selling gutkha, tobacco and pan masala.

Why are these items banned ?

• The choice for the first set of single-use plastic items for the ban was based on “difficulty of collection, and therefore recycling”.
• The enemy is not that plastic exists per se, but that plastic exists in the environment. When plastic remains in the environment for long periods of time and does not decay, it turns into microplastics – first entering our food sources and then the human body, and this is extremely harmful.
• Government has chosen these items as they are difficult to collect, especially since most are either small, or discarded directly into the environment – like ice-cream sticks. It then becomes difficult to collect for recycling, unlike the much larger items.
• The largest share of single-use plastic is that of packaging – with as much as 95% of single use belonging to this category – from toothpaste to shaving cream to frozen foods.

How will the ban be enforced?

• The ban will be monitored by the CPCB from the Centre, and by the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) that will report to the Centre regularly.
• Directions have been issued to SPCBs and Pollution Control Committees to modify or revoke consent to operate issued under the Air/Water Act to industries engaged in single-use plastic items.
• Local authorities have been directed to issue fresh commercial licenses with the condition that SUP items will not be sold on their premises, and existing commercial licences will be cancelled if they are found to be selling these items.
• The CPCB issued one-time certificates to 200 manufacturers of compostable plastic and the BIS passed standards for biodegradable plastic.
• Those found violating the ban can be penalised under the Environment Protection Act 1986 – which allows for imprisonment up to 5 years, or a penalty up to Rs 1 lakh, or both.
• Violators can also be asked to pay Environmental Damage Compensation by the SPCB. In addition, there are municipal laws on plastic waste, with their own penal codes.

How are other countries dealing with single-use plastic?

• Earlier this year, 124 countries, parties to the United Nations Environment Assembly, including India, signed a resolution to draw up an agreement which will in the future make it legally binding for the signatories to address the full life of plastics from production to disposal, to end plastic pollution.
• Bangladesh became the first country to ban thin plastic bags in 2002. New Zealand became the latest country to ban plastic bags in July 2019. China issued a ban on plastic bags in 2020 with phased implementation.

5. Bird strikes: common threats to aircraft safety

Subject: Science

Section: Msc

Context:

• At least two bird strike incidents happened recently. Both aircraft returned to their ori- gin airports and were grounded for maintenance.

Why are bird strikes a concern?

• Bird strikes are among the most common threats to aircraft safety, and they typically occur during takeoff or landing.
• Dozens of bird strikes happen each day but some can be more dangerous than others.
• Typically, when birds collide with an aircraft’s airframe, it is unlikely to cause significant problems for the pilots flying.
• But there are instances — when the aircraft engine ingests the birds. This can lead to a loss of thrust for the engine and cause manoeuvrability problems for the crew.
• In these cases, where a jet engine ingests a bird, procedures would generally call for pilots to get the plane on the ground at the closest airport.
• While most airframe bird strikes are not considered critical to air safety, if a collision cracks a window or a windscreen, pilots will look to land as early as possible.

How critical are bird strikes to air safety?

• Smaller planes would generally be more susceptible to the dangers of bird strikes than larger ones.
• Modern jetliners are built with a number of redundancies, and common passenger aircraft like Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 are designed to safely land with even a single engine.
• However, given that bird strikes mostly happen during take-off and landing, these incidents could distract the pilots during what are highly critical phases of a flight that demand the complete attention of the crew.

What causes bird strikes?

• The presence of birds around an airfield increases the chances of a bird strike.
• In the monsoon, as water puddles emerge on open grounds attracting insects to breed, these also increase the presence of birds.
• In some cases, bird hits also happen at higher altitudes when a plane is cruising. These are more dangerous than the low-altitude hits given that they can cause rapid depressurisation of cabins.
• Other reasons for bird activity around an airfield could be the presence of landfills or waste disposal sites that attract a large number of birds.

Ways to prevent bird strikes:

• The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DGCA have recognised wildlife strikes, including bird and animal hits, to aircraft as one of the “State Safety Priority”, and the aviation regulator regularly carries out aerodrome inspections that are considered critical with regard to wildlife strikes.
• Aviation authorities, along with local agencies, work on reducing wildlife presence around airports from time to time.

6. Resurrecting a dead law

Subject: Polity

Section: Constitution

Context: India made a formal submission for criminalizing “offensive messages” as part of the ongoing negotiations at the United Nations for a proposed international treaty on combating cybercrime. The language in the submission is similar to what was used in Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

What is Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000?

• Introduced by the UPA government in 2008, the amendment to the IT Act, 2000, gave the government power to arrest and imprison an individual for allegedly “offensive and menacing” online posts
• Section 66A empowered police to make arrests over what policemen, in terms of their subjective discretion, could construe as “offensive” or “menacing” or for the purposes of causing annoyance, inconvenience, etc
• It prescribed the punishment for sending messages through a computer or any other communication device like a mobile phone or a tablet, and a conviction could fetch a maximum of three years in jail

Why was the law criticized?

The problem was with the vagueness about what is “offensive”. The word having a very wide connotation, was open to distinctive, varied interpretations

What did the Supreme Court verdict regarding this provision?

In 2015, Supreme court ruled in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India declared Section 66A unconstitutional for “being violative of Article 19(1)(a) and not saved under Article 19(2)

Article 19(1)(a) gives people the right to speech and expression whereas 19(2) accords the state the power to impose “reasonable restrictions” on the exercise of this right

Is international treaty is binding?

• If India’s proposal is accepted, would that mean that the provision will have a direct effect on the Indian legal system.
• India is a dualist state. Therefore, international law does not become a part of the domestic legal system unless it is specifically transformed into domestic law by Parliament, which will be required to enact legislation to implement the international law
• This is different from the theory of monism, wherein international law is automatically incorporated into the domestic legal system of the country even without Parliament enacting an enabling legislation

Transforming international treaty

• However, things may become convoluted if Parliament enacts legislation or amends existing legislation to implement the international treaty that criminalizes “offensive messages”
• The government may get a law passed in Parliament using Article 253 of the Constitution, which states that Parliament has the “power to make any law for the whole or any part of the territory of India for implementing any treaty, agreement or convention”, and place a provision similar to Section 66A back on the statute book
• Legally, such a law can be justified as a necessary action to comply with India’s international law obligations. It will then give the executive the power to book people for alleged “offensive messages” as was the practice earlier
• But this issue is not just about legal technicalities. The alarming point is that the Indian government proposed the inclusion of a provision in an international treaty which was struck down by its own apex court for breaching fundamental rights
• This mindset does not augur well for constitutionally protected fundamental freedoms in India.

Background:

The Convention on Cybercrime, also known as the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime or the Budapest Convention, is the first international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime (cybercrime) by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations

7. Too many tourists in Himalayas; new report presses for pre-empting disasters

Subject: Geography

Section: Mapping

Context: There is a need to pre-empt the disastrous effects of unregulated tourism and learn lessons from the over-exploited tourist destinations in the Himalayan region

What is the impact of the tourism in the Himalayan region?

• Demand for tourism has increased pressure on hill stations and is becoming a major concern for change in land use and land cover
• Managing tourism within available civic amenities and infrastructural carrying capacity within the threshold has been a challenge
• An example is Ladakh, an area with water deficiency. It is mostly dependent on snow / glacial melt and flow of River Indus.
• Individual water consumption by a resident is 75 litres per day on an average, whereas a tourist consumes about 100 litres / day
• Built-up area in Himachal Pradesh increased from 4.7 per cent to 15.7 per cent during 1989-2012.
• The number of tourists in the region also swelled to 2.8 million from 140,000 from 1980-2011, highlighting the excessive pressure of tourism in the region
• The number of hotels also increased over the years, indicating a loss of greenery and biodiversity in the region

Carrying capacity:

Carrying capacity is the maximum number, density, or biomass of a population that a specific area can support sustainably

What need to be done?

• Protected areas in Ladakh like Hemis National Park, Changthang Cold Desert Sanctuary and Karakoram Sanctuary require vigilance and regular patrolling to reduce unwanted wildlife-tourist interaction as well as habitat destruction due to off-road driving and encroachment
• Prior monitoring of carrying capacity in terms of tourist inflow of vehicles, air quality and solid waste management largely in the Kashmir region, or pilgrims visiting the holy cave of Amarnath and Vaishno Devi in Jammu need to be done to ensure quality tourism
• Establishment of regulated tourism practices with promotion of sustainable agendas is required for the Indian Himalayan region (IHR)
• This can be achieved through maintenance of proper tourist capacity in every tourist place of the IHR
• This can also help in minimising mainly the generation of solid waste and pollution level in the water, air and destruction of biodiversity
• Appropriate mechanisms should be devised to help achieve tourism growth in the landscape in a sustainable manner — having minimal impact on biodiversity, while providing sustainable livelihood options for the local community

Mapping:

Hemis National Park

• It is a high-altitude national park in Ladakh. Globally famous for its snow leopards, it is believed to have the highest density of them in any protected area in the world.
• It is the only national park in India that is north of the Himalayas, the largest notified protected area in India (largest National Park) and is the second largest contiguous protected area, after the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve and surrounding protected areas
• The park is bounded on the north by the banks of the Indus River, and includes the catchments of Markha, Sumdah and Rumbak, and parts of the Zanskar Range

 Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary

• It is a high-altitude wildlife sanctuary located in the Ladakhi adjunct of the Changthang plateau in the Leh District of the union territory of Ladakh.
• It is important as one of the few places in India with a population of the Kiang or Tibetan Wild Ass, as well as the rare Black-necked Crane

8. ‘Black swan’ event may trigger around Rs 7.8-lakh-cr outflow

Subject: Economy

Context: According to a recent RBI report a black swan event can lead to massive pull out of Capital outflows

What is Black Swan?

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a former Wall Street trader, in his book ‘The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable’ formulated the black swan theory.

A black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences.

Black swan events are characterized by their extreme rarity, severe impact, and the widespread insistence they were obvious in hindsight.

• Is so rare that even the possibility that it might occur is unknown
• Has a catastrophic impact when it does occur?
• Is explained in hindsight as if it were actually predictable

There are no limitations in the way a Black Swan event can manifest itself. It could be anything from a natural disaster to a war, a financial crash or the outbreak of a virus.

Is the Covid-19 pandemic a black swan event?

• Taleb does not agree with those who believe it to be one. In an interview to Bloomberg in 2020, he called it a “white swan”, arguing that it was predictable, and there was no excuse for companies and governments not to be prepared for something like this.
• While the outbreak of any pandemic is difficult to individually predict, the possibility of one occurring and having a major impact on systems around the world was known and documented.