Daily Prelims Notes 28 February 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

28 February 2024

Table Of Contents

1. ‘10000 genome’ project completed, says govt.
2. New found ‘obelisks’ join viruses, viroids as third unusual life form
3. African leaders demand financial systems reform; launch ‘Africa Club’ at 37th African Union Summit
4. Google DeepMind’s Genie
5. Entire country has been taken for a ride’: SC issues contempt notice to Patanjali over ‘misleading’ ads
6. WTO negotiation session on Fisheries Subsidies
7. Turning mushrooms into gold? Goa researchers claim breakthrough in producing nanoparticles
8. Former Supreme Court judge Justice AM Khanwilkar is new Lokpal Chairperson

1. ‘10000 genome’ project completed, says govt.

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Biotech

Context:

• The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in India has completed the ‘10000 genome’ project, aiming to create a comprehensive reference database of whole-genome sequences specific to India’s diverse population.

10,000 Genome Project:

• This project, which marks a significant step since India sequenced its first complete human genome in 2006, involves about 20 institutions, with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad leading the coordination.
• The initiative addresses the genetic diversity within India’s 1.3 billion population, which includes over 4,600 population groups, many of which are endogamous, leading to distinct genetic variations and a higher frequency of certain disease-causing mutations within these groups.
• The project’s goals include enhancing an understanding of India’s population diversity, improving diagnostics and medical counselling, developing personalized drugs, advancing gene therapy, and investigating individual susceptibility to infectious diseases.
• A biobank housing 20,000 blood samples has been established at the IISc for future research, highlighting the project’s dedication to transparency and collaboration.

Source: TH

2. New found ‘obelisks’ join viruses, viroids as third unusual life form

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Biotech

Context:

• Scientists at Stanford University have identified a new, remarkably simple form of life, which they have named ‘obelisks,’ positioning it in complexity between viruses and viroids.

Details:

• This discovery emerged from analyzing genetic material from bacteria in the human gut, utilizing next-generation sequencing (NGS).
• NGS is a sophisticated method that enables the parallel sequencing of genomes from various organisms in fragments.
• The identification of obelisks adds another category to the entities existing on the boundary of life, joining viruses and viroids in the continuum of biological simplicity.

Virus and viroid:

• For nearly 70 years since their discovery in 1898, viruses, with their host dependence, parasitism, and small genomes, were considered the only entities on the border between life and non-life. Viruses are made of a nucleic acid core (DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat, and sometimes a lipid layer, and replicate by infecting host cells and using their machinery to produce more viruses.
• This changed in 1971 when Theodor Diener, a plant pathologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Research Center, discovered an organism responsible for potato spindle tuber disease that was even simpler than viruses.
• This organism, which he named ‘viroids,’ consisted of naked RNA without the lipid layer or protein coat typical of viruses.
• Unlike viruses, viroid RNA doesn’t code for any proteins; it merely propagates itself.
• Viroids are significantly smaller than viruses, with 250-400 base pairs compared to the thousands in RNA viruses.
• Diener’s discovery of viroids added a new layer to our understanding of plant pathology and expanded the realm of entities existing at the edge of life, challenging the unique status of viruses in this regard.

NGS (next-generation sequencing) and circular genome:

• NGS is a method that sequences genome fragments in parallel.
• The researchers developed a software script to detect circular RNA genomes, indicative of viroid-like entities.
• Through this approach, they analyzed5.4 million RNA sequence datasets from human gut bacteria, identifying 29,959 distinct obelisks across 220,000 datasets.
• Further exploration showed obelisks also present in bacteria from the human mouth and across all seven continents, highlighting their widespread presence.
• Unlike viroids, which have small, circular RNA genomes that do not code for proteins, obelisks have larger RNA genomes of about a thousand base pairs that appear to code for two unique proteins, unlike any known proteins from other life forms.
• This significant discovery broadens our understanding of the complexity and diversity of life forms, especially those at the micro-scale, living within the human body.

A link to S. sanguini:

• The recent discovery of ‘obelisks,‘ a new form of life situated between viruses and viroids, faces a challenge in linking specific obelisks to their bacterial hosts due to the collective analysis of RNA data from gut or oral bacteria.
• However, by individually analyzing RNA from lab-grown bacteria, researchers successfully linked a particular obelisk to Streptococcus sanguini, a species common in the human mouth.
• This finding raises several questions about obelisks, including their replication process,transmission methods, potential pathogenicity to bacteria, evolutionary history, and possible impacts on human health and disease.
• Despite these uncertainties, the discovery highlights the blurring lines between life and non-life, emphasizing the complexity and diversity of life forms at the microscopic level.

Source: TH

3. African leaders demand financial systems reform; launch ‘Africa Club’ at 37th African Union Summit

Subject: IR

Section: Int. Grouping

Context:

• The 37th African Union Summit concluded on February 18, 2024, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with discussions among heads of state and government members on key issues like education, climate change, and the economy.

Details:

• Despite Africa’s minimal contribution to the global climate crisis, the continent faces significant adverse effects from climate change.
• African nations have been diverting public funds to mitigate these impacts, often at the expense of other critical areas such as achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations.
• The summit highlighted the growing need for improved access to quality financing for climate and development initiatives in developing countries.
• This includes calls for reforms in the global financial system to better meet the financing needs of these countries, emphasizing the importance of adjusting the interconnections among international financial institutions, economic governance, and financial regulatory frameworks.
• The AU is the most recent recipient of ‘full member status’ to the Group of 20 (G20), pointing to the continent’s growing voice on the global stage.
• The proposals at the AU Summit underscored the bloc’s vision for addressing economic frameworks that no longer serve their interests and needs.

Key highlights related to financial system reforms from the AU summit:

4. Google DeepMind’s Genie

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Awareness in IT, COMPUTER

Context:

• Google DeepMind has just introduced Genie, a new model that can generate interactive video games from just a text or image prompt.

More on news:

• The research paper ‘Genie: Generative Interactive Environments’ states that Genie is the first generative interactive environment that has been trained in an unsupervised manner from unlabelled internet videos.

What is Genie?

• Genie is a foundation world model that is trained on videos sourced from the Internet.
• The model can generate an endless variety of playable (action-controllable) worlds from synthetic images, photographs, and even sketches.
• When it comes to size, Genie stands at 11B parameters and consists of a spatiotemporal video tokenizer, an autoregressive dynamics model, and a simple and scalable latent action model.
• These technical specifications let Genie act in generated environments on a frame-by-frame basis even in the absence of training, labels, or any other domain-specific requirements.

What does Genie do?

• Genie is a new kind of generative AI that enables anyone, even children, to dream up and step into generated worlds similar to human-designed simulated environments. 
• Genie can be prompted to generate a diverse set of interactive and controllable environments although it is trained on video-only data.

5. Entire country has been taken for a ride’: SC issues contempt notice to Patanjali over ‘misleading’ ads

Subject: Polity

Section: Judiciary

Context:

• The Supreme Court February 27 came down heavily on Patanjali Ayurved for continuing to publish misleading advertisements regarding medicinal cures.

Key findings from the case.

• The bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah also restrained the company from advertising or branding of products made by it for treating diseases/conditions as laid down in Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954, and the rules framed under it.
• The Supreme Court issued contempt of court notice to Patanjali Ayurveda and its Director Acharya Balkrishna.
• The Indian Medical Association had accused Patanjali of carrying out a smear campaign against modern medicine and vaccination.
• The company had continued to issue advertisements about the efficacy of its medicines and that this was prohibited under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act.
• The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) had been receiving “multiple complaints” about Patanjali’s advertisements and that the Council had “upheld” some of these.

About Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI):

• ASCI was formed in 1985 by professionals from the advertising and media industry to keep Indian ads decent,fair and honest.
• The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) aims to ensure advertisements in India are fair, honest and are compliant with the ASCI Code.

About Contempt of Court:

• Article 129 of the Constitution conferred on the Supreme Court the power to punish contempt of itself. 
• Article 215 conferred a corresponding power on the High Courts. 
• The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, gives statutory backing to the idea.
• It includes power to punish for contempt of court.
• It is both civil and criminal punishment i.e., jail term up to 6 months or Rs 2000 as fine or both.
• The SC has power to punish not only for itself, but HCs, subordinate courts and tribunals within the country.
• Civil contempt: 
  • When there is wilful disobedience of any of the judgment, order, writ or other processes of a court or breach of undertaking to the court.
• Criminal contempt:
  • Publication of any matter or doing an act which:
    • 1) scandalizes or lowers court’s authority; 
    • 2) Prejudices or interferes with the due proceedings of the court; 
    • 3) Interferes or obstructs the administration of justice in any manner.
• Innocent publication and distribution of matter, fair and true reporting of judicial proceedings, fair and reasonable criticism of judicial acts and comment on the administrative side of judiciary does not warrant contempt of court.

6. WTO negotiation session on Fisheries Subsidies

Subject: IR

Section: International organisation

Context:

• The WTO negotiation session on Fisheries Subsidies took place on 27 February in the ongoing Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference-13.

More on news:

• In these negotiations, India reiterated its long-held positions that responsible and sustainable fisheries is a practice ingrained in the ethos and practices of India’s large and varied fishing community.

India’s Opinion:

• India stressed that historically, while subsidies to the fisheries sector has led to over exploitation, subsidies are also vital for developing countries and small economies to develop and diversify their fisheries sector as well as to protect the food security and livelihood security of their fishermen.
• This negotiation is linked to the concept of sustainability and as such, any comprehensive agreement on fisheries subsidies should be built on the principles of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR- RC).
• It should also incorporate the provisions of Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) appropriately, as is the case for all WTO agreements.
• There is an urgent case for capturing non-specific fuel subsidies and transfer of fishing rights to corporate fishing under Government to Government (G2G) payments within the ambit of the disciplines.
• Equally important is the need to discipline subsidies given by the Distant Water Fishing Nations as proposed by India.
• India explained that the current approaches for addressing Over Capacity and Over Fishing (OCOF) is deeply flawed.

Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies

• The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies was adopted at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) on 17 June 2022.
• It  marks a major step forward for ocean sustainability by prohibiting harmful fisheries subsidies, which are a key factor in the widespread depletion of the world’s fish stocks. 
• The Agreement represents a historic achievement for the membership as the
  • the first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target to be fully met through a multilateral agreement,
  • the first WTO agreement to focus on the environment, 
  • the first broad, binding, multilateral agreement on ocean sustainability, and
  • only the second agreement reached at the WTO since its inception.

7. Turning mushrooms into gold? Goa researchers claim breakthrough in producing nanoparticles

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Nanotechnology

Context:

• Two researchers in Goa have said that they synthesize gold nanoparticles from a wild mushroom species that is widely eaten as a delicacy in the coastal state.

More on news:

• The research, titled ‘Biosynthesis and characterisation of AuNPs produced using Termitomycesheimii Pellets’ was published recently in the Geomicrobiology Journal published by Taylor and Francis.
• According to the new research, this species of mushroom has been cultured in a pure three-dimensional pelletised form and successfully used to produce gold nanoparticles.
• Goa has the largest species diversity and gene pool of the wild edible Termitomyces mushrooms.

About the Termitomyces species:

• The Termitomyces species, which grows on termite hills and is locally known as ‘roenolmi’, has been cultured in a pure three-dimensional pelletised form and successfully used to produce gold nanoparticles.
• Termitomycesheimii is a species of agaric fungus in the family Lyophyllaceae. 
• It has a symbiotic relationship with termites.
• The specific epithet heimiihonors French mycologist Roger Heim. 
• The fruit bodies (mushrooms) produced by the fungus are edible.
• For the first time, this species of mushroom has been brought into pure culture, grown as pellets, and used to produce gold nanoparticles. 
• The breakthrough pioneers the use of an eco-friendly species for mass production of gold nanoparticles. 
• The Nagoya protocol gives Goa State Biodiversity Board (GSBB) the mandate to use these resources for industries while sharing benefits with the local community.

8. Former Supreme Court judge Justice AM Khanwilkar is new Lokpal Chairperson

Subject: Polity

Section: National Body

Context:

President of India Draupadi Murmu has appointed former Supreme Court judge Justice AM Khanwilkar as the Chairperson of the Lokpal, Live Law reported.

Details:

• The Lokpal is an anti-corruption body that is authorised to investigate corruption charges against top public functionaries including the prime minister, Cabinet ministers, members of Parliament and Group A officials at the Centre.
• The present chairperson of the Law Commission of India and three former high court judges, including former Himachal High Court Chief Justice Lingappa Swamy, former Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Yadav and former Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, have been appointed as the judicial members of the Lokpal.
• Three former bureaucrats – Sushil Chandra Pankaj Kumar and Ajay Tirkey – have been appointed as its non-judicial members.

Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013: 

• The Act allows for setting up of anti-corruption ombudsman called Lokpal at the Centre.
• Composition: The Lokpal will consist of a chairperson and a maximum of eight members. 
  • Chairperson should have been a Chief Justice of India, or is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court, or an eminent person who fulfils eligibility criteria as specified.
  • 50% of the members are to be judicial members provided that not less than 50% of the members belong to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, minorities, and women.
• Inquiry Wing: Lokpal will have an Inquiry Wing for conducting preliminary inquiry into any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
• Prosecution Wing: It will also have a Prosecution Wing for the prosecution of public servants in relation to any complaint by the Lokpal under this Act.
• Powers:
  • The Lokpal will have the power of superintendence and direction over any investigation agency including CBI for cases referred to them by the ombudsman.
  • As per the Act, the Lokpal can summon or question any public servant if there exists a prima facie case against the person, even before an investigation agency (such as vigilance or CBI) has begun the probe. Any officer of the CBI investigating a case referred to it by the Lokpal, shall not be transferred without the approval of the Lokpal.
  • An investigation must be completed within six months. However, the Lokpal or Lokayukta may allow extensions of six months at a time provided the reasons for the need of such extensions are given in writing.
  • Special courts will be instituted to conduct trials on cases referred by Lokpal.
• Jurisdiction of Lokpal: It covers a wide range of public servants — from the Prime Minister (PM), ministers and MP, to groups A,B,C,D officers of the central government including the chairperson and members of the Lokpal. However, there are some exceptions for PM:
  • Lokpal cannot inquire allegations against the PM relating to international relations, external and internal security, public order, atomic energy and space.
  • Also, complaints against the PM are not to be probed unless the full Lokpal bench considers the initiation of inquiry and at least 2/3rds of the members approve it.
• Such an inquiry against the Prime Minister (if conducted) is to be held in camera and if the Lokpal comes to the conclusion that the complaint deserves to be dismissed, the records of the inquiry are not to be published or made available to anyone.

Selection committee:

• Once the search committee submits its recommendation for the Lokpal and its members, a selection committee will consider those names and forward them to the President for his consideration.
• The five-member selection committee comprises the following –Prime Minister (chairperson), Lok Sabha Speaker, Leader of the Opposition, Chief Justice of India and An Eminent jurist nominated by the President.