Daily Prelims Notes 24 October 2023

Daily Prelims Notes

24 October 2023

Table Of Contents

1. RBI allows retail investors to subscribe to Floating Rate Savings Bonds via its portal
2. RBI likely to have rolled over a part of $5-billion forex swap to boost liquidity
3. Consumer body issues notices to IAS coaching centres for ‘misleading’ ads
4. How are symbols allotted to political parties in India
5. What are dust suppressant
6. Cyclone Hamoon: Deep depression in Bay of Bengal may intensify into cyclonic storm on October 23, says IMD
7. Global experts discuss challenges, possibilities around antibiotics becoming a global public good
8. Global experts discuss challenges, possibilities around antibiotics becoming a global public good
9. ‘Iron Beam’: Israel’s deadly laser tech can be used against Hamas’ missiles; how it works
10. As Ken-Betwa project barrels ahead, new research finds river interlinking could worsen drought
11. Fixing fashion’s pollution problem with natural dyes

1. RBI allows retail investors to subscribe to Floating Rate Savings Bonds via its portal

Subject : Economy

Section: Monetary Policy

Key Points:

• RBI allows retail investors to subscribe to Floating Rate Savings Bonds via its portal.
• RBI has made the move to expand the basket of investments available to retail investors.
• Already retail investors are allowed to invest in central government securities, treasury bills, state government securities, and sovereign gold bonds through the Retail Direct Portal.

What are Floating Rate Savings Bonds?

• FRSB 2020 (T) are interest-bearing, taxable, non-tradeable bonds, issued by the central government, which are repayable on the expiration of seven years from the date of issue.
• RBI officially pays 35 basis points above the NSC rate, offering an 8.05% interest rate.
• The interest on the bonds will be payable at half-yearly intervals on Jan 1st and July 1st every year. There is no option to pay interest on a cumulative basis.

About RBI-Retail Direct Scheme:

• RBI-Retail Direct Scheme was started in 2021.
• Under the scheme, individual investors are permitted to open a Retail Direct Gilt account with the Reserve Bank of India, using an online portal, through which investments in government Securities can be made in primary and secondary markets

What is Gilt account?

• Gilt Account means an account opened and maintained for holding Government securities.
• Instead of money, the account is debited or credited with treasury bills or government securities.

2. RBI likely to have rolled over a part of $5-billion forex swap to boost liquidity

Subject :Economy

Section: External Sector

Key Points:

• RBI may have rolled over a portion of its $5-billion foreign exchange swap that was due for maturity in Oct 2023.
• Tool likely used is an ultra-short term swap whose maturity would augment system liquidity amid tax outflows and currency leakage in the festive season.

Why did RBI use the $5 billion swap?

• On April 28, 2022, the RBI concluded a sell-buy foreign exchange swap under which banks bought US Dollars from the central bank and simultaneously agreed to sell the same amount of dollars at the end of the swap period.
• By carrying out the swap, the RBI had drained the banking system of rupee liquidity, which at the time was at a massive surplus of around ₹5 trillion due to central bank cash infusions during the Covid crisis.
• The maturity of the swap, which was due on October 23, would have released around ₹40,000 crore into the banking system as purchases of dollars by the RBI inject rupee liquidity into the banking system.

3. Consumer body issues notices to IAS coaching centres for ‘misleading’ ads

Subject :Polity

Section: National Body

Context: Consumer body issues notices to IAS coaching centres for ‘misleading’ ads

More about the news:

• The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has issued notices to 20 IAS coaching institutes in India for issuing “misleading” advertisements targeting civil services aspirants.
• The CCPA is taking action under Section 2(28) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which defines “misleading advertisement.“
• These institutes are accused of making false claims or exaggerations in their advertisements.
• One example provided by the CCPA is an institute claiming credit for 682 out of 933 selected candidates in the UPSC examination in 2022. However, it was clarified that most of these candidates had only availed mock interviews and tests, and this was not clearly disclosed by the institute.
• The coaching industry in India generates significant revenue, approximately Rs 58,088 crore.
• The CCPA has imposed penalties on four of the 20 coaching institutes, with two having paid and two approaching the court.
• Proper disclosure by coaching institutes is seen as essential to prevent consumer deception.

What is the Section 2(28) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 

• The Section 2(28) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 defines “misleading advertisement” in relation to any product or service which—

1. falsely describes such product or service;
2. gives a false guarantee to, or is likely to mislead the consumers as to the nature, substance, quantity or quality of such product or service;
3. conveys an implied representation which, if made by the manufacturer or seller or service provider thereof, would constitute an unfair trade practice;
4. deliberately conceals important information.

What is the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA):

• Central Consumer Protection Authority is a regulatory body established in 2020 based on the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
• It is headquartered in New Delhi

What are the Objective of Central Consumer Protection Authority:

• To promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class.
• To conduct investigations into violation of consumer rights and institute complaints.
• To order the recall of unsafe goods and services,discontinuation of unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements.
• To impose penalties on manufacturers,endorsers and publishers of misleading advertisements.

What is the composition of Central Consumer Protection Authority

• The Central Consumer Protection Authority consists of following members appointed by the Central Government.
  • Chief Commissioner
  • Two Commissioners. One commissioner each for goods and services.
  • An Investigation Wing headed by a Director General.
  • District Collectors too, have the power to investigate complaints of violations of consumer rights, unfair trade practices, and false or misleading advertisements.

What are the power and functions of Central Consumer Protection Authority(CCPA)

• CCPA can investigate matters relating to violations of consumer rights or unfair trade practices suo motu,
• Section 20 of the Act gives powers to the CCPA to order recall of hazardous goods.
• CCPA has the power to impose a penalty up to Rs 10 lakh, with imprisonment up to two years, on the manufacturer or endorser of false and misleading advertisements. The penalty may go up to Rs 50 lakh, with imprisonment up to five years, for every subsequent offence committed by the same manufacturer or endorser.
• CCPA has the power to ban the endorser of a false or misleading advertisement from making endorsement of any products or services in the future, for a period that may extend to one year. The ban may extend up to three years in every subsequent violation of the Act.

4. How are symbols allotted to political parties in India

Subject :Polity

Section: Election

Context: The Supreme Court refused to entertain a petition filed by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) party in Telangana, challenging the allotment of election symbols to two other parties.

More about the news:

• The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a petition filed by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) party in Telangana, challenging the allotment of election symbols to two other parties.
• BRS argued that the symbols allotted to two political parties looked similar to BRS’s symbol of a car. This might confuse the voters during elections, it said.
• However, the SC declined the petition, saying voters were intelligent enough to differentiate between the symbols.

Who allots election symbols to political parties in India:

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) is responsible for the allotment of symbols in elections.
• This allotment is regulated by The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, aimed at specifying, reserving, and allocating symbols for recognized political parties.
• Symbols can be either reserved (exclusive to recognized parties) or ‘free’ (available for unrecognized registered parties).
• Unrecognized parties can choose from free, non-exclusive symbols.
• These symbols can become free again for others to choose in subsequent elections.
• Recognized national and state parties receive exclusive symbols.
• The EC publishes lists of parties and their symbols in the Gazette of India.
• In the latest notifications, there are six national parties, 26 state parties, and 2,597 registered unrecognized parties.

How did symbols like clock, lotus, hen, etc. enter the EC’s list:

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) used to have symbols sketched by MS Sethi, who retired in September 1992.
• Sethi and a team of ECI officials brainstormed to create symbols based on everyday objects that the common man could relate to.
• Many well-known political party symbols, like the bicycle, elephant, and broom, were conceived in these sessions.
• Less common objects, including a pair of glasses, a nail cutter, and a necktie, were also suggested.
• In the late 1990s, the ECI compiled a list of 100 sketches to create the “free” symbols.
• As of January 2023, the list includes objects like a bowl of noodles and a mobile charger.

Do political parties get to state their preferences:

• The 1968 order empowers the Election Commission to manage the specification, reservation, choice, and allocation of symbols for parliamentary and assembly elections, aiming to recognize political parties.
• Unregistered parties are required to submit ten preferred symbols from the list of free symbols provided by the commission.
• Parties can propose three new symbols with names and designs, which the Commission may consider for common allocation if they meet certain criteria.
• Proposed symbols should not resemble existing reserved or free symbols, have religious or communal connotations, or depict birds or animals.
• When a recognized political party splits, the Election Commission decides on symbol allocation. For example, the Congress party initially had a pair of bulls as its symbol in 1952, which eventually changed to the hand symbol following party divisions.
• Recently, the EC allowed one faction of the Shiv Sena to keep its traditional bow and arrow symbol, while another faction received a flaming torch. The requested symbols of trident and mace were rejected due to religious connotations, and the ‘rising sun’ was not granted because it was already the election symbol of the DMK.

5. What are dust suppressant

Subject :Environment

Section: Pollution

Context: Delhi govt to use dust suppressants to combat poor AQI

What are dust suppressant

• Dust suppressants may be salts of calcium or magnesium that can absorb moisture.
• Dust suppressant powder would be mixed along with water and sprayed on roads to keep the dust down for longer.

Do the dust suppressant works:

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recommended their use in 2019, citing a study that found a 30% reduction in dust concentration, including PM10, PM2.5, and PM1, when dust suppressants were used in conjunction with water.
• The Delhi Public Works Department (PWD) advisory in 2019 noted that dust suppressants mixed with water are more effective than plain water sprinkling, reducing particulate matter emissions significantly.
• The use of magnesium chloride as a dust suppressant, along with bio-additives, was found to be particularly effective.
• Both the CPCB and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee issued directives for the use of dust suppressants in construction and on dusty patches to control dust emissions.

6. Cyclone Hamoon: Deep depression in Bay of Bengal may intensify into cyclonic storm on October 23, says IMD

Subject :Geography

Section: Physical Geography

Cyclone Hamoon:

• It is a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal region.
• The system will move nearly north-northeastward and cross the Bangladesh coast between Khepupara and Chattogram.
• Areas affected: Paradip (Odisha), Digha (West Bengal), Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, south Assam, Meghalaya and Khepupara (Bangladesh).
• Classification of cyclonic disturbance:

Conditions Favorable for Tropical Cyclone Formation:

• Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27°C.
• Presence of the Coriolis force enough to create a cyclonic vortex.
• Small variations in the vertical wind speed.
• A pre-existing weak low-pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.
• Upper divergence above the sea level system.

Source: DownToEarth

7. Global experts discuss challenges, possibilities around antibiotics becoming a global public good

Subject :Science and Tech

Section: Health 

The Antibiotic Webinars series:

• Conducted by: Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)
• Objective: To discuss the challenges and possibilities around antibiotics or any aspect of antimicrobial resistance becoming a global public good.
• Outcome of the webinar:
  • There is a need for critical reforms to stimulate the antibiotic innovation ecosystem for a sustainable and equitable antibiotic access.
  • To explore the possibility of considering antibiotics as a ‘global public good’ so that they are treated differently from other drugs in terms of resource and development and access.
• Global public good (GPG):
  • A global public good is understood as being non-rival (if one person consumes it, this does not reduce its availability to others) and non-excludable (no one can be denied access).
• Common goods:
  • As per the World Health Organization, ‘common goods for health’ are public goods or have large social externalities and thus will not arise through market forces alone. Therefore, they require both public financing and public action.
• Global functions:
  • It captures the broad array of activities critical in preparing for and responding to transnational challenges. These include supplying global public goods, managing cross border externalities (such as AMR response) and exercising leadership.
• Financial models that can be used for antibiotics:
  • Pull incentives like subscription models and prize models (such as a “milestone prize” during clinical development or an end-stage prize / market exclusivity reward for a product when it comes to market).
  • Push incentives like Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARD-P).

Concern over labeling antibiotics as global public goods:

• Issue of patents and copyright
• Increasing Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
• Increased wastage of antibiotics
• ‘Tragedy of the commons’ (if anything is free people will tend to overuse it) and ‘free rider problem’ (those who benefit from resources, do not pay for them or under-pay.)

Source: DownToEarth

8. Carl Sagan detected life on Earth 30 years ago — here’s how his experiment is helping us search for alien species today

Subject :Science and Tech

Section: Health 

Context:

• In 1993 a group of scientists led by Carl Sagan found evidence for life on Earth using data from instruments on board the Nasa Galileo robotic spacecraft.

Galileo spacecraft:

• NASA’s Viking spacecraft, launched in the 1970s, was aimed to detect life on Mars.
• Galileo launched in October 1989 on a six-year flight to Jupiter.
• It has a variety of instruments designed to study the atmosphere and space environment of Jupiter and its moons. These included imaging cameras, spectrometers (which break down light by wavelength) and a radio experiment.
• Outcome of Galileo:
  • The near infra-red mapping spectrometer (NIMS) instrument detected gaseous water distributed throughout the terrestrial atmosphere, ice at the poles and large expanses of liquid water “of oceanic dimensions”.
  • It also recorded temperatures ranging from -30°C to +18°C.
• Galileo’s plasma wave radio experiment:
  • The emission from a given natural source occurs across many frequencies. Artificial radio sources, by contrast, are produced in a narrow band.

Signals for detecting life elsewhere:

• A strong case for life elsewhere will likely require a combination of mutually supporting evidence, such as light absorption by photosynthesis-like processes, narrowband radio emission, modest temperatures and weather and chemical traces in the atmosphere which are hard to explain by non-biological means.

Source: DownToEarth

9. ‘Iron Beam’: Israel’s deadly laser tech can be used against Hamas’ missiles; how it works

Subject :Science and Tech

Section: Defence

Context:

• Israel’s RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems is developing two High Energy Laser systems: IRON BEAM and LITE BEAM.

Iron Beam system:

• It is a 100kW class High Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS).
• It is set to become the sixth element of Israel’s integrated missile defense system, joining Arrow 2, Arrow 3, David’s Sling, and the Iron Dome.
• It utilizes a fiber laser to eliminate airborne threats, offering a cost-effective and efficient solution.
• It can function as a stand-alone defense mechanism or be integrated into a broader air defense system.
• Compared to other missile interceptors, it offers lower costs per shot, unlimited firing capacity, reduced operational expenses, and eliminates the risk of interceptor debris falling on protected areas.
• Its effective range of up to 7 km, capable of swiftly neutralizing missiles, UAVs, and mortar shells within seconds of target engagement.

Lite Beam:

• It is a 7.5kW HEL interceptor designed for Counter mini-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (C-mUAVs) and ground targets such as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and Unexploded Ordnances (UXOs).
• It can neutralize targets from a distance of a few hundred meters up to 2000 meters.

Source: Business Today

10. As Ken-Betwa project barrels ahead, new research finds river interlinking could worsen drought

Subject :Geography

Section: Physical geography

Context:

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change awarded the final forest clearance to the Ken-Betwa river interlinking.
• National Water Development Authority is overlooking river interlinking in India.

Details:

• Research study done by IIT Bombay.
• New evidence suggests large scale river interlinking could have unintended consequences on rainfall patterns.
• River interlinking could change groundwater levels, introduce alien invasive species and reduce sediment deposits downstream.
• 10 percent of the Panna Tiger Reserve stands to be submerged due to the Ken- Betwa river interlinking project.
• Moving vast amounts of water could impact the atmospheric feedback loops that regulate evapotranspiration and precipitation. It can lead to a deficit in rainfall by up to 12 percent.

River- interlinking project:

• National River Linking Project was first proposed in 1980, with the aim of transferring water from “surplus” river basins to “water-deficit” ones to improve irrigation along drought prone tracts.
• Of the 30 basins identified for interlinking, 16 are in peninsular India and 14 in the Himalayan region.
• Together, these projects would transport 174 billion cubic meters of water each year through a network of canals.
• Impact of river- interlinking”
  • The cooling resulting from the evaporation can cause fluctuations in temperature across different land regions, changing wind patterns, moisture transport and rainfall.
  • When soil moisture is changed in one basin, it can cause changes in neighboring basins by affecting evapotranspiration, cooling and precipitation.
  • Reduced rainfall: The highest median reductions in rainfall in September were found to be in Odisha (12 percent), Andhra Pradesh (10 percent), Rajasthan and Gujarat. (9 percent). Parts of central India in the core monsoon zone also show a decline in rainfall of 8 percent, along with declines in the western Himalayan foothills in Uttarakhand and east-central India (6.4 percent).
  • It can decrease silt deposition in the Ganga and Brahmaputra deltas by 30 percent.

Source: Mongabay

11. Fixing fashion’s pollution problem with natural dyes

Subject :Environment

Section: Pollution

Textile industry in India:

• Accounts for more than two percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides direct employment to 45 million people.
• This water-intensive industry is a polluting one, as it generates one-fifth of the world’s industrial water pollution.
  • Usage of synthetic dyes leads to a substantial production of dye wastewater that pollutes rivers and streams, impacts soil and water bodies, posing risks to both human and ecological health.

Dyes:

• Dyes are molecules which absorb and reflect light at specific wavelengths to give human eyes the sense of color. There are two major types of dyes: natural and synthetic dyes (or coal tar dyes).

Use of natural dyes:

• Charaka Handloom Cooperative in rural Karnataka switched from synthetic dyes to natural ones.
• Extracted from naturally available material such as roots, berries, pomegranate skin and plants and are eco-friendly, non-hazardous and sustainable.
• Adike chogaru– it is areca nut, betel nut syrup used as natural dye.
• Acacia arabica:
  • It is a flowering tree in the family Fabaceae. Also used for making dye.
  • It is native to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
  • Vernacular names: Gum arabic tree, babul, thorn mimosa, Egyptian acacia or thorny acacia.
  • It is also considered a ‘weed of national significance’ and an invasive species of concern in Australia, as well as a noxious weed by the federal government of the United States.

Challenges in natural dyeing:

• High water requirement, limitations in the range of colors it can generate, fabrics it can suit and the scalability.

Source: Mongabay