Daily Prelims Notes 29 July 2023

Daily Prelims Notes

29 July 2023

Table Of Contents

1. Global science funding must be redesigned to succeed on SDGs
2. Four factors driving 2023’s extreme heat and climate disasters
3. Land-use changes put rocky addresses of animals under stress in Maharashtra’s Sahyadri plateau
4. Our semicon report card
5. Extreme continent: New WMO report paints alarming picture of climate emergency in Asia
6. Project Tiger merges with Project Elephant — but questions on fund split unanswered
7. Ladakh glacier melting may form three lakes, says study
8. The ‘free movement regime’ along the India-Myanmar border, and why it has complicated the volatile situation in Manipur
9. Finance Commission

1. Global science funding must be redesigned to succeed on SDGs

Subject : International Relations

Section: International Organisation

Context:

• The current science around sustainability or sustainable science model requires a fundamental revamp to keep up with the pace and intricacy of climate challenges, argued a high-level Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability (GCSMS).

Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability (GCSMS):

• GCSMS was established in 2021 by the International Science Council (ISC), a non-profit.
  • The ISC was created in 2018 as the result of a merger between the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC).
  • It works at the global level to catalyze and convene scientific expertise, advice and influence on issues of major concern to both science and society.
• Report published by it is “Flipping the Science Model: A Roadmap to Science Missions for Sustainability”.
• The commission recommended establishing an ambitious $1 billion per year mission science network of Regional Sustainability Hubs across the world to rectify the issue.
• These hubs would address context-specific and complex issues — from climate change and malnutrition to water security and clean energy — through a systematic engagement process.

Slow progress on SDGs:

• Almost halfway to meeting the 2030 deadline, countries remain far from achieving poverty eradication goals, according to the latest UN SDG progress report.
• Nearly 1.1 billion of the 6.1 billion people across 110 countries are poor, noted the UNDP’s latest multidimensional poverty estimates.
• Global hunger is back to 2005 levels and nearly 600 million people will remain mired in extreme poverty by 2030.

2. Four factors driving 2023’s extreme heat and climate disasters

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context:

• A recent study determined that the weeks long heat wave in Texas and Mexico that started in June 2023 would have been virtually impossible without Human-caused global warming.
• Details:
  Human activities that release greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere have been increasing temperatures gradually, at an average of 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.1 Celsius) per decade.
• Three additional natural factors are also helping drive up global temperatures and fuel disasters this year:

1. El Niño,
2. Solar fluctuations and
3. A massive underwater volcanic eruption.

How is El-Nino involved?

• El Niño is a climate phenomenon that occurs every few years when surface water in the tropical Pacific reverses direction and heats up. That warms the atmosphere above, which influences temperatures and weather patterns around the globe.
• The atmosphere becomes warmer than usual during El-Nino years, that is why 2016 is the warmest year on record.
• A weak El Niño also occurred in 2019-2020, contributing to 2020 becoming the world’s second-warmest year.
• El Niño’s opposite, La Niña, involves cooler-than-usual Pacific currents flowing westward, absorbing heat out of the atmosphere, which cools the globe.
• The world just came out of three straight years of La Niña (2021-2023), meaning we’re experiencing an even greater temperature swing.
• June 2023 was the hottest in modern record. Which is a case of the combined effect of global warming and El-Nino.

Solar Fluctuations:

• The sun’s radiating energy changes over many different time scales known as the solar cycle which is of 11 years.
• Rapid convection within our Sun both generates a strong magnetic field aligned with its spin axis and causes this field to fully flip and reverse every 11 years. This is what causes the 11-year cycle in emitted solar radiation.
• Earth’s temperature increase during a solar maximum, compared with average solar output, is only about 0.09 F (0.05 C), roughly a third of a large El Niño. The opposite happens during a solar minimum.
• The current solar cycle will peak in 2025.

A massive volcanic eruption

• Volcanic eruptions can also significantly affect global climates. They usually do this by lowering global temperatures when erupted sulfate aerosols shield and block a portion of incoming sunlight – but not always.
• The largest volcanic eruption of the 21st century so far, the 2022 eruption of Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai is having a warming and not cooling effect.
• The eruption released an unusually small amount of cooling sulfate aerosols but an enormous amount of water vapor.
• The molten magma exploded underwater, vaporising a huge volume of ocean water that erupted like a geyser high into the atmosphere.
• Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas, and the eruption may end up warming Earth’s surface by about 0.06 F (0.035 C).

Underlying it all: Global warming

• All of this comes on top of anthropogenic, or human-caused, global warming.
• Humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 50%, primarily through combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles and power plants.

3. Land-use changes put rocky addresses of animals under stress in Maharashtra’s Sahyadri plateau

Subject : Geography

Section: Places in news

Context:

• A team of five scientists upturned more than 7,000 rocks over a considerable period of time to find out how animals ranging from ants to snakes are responding to land-use changes in rocky habitats.

About the study:

• Conducted by:
  • The study was conducted by the Nature Conservation Foundation-India (NCF), Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), and the Ahmedabad-based Reliance Foundation.
  • The study was supported by the United Kingdom-based On the Edge Conservation, the Habitat Trust (India) and the Maharashtra Forest Department.
• The animals the scientists focussed on included:
  • The white-striped viper gecko (Hemidactylus albofasciatus) reported only from small parts of the Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra, the Seshachari’s caecilian (Gegeneophis seshachari), a unique legless amphibian that mostly lives under soil, the saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus), ants, spiders, and scorpions.
• Findings:
  • The rapid shift from traditional local grain cultivation to monoculture plantations of mango and cashew in the Sahyadri plateaus of Maharashtra is impacting elusive amphibians, insects, and reptiles that live under a crop of loose rocks.
  • More intensive studies are needed to understand how the socio-ecological impacts traditional paddy abandonment benefits an amphibian, while orchards impact other animals negatively in rock outcrops.
  • These changes can lead to:
    • Widespread impact on ecosystem services
    • Ecological biodiversity of the area
    • Species richness
    • Genetic diversity of the fauna of that region

Sahyadri plateau:

• The Western Ghats, also known as the Sahyadri Hills, are well known for their rich and unique assemblage of flora and fauna.
• The range is called Sahyadri in northern Maharashtra and Sahya Parvatham in Kerala.
• The Maharashtra Plateau and the Sahyadris are made of volcanic igneous rocks (basalt).
• They are thus considered to be geologically younger than certain other sections of the mountain range.

4. Our semicon report card

Subject : Schemes

Context:

• In the 1960s, India ignored a proposal from Fairchild Semiconductors (whose founders went on to create Intel) to set up a semiconductor packaging unit, which later moved to Malaysia.

Recent Developments:

• U.S. chipmaker AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) to invest $400 mn in India.
  • AMD will build its largest design centre in Bengaluru.
• Hon Hai Technology Group, also known as Foxconn, earlier this month pulled out of the chipmaking joint venture with Vedanta.
  • Vedanta to start chip making in 2.5 yrs.
• Micron, a world major in the semiconductor memory space, has announced its first-ever investment in Gujarat.
  • This $2.75 billion investment will help develop supply chains and Fabs.

Initiatives to make India a semiconductor hub:

• Now India has set a goal of a $1 trillion digital economy, aiming for it to contribute 20 per cent to GDP.
• India’s chip market is set to reach about $64 billion in 2026, triple what it was in 2019.

5. Extreme continent: New WMO report paints alarming picture of climate emergency in Asia

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context:

• Asia is the world’s most disaster-prone region and more than 50 million people were directly affected due to 81 weather-, climate- and water-related disasters in Asia during 2022, according to a new report released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on July 27, 2023.

Report findings:

• The report titled State of climate in Asia, 2022.
• The report was released during the meeting of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (ESCAP) Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction.
• In Asia, the number of disaster events have decreased in comparison to 2021 (100 disasters in 2021).
• But the effects of such events in 2022 were much more pronounced, with an increase in the number of fatalities, people affected and economic damage.
• Some 5,879 Asians died due to natural disasters in 2022. This is almost 55 per cent more than the human deaths recorded in 2021 across the region.
• The economic cost of the damage due to these events has been more than $ 36 billion. Pakistan accounted for 42 per cent of this, with economic losses of at least $15 billion.

Floods and droughts:

• The economic losses associated with floods in 2022 exceeded the average over the past 20 years (2002-2021).
• This was primarily due to the significant economic losses from floods in Pakistan (over $15 billion), China (over $5 billion) and India (over $4.2 billion).
• More than 25 per cent of all loss and damage from climate-related disasters such as floods, droughts and tropical storms is associated with the agriculture sector. So, the sector is central to all climate adaptation planning.
• Early warnings are one of the most effective ways of reducing damage from disasters. But there are still significant gaps to be addressed to strengthen these systems in order to reduce the adverse impacts of hydrometeorological hazards in the region.

Continent of extremes- Asia:

• Asia, the continent with the largest land mass extending to the Arctic, is warming faster than the global average.
  • The warming trend in Asia in 1991-2022 was almost double the warming trend in the 1961-1990 period.
  • In 2022, the estimated mean temperature over Asia was 0.73°C [0.63-0.78] above the 1991-2020 average, making it either the second- or third-warmest year on record.
  • The temperature rise is not happening equally across the continent.
• Sea surface temperature rise:
  • The ocean surface in the region has been warming since 1982. In the northwestern Arabian Sea, the Philippine Sea and the seas east of Japan, the warming rates exceed 0.5°C per decade, roughly three times faster than the global average.
  • The Barents Sea, a part of the Arctic Ocean, is identified as a climate change hotspot, with regional warming five-seven times the global warming average.
    • The Barents Sea borders the Norwegian and Greenland Sea in the west, the Arctic Sea in the north and the Kara Sea in the east.
    • The Barents Sea is divided between Russia and Norway as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
• Glacier melting:
  • Over the past 40 years, four glaciers with long-term observations in the High Mountain Asia region experienced mass loss, with an accelerating trend in the 21st century.
  • From 2021-2022, Urumqi Glacier No. 1 in the eastern Tien Shan mountain range recorded its second-most negative mass balance (‑1.25 m w.e.) since measurements began in 1959.
• Sea level rise:
  • As the ocean warms and expands and glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets melt, sea levels rise. From 2013-2022, the global average sea level rose at rate of 4.6 mm per year.
  • The rates of sea level rise across most of Asia are higher than the global mean rate over 1993-2022 (3.4 ± 0.3 mm per year).
  • The north-east Indian Ocean and western tropical Pacific region have even higher rates, above 4 mm per year.

6. Project Tiger merges with Project Elephant — but questions on fund split unanswered

Subject : Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context:

• An order on June 23, 2023 finally made it official — Project Tiger and Project Elephant have been merged, meaning a common allocation will fund both beginning this year. The merger was announced in April 2023; however, there is still no clarity on how the finances would be split between the conservation projects.

Details:

• A new division, ‘Project Tiger and Elephant Division,’ has been notified under the ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
• Project Elephant completed 30 years in 2022 and Project Tiger completed 50 years in 2023.
• A similar proposal was made by the erstwhile Planning Commission in 2011 to merge three centrally sponsored schemes — Project Tiger, Project Elephant, and Integrated Development under Wildlife Habitat — into one.
• The administrative setup for the two schemes will continue to exist separately, only funding is to be merged.
• The amalgamated budget of Project Tiger and Project Elephant schemes in 2023-24 stands at Rs 331 crore.
• This is a reduction from 2022-23 combined budgetary amount of Rs 335 crore including Rs 300 crore for Project Tiger and Rs 35 crores for elephant.
• Fund allocation for Project Tiger was Rs 350 crore in 2018-19, Rs 282.57 crore in 2019-20, Rs 195 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 220 crore in 2021-22.

About Project Tiger:

About the Project Elephant:

7. Ladakh glacier melting may form three lakes, says study

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context:

• A new study by scientists of Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology  has found that three glacial lakes are likely to form around Parkachik Glacier in Ladakh due to rapid ice melt.

Details:

• The glacial melt is worrying as it not only increases chances of glacial lake outbursts but can also lead to paucity of water, glaciers being the region’s primary source of water.
• There are two main reasons for the rapid melting of the glacier.  The first is global warming and increasing temperatures in the region, and the second is that it is at a lower altitude than other glaciers in the Zanskar region.
• The study is based on satellite imagery between 1971-2021 and supplemented by extensive field surveys between 2015-2021.
• Remote sensing data shows that the glacier retreated at an average rate of around two metres per annum between 1971 and 1999, whereas between 1999 and 2021, the retreat was at an average rate of around 12 metres per annum.

Parkachik glacier:

• The Parkachik glacier is one of the largest glaciers in the Suru River valley, covering an area of 53 square km and is 14 km long.
• The Suru River valley is a part of the southern Zanskar Ranges in the western Himalayas.
• According to the models we have used, three proglacial lakes are likely to  form near the glacier.

This poses two problems.

• First, there is a possibility of glacial lake outbursts. The most catastrophic glacial lake outburst that India has faced in recent years resulted in the 2013 Kedarnath flash floods.
• The second issue with the glacial retreat is the loss of a valuable water resource since Ladakh primarily depends on glacial melt for water.

Other important lakes in Ladakh region:

8. The ‘free movement regime’ along the India-Myanmar border, and why it has complicated the volatile situation in Manipur

Subject: Geography

Section: Places in news

Context:

• The Illegal migration of tribal Kuki-Chin peoples into India from Myanmar is one of the key issues in the ongoing ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kukis in Manipur.

Details:

• While the Meiteis have accused these illegal migrants and the alleged “narco-terror network” along the Indo-Myanmar Border (IMB) of fomenting trouble in the state, the Kukis have blamed the Meiteis and Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a Meitei himself, of using this as a pretext for “ethnic cleansing”.
• Questions have been raised on the Free Movement Regime (FMR) that facilitates migration across the IMB.

The Free Movement Regime (FMR) on the India-Myanmar Border (IMB):

• The border between India and Myanmar runs for 1,643 km in the four states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh.
• The FMR is a mutually agreed arrangement between the two countries that allows the tribes living along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa.
• The FMR was implemented in 2018 as part of the government’s Act East policy at a time when diplomatic relations between India and Mvanmar were on the upswing.
• The FMR was to be put in place in 2017 itself, but was deferred due to the Rohingya refugee crisis.
• At present, India suspended the FMR in September 2022.

Why was such a regime of free movement conceptualised?

• The India-Myanmar border was demarcated by the Britishers in 1826, without the consent of people living in those regions.
• Many of the people with the same ethnicity and culture live across the border. Thus the free movement is conceptualised.
• Apart from this it will also provide impetus to the local trade, business, healthcare and education, as the region has a long history of trans-border commerce through customs and border hats.

Issue with the FMR:

• It is unintentionally aiding illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and gun running.
• The Indo-Myanmar border runs through forested and undulating terrain, is almost entirely unfenced, and difficult to monitor.
• Coup in Myanmar has led to large scale movement of the Kuki-Chin peoples into India, especially into Manipur and Mizoram, leading to deforestation.

Widespread drug trafficking across the IMB:

• Several insurgent groups such as the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), and small groups of Kukis and Zomis have built camps in Sagaing Division, Kachin State, and Chin State (in Myanmar).
• They took shelter there, obtained arms, trained cadres, and, most importantly, engaged in illegal activities such as smuggling drugs and selling weapons to raise funds.
• A large quantity of narcotics, including heroin, opium, brown sugar, and ganja, crystal meth and yaba (a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine), and prescription drugs such as the stimulant pseudoephedrine and analgesic spasmoproxyvon, were seized, and several thousand acres of poppy were destroyed during the same period.
• The value of the drugs seized or destroyed is estimated to have been more than Rs 1,227 crore in the international market.
• The regime has been reviewed from time to time, and the FMR needs better regulation.

What is Manipur’s ethnic composition?

• The State is like a football stadium with the Imphal Valley representing the playfield at the center and the surrounding hills the galleries. The valley, which comprises about 10% of Manipur’s landmass, is dominated by the non-tribal Meitei who account for more than 64% of the population of the State and yields 40 of the State’s 60 MLAs.
• The hills comprising 90% of the geographical area are inhabited by more than 35% recognised tribes but send only 20 MLAs to the Assembly.

While a majority of the Meiteis are Hindus followed by Muslims, the 33 recognised tribes, broadly classified into ‘Any Naga tribes’ and ‘Any Kuki tribes’ are largely Christians.

9. Finance Commission

Subject: Polity

Section: Constitutional Bodies

Why is it in the news?

• The Sixteenth Finance Commission is due to be set up shortly.
• It will re-examine the recommendations of 15th Finance commission since many changes have taken place since 2017 that includes Covid-19 and the subsequent geopolitical changes.

Finance Commission

• The President shall constitute a Finance Commission which shall consist of a Chairman and four other members to be appointed by the President.
• Qualifications for members of the Finance commission as per Finance commission act,1951:

1. Chairperson – Individual with experience of public affairs
2. Member 1 – High court judge or qualified to be one.
3. Member 2 – special knowledge of finance and accounts of government.
4. Member 3 – special knowledge of economics.
5. Member 4 – wide experience in financial matters and administration.

• It shall be the duty of the Commission to make recommendations to the President as to

1. the distribution between the Union and the States of the net proceeds of taxes and the allocation between the States of the respective shares of such proceeds;
2. the principles which should govern the grants in aid of the revenues of the States out of the Consolidated Fund of India;
3. any other matter referred to the Commission by the President in the interests of sound finance

Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act

• The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003, intends to bring transparency and accountability in the conduct of the fiscal and monetary actions of the government.
• The central government agreed to the following fiscal indicators and targets, subsequent to the enactment of the FRBMA
• Revenue deficit to be eliminated by the 31st of March 2009. A minimum annual reduction of 0.5% of GDP.
• Fiscal Deficit to be brought down to at least 3% of GDP by 31st of March 2008. A minimum annual reduction – 0.3% of GDP.
• The FRBM Act made it mandatory for the government to place the following along with the Union Budget documents in Parliament annually:
  • Medium Term Fiscal Policy Statement
  • Macroeconomic Framework Statement
  • Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement
• The FRBM Act proposed that revenue deficit, fiscal deficit, tax revenue and the total outstanding liabilities be projected as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in the medium-term fiscal policy statement.
• Several years have passed since the FRBM Act was enacted, but the Government of India has not been able to achieve targets set under it. The Act has been amended several times.
• In 2013, the government introduced a change and introduced the concept of effective revenue deficit.
• This implies that effective revenue deficit would be equal to revenue deficit minus grants to states for the creation of capital assets.
• In 2016, a committee under N K Singh was set up to suggest changes to the Act.