Daily Prelims Notes 24 July 2022

Daily Prelims Notes

24 July 2022

Table Of Contents

1. Will Russia-Ukraine deal ease global food crisis?
2. Rise and fall of cholera-causing bacteria lineage
3. At DAG from Monday: 18th Century paintings of Tipu Sultan, Anglo-Mysore wars to go on display
4. History headline: The rise and dissolution of Panthers

1. Will Russia-Ukraine deal ease global food crisis?

Subject:  Economy

Section: External sector

Context:

In their first major deal since the February 24 war began, Russia and Ukraine on Friday agreed to resume grain exports from Black Sea ports as part of a deal negotiated by the United Nations and Turkey.

Why is the agreement important?

• Russia and Ukraine together account for more than a quarter of the world’s wheat supplies.
• Russia’s share in the global exports of wheat, the world’s most widely grown crop, is some 20% according to 2020 figures, while Ukraine accounts for 8%.
• About 50 countries depend on Russia and Ukraine for more than 30% of their wheat imports.
• Besides wheat, Ukraine is the world’s eighth largest producer and fourth largest exporter of corn, accounting for 16% of global exports.
• Further, Ukraine, which produces up to 46% of sunflower-seed and sunflower oil is the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil.

What are the terms of the deal?

• According to the deal, a joint coordination centre will be set up in Istanbul comprising officials and military personnel from Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, along with UN representatives. These officials will check the vessels going to Ukraine’s ports to make sure that they don’t carry any weapons.
• The agreement doesn’t call on Ukraine to de-mine its southern waters. But specific routes from Odesa and other Ukrainian ports would be earmarked for the ships with grain to sail to Turkey’s Bosphorus.
• The plan is to allow Ukraine to export five million tonnes of grain a month, close to its pre-war level. As part of the UN framework, Russia is also expected to ramp up its grain and fertilizer exports

Top Wheat producing countries – China,India,Russia,US

Top Wheat Exporting countries – Russia,Canada,US,France.Ukraine ; India not in top 20

Top Corn producing countries – US,China,Brazil,Argentina,Ukraine,India

Top Corn Exporting countries – US,Brazil,Argentina,Ukraine

Top Sunflower Oil producing countries – Ukraine, Russia, Argentina

Top Sunflower Oil Exporting countries – Ukraine,Russia,Turkey . India- top importer

Top Wheat producing states in India – UP,Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan

Top Corn producing states in India – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan

Top Sunflower oil producing states in India –Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra

What is UN Food Price Index?

• It was introduced in 1996 as a public good to help in monitoring developments in the global agricultural commodity markets.
• The UN Food Price Index (FFPI) is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities.
• It measures changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar.
• Base Period: 2014-16.

2. Rise and fall of cholera-causing bacteria lineage

Subject:  Science and Technology

Section: Disease

Context:

• Researchers identify the decline of antimicrobial resistance in O139 as a key determining factor in its downfall

Cholera

• It is a life-threatening infectious disease and a public health hazard.
• It is caused by a comma-shaped bacterium known as Vibrio cholerae.
• More than two hundred serogroups of this bacterium are known, of which only O1 and O139 are known to cause such infection that leads to epidemics and pandemics. Most of the serogroups only cause mild cholera-like diarrhea and food-associated outbreaks.
• Of these two serogroups, O1 was responsible for seven pandemic waves, only to be temporarily displaced by O139. This emerged late and came up around 1992. It was first spotted in Chennai (then Madras).
• It was anticipated that this would cause the eighth round of pandemic but it subsided as mysteriously as it had originated.
• A rapid dipstick test is available to determine the presence of V. cholera
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has three prequalified oral cholera vaccines (OCVs): Dukoral, Sanchol, and Euvichol.

3. At DAG from Monday: 18th Century paintings of Tipu Sultan, Anglo-Mysore wars to go on display

Subject:  History

Section: Modern India

• In the 18th Century, as the Anglo-Mysore Wars played out between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore, a curious British audience was keeping track of the development miles away.

About Tipu Sultan:

• Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751),also known as the Tiger of Mysore,
• He was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India and a pioneer of rocket artillery.
• He expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and commissioned the military manual Fathul Mujahidin.
• Tipu Sultan and his father used their French-trained army in alliance with the French in their struggle with the British, and in Mysore’s struggles with other surrounding powers, against the Marathas, Sira, and rulers of Malabar, Kodagu, Bednore, Carnatic, and Travancore.
• Tipu’s conflicts with his neighbours included the Maratha–Mysore War which ended with the signing of the Treaty of Gajendragad.

Wars and Battles

• Tipu Sultan fought many battles and wars against the British East India Company, Marathas, rulers of Travancore, Carnatic, Malabar, Bednore, Kodagu.
• Tipu fought against the Marathas between 1775 and 1779.
• Tipu had signed a Peace treaty with the British in 1784.
• The British attacked Tipu Sultan, when the ruler of Travancore was attacked by the army of Tipu Sultan. The ruler of Travancore was the ally of the British.
• In 1792, Tipu signed the Treaty of Seringapatam (now known as Srirangapatna) and he lost half of his dominion to the British.
• Battle of Pollilur or Battle of Perambakam, took place on 10 September 1780 at Pollilur near Conjeevaram, the city of Kanchipuram in present-day Tamil Nadu state, India, as part of the Second Anglo-Mysore War.
• Tipu defeated Lt. Colonel William Baillie of the British East India Company in the Battle of Pollilur.

Role in Anglo-Mysore Wars:

• British saw Haidar and Tipu as ambitious, arrogant and dangerous – rulers who had to be controlled and crushed.
• Four wars were fought with Mysore (1767-69, 1780-84, 1790-92 and 1799).
  • 1767-69: Treaty of Madras.
  • 1780-84: Treaty of Mangalore.
  • 1790-92: Treaty of Seringapatam.
  • 1799: Subsidiary Alliance.
• Only in the last – the Battle of Seringapatam – did the Company ultimately win a victory. Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Seringapatam.
• Mysore was placed under the former ruling dynasty of the Wodeyars and a subsidiary alliance was imposed on the state.

WHO declares monkeypox public health emergency of international concern

• PHEIC is the highest level of alert the global health body can issue.
• Only polio and SARS-CoV-2 were ongoing PHEIC prior to monkeypox

Monkeypox

• It is a viral zoonotic disease (transmission from animals to humans) and is identified as a pox-like disease among monkeys hence it is named Monkeypox.
• It is endemic to Nigeria.
• It is caused by monkeypox virus, a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus in the family Poxviridae.
• Animals known to be sources of Monkeypox virus include monkeys and apes, a variety of rodents (including rats, mice, squirrels and prairie dogs) and rabbits.
• Infected people break out in a rash that looks a lot like chicken pox. But the fever, malaise, and headache from Monkeypox are usually more severe than in chicken pox infection.
• There is no specific treatment or vaccine available for Monkeypox In the past, the anti-smallpox vaccine was shown to be 85% effective in preventing Monkeypox.

4. History headline: The rise and dissolution of Panthers

Subject:  History

Section: Post independent

• The Dalit Panthers
  • Dalit Panthers are an Ambedkarite social organisation that seeks to combat caste discrimination.
  • The organisation was founded by NamdeoDhasal, Arjun Dangle, Raja Dhale and J. V. Pawar on 29 May 1972 in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
  • The movement’s heyday lasted from the 1970s through the 1980s, and it was later joined by many Dalit-Buddhist activist
  • They immediately called for a boycott of the 25th Independence Day revelry, calling it a ‘Black Independence Day’.
• Little Magazine movement
  • Dalit literature began to blossom, speaking a new, angry language.
  • Dr M N Wankhede published Asmita from Aurangabad, Baburao Bagul started Amhi (We) in Mumb
• The Dalit Panthers were inspired by the Black Panther Party, a socialist and communist political party that sought to combat racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, which occurred in the mid-20th century.
• The controversy over Raja Dhale’s article titled “Kala Swatantrya Din” (Black Independence Day), published in Sadhana, the Dalit Panthers’ official publication, on 15 August 1972, created a great sensation and built recognition for the Dalit Panthers through Maharashtr
• The Dalit Panthers emerged to fill the vacuum created in Dalit politics resulting from B. R. Ambedkar’s Republican Party of India splitting into factions.