Daily Prelims Notes 26 February 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

26 February 2024

Table Of Contents

1. IGNCA’s ‘language atlas’ to shine a light on India’s linguistic diversity
2. Poverty levels below 5%, claims chief of Centre’s think tank
3. Discovery of temples in Telangana shows spread of Chalukya reign
4. Ahead of Gaganyaan, ISRO’s CE-20 engine already has a notable legacy
5. G-33 Ministerial Statement on Agriculture Trade Negotiations at the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference G-33 Ministerial Meeting, Abu Dhabi, 25 February 2024

1. IGNCA’s ‘language atlas’ to shine a light on India’s linguistic diversity

Subject: History

Section: Art and Culture

Context:

• The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), under the Union Culture Ministry, plans to conduct a linguistic survey to enumerate the languages spoken across different states and regions. This survey aims to provide clarity on the number of active languages.

Details:

• India is undertaking efforts to promote education in the mother tongue, particularly at the primary level, prompting questions about the actual number of “active” languages in the country.
• India officially recognizes 22 languages listed in Schedule 8 of the Indian Constitution, spoken by 97% of the population according to Census data.
• Additionally, the Census includes 99 non-scheduled languages, with approximately 37.8 million people identifying one of these as their mother tongue.
• However, languages spoken by fewer than 10,000 people have been excluded from the Census since 1971, leaving the native languages of 1.2 million people unaccounted for.
• This decision disproportionately affects tribal communities, whose languages are often not included in official records.

Need for a ‘Language Atlas’:

• The most comprehensive linguistic data was collected in the 1961 Census, which recorded languages spoken by even a single individual.
• There is a pressing need for a new comprehensive linguistic survey to create the Language Atlas of India.
• This survey would not only update the current linguistic data but also support future policy decisions.
• The Detailed Project Report (DPR) by the IGNCA lists several stakeholders for the survey, including Ministries of Culture, Education, Tribal Affairs, Home, Social Justice and Empowerment, and Development of North East Region, as well as various language communities.
• The IGNCA intends to collaborate with the Central Institute of Indian Languages, the National Museum, Centres for Endangered Languages, and Linguistic Departments of various universities to conduct the survey.

UNESCO Global Taskforce on Indigenous Languages:

• For the organization of the International Decade (2022- 2032), UNESCO established a Global Task Force for Making a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages.
• The Global Task Force ensures that the principles of inclusion, openness, participation and multi-stakeholder engagement are respected and applied throughout the International Decade.
• The mandate of the Global Task Force:
  • As an international governance mechanism, the Global Task Force is established to ensure the equitable participation of all stakeholders in the IDIL2022-2032 and to provide guidance on the preparation, planning, implementation and monitoring of activities, in line with the objectives of the Global Action Plan of the IDIL2022-2032.

2. Poverty levels below 5%, claims chief of Centre’s think tank

Subject: History

Section: Art and Culture

Poverty Line:

A Poverty Line is defined as the basic needs that an individual requires to sustain his or her livelihood.

Above the poverty line (APL):

A person who is able to earn enough money to cover his basic needs.

Below the poverty line (BPL):

A person who is not able to earn enough money to cover his basic needs.

The Tendulkar Committee:

• According to this , a poverty level of Rs 29 per person per day in urban areas and Rs 22 per person per day in rural areas.
• According to World Bank’s data on its Poverty and Inequality Platform, a new poverty line has been set at 15$ per day.

CEO of NITI Aayog’s stand:

Based on findings of Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) for 2022-23: 

• Less than 5% are going to be below poverty line
• Retail inflation has been overstated
• Growth is broad-based with rural Indian’s income and spending rising faster than Urban peers.
• Inequality is declining as Urban-rural consumption divided narrowed down from 91% in 2004-05 to 71% in 2022-23.
• Rural household’s spending on food has dropped below 50% of total expenditure.
• Less than 5% of per capita consumer expenditure on pulses and cereals.
• Higher expenditure on conveyances, consumer durables and consumer durables.
• It indicates increase in earning of people and less spending on food.
• Thus, in not absolute but relative spending on food is declining while consumption of products like TV sets, fridges, mobile phones and cars etc. are increasing.
• It signifies change in income for betterment as well as change in lifestyle.

Based on Monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) averages-

• The average consumption level for the bottom 5% of rural households was ₹1,373 and ₹1,782 for the next 5% of households. Poverty lines and estimates are derived from this.
• If we consider ₹32 a day as poverty line in 2011-12 along with inflation for totalling to ₹60 a day, thus poverty is around or less than 10%.
• As also (as per HCES) ₹1,782 is average spending in bottom 5 to 10% of fractile class in rural India.
• On addition of the imputed value of food transfers and subsidies received by households under schemes like the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana or subsidised gas cylinders, poverty in India is certainly in the low single digits (below 5% ).
• In addition to these, benefits like healthcare under the Ayushman Bharat scheme and free education have not been factored into the consumption expenditure survey.
• Also as per the NITI Aayog’s multi-dimensional poverty index 11% of the population was below poverty line last year.
• There is rise of 5 times from 2011-12 levels  in urban and rural consumption and India’s growth is  very broad-based.

Multi-dimensional Poverty Index:

Findings of NITI Aayog’s Discussion Paper ‘Multidimensional Poverty in India since 2005-06’:

METHODOLOGY:

• The dual-cutoff approach of the Alkire-Foster (AF) methodology – the one used in the Global MPI Report – was considered suitable for the national context.
• MPI captures broad qualitative aspects of people’s life across 3 dimensions – Health, Education, and Standard of living.
• The national MPI largely follows the global methodology.
• India’s national MPI retained 10 indicators from the Global MPI and has added 2 new indicators, namely Maternal Health (in the dimension of Health) and Bank Account (in the dimension of Standard of Living).

Computing MPI: 

Each household is assigned a deprivation score based on its deprivation in each of the 12 indicators.

If the deprivation score of a household is above 33%, they are multidimensionally poor.

Indices of MPI:

Headcount ratio (H): How many are poor?

• Proportion of multidimensionally poor obtained by dividing number of multi dimensionally poor persons by total population.
• Intensity of poverty (A):  How poor are the poor?
• The weighted deprivation scores of all poor people are summed and then divided by the total number of poor people.

             Finally , MPI = H x A

Recent MPI-INDIA findings 2023: 

• 24.82 crore Indians escape Multidimensional Poverty in last 9 years.
• Steep decline in Poverty Headcount Ratio from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23.
• All 12 MPI indicators show significant signs of improvement.
• Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh recorded largest decline in the number of MPI poor between 2013-14 and 2022-23.
• Poorer states record faster decline in poverty – indicating reduction in disparities.
• India is likely to achieve SDG Target 1.2 (reducing multidimensional poverty by at least half) much ahead of 2030.

Gini coefficient : 

• Gini coefficient is an indicator of income or wealth inequality and is derived from the Lorenz curve.

Loren curve :

• The coefficient ranges from 0 (0%) to 1 (100%),with 0 representing perfect equality and 1 representing perfect inequality.

3. Discovery of temples in Telangana shows spread of Chalukya reign

Subject: History

Section: Art and Culture

What is new discovery: 

• Team discovered two temples on Bank of the Krishna River and five within the Mudimanikyam village in Telangana.
• Team also discovered an inscription dated to the rulers of Badami Chalukyas( the present-day Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) who ruled between 543 AD and 750 AD. 

Features of temple:

• The temples reflect Deccan
• It has space for more than two religions: Brahmanical, Buddhism and Jainism religion.

Earlier extent of kingdom: 

• The Jogulamba temples at Alampur and the submerged Yeleswaram sites were the furthest reach of Chalukya Badami kingdom.
• This new information expands the historical extent of that realm.
• The Jogulamba temples:
• A Hindu temple dedicated to Goddess Jogulamba, a Maha Shakti peeth located in Alampur, Telangana, India.
• Alampur is located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River near its confluence with Krishna River.Jogulamba temple is located in the same complex as that of the Navabrahma Temples, a group of nine Shiva temples built in the seventh-eighth century CE.

Yeleswaram: 

• A Buddhist site, Yeleswaram is located in Devarakonda Taluk of Nalgonda
• It reveals the relics of the upper Palaeolithic, Microlithic, Chalcolithic and Megalithic ages.
• Inscriptions of Western Chalukyas, Telugu Cholas, Kakatiyas and Yadavas were recovered.

4. Ahead of Gaganyaan, ISRO’s CE-20 engine already has a notable legacy

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Space Sector

What is Gaganyaan:  The Gaganyaan Mission is India’s ongoing project to send a 3-day manned mission to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of 400 km with a crew of 3 members and bring them safely back to Earth.

Preferred fuels for rocket motors:

• Engineers prefer to use liquid fuels because they are less bulky and flow better than solid fuels.
• Hydrogen as fuel is also desirable because on combustion it generates the highest exhaust velocity.

Comparison:

• For example, combusting hydrogen with oxygen results in an exhaust velocity of 4.5 km/s.
• With unsymmetrical di methyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide — the combination used by the second stage of the PSLV rocket, e.g. — is around 3.4 km/s.
• Thus, hydrogen is a desirable fuel for rocket motors.

Cryogenic engine:

• It uses propellants at extremely low temperatures.
• It uses liquid fuels (Oxygen liquifies at -183 deg C and Hydrogen at -253 deg C) that are cooled to very low temperatures.
• A Cryogenic rocket stage is more efficient and provides more thrust for every kilogram of propellant it burns compared to solid and earth-storable liquid propellant rocket stages.
• It requires special equipment to store and transport liquid hydrogen and special engines to power a rocket.

Three Cryogenic Engines of ISRO: 

• KVD-1, CE-7.5, and CE-20.
• CE-7.5 and CE-20 are India-made. Although the design of the CE-7.5 is based on the KVD-1 supplied by Russia (as the Soviet Union) in the early 1980s.
• The GSLV Mk lII launch vehicle uses CE-7.5 engines to power the third stage of its ascent.

A cryogenic engine operation requires a cryopump, special storage tanks and turbopumps.

Cryopump is a device to trap and cool the hydrogen and oxygen to liquid form.

Turbopump is required to move the cooled fuel and oxidiser to the engine.

The CE-7.5 engine: 

• It uses the staged-combustion cycle.
• In a pre-burner, a small amount of the fuel is combusted.
• The resulting heat drive the turbine to power the turbopump.
• Once the turbopump brings the rest of the fuel and oxidiser to combustion chamber
• Then hydrogen is combusted to power main engine plus two vernier thrusters.
• The exhaust from the pre-burner is also routed to the combustion chamber.

CE-20 Engine:

• It uses the gas-generator cycle
• It discards the exhaust from the pre-burner instead of sending it to the combustion chamber.
• This reduces fuel efficiency
• The CE-20 engine is easier to build and test.
• ISRO has dropped vernier allowing the engine’s nozzle to make small rotations or gimbal to adjust the rocket’s flight path.
• Thus, CE-7.5 engine is lighter and have higher fuel-use efficiency.
• The CE-20 engine achieves a higher maximum thrust (~200 kilonewton v. 73.5 kilonewton) with a shorter burn duration.

Mission using CE-20 Engine:

• LVM-3 rockets using the CE-20 in the third stage (the first stage: two solid-fuel boosters and the second stage: two liquid-fuelled Vikas 2 engines ) have already launched
• Chandrayaan-2 mission
• Chandrayaan-3 missions
• The 5.8-tonne payload of the commercial One Web mission in 2022.
• Upcoming: The first uncrewed Gaganyaan test flight (G1) which is tentatively scheduled for mid-2024.

LVM-3: Launch Vehicle Mark-3

• The LVM-3 has 3 stages:
• The first stage is in the form of 2 S200 boosters straps to the sides of the rocket body; combust a solid fuel called hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene.
• The second stage is powered by Vikas Engines (combust a liquid fuel) either nitrogen tetroxide or unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine.
• The final stage is Powered by a cryogenic engine. It combusts liquified hydrogen with liquified oxygen.

LVM-3 capabilities: 

• It can lift up to eight tonnes.
• It is launched in low-earth orbit
• It is the vehicle of choice for the first Gaganyaan mission,
• It improves India’s self-sufficiency vis-à-vis launch capabilities
• Its launch costs are low.

What is human-rating:

Human-rating entails processes to verify particular errors like the failure of a particular component, happen at less than a particular rate.

ISRO’s human-rating tests: 

• to ISRO -The four CE-20 engines had been hot-fire tested for a cumulative 8,810 seconds against the minimum human rating qualification standard requirement of 6,350 seconds.
• In a cold-flow test, fluids flow through the engine but have no combustion or exhaust, whereas combustion or exhaust is present in hot-fire test.

5. G-33 Ministerial Statement on Agriculture Trade Negotiations at the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference G-33 Ministerial Meeting, Abu Dhabi, 25 February 2024

Subject: IR

Section: Int Organisation

Context: 

• Ministers and Representatives of the G-33 Members, met in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on 25 February 2024, on the sideline of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference.

More on news:

• The 13th WTO Ministerial Conference aimed to exchange views on the state of play of the WTO agriculture trade negotiations, and to deliberate the Group’s priorities on the outcome and the way forward.

Key Outcomes:

• Emphasis was made on the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference which provides an important opportunity to reinforce a rules-based, non-discriminatory, open, fair, inclusive, equitable, and transparent multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core.
• The vast majority of the G-33 Members recognize the critical importance of public stockholding for food security purposes for developing country Members, including LDCs and NFIDCs, in meeting our food and livelihood security, as well as our rural development imperative, including supporting low income or resource poor producers.

About World Trade Organization (WTO)

• The WTO is an intergovernmental organization that is concerned with the regulation of international trade between nations.
• The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994.
• It replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948.
• It is the largest international economic organization in the world.

Functions of WTO

• The WTO deals with the regulation of trade in goods, services and intellectual property between participating countries.
• It provides a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants’ adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments.

Principles of WTO:

Five principles are of particular importance in understanding both the pre-1994 GATT and the WTO:

• Non-discrimination:
  • It has two major components: the most favored nation (MFN) rule and the national treatment policy.
  • The MFN rule requires that a WTO member must apply the same conditions on all trade with other WTO members.
  • National treatment means that imported goods should be treated no less favorably than domestically produced goods.
• Reciprocity:
  • It reflects both a desire to limit the scope of free-riding that may arise because of the MFN rule and a desire to obtain better access to foreign markets.
• Binding and enforceable commitments:
  • The tariff commitments made by WTO members in multilateral trade negotiation and on accession are enumerated in a schedule (list) of concessions.
  • These schedules establish “ceiling bindings”: a country can change its bindings, but only after negotiating with its trading partners.
• Transparency:
  • The WTO members are required to publish their trade regulations, to maintain institutions allowing for the review of administrative decisions affecting trade, to respond to requests for information by other members, and to notify changes in trade policies to the WTO.
• Safety values:
  • In specific circumstances, governments are able to restrict trade.
  • The WTO’s agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health and plant health.