Daily Prelims Notes 27 July 2023

Daily Prelims Notes

27 July 2023

Table Of Contents

1. Govt to open mining of lithium, rare minerals to private sector
2. CCI refuses to interfere in IRDAI’s regulatory functions
3. US Fed Rate hike takes interest rates to highest level in more than 22 years
4. Banks recover over Rs 10 lakh crore in last nine years
5. In Baltic Sea, citizen divers restore seagrass to fight climate change
6. The changing contours of Delhi
7. Astronomers find new clue about mysterious radio flashes in space
8. A space race on the Korean Peninsula
9. Robots develop new semiconductor materials in tests that are 10 times faster & greener
10. Why multiple committees for reviewing pesticide ban, SC asks government
11. India can have a $100 bn space industry by 2040: Arthur D. Little
12. Blinken visits Tonga; slams China’s actions
13. UNESCO endorses banning smartphones in schools
14. Parliamentary privilege breached: Kharge
15. No-trust motion against Modi govt. admitted in LS
16. Citing FATF, Centre urges SC to let Mishra continue as ED chief
17. Trinity Test Reach
18. Raigad landslide brings back focus on Madhav Gadgil report on Western Ghats

1. Govt to open mining of lithium, rare minerals to private sector

Subject: Geography

Section: Economic geography

Context: Centre proposes amendments to The Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 to enable entry of private players into mining of lithium and other deep-seated minerals.

Key Points:

• The Bill proposes to omit at least 6 out of the 12 minerals from the atomic minerals list from a list of 12 which cannot be commercially mined.
• The most important mineral to be taken out of this list through the Bill introduced in Parliament is lithium. Lithium, a non-ferrous, alkali metal, is a key component for electric vehicles, batteries and other energy storage solutions.
• Being under the atomic minerals list, the mining and exploration was previously reserved for government entities.
• The other five minerals are: beryl and other beryllium-bearing minerals; niobium (bearing minerals); titanium (bearing minerals and ore); tantalum; and zirconium bearing minerals and ores.
• These minerals have various applications in the space industry, electronics, communications, energy sector, and electric batteries. According to the Bill, these minerals are also critical in the net-zero emission commitment of India.
• The amendment will pave the way for private players to mine and empower the government to auction their reserves going ahead.

What is the Atomic mineral list?

• Atomic minerals include mainly minerals containing uranium, thorium, rare metals, viz. niobium, tantalum, lithium, beryllium, titanium, zirconium, and rare earth elements (REEs) containing uranium and thorium as well as beach sand minerals.
• In India, these minerals are specified in Part B of the First Schedule to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act),
• A few of these minerals containing uranium, thorium, niobium, tantalum and beryllium are included in the list of ‘Prescribed Substances’ under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962.

2. CCI refuses to interfere in IRDAI’s regulatory functions

Subject: Economy

Section: Msc

Context:: Regulatory power of Competition Commission of India (CCI) only includes regulating of markets and does not extend to monopoly over regulatory powers, says CCI in case involving IRDAI’s Indian Institute of Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors (IIISLA).

Key Points:

• CCI has refused to interfere in  IRDAI’s regulatory functions, disposing off an information case alleging anti-competitive arrangement between the insurance regulator and the Indian Institute of Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors (IIISLA).
• As per the informant, IRDAI had created a statutory monopoly in favour of IIISLA by mandating the membership as an eligibility criterion for grant and renewal of licenses and IIISLA had abused its dominant position by withholding the grant of membership due to non payment of past dues of annual subscription to IIISLA.
• What is IIISLA?
  • The Indian Institute of Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors (IIISLA) was formed as Sec.25 company in 2005 and promoted by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) for the holistic development of the profession of Surveying and Loss Assessment.
  • It functions under the IRDAI Act. Membership of IIISLA was  made mandatory by IRDAI for grant and renewal of licence for Surveyors and Loss Assessors.
  • Although promoted by IRDAI, it is a union of Independent practicing surveyors, and not directly controlled by IRDAI.
  • Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assesors are regulated under the IRDAI (Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors) Regulations, 2015.
  • Consequent upon promulgation of Insurance Laws (Amendment) Act, 2015, insurance surveyors and loss assessors are included in the definition of intermediary and insurance intermediary.
• It may be recalled that the  Delhi High Court had last month ruled that regulatory powers exercised by statutory bodies are not subject to competition watchdog’s oversight.
• Delhi High Court had highlighted that CCI’s power is for regulating markets and it does not extend to addressing any grievance regarding arbitrary action by any statutory authority.
• Who is a Surveyor and Loss Assessor ?
  • A surveyor and loss assessor is an insurance intermediary licensed by IRDAI to investigate, manage, quantify, validate and deal with losses (whether insured or not) arising from any contingency, on behalf of insurer or insured and report thereon.
  • Responsible for carrying out the work with competence, objectivity and professional integrity by strictly adhering to the code of conduct stipulated under the Law/Regulations.

3. US Fed Rate hike takes interest rates to highest level in more than 22 years

Subject: Economy

Section: Monetary Policy

Context:: The Federal Reserve approves a much-anticipated interest rate hike that takes benchmark borrowing costs to their highest level in more than 22 years.

Key Points:

• Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised its funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a target range of 5.25%-5.5%. The midpoint of that target range would be the highest level for the benchmark rate since early 2001.
• The Fed statement noted an upgrade of economic growth to “moderate” from “modest” at the June meeting despite expectations for at least a mild recession ahead. The statement again described inflation as “elevated” and job gains as “robust.”
• Fed further noted that it does not expect the US central bank to lower interest rates this year and still expects the economy will come back into better balance without major damage.
• The fed funds rate sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending. But it feeds through to many forms of consumer debt such as mortgages, credit cards, and auto and personal loans.
• The Fed has not been this aggressive with rate hikes since the early 1980s, when it also was battling extraordinarily high inflation and a sputtering economy.
• Along with the rate hike, the committee indicated that it will continue to cut the bond holdings on its balance sheet, which peaked at $9 trillion before the Fed began its quantitative tightening efforts. This is part of a measure to reduce liquidity in the market.
• The balance sheet is now at $8.32 trillion as the Fed has allowed up to $95 billion a month in maturing bond proceeds to expire and not renew.

4. Banks recover over Rs 10 lakh crore in last nine years

Subject: Economy

Section: Monetary Policy

In News: Banks have undertaken an aggregate recovery of Rs 10 Lakh crore during the last nine years through measures taken to recover and reduce non-performing assets, the finance ministry has stated in Parliament.

Key Points:

• Comprehensive measures taken by the Government and RBI to recover and  to reduce NPAs, including those pertaining to corporate companies, has enabled  an aggregate recovery of Rs. 10 Lakh crore by Scheduled Commercial banks (SCBs) during the last nine financial years.
• Measures include changes in Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act (SARFAESI), setting up of National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited and creation of stressed asset management verticals by SCBs.
• In addition RBI’s 2019 issued Prudential Framework for Resolution of Stressed Assets has helped provide a framework for early recognition, reporting and time-bound resolution of stressed assets, with a build-in incentive to lenders for early adoption of a resolution plan.
• As per the Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC) data, the total funded – amount outstanding of SCBs to corporate company borrowers, classified as non-performing assets (NPA)  and having amount outstanding of Rs 1,000 crore or more was Rs 1,03,975 crore as on March 31, 2023.

5. In Baltic Sea, citizen divers restore seagrass to fight climate change

Subject: International Relations

Section: Places in news

Context:

• Just off the coast of Kiel in northern Germany, scuba divers use hand trowels to dig up emerald green seagrass shoots complete with roots from a dense underwater meadow
• This work is a part of a new project that trains local citizens to restore seagrass meadows in the Baltic Sea, that can help tackle climate change.

About SeaStore Seagrass Restoration Project:

• Europe alone lost one third of its seagrass areas between the 1860s and 2016.
• While there are other initiatives to restore the plants worldwide, the SeaStore Seagrass Restoration Project in Kiel, run by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, is one of the first that aims to enable citizens to do so autonomously.
• The ultimate goal is to re-green the Baltic Sea.
• The GEOMAR team was also researching how resistant seagrass was to temperature rises. It hopes to breed more heat-resistant strains since, unlike fish, seagrasses cannot migrate to cooler climes as the oceans warm.

Seagrass meadows:

• A seagrass meadow or seagrass bed is an underwater ecosystem formed by seagrasses.
  • Seagrasses are marine (saltwater) plants found in shallow coastal waters and in the brackish waters of estuaries.
  • Seagrasses are flowering plants with stems and long green, grass-like leaves.
  • They produce seeds and pollen and have roots and rhizomes which anchor them in seafloor sand.
• The meadows act as vast natural sinks that can store millions of tonnes of carbon, but they have reduced sharply over the last century due to worsening water quality.
• Seagrasses store more than twice as much carbon from planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) per square mile than forests do on land.
• The plants also help support fisheries and protect coasts from erosion.

Baltic Sea:

• The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean situated in Northern Europe.
• It is a shelf sea and marginal sea of the Atlantic with limited water exchange between the two, making it an inland sea.
• The Baltic Sea is one of the largest brackish inland seas by area.
• It is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
• The maximum depth is 459 m (1,506 ft) which is on the Swedish side of the center.
• The northern part of the Baltic Sea is known as the Gulf of Bothnia.
• The more rounded southern basin of the gulf is called Bothnian Sea and immediately to the south of it lies the Sea of Åland.
• The Gulf of Finland connects the Baltic Sea with Saint Petersburg.
• The Gulf of Riga is located between Estonia and Latvia.
• The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea–Baltic Canal and to the German Bight of the North Sea via the Kiel Canal.
• The Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area includes the Baltic Sea.

6. The changing contours of Delhi

Subject: Geography

Section: Places in news

Context:

• India’s capital city Delhi is en route to becoming the world’s most populous urban agglomeration overtaking Tokyo by 2028.
• India’s median age of 28.2 years is nearly 10 years younger than China’s median age of 39.

The layout of Delhi-NCR:

• An urban agglomeration is a continuous urban spread constituting a. town and its adjoining outgrowths (OGs), or two or more physically. contiguous towns together with or without outgrowths of such towns.
  • The urban agglomeration of Delhi-NCR extends to several State and city jurisdictions, including Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Noida.
  • The expansion of this agglomeration is due to various reasons including Delhi being the national capital, metro rail networks extending from core to periphery and other investments made by the contiguous states.

Establishments and employment in agricultural and non-agricultural activities in Delhi NCR in 2013–14

Economic geography of Delhi-NCR:

• Delhi-NCR has the highest concentration of jobs and people in the country, and generated a GDP of $370 billion in 2015.
• The region’s per capita income has tripled, and consumption levels have risen, and the peripheries attract investment from their respective State governments.
  • Example: Gurugram and Gautam Buddha Nagar are the districts with the highest per capita income in Haryana and U.P. respectively.
• Its challenges include:
  • Increasing land and infrastructure costs,
  • Growing income inequality,
  • Poor air quality,
  • Land and water pollution,
  • The lack of natural resources, and
  • Institutional coordination barriers.
• According to a report ‘Morphology of Delhi National Capital Region’s Economic Geography and its Implications for Planning’, the core of Delhi-NCR has decentralised but this has not been accompanied by a shift to a high-wage, knowledge-based economy in the core area.
  • Informal work persists,
  • unemployment rates have increased, and
  • women’s participation in the workforce remains low.
• Traditional sectors such as trade, textiles and leather still dominate, but despite increasing their employment share, their share to the region’s GDP has declined.
• The employment-intensive growth in the secondary, tertiary sectors has been low.
• Decentralisation policies, which were emphasised as far back as Delhi’s first master plan in 1962, coupled with land-use and building control restrictions, pollution control norms, and inefficient land acquisition and disposal policies, have contributed to the fragmented development driven by speculation beyond the boundaries of Delhi.

The CAGR of employment across Delhi NCR’s three subregions from 1990 to 2013-14

Lessons for the Global South:

• An economic geography approach provides an interdisciplinary understanding of where and why economic activity occurs, its associated impact on people and that no two places are alike.
• It can inform planning processes at the regional and local levels, guide investment decisions, factor in environmental impacts, and facilitate the inclusion of marginalised groups in the economy.
  Thus, it can help ensure well-planned, and inclusive economic growth, and support a higher quality of life while also valuing planetary resources.

Draft Regional Plan 2041:

• Recently, the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) has recently approved the ‘Draft Regional Plan 2041’.
• Currently, the NCR consists of 24 districts in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan and entire Delhi, spread across an area of 55,083 square kilometres.

7. Astronomers find new clue about mysterious radio flashes in space

Subject: Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Context:

• Fleeting flurries of radio waves, called fast radio bursts (FRBs) reach earth from faraway galaxies, emitting as much energy in a millisecond as the sun does over weeks.

About FRBs:

• The precise origin of FRBs and why they appear in such short, sharp bursts is not known yet.
• Although, these celestial electromagnetic impulses probably come from the embers of dying stars.
• Some FRBs are ‘one-off’ phenomena: spotted just once and never detected again;
• Others are repeaters, flashing earth intermittently like some ghostly lighthouse in the depths of space.

What did the astronomers find?

• They discovered that the FRB’s Faraday rotation measure – an indicator of its magnetic field strength – was highly variable and that it reversed direction twice.
• This magnetic reversal, they believe, has to do with the FRB source orbiting a binary star system where the companion star is probably a massive star or a black hole.
• Using these observed features, the researchers modelled the variations as being the result of a wind from a massive binary companion star.
• The wind of a star is a rapid stream of ejected material.
• In other words, the magnetic reversal likely happened when the radio signals passed through a turbulent, magnetised screen of plasma in the binary stellar system.

What do the findings mean?

• This conclusion ties in with an older discovery of a strikingly similar binary system in the Milky Way galaxy, including the magnetic field reversal.
• The study gives one of the most convincing pieces of evidence that this source could be in a binary system.
• It is possible that all repeating FRBs could be in binariesbut differ in their local conditions, like the orbital period or the orbital inclination.
• The radio telescopes used in the research include:
  • The Very Large Array and Deep Synoptic Array-110 in the U.S.,
  • China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope,
  • Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder,
  • India’s upgraded Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope,
  • Germany’s Effelsberg Radioteleskop,
  • South Africa’s MeerKAT, and
  • Low-Frequency Array in the Netherlands.

Why do radio telescopes matter?

• The long wavelengths of Radio spectrum allow radio waves to traverse intergalactic space without interruption, making them an ideal tool to identify radio emissions from faraway heat sources.
• In 1933 the radio engineer Karl Jansky’s investigations led him to the accidental discovery of radio waves coming from the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.
• Due to Jansky’s pioneering findings and further research, we know about  intergalactic phenomena like pulsars (fast spinning neutron stars), dark matter, the cosmic microwave background (signals left over from the universe’s birth) and, of course, FRBs.
• The present telescopes can even localise FRBs with arc-second precision, so that observations in other wavelengths could hunt for the FBR’s host galaxy.
• So when a radio telescope spots an FRB, astronomers try to determine its dispersion value: the extent to which the FRB is stretched out when it reaches earth. From this, it is possible to calculate the distance to the FRB’s source.
• By connecting dots like these, astronomers try to unravel cosmic mysteries and better understand the universe.

Pulsars:

• Pulsars are rotating neutron stars observed to have pulses of radiation at very regular intervals that typically range from milliseconds to seconds.
• Pulsars have very strong magnetic fields which funnel jets of particles out along the two magnetic poles. These accelerated particles produce very powerful beams of light.

Giant Meter-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT)- India:

• GMRT is an array of thirty fully steerable parabolic radio telescopes of 45 meter diameter.
  • Operated by the National Center for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR).
• GMRT is an indigenous project. Its design is based on the `SMART’ concept – for Stretch Mesh Attached to Rope Trusses.
• It functions at the meter wavelength part of the radio spectrum because man-made radio interference is considerably lower in this part of the spectrum in India and there are many outstanding astrophysics problems which are best studied at metre wavelengths.
• Location– Pune meets several important criteria such as low man-made radio noise, availability of good communication, vicinity of industrial, educational and other infrastructure and,a geographical latitude sufficiently north of the geomagnetic equator in order to have a reasonably quiet ionosphere and yet be able to observe a good part of the southern sky as well.
• GMRT is presently the world’s largest radio telescope operating at a meter wavelength.

8. A space race on the Korean Peninsula

Subject: International Relations

Section: Places in news

Context:

• South Korea for the first time used an indigenous launch vehicle to place a mission-capable satellite in orbit, and a few days later, North Korea launched a new rocket design from a new facility.
• Details:
  South Korea’s Nuri launcher is its first entirely indigenous design, and Seoul has ambitions of placing military and civilian satellites in orbit.

• Nuri: It is a three-stage rocket and is powered by five rocket engines for completing its first and second stages. Another engine is used in the final stage of the rocket. Rocket is designed to carry a payload of around 1.5 tons to an orbit between 600 to 800 kilometres above Earth.
• South Korea’s Naro Space Center, located at the sea on southern Oenaro Island, opened in 2009 and has expanded in recent years.
• The North Korea’sChollima-1 booster appears more advanced than anything it has flown to date, although its maiden test in May ended in failure.
  • North Korea built its first satellite launching facility at the eastern site of Tonghae in 1985. Sohae, on the west coast, was completed in 2011.
  • The Chollima-1 was launched from a new pad at Sohae.

What is the US-North Korea Conflict?

• During the Cold War era, the US extended its Nuclear Umbrella (guarantee of support during a nuclear attack) to its allies i.e. South Korea and Japan.
• North Korea withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003 and afterwards, under present leader Kim Jong-un, it increased nuclear missile testing.
• In response to this, the US started deploying THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) in South Korea in March 2017.
• The territorial conflict which started between North and South Korea has transformed into a tussle between the US and North Korea.

9. Robots develop new semiconductor materials in tests that are 10 times faster & greener

Subject: Science and technology

Section: Awareness in field of IT

Context:

• Scientists have created a robot that can do material testing in a more efficient and sustainable manner, according to a new report published in the journal Matter.

Details:

• RoboMapper, the new technology, has already identified perovskite materials used in solar cells that have more stability and efficiency.
• RoboMapper allows them to conduct materials testing more quickly, while also reducing both cost and energy overhead.
• The researchers gave the robot a set of materials and asked it to develop alloys with the same. It came up with 150 different compositions and ran various tests on them to understand the following things:’
  • Whether it had the crystalline structure of a perovskite
  • Whether it had a desirable set of optical characteristics, known as the band gap
  • Whether it was stable when exposed to intense light
• The data was used to build a computational model “that identified a specific alloy composition that it predicted would have the best combination of desired attributes”.
• Advantages:
  • The material they identified using RoboMapper also turned out to be more efficient at converting light into electricity in solar cell devices.
  • The new, more sustainable method is nearly 10 times faster than previous automated techniques.
  • The process also reduced greenhouse gas emissions of the characterisation process by 10 times.

What is a perovskite?

• Perovskite is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium titanate (chemical formula CaTiO3).
• A large number of different elements can be combined together to form perovskite structures.
• Perovskite crystals are found today in ultrasound machines, memory chips, and now – solar cells.
• The mineral was discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia by Gustav Rose in 1839.
• Perovskite occurs as small anhedral to subhedral crystals filling interstices between the rock-forming silicates. Perovskite is a common mineral in the Ca-Al-rich inclusions found in some chondritic meteorites.
• In stars and brown dwarfs the formation of perovskite grains is responsible for the depletion of titanium oxide in the photosphere.
• Utility:
  • It can absorb sunlight better than silicon, which means the cells can be lighter.
• Challenge:
  • Its stability has been a challenge as it degrades on exposure to light and is stripped of its valuable properties.

10. Why multiple committees for reviewing pesticide ban, SC asks government

Subject: Environment

Section: Pollution

Context:

• The Supreme Court criticised the Union government on July 25 for appointing multiple expert committees to reassess the expert committee recommendations on banning hazardous pesticides in agriculture.

Details:

• Pesticide Registration Committee, an apex body that regulates pesticides in India.
• Though various committees recommended banning 27 pesticides, only three have been banned from the list.

Committees and their recommendations on pesticide ban:

• Anupam Verma Committee in 2015
  • Dr. Anupam Verma headed an expert committee that was set-up on July 8, 2013 that reviewed the use of 66b pesticides that were either banned/restricted/withdrawn in one or more countries but continued to be registered in India.
  • Dr. Anupam Verma committee submitted its report in 2015 and recommended banning 27 pesticides.
• SK Malhotra Committee in 2017, seeking a review on banning 27 pesticides.
  • The committee reinstated the need to ban 27 pesticides in 2018.
• Again, the Registration Committee in 2018 and S K Khurana Committee in 2020, had recommended the banning of 27 pesticides.
• Recently, the Rajindran committee in 2022recommended the banning of three pesticides.

Pesticides:

• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has defined pesticide as:
  • any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying or controlling any pest, including vectors of human or animal disease, unwanted species of plants or animals, causing harm during or otherwise interfering with the production, processing, storage, transport, or marketing of food, agricultural commodities, wood and wood products or animal feedstuffs, or substances that may be administered to animals for the control of insects, arachnids, or other pests in or on their bodies.
• Examples of pesticides are fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides.
• Examples of specific synthetic chemical pesticides are glyphosate, Acephate, Deet, Propoxur, Metaldehyde, Boric Acid, Diazinon, Dursban, DDT, Malathion, etc.

Regulation of pesticides:

• The Insecticides Act, 1968 was brought with a view of regulating the import, manufacture, sale, transport, distribution and use of insecticides and pesticides in order to prevent risk to human beings and animals.
• Use of insecticides and pesticides increased exponentially after the green revolution.
• There are 292 pesticides registered in India.
• Pesticides in India are registered with the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage.

Directorate of Plant Protection Quarantine & Storage (DPPQS):

• It is an attached Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• DPPQS was established in 1946 on the recommendation of Woodhead Commission as an apex organisation for advising the Government of India and state governments on all the matters related to Plant Protection.
• The Directorate is headed by Plant Protection adviser.
• Plant Protection strategy and activities have significant importance in the overall crop production programmes for sustainable agriculture.
  • Plant protection activities encompasses activities aimed at:
    minimizing crop losses due to pests through integrated pest management,
  • plant quarantine,
  • regulation of pesticides,
  • locust warning & control and
  • training in desert areas besides training and capacity building in plant protection.

Mandate:

• To popularize adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) through training and demonstration in crops inter-alia promotion of biological control approaches in crop protection technology.
• To ensure availability of safer and effective pesticides through regulatory measures under the Insecticides Act, 1968.
• To prevent introduction of exotic pests inimical to Indian agriculture by implementation of Destructive Insects and Pests Act, 1914 supported by Plant Quarantine Order (Regulation of Import into India), 2003.
• To advise and assist the union government on all matters including international obligations related to plant protection.
• To keep watch and control over locust in scheduled desert area.
• Human resource development in plant protection technology.
• Monitoring pesticides’ residues at national level.

11. India can have a $100 bn space industry by 2040: Arthur D. Little

Subject : Science and technology

Concept :

• India’s space market is expected to touch $40 billion by 2040 and, with the right strategies, could tap into a $100 billion market opportunity, consulting firm Arthur D. Little said in report titled “India in Space: A $100 Billion Industry by 2040”.
• The firm has identified 10 key imperatives to enable India’s space sector to unlock its full potential.
• These include establishing clear and comprehensive regulations, attracting foreign investments, strengthening manufacturing capabilities, implementing formal support programs for start-ups, capitalising on near-term opportunities, establishing accelerator and incubation centres, leveraging foreign expertise through collaborations, pursuing joint missions with other space agencies, establishing dedicated research and development centres for emerging space themes, and accelerating skill development.

NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL)

• NSIL is a Central Public Sector Enterprise of the Government of India.
• It was established in 2019 under the administrative control of the Department of Space.
• NSIL is the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with the primary responsibility of enabling Indian industries to take up high technology space related activities.
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Mission:

• Owning satellites for Earth Observation and Communication applications and providing space-based services
• Building satellites and launching them as per demand
• Providing Launch Services for satellite belonging to customer
• Building launch vehicles through Indian Industry and launch as per satellite customer requirement
• Space based Services related to Earth Observation and Communication satellites on commercial basis
• Satellite building through Indian Industry
• Technology Transfer to Indian Industry

12. Blinken visits Tonga; slams China’s actions

Subject : Geography

Section: Mapping

Concept :

• Antony Blinken, the United States secretary of state, has pledged to step up support for Pacific nations and reiterated a warning about the perils of “predatory” Chinese investment as he dedicated a new embassy in the island nation of Tonga.

About Tonga

• Location: Located in Oceania, Tonga is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, directly south of Samoa and about two-thirds of the way from Hawai’i to New Zealand.
• Capital: The capital city of Nukuʻalofa is located on the largest island.
• Islands: Its 169 islands, 36 of them inhabited, are divided into three main groups – Vava’u, Ha’apai, and Tongatapu – and cover an 800-kilometre (500-mile)-long north–south line.
• Geology: Geologically the Tongan islands are of two types: most have a limestone base formed from uplifted coral formations; others consist of limestone overlaying a volcanic base.
• Climate: Tonga has a tropical rainforest climate (Af).
• Volcano: Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano in Tonga is part of the highly active Tonga–Kermadec Islands volcanic arc, a subduction zone extending from New Zealand north-northeast to Fiji. The island arc is formed at the convergent boundary where the Pacific Plate subducts under the Indo-Australian Plate.

13. UNESCO endorses banning smartphones in schools

Subject : International Relations

Section: International Reports

Concept :

• UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report 2023 warns against the uncritical adoption of digital technology in educational settings, as there is little robust evidence of its added value in education.

Recommendations:

• The report endorses banning smartphones in schools when technology integration does not improve learning or worsens student well-being.
• Excessive screen time has been linked to poorer well-being, less curiosity, self-control, emotional stability, and higher anxiety and depression diagnoses in children.
• Advocates for data privacy laws to protect children’s information

About the Global Education Monitoring Report

• The Global Education Monitoring Report is an editorially independent annual report hosted and published by UNESCO.
• It has the mandate to monitor progress on education in the SDGs and on the implementation of national and international education strategies to help hold all relevant partners to account for their commitments.
• Sustainable Development Goal 4
• In September 2015, at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York, Member States formally adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• The agenda contains 17 goals, one of which, SDG 4, is to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.

14. Parliamentary privilege breached: Kharge

Subject : Polity

Section: Parliament

Concept :

• Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on July 26 said that he was “insulted” when his microphone was turned off while he was speaking during the session on Tuesday.
• He called it a breach of his Parliamentary privilege.

Parliamentary Privileges

• Parliamentary privilege refers to rights and immunities enjoyed by Parliament as an institution and MPs in their individual capacity, without which they cannot discharge their functions as entrusted upon them by the Constitution
• According to the Constitution, the powers, privileges and immunities of Parliament and MP’s are to be defined by Parliament (Article 105). No law has so far been enacted in this respect.
• In the absence of any such law, it continues to be governed by British Parliamentary conventions.
• A breach of privilege is a violation of any of the privileges of MPs/Parliament. Among other things, any action ‘casting reflections’ on MPs, parliament or its committees; could be considered breach of privilege.
• A notice is moved in the form of a motion by any member of either House against those being held guilty of breach of privilege
• The Speaker/Chairperson can decide on the privilege motion himself or herself or refer it to the privileges committee of Parliament.
• If the Speaker/Chair gives consent under Rule 222, the member concerned is given an opportunity to make a short statement.

15. No-trust motion against Modi govt. admitted in LS

Subject : Polity

Section: Parliament

Concept :

• Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has admitted a no-confidence motion against the ruling government.
• The motion was proposed by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, on behalf of opposition parties of I.N.D.I.A alliance.
• No-Confidence Motion?
• In a parliamentary democracy, a government can be in power only if it commands a majority in the directly elected House.
• Article 75(3) of the Indian Constitution embodies this rule by specifying that the Council of Ministers are collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.
• For testing this collective responsibility, the rules of Lok Sabha provide a particular mechanism – a motion of no-confidence.
• The procedure is specified under Rule 198 of the Lok Sabha.
• The Constitution does not mention either a Confidence or a No Confidence Motion.

No-Confidence Motion

• Any Lok Sabha MP, who can garner the support of 50 colleagues, can, at any point of time, introduce a motion of no-confidence against the Council of Ministers.
• A no-confidence motion can be moved only in the Lok Sabha. It cannot be moved in the Rajya Sabha.

How is a No-Confidence Motion Debated and Voted?

• The motion is moved by the member who submitted it, and the government will then respond to the motion.
• The opposition parties will then have the opportunity to speak on the motion.
• After the debate, the Lok Sabha will vote on the no-confidence motion.
• The motion will be passed if it is supported by a majority of the members of the House.
• If a no-confidence motion is passed, the government must resign.
• If the government wins the vote on the no-confidence motion, the motion is defeated and the government remains in power.

How many No-Confidence Motions have been introduced since Independence?

• There have been 27 no-confidence motions introduced in the Lok Sabha since independence
• The first no-confidence motion against the administration of the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru was presented in the Lok Sabha in August 1963.
• The motion obtained only 62 votes in favor and 347 votes against it.
• The last no-confidence motion was moved in 2018 against the then NDA government.

16. Citing FATF, Centre urges SC to let Mishra continue as ED chief

Subject : International Relations

Section: International Organisations

Concept :

• The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on July 27 an urgent application moved by the Centre to allow Enforcement Directorate (ED) Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra to continue in office till October 15.
• A Supreme Court judgment on July 11 had directed him to quit office by July 31. The top court had concluded that Mishra’s continuance at the helm of the ED on his third consecutive extension, till November 2023, was illegal.
• However, the court, on July 11, had given the government time till July 31 to find a replacement for Mr. Mishra.
• The leeway was given by the court taking into consideration the government’s submission that Mishra’s presence was necessary for the ongoing evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

FATF’s mutual evaluation process

• The mutual evaluation process is a review of a country’s legal and institutional framework to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as its implementation of measures to prevent these crimes.
• During the process, the FATF assesses a country’s compliance with its 40 recommendations on anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing, as well as the level of effectiveness of these measures in practice.
• The outcome of the mutual evaluation is a report that highlights a country’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement, and assigns a rating based on the level of compliance and effectiveness.

How will FATF evaluate India?

• The FATF’s evaluation will cover a wide range of areas, including India’s legal framework, regulatory system, law enforcement efforts, and international cooperation.
• Central agencies have been working to ensure that India’s anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing laws are in line with international standards, and that their implementation is effective.

Significance of this evaluation

• The outcome of the evaluation will be a report that highlights India’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement, and assigns a rating based on the level of compliance and effectiveness.
• The mutual evaluation process is an important tool in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
• Its outcome can have significant implications for a country’s access to international financial markets and its reputation in the global community.

17. Trinity Test Reach

Subject : Science

Section: Nuclear 

Concept :

• J Robert Oppenheimer and the other researchers of the Manhattan Project prepared to test the first ever atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert.
• At the time, they knew relatively little about how the bomb would behave and the risks it posed.
• A new study, released on July20, shows that the irradiated mushroom cloud and its fallout went farther than imagined in 1945.
• Using state-of-the-art modeling software and recently uncovered historical weather data, the study says that radioactive fallout from the Trinity test reached as many as 46 states, Canada and Mexico within 10 days, with the state of New Mexico bearing most of the fallout.
• New results
• A lack of crucial data has thus far bedeviled assessments of the Trinity test’s fallout.
• The US had no national monitoring stations in place in 1945 to track to fallout. Plus, essential historical weather and atmospheric data were unavailable.
• However, a breakthrough came in March when the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts released historical data that charted weather patterns extending 30,000 feet or higher above Earth’s surface.
• This meant that, for the first time, scientists had access to accurate hourly reconstruction of the weather which could be used to reanalyse Trinity’s fallout.
• Implications
• Based on the new data, computations by Philippe and his colleagues show the cloud’s trajectory primarily spreading up over north east New Mexico and a part of the cloud circling to the south and west of ground zero over the next few days.
• It found that Socorro County — where the Trinity test took place—has the fifth highest deposition per county of all counties in the United
• The findings could be cited by advocates aiming to increase the number of people eligible for compensation by the federal government for potential exposure to radiation from atmospheric nuclear explosions.
• Trinity test “downwinders” — a term describing people who have lived near nuclear test sites and may have been exposed to deadly radioactive fallout—have thus far been ineligible for compensation under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA).

The dawn of the Atomic Age – US Trinity Test

• Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear device.
• on July 16, 1945, the world’s first super bomb loaded with about 13 pounds of plutonium at its core exploded in a desert in New Mexico.
• The super bomb, nicknamed ‘Gadget’, was built by a team of scientists at a top-secret site in Los Alamos.
• It destroyed everything in its vicinity and melted vast swathes of sand into sea-green glass.
• It was developed as part of the US-led Manhattan Project.

18. Raigad landslide brings back focus on Madhav Gadgil report on Western Ghats

Subject : Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Concept :

• A landslide in Maharashtra’s Raigad district last week claimed 27 lives, flattened an entire village, and brought back into focus the 2011 Dr Madhav Gadgil report on conservation of the Western Ghats.
• In 2010, then Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh appointed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), to be chaired by ecologist Dr Madhav Gadgil. The commission submitted its 552-page report to the Centre in August 2011.

Recommendations

• The report recommended classifying 64 percent of the Western Ghats, spread over six states, into Ecologically Sensitive Zones called ESZ 1, ESZ 2 and ESZ 3.
• It also recommended designating the entire region as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA).
• Almost all developmental activities like mining, construction of thermal power plants, dams were to stop along with the decommissioning of similar projects that have completed their shelf life in ESZ 1.
• For Goa, WGEEP recommended an indefinite moratorium on new environmental clearances for mining in ESZs 1 and 2, a phasing out of mining in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 by 2016, and continuation of existing mining in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 2 under strict regulation with an effective system of social audit.
• In the Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra, the panel advised that in ESZs 1 and 2, no new polluting (red and orange category) industries, which would include coal-based power plants, should be permitted to be established, and the existing red and orange category industries should be asked to switch to zero pollution by 2016.
• Further, it found that plains and coastal tracts in these districts were under “severe environmental and social stress”.
• In all the zones, genetically modified crops should not be allowed, use of plastic bags be prohibited, Special Economic Zones should not be permitted, new hill stations should not be allowed, changing the land use from farmland to non-farm land and the stoppage of diversions of rivers to protect the ecology of the region, and public lands should not be converted into private lands.
• The report also suggested a bottom-to-top approach instead of a top-to-bottom approach in governance of the environment, indicating decentralization and more powers to local authorities.
• It recommended the establishment of a Western Ghats Ecology Authority under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, as a professional body to manage the ecology of the region and to ensure its sustainable development.
• Another major recommendation was a ban on growing single commercial crops like tea, coffee, cardamom, rubber, banana and pineapple, which have led to “fragmentation of forest, soil erosion, degradation of river ecosystems and toxic contamination of the environment”.
• A policy shift is urgently warranted curtailing the environmentally disastrous practices and switching over to a more sustainable farming approach in the Western Ghats.
• The panel had urged the Ministry of Environment and Forests to take critical steps to involve citizens, including proactive and sympathetic implementation of the provisions of the Community Forest Resources of the Forest Rights Act.
• It stated that new settlement patterns and development are resulting in hill-cutting and physical changes in slope profile due to roads, terracing and construction.

Implementation : 

• Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan constituted a High-Level Working Group on Western Ghats under former Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief Dr K Kasturirangan, which found that of the nearly 1,750 responses it had examined, 81% were not in favour of the Gadgil recommendations.
• In an affidavit filed before the National Green Tribunal in 2014, the Ministry of Environment and Forests submitted that it is examining the recommendations of the K Kasturirangan-led panel and will not process the Gadgil report for further action.
• In 2017, the Environment Ministry issued a draft notification, demarcating an area of 56,285 sq km in the Western Ghats as ESA as opposed to the 59,940 sq km recommended by the Kasturirangan committee.
• In Kerala, this was brought down to 9,993.7 sq km from the Kasturirangan committee recommendation of 13,108 square km as part of ESA.

Crticism against Kasturirangan Committee

• The Kasturirangan report does not dilute our original report but perverts it.
• The pro-nature WGEEP report was unpalatable to the powers. The government then set up the Kasturirangan committee which produced a very faulty, unscientific report which further stated that local communities have no role in economic decisions, clearly in violation of our constitutional provisions

Significance of Western ghats

• It was accorded the World Heritage status by UNESCO, the Western Ghats are a 1,600-km-long mountain chain running the western coast of the country covering six states — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
• These Ghats are home to high mountain forests, which moderate the tropical climate of the region and present one of the best examples of the monsoon system on the planet.
• They are home to 325 globally threatened flora, fauna, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish species. About 60 percent of the mountain range is in Karnataka.

Recent News

• By 2022, the Centre announced a high-powered committee constituted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to conduct physical landscaping and submit a detailed report in a year’s time.

For further notes on Raigad Landslides – https://optimizeias.com/raigad-landslides/