Daily Prelims Notes 8 December 2020
- December 8, 2020
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Table Of Contents
- LAKSHADWEEP ISLANDS
- BODOLAND TERRITORIAL COUNCIL
- ALPHAFOLD 2
- FELUDA TEST
- THARU TRIBALS
- HAVANA SYNDROME
- WORLD HERITAGE CITIES
- PAGRI SAMBHAL JATTA
- SECTION 144
- ARMS SALE REPORT
Subject: Geography
Context:With the entire Lakshadweep group of islands being declared an organic agricultural area, the island administration is eyeing an expansion of the traditional business in coconuts and coconut products.
Concept :
- It consists of three major islands. They are ,
- Amindivi Islands (consisting of six main islands of Amini, Keltan, Chetlat, Kadmat, Bitra and Perumul Par). [don’t have to remember all these names]
- Laccadive Islands (consisting of five major islands of Androth, Kalpeni, Kavaratti, Pitti and Suheli Par) and
- Minicoy Island.
- At present these islands are collectively known as Lakshadweep.
- The Lakshadweep Islands are a group of 25 small islands.
- They are widely scattered about 200-500 km south-west of the Kerala coast.
- Amendivi Islands are the northern most while the Minicoy island is the southernmost.
- All are tiny islands of coral origin {Atoll} and are
- They are surrounded by fringing reefs.
- The largest and the most advanced is Lakshadweep Islands the Minicoy island with an area of 4.53 sq km.
- Most of the islands have low elevation and do not rise more than five metre above sea level (Extremely Vulnerable to sea level change).
- Their topography is flat and relief features such as hills, streams, valleys, etc. are absent.
2. BODOLAND TERRITORIAL COUNCIL
Subject: Polity
Context: More than 70% of the 1,365,207 voters turned out for the first phase of the elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council.
Concept:
- Bodoland Territorial Council is an autonomous region in the state of Assam in India.
- It is made up of four districts (Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri) on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river, by the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh.
- The area under the jurisdiction of BTC, formed under the 2003 Accord, was called the Bodo Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD).
- BTC is an area governed under the 6th schedule. However, BTC is an exception to the constitutional provision under the 6th schedule.
- As it can constitute up to 46 members out of which 40 are elected.
- Of these 40 seats, 35 are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes and non-tribal communities, five are unreserved and the rest six are nominated by the governor from underrepresented communities of the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD).
- Thus, the creation of the BTC can be seen as a new experiment of territorial autonomy under the Sixth Schedule.
Sixth Schedule
- The Sixth Schedule consists of provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, according to Article 244 of the Indian Constitution.
- It seeks to safeguard the rights of the tribal population through the formation of Autonomous District Councils (ADC).
- ADCs are bodies representing a district to which the Constitution has given varying degrees of autonomy within the state legislature.
- The governors of these states are empowered to reorganize boundaries of the tribal areas.
- In simpler terms, she or he can choose to include or exclude any area, increase or decrease the boundaries and unite two or more autonomous districts into one.
- They can also alter or change the names of autonomous regions without separate legislation.
Autonomous districts and regional councils
- The ADCs are empowered with civil and judicial powers can constitute village courts within their jurisdiction to hear the trial of cases involving the tribes.
- Governors of states that fall under the Sixth Schedule specify the jurisdiction of high courts for each of these cases.
- Along with ADCs, the Sixth Schedule also provides for separate Regional Councils for each area constituted as an autonomous region.
- In all, there are 10 areas in the Northeast that are registered as autonomous districts – three in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram and one in Tripura.
- These regions are named as district council of (name of district) and regional council of (name of region).
- Each autonomous district and regional council consists of not more than 30 members, of which four are nominated by the governor and the rest via elections. All of them remain in power for a term of five years.
3. ALPHAFOLD 2
Subject: Science & tech
Context: DeepMind Technologies Ltd.’s AlphaFold reached the threshold for “solving” the problem at the latest Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction competition.
Concept:
- DeepMind became a subsidiary of Google after a 2014 acquisition and is best known for its gamer AI.
- DeepMind is now looking into ways of offering scientists access to the AlphaFold system in a scalable way.
- Google’s artificial intelligence unit took a giant step to predict the structure of proteins, potentially decoding a problem that has been described as akin to mapping the genome.
- Different folds in a protein determine how it will interact with other molecules, and understanding them has implications for discovering how new diseases like Covid-19 invade our cells, designing enzymes to break down pollutants and improving crop yields.
4. FELUDA TEST
Subject: Science & tech
Context: The Delhi government has decided to conduct a part of the total COVID-19 tests in the city using Feluda paper strip test. It is expected to start within a week to 10 days, according to officials.
Concept:
- The Feluda is a paper strip test that detects the coronavirus in an hour. It is an acronym for FNCAS9 Editor Linked Uniform Detection.
- It is expected to help to fulfil an urgent need of the rapid testing in India.
- It is the first such indigenous test kit to be developed in India based on Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology.
- CRISPR is a gene editing technology, which replicates natural defencemechanisms in bacteria to fight virus attacks, using a special protein called Cas9.
- CRISPR-Cas9 technology behaves like a cut-and-paste mechanism on DNA strands that contain genetic information. The specific location of the genetic codes that need to be changed, or edited, is identified on the DNA strand, and then, using the Cas9 protein, which acts like a pair of scissors, that location is cut off from the strand.
- A DNA strand, when broken, has a natural tendency to repair itself. Scientists intervene during this auto-repair process, supplying the desired sequence of genetic codes that binds itself with the broken DNA strand.
Comparison to the RT-PCR Test:
- Working Principle: The Feluda test uses the gene-editing tool-Crispr-Cas9 to target and identify genomic sequences of the novel coronavirus in suspected individual samples.
- RT-PCR test (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) detects the virus genetic material, which is the Ribonucleic acid (RNA) .
- Cost: The Feluda test will cost less than Rs.500 compared to Rs. 4500 for the real-time PCR test which is currently being used for Covid-19 diagnosis in India.
- Required Medical Machinery: The Feluda test also does not rely on expensive real-time PCR machines for RNA isolation, DNA conversion, and amplification which are already in limited supply in the country.
Subject : Social Issues
Context :The Uttar Pradesh government has recently embarked upon a scheme to take the unique culture of its ethnic Tharu tribe across the world.
Concept :
- The community of Tharu people belongs to the Terai lowlands, amid the Shivaliks or lower Himalayas. Most of them are forest dwellers, and some practice agriculture.
- The word tharu is believed to be derived from sthavir, meaning followers of Theravada Buddhism. Tharus worship Lord Shiva as Mahadev, and call their supreme being “Narayan”, who they believe is the provider of sunshine, rain, and harvests.
- The Tharus live in both India and Nepal. In the Indian terai, they live mostly in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.
- Members of the tribe survive on wheat, corn and vegetables grown close to their homes. A majority still lives off the forest.
- They speak various dialects of Tharu, a language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup, and variants of Hindi, Urdu, and Awadhi. In central Nepal, they speak a variant of Bhojpuri, while in eastern Nepal, they speak a variant of Maithili.
- Tharu women have stronger property rights than is allowed to women in mainstream North Indian Hindu custom.
Scheme by UP government:
- The state government is working to connect Tharu villages in the districts of Balrampur, Bahraich, Lakhimpur and Pilibhit bordering Nepal, with the home stay scheme of the UP Forest Department.
- The idea is to offer tourists an experience of living in the natural Tharu habitat, in traditional huts made of grass collected mainly from the forests.
Subject : Science & tech
Context : Recently, a report by the National Academies of Sciences (NAS), USA has found directed microwave radiation to be the plausible cause of the Havana syndrome.
Concept :
- In late 2016, USA diplomats and other employees stationed in Havana (capital of Cuba) reported feeling ill after hearing strange sounds and experiencing odd physical sensations.
- The symptoms included nausea, severe headaches, fatigue, dizziness, sleep problems, and hearing loss, which have since come to be known as the Havana Syndrome.
- The more chronic problems suffered by Havana personnel included mainly vestibular processing and cognitive problems as well as insomnia and headache.
- While the symptoms have resolved for some of the affected employees, for others, the effects have lingered and posed a significant obstacle to their work and affected the normal functioning of lives.
About the Report:
- The NAS report examined four possibilities to explain the symptoms viz. infection, chemicals, psychological factors and microwave energy.
- So far, only this report provides the clearest and detailed estimation of what may have transpired.
- In earlier attempts by various other government agencies, scientists talked about psychological illness due to the stressful environment of foreign missions or brain abnormalities in the diplomats who had fallen ill.
Subject: International Events
Context: The historical fort cities of Gwalior and Orchha in Madhya Pradesh have been included in the list of UNESCOs world heritage cities under its urban landscape city programme.
Concept :
- Gwalior was established in 9th century and ruled by GurjarPratiharRajvansh, Tomar, BaghelKachvaho and Scindias. The memorabilia left by them is found in abundance in memorials, forts and palaces in the area.
- Gwalior is known for its palaces and temples, including the intricately carved SasBahuKaMandir temple. The Gwalior Fort occupies a sandstone plateau overlooking the city and is accessed via a winding road lined with sacred Jain statues. Within the forts high walls is the 15th-century Gujari Mahal Palace, now an archaeological museum.
- Orchha is is popular for its temples and palaces and was the capital of the Bundela kingdom in the 16th century. The famous spots in the town are Raj Mahal, Jehangir Mahal, Ramraja Temple, Rai Praveen Mahal, and LaxminarayanMandir.
World Heritage City
- UNESCO World Heritage Sites are designated specific locations such as forest areas, mountains, lakes, deserts, monuments, buildings, or cities, etc. These are selected by the World Heritage Sites Committee. This committee oversees these sites with the help of UNESCO.
- The objective of this program is to select and preserve such places of the world which are important for humanity in terms of world culture. UNESCO provides financial assistance to such sites under certain circumstances.
- Each heritage site is the property of the particular country in which that site is located. But, it is also important for the international community to protect them for the coming generations.
- UNESCO believes that the entire world community is responsible for its protection. According to the official website of UNESCO, there are six cultural and four natural criteria for the selection of a world heritage site.
Subject: History
Context: SardarAjit Singh Sandhu, the brain behind the ‘PagriSambhalJatta’ movement is now being remembered in the ongoing agrarian resentments by punjab farmers.
Concept :
‘PagriSambhalJatta’ Movement
- In 1879, the British constructed the Upper Bari Doab canal to draw water from the Chenab river and take it to Lyallpur (now in Pakistan and renamed Faisalabad) to set up settlements in uninhabited areas.
- Promising to allot free land with several amenities, the government persuaded peasants and ex-servicemen from Jalandhar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur to settle there.
- In 1907, in Lyallpur, Ajit Singh Sandhu also Bhagat Singh’s uncle headed the movement that articulated this discontent.
- The catchy slogan, PagdiSambhalJatta, the name of the movement, was inspired by the song by Banke Lal, the editor of the Jang Sayal newspaper.
- The agitated protestors ransacked government buildings, post offices, banks, overturning telephone poles and pulling down telephone wires.
Ajit Singh
- He was a revolutionary and a nationalist during the time of British rule in India.
- With compatriots, he organised agitation by Punjabi peasants against anti-farmer laws known as the Punjab Colonization Act (Amendment) 1906 and administrative orders increasing water rate charges.
- He was an early protester in the Punjab region of India who challenged British rule and openly criticized the Indian colonial government.
- In May 1907, with LalaLajpat Rai, he was exiled to Mandalay in Burma.
- Due to great public pressure and apprehension of unrest in the Indian Army, the bills of exile were withdrawn and both men were released in November 1907.
9. SECTION 144
Subject : Governance
Context : To thwart attempts by the Opposition parties and farmers’ outfits to enforce the Bharat Bandh in Gujarat, the government is set to impose Section 144 of the Cr.P.C.
Concept :
- Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is frequently used to prohibit assemblies of four or more individuals, or to order mobile phone companies to block voice, SMS, or Internet communications in one or more geographical areas.
- It empowers a district magistrate, a sub-divisional magistrate or any other executive magistrate specially empowered by the state government in this behalf to issue orders to prevent and address urgent cases of apprehended danger or nuisance.
- The orders may be directed against a particular individual, or to persons residing in a particular place or area, or to the public generally when frequenting or visiting a particular place or area.
- No order passed under Section 144 can remain in force for more than two months from the date of the order.
- The state government can extend this, but not more than six months.
10. ARMS SALE REPORT
Subject : Current Events
Context : U.S. and Chinese companies dominated the global arms market in 2019, while West Asia made its first appearance among the 25 biggest weapons manufacturers, a report by the SIPRI research institute said.
Concept :
- The U.S. has dominated the market for decades, but for China — whose companies’ sales rose by almost 5% in 2019 — this increase corresponds to the implementation of reforms to modernise the People’s Liberation Army underway since 2015.
- For the first time, a company from the West Asia made it into the “Top 25”. That is, EDGE, of the United Arab Emirates, which was formed by the consolidation of some 25 defence entities in 2019.
- In 22nd spot, EDGE is a good illustration of how the combination of high national demand for military products and services with a desire to become less dependent on foreign suppliers is driving the growth of arms companies in the Middle East.