Daily Prelims Notes 8 December 2022

December 8, 2022
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

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Daily Prelims Notes

8 December 2022

Table Of Contents

1. RBI increases key lending rate by 35 bps Cuts FY23 GDP Growth Projection to 6.8%

Context:

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of RBI increased key interest rates by 35 basis points.

More about news:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday raised the benchmark lending rate by 35 basis points (bps) to 6.25%, the fifth increase since May.
Consequently, the standing deposit facility (SDF) rate is adjusted to 6% and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and Bank rate to 6.50%.
It lowered its estimate of GDP growth to 6.8% in the fiscal ending March 31, 2023, from an earlier forecast of 7%
The MPC kept the inflation forecast unchanged at 6.7% for the current fiscal and projected it to come down below the upper tolerance limit of 6% in the fourth quarter of the current financial year.
The MPC also decided to remain focused on the withdrawal of the accommodative stance to ensure that inflation remains within the target going forward while supporting growth.

Some Basic Concepts-

Repo rate is the rate at which the central bank of a countrylends money to commercial banks in the event of any shortfall of funds. Here, the central bank purchases the security.
Reverse repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows money from commercial banks within the country.
Bank Rate: It is the rate charged by the RBI for lending funds to commercial banks.
Marginal Standing Facility (MSF): MSF is a window for scheduled banks to borrow overnight from the RBI in an emergency situation when interbank liquidity dries up completely.

What is Monetary Policy Committee:

The Monetary Policy Committee is a statutory and institutionalized framework under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, for maintaining price stability, while keeping in mind the objective of growth.
The Governor of RBI is ex-officio Chairman of the committee.
The committee comprises six members (including the Chairman) – three officials of the RBI and three external members nominated by the Government of India.
Decisions are taken by majority with the Governor having the casting vote in case of a tie.
The MPC determines the policy interest rate (repo rate) required to achieve the inflation target (4%).

2. Global South

Subject : IR

Context:

Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while assuming the presidency of the G20 group of countries for 2022 to 2023 said that the country would be the “voice of the Global South”

What is Global South:

The Global South is a term often used to identify the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
The term “Global South” was first coined by a social activist Carl Oglesby in 1969.
It is an analogous term to “Third World” and “Periphery” that denote regions outside Europe and North America, mostly low-income and often politically or culturally marginalized countries.
Countries of the Global South have been described as newly industrialized or in the process of industrializing, and are frequently current or former subjects of colonialism.
As such, the term does not refer to geographical south; for example, most of the Global South is geographically within the Northern Hemisphere.

3. ISRO inks MoU with Social Alpha to create SpIN

Subject: Science and Technology

Context: ISRO inks MoU with Social Alpha to establish SpaceTech Innovation Network

Concept:

Social Alpha is a multistage innovation, curation and venture development platform for science and technology start-ups.
It addresses the most critical social, economic, and environmental challenges through the power of entrepreneurship and market-creating innovations.
Since its inception in 2016, Social Alpha has supported more 200 start-ups including 60+ seed investments.

SpaceTech Innovation Network

SpIN is India’s first dedicated platform for innovation, curation, and venture development for the burgeoning space entrepreneurial ecosystem.
SpIN will primarily focus on facilitating space tech entrepreneurs in three distinct innovation categories:
Geospatial Technologies and Downstream Applications;
Enabling Technologies for Space & Mobility; and
Aerospace Materials, Sensors, and Avionics.

Innovation Challenge Launched by SpIN

In line with the partnership announcement, SpIN has launched its first innovation challenge.
Early-stage start-ups for developing solutions in areas of maritime and land transportation, urbanization, mapping and surveying, disaster management, food security, sustainable agriculture, environmental monitoring, and natural resources management, among others are encouraged to apply.
The selected start-ups and innovators will be able to access both Social Alpha’s and ISRO’s infrastructure and resources.
They will be provided active hand-holding in critical areas, including access to product design, testing and validation infrastructure, intellectual property management etc., among other technical and business inputs

4. Over 9 GW of nuclear power capacity in works

Subject : Science and technology

Context :India will add a total of 9.4 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power capacity in the coming areas over the present installed capacity of around 6.7 GW with projects of 8.7 GW under construction and another 700 megawatts (MW) to come later, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Concept :

The present installed nuclear power capacity comprises 22 reactors with a total capacity of 6,780 MW.

About Nuclear Energy

Nuclear energy is the energy in the nucleus, or core, of an atom. Atoms are tiny units that make up all matter in the universe, and energy is what holds the nucleus together.
There is a huge amount of energy in an atom’s dense nucleus. In fact, the power that holds the nucleus together is officially called the “strong force.”
Nuclear energy can be used to create electricity, but it must first be released from the atom. In the process of nuclear fission, atoms are split to release that energy.

Worldwide Nuclear Energy Production

Approximately 10% of the world’s electricity is produced using nuclear energy.
Worldwide, nuclear power plants are operational in around 30 countries.
In France, approximately 75% of the electricity is produced by Nuclear energy.
A total of around 450 nuclear reactors are operating worldwide for generating electricity.

Nuclear Energy in India

India’s nuclear programme can trace its origins to 1944 and its efforts in 3 stage technology were established by Homi Jehangir Bhabha when he founded the nuclear research centre, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
Today, India has 23 nuclear reactors in operation in 7 nuclear power plants, with a total installed capacity of 7,480 MW.
Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear power station in India, situated in Tamil Nadu.

India’s Nuclear Programme:

The Indian nuclear power programme, launched in 1954, envisaged a three-stage development of nuclear power generation from the country’s uranium and thorium resources.
Stage one – Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor uses
- Natural UO2 as fuel matrix,
- Heavy water as moderator and coolant.
In the reactor, the first two plants were boiling water reactors based on imported technology. Subsequent plants are of PHWR type through indigenous R&D efforts. India achieved complete self- reliance in this technology and this stage of the programme is in the industrial domain.
The future plan includes the setting up of VVER typee.Russian version of the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) is under progress to augment power generation.
MOX fuel (Mixed oxide) is developed and introduced at Tarapur to conserve fuel and to develop new fuel technology.
Second stage of nuclear power generation envisages the use of Pu-239 obtained from the first stage reactor operation, as the fuel core in fast breeder reactors (FBR).
Third phase of India’s Nuclear Power Generation programme is, breeder reactors using U-233 fuel.
India’s vast thorium deposits permit design and operation of U-233 fuelled breeder reactors.

Types of Nuclear Reactors

Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor

PHWR is a nuclear power reactor, commonly using unenriched natural uranium as its fuel. It uses heavy water (Deuterium oxide D2O) as its coolant and moderator.
The heavy water coolant is kept under pressure, allowing it to be heated to higher temperatures without boiling, much as in a typical pressurized water reactor.
While heavy water is significantly more expensive than ordinary light water, it yields greatly enhanced neutron economy, allowing the reactor to operate without fuel enrichment facilities.

Light Water Reactor

The light water reactor is a type of thermal- neutron reactor that utilizes normal water as opposed to heavy water.
It is fuelled by Low Enriched Uranium.
It uses water as both a coolant method and a neutron moderator. It produces heat by controlled nuclear fission.

Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor

A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. These are designed to extend the nuclear fuel supply for electric power generation.
Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile material, such as Uranium-238 or Thorium-232 that is loaded into the reactor along with fissile fuel.
PFBR is a 500 MWe fast breeder nuclear reactor presently being constructed at the Madras Atomic Power Station in Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu).It is fuelled by Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel.

Nuclear Reactors in India

The list of the locations of the installed nuclear reactors in India is given below:

Rajasthan (Rawatbhata)
Tamil Nadu (Kudankulam; Kalpakkam)
Gujarat (Kakrapar)
Uttar Pradesh (Narora)
Karnataka (Kaiga)
Maharashtra (Tarapur)

There are about five other projects under construction.

5. No plan to privatize Singareni Collieries Company

Subject : Map/Renewable energy

Context: Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday said that there is no plan to privatize PSU miner Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL).

Concept :

SCCL is a joint ownership of Telangana government and the center on a 51:49 equity basis. Since the government of Telangana is the majority stakeholder with 51 per cent, it is not possible for the government of India to privatize SCCL.

About Singareni Coal Mine

185 km east of Hyderabad in the Godavari Basin
4 coal seams have been identified
Contains 56.5 % fixed carbon
Although it is non-coking coal, its quality is improved by the Regional Research Laboratory at Hyderabad.

Coal Mines in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh produces about 9.72 percent of India’s coal.
Most of the coal reserves are in the Godavari valley spread over the districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam, East Godavari, and West Godavari.
The actual workable collieries are situated at Singareni and Kothagudem.
Almost the entire coal is of non-coking variety.
These are the southernmost coalfields of India and a source of coal supply to most of south India.

6. Piracy

Subject : Geography

Context- Anti-Maritime piracy bill is being discussed in LS.

What is piracy?

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates.

Regions of piracy-

The Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Guinea, Strait of Malacca, Sulu and Celebes Seas, Indian Ocean, and Falcon Lake (Canada).

Status:

India currently does not have legislation on matters of piracy on the high seas.
India ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1995 but was yet to enact it through the bill.

Need for the bill:

Indian Penal Code (IPC) is not valid for foreigners in international waters: Previously, pirates were prosecuted under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC). However, India’s sovereignty is delimited by the outer boundary of its territorial waters— 12 nautical miles from the coast. Acts of piracy committed by a foreigner outside India’s territorial waters cannot be an offence under the IPC, and those accused in piracy cases have been acquitted due to the lack of jurisdiction.
Incidence of Piracy: theGulf of Aden has been one of the deadliest areas in the oceans due to a large number of piracy incidents. Due to an increased naval presence in the Gulf of Aden, it has been observed that piracy operations are shifting towards the east and south, which increases their proximity to India’s west coast.
g. 18 Indians aboard a crude oil carrier were kidnapped off the coast of Nigeria in 2021.
Securing the Sea Lanes of Communications (SLOCs) from piracy.
Sea lines of communication (SLOC) is a term describing the primary maritime routes between ports, used for trade, logistics and naval forces.

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, 1982):

It is an international agreement that establishes the legal framework for marine and maritime activities.
It divides marine areas into five main zones namely– Internal Waters, Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the High Seas.
It is a set of rules to govern the oceans and the use of their resources. It is based on the idea that all problems related to oceans are interrelated and need to be addressed by the global community as a whole.
UNCLOS governs all aspects of ocean space, including delimitation, environmental control, marine scientific research, economic and commercial activities, transfer of technology and the settlement of ocean-related disputes.

7. Oldest known DNA paints a picture of a once-lush arctic world

Subject: Science and Technology

About the discovery-

Location-KapKobenhavn in Northern Greenland’s permafrost, a region 600 miles from the north pole.
Species discovered- 135 species of animal and plants (120 plant species out of which 75 are new). These species include Mastodons (a tree species, known to thrive with poplar and birch trees.), geese, lemmings, ants, caribou, Arctic hares, horseshoe crabs, corals and algae.
Geological time scale- The genetic materials found in Greenland are estimated to be two-million-year-old. Twice the age of the oldest known DNA of a mammoth in Siberia, which is 1.2 million years old?

What does the discovery suggest?

Presence of mastodons suggests that the region was once covered by a forest of poplar and birch trees.
Presence of Caribou suggests the presence of warm coastal water in that region.
They found layers in the sediment in which the minerals revealed that the Earth’s magnetic field had flipped.

Significance of the discovery-

To understand the evolutionary process of these species.
Understanding and developing the new method of DNA extraction and their study.
Understanding the adaptation process of species to their environment.

8. Avoiding climate breakdown depends on protecting Earth’s biodiversity — can the COP15 summit deliver?

Subject :Environment

CoP15 to Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)-

Originally had to take place in Kunming, China, in October 2020, but delayed due to covid-19 pandemic.
Currently taking place in Montreal, Canada.
Theme- Building a shared future for all life on Earth
Goal-
- Negotiating this decade’s biodiversity targets and a new global framework for biodiversity protection.
- The focus is expected to be on 30×30, a push to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by the end of this decade.
- Emphasising the Human right to a healthy environment.
- Push to require mandatory nature disclosures from all large businesses and financial institutions as a measure of their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity.

About 30X30 target-

The 30X30 target was first floated in 2019 in an article AGlobal Deal for Nature: Guiding principles, milestones, and targets published in Science Advances.
This then became the global call of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People in 2020 and as of October 2022, more than 100 countries are part of it.
Countries have to commit to protecting 30 per cent of the land and sea by 2030 under this goal.

Newzealand’s biodiversity record-

New Zealand’s ambitious biodiversity strategy, Te Mana o teTaiao, sets out a blueprint for the protection and restoration of our biodiversity, as well as for its sustainable use. But despite such ambition, New Zealand’s indigenous biodiversity remains in peril.
Regarding 30×30, more than a third of Aotearoa’s land area (Aotearoa is the current Māori-language name for New Zealand) is already under legal protection for conservation purposes. But only 10% of the country’s original wetlands remain, and only 7% of its territorial sea is protected.

9. Over 100 experts oppose ‘Nature Positive Fund’ in open letter to UN before COP15

Subject :Environment

Context-

A hundred and nineteen experts from academia and civil society have called on the United Nations (UN), World Economic Forum (WEF), European Commission (EC) and World Wide Fund for Nature to reject the ‘Nature Positive Fund’ at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal, Canada

What is ‘Nature positive’-

Nature-positive is the term used to describe a world where nature – species and ecosystems – is being restored and is regenerating rather than declining.
A nature-positive economy is one in which businesses, governments and others take action at scale to minimise and remove the drivers and pressures fuelling the degradation of nature, to actively improve the state of nature itself and to boost nature’s contribution to society.
Under the UN Convention on Biodiversity governments from around the world are negotiating a new Global Goal for Nature which is set to include the target that the world should be nature-positive by 2030 in order that nature may fully recover by 2050.
A fund is proposed for this purpose, known as ‘Nature positive fund’.

Concerns highlighted are-

Financialization of nature’s destruction, via a monetary valuation of ecosystems, biodiversity offsetting and diverting the conversation away from the need to curb biodiversity destruction and towards ‘sustainable’ finance regulation.
Criticism against the call for “recognize the value of nature”, “start valuing nature in economic transactions,” “complementary measures of economic progress, including natural capital” and references to the Dasgupta review on the economics of biodiversity (TEEB).
Most valuation models only valued a few main ecological functions and ignored the rest as a result, the monetary values being produced do not represent the value of nature’s ecological functions.
Offsetting has also led to land-grabbing of indigenous land in poor countries, causing human rights abuses, as a form of green neo-colonialism.
Idea of nature positive fund empowers private finance and financial markets that will downplay the power of governments to set up appropriate regulations.

What is The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)?

From 2007 to 2011,Pavan Sukhdev led a research called The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).
It is a global campaign to raise awareness of the global economic advantages of biodiversity.
Its goal is to emphasise the rising cost of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation, as well as to bring together experts from science, economics, and policy to allow meaningful solutions.
Estimates show that biodiversity and environmental loss would cost 18 percent of global economic output by 2050.
The World Bank, in particular, has recently spearheaded efforts to reflect the cost of biodiversity loss and climate change in national accounts.
Objective
- Highlight the rising costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, as well as bring together experts from science, economics, and policy to enable practical actions.
TEEB – Aims
- To assess, communicate, and mainstream the urgency of actions through five deliverables:
- Science and economic foundations, policy costs, and costs of inaction
- Policy options for national and international decision-makers
- Decision-making assistance for local administrators
- Business Risks, opportunities and metrics
- Citizen and consumer ownership

TEEB and India-

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has launched the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity TEEB-India Initiative (TII) to highlight the economic consequences of biological diversity loss and the resulting decline in ecosystem services.
The Initiative concentrated its efforts on three habitats: forests, inland wetlands, and coastal and marine ecosystems.
TII has been implemented as a technical collaboration with GIZ under the Indo-German Biodiversity Programme.
The pilot project results will be incorporated into the sectoral synthesis for the three ecosystems.
It was unveiled during the Brazil-India-Germany TEEB Dialogue, which India hosted in September 2015.

The entire research result was issued at the 21st session of the UNFCCC CoP, which was held in Paris in November-December 2015.