Daily Prelims Notes 16 October 2022

Daily Prelims Notes

16 October 2022

Table Of Contents

1. BMS seeks affiliation with ITUC, two Indian trade unions oppose it
2. 138 exotic mammals, reptiles, birds rescued in Mizoram; three arrested
3. Dravidian Identity
4. 6 varieties of neelakurinji identified in Santhanpara region of Western Ghats
5. Neutralising antibody against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants
6. Learning from new life forms
7. Centre considering Sri Lanka’s proposal to translocate gaurs
8. Lectures trans created from English to five Indian languages
9. American Express to resume sharing card holders financial information with NeSL

1. BMS seeks affiliation with ITUC, two Indian trade unions oppose it

Subject :History

Context : The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), a trade union supported by the RSS, is facing stiff opposition from two Indian unions — the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) of the Congress and the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS)— in its bid to become an affiliate of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

Concept :

• The trade unions emerged in India after World War I. The main factors that led to the emergence of trade unions include:
• Rising prices of essential commodities.
• Decline in the real wages of workers.
• Increase in the demand for the industrial products resulting in the expansion of Indian industries.
• Gandhi’s call for the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• The Russian Revolution.
• Both INTUC and HMS are prominent trade unions which are affiliated to International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

About INTUC and HMS

About ITUC            

• It is an international body of independent trade unions from 187 countries.
• The federation was formed on 1 November 2006 out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL).
• It is headquartered at Brussels, Belgium.
• The support of ITUC is crucial for any union to be elected to the workers’ representatives in the governing body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

2. 138 exotic mammals, reptiles, birds rescued in Mizoram; three arrested

Subject : Environment

Context : Sleuths of multiple government agencies seized 138 exotic wild mammals, reptiles and birds from Mizoram’s Champhai district bordering Myanmar.

Concept :

• The rescued animals include crocodile hatchlings, tortoises, pythons, Sumatran water monitors, four flame bowerbirds endemic to the rainforests of New Guinea, four serval cats from Africa, two marmosets native to South America and an albino wallaby.

Exotic Species:

• The term exotic does not have a set definition but it usually refers to a wild animal or one that is more unusual and rare than normal domesticated species.
• These are those species which are not usually native to an area and are introduced to an area by humans.

Provisions Related to Illegal Trade of species:

• Illegally traded exotic animals are confiscated under Section 111 of the Customs Act, 1962 which is read with the provision of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Foreign Trade Policy (Import-Export Policy) of India.
• CITES is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species. India is a party to it.
• Also, Sections 48 and 49 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 prohibit trade or commerce in wild animals, animal articles or trophies.

3. Dravidian Identity

Subject : Social Issue

Context : Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi stated that Dravidian has become a Tamil identity due to divisional politics

Concept :

• Dravidian is the term usually used for people from south Indian affinities.
• The antiquity of the term Dravida goes back to the time of the AdiShankaracharya, who used the term to refer to South India.
• Dravidian Group of Languages mainly consists of languages spoken in the southern part of India.
• Around 25% of the population speak the languages classified in this group. Proto Dravidian gave rise to 21 Dravidian languages.
• Among these 21 Dravidian Group languages, the four major Dravidian Group languages are:
• Telugu (numerically the largest of all Dravidian languages)
• Tamil (the oldest and purest form of language)
• Kannada
• Malayalam (the smallest and youngest of the Dravidian languages).

Dravidian Movement in History:

• It was a dynamic social movement aimed at destroying the contemporary Hindu social order in its totality and creating a new, rational society without caste, religion, and God.
• Ideologues such as AyotheethasaPandithar, Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai, and M.S. Purnalingam Pillai as well as latter-day ‘Justice Party’ leaders such as Dr. T.M. Nair, P. The agaraya Chetty, and C. NatesaMudaliar championed the socio-political call for the emancipation of non-Brahmin.
• The Justice Party was a political party in the Madras Presidency of British India and was the first backward class mobilization that created social change and political empowerment.

4. 6 varieties of neelakurinji identified in Santhanpara region of Western Ghats

Context-

• As visitors keep pouring in to witness the blooming of neelakurinji on a vast area on the Kallippara hills at Santhanpara in Idukki, Kerala, an expert team has identified six varieties of the plant across the region.
• The team, comprising Jomy Augustine, an expert on  neelakurinji, and E. Kunjikrishnan, an expert on the Western Ghats, recently identified the plant varieties.

The findings-

• According to them, the flowers that are in bloom now belong to the Strobilantheskunthiana variety.
• Alongside Strobilanthesnue land. “To ensure protection, we need to pass a resolution in the local panchayat and submit it to the State biodiversity board.
• The board can also provide funds for the purpose.
• The hills where the flowers are in bloom belong to Udumbanchola panchayat.
• Job J. Neriamparampil, assistant wildlife warden of the Eravikulam National park, the biggest sanctuary of neelakurinji flowers, says isolated flowerings are being reported from other areas, including Bhadrakali Shola at Puthumalaand  inside the Eravikulam park.
• The bloom reported at Kallippara belongs to the gregarious flowering (massive flowering at once) type.
• Over 100 varieties from the Mangaladevi ranges to Coorg in Karnataka, experts have identified nearly 100 populations of the Strobilantheskunthiana variety.
• The types of neelakurinji flowers that have been identified from the hill ranges includeStrobilanthesanamallaica, Strobilanthesheyneanus, Strobilanthespulnyensis, and  Strobilanthesneoasper.
• All these neelakurinji species are endemic to the Western Ghats and spread over nearly 200 acres of the Kallippara hills.
• In fact, the neelakurinji population here can be considered one of the biggest of the species after the protected areas of Munnar.
• A vast variety of medicinal plants too have been spotted on the hills.

About the flower-

• It is a shrub that is found in the shola forests of the Western Ghats in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
• Locally known as Kurinji, the flowers grow at an altitude of 1,300 to 2,400 metres.
• Nilgiri Hills, which literally means the blue mountains, got their name from the purplish blue flowers of Neelakurinji that bloom only once in 12 years. 
• Kurinjimala Sanctuary of Kerala protects the kurinji in approximately 32 km2 core habitat in Kottakamboor and Vattavada villages in Idukki district.
• KurinjiAndavar temple located in Kodaikanal of Tamil Nadu dedicated to Tamil God Murugan also preserves these plants.
• The Paliyan tribal people living in Tamil Nadu used it as a reference to calculate their age.
• Karnataka has around 45 species of Neelakurinji and each species blooms at intervals of six, nine, 11 or 12 years.
• Besides the Western Ghats,Neelakurinji is also seen in the Shevroy in the Eastern Ghats,Sanduru hills of Bellary district in Karnataka.

5. Neutralising antibody against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants

Context-

• The discovery of monoclonal antibodies have come a long way since they were first made using the hybridoma technology in 1975.
• Now more cutting edge platforms are available that can clone and express antibody genes from the cells that make the antibodies (B cells) in a high throughput manner and are in use both for basic research and translational purposes.

India’s efforts- 

• Very recently labs in India started to establish these human monoclonal antibody platforms to tackle public health concerns specific to India.
• During the height of the pandemic, as an exemplary example of national and international collaboration, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) partnered with Department of Biotechnology (DBT),International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, and Emory Vaccine Centre, Atlanta, to spearhead a discovery of a human monoclonal towards SARS­CoV­2.
• This led to the generation of a large number of human monoclonal antibodies that were specific to SARS-­CoV-­2.

Research findings-

• Our search eventually narrowed down to one antibody (clone 002­S21F2) that was potently and broadly neutralising across various SARSCoV­2 variants and Omicron sub lineages.  The earlier monoclonal therapies that were approved for emergency use in other countries primarily functioned by blocking the interaction of the virus through its receptor binding domain (RBD) with the host cell receptor (ACE2).
• The virus makes new mutations in its receptor binding domain (RBD), which is a critical part of the virus for binding to the host cell.
• Hence, as the virus evolved, it acquired mutations precisely in this region, and each variant was decorated with a different set of mutations which allowed the virus to evade many of these antibody based therapeutics.
• In contrast, our antibody clone retains its potency and broad activity because the antibody binds to a region that is outside the main RBD ­ACE2 motif.
• The SARS-­CoV-­2 spike trimer is like a flower with three petals. This flower is in closed or down conformation and more like a bud; the virus has many of these on its surface. When it wants to infect the host cells, it opens up or as we call it the three RBD’s go in the ‘up confirmation’.  However, our antibody (002­S21F2) binds in such a way that it does not allow this ‘closed to open’/’down to up’ alteration to happen efficiently, and thus the virus is now incapable of infecting the host cell.
• As this region is not precisely within the RBD-­ACE2 binding motif, it is not currently a mutational hotspot and thus is conserved across most variants, the Omicron sub lineages included.

Rare genetic make up

• One of the parameters that govern what an antibody is like is its genetic makeup; the human body is capable of making almost infinite combinations of antibodies.
• Our clone has a unique and rare genetic make up — so perhaps while everyone has taken the same approach of mining for antibodies that bind to the RBD, and also neutralise the virus, we have mined for a monoclonal antibody that is rare, broadly and potently neutralising. 

Significance-

• The first and foremost is that the discovery allows India to move towards its indigenous antibody based therapeutics.
• Moreover, the information of the conserved regions of the virus that induce broad and potent neutralising antibodies can be utilised towards universal vaccine design.
• Second, while the COVID­19 pandemic is no more at its height, we have not completely eradicated the virus.
• Thus, there will always be a part of our population that will remain vulnerable to this ever evolving virus.
• Currently, there are not even a handful of human monoclonals that have stood the test of time against all variants and thus the need for such immediate therapies is always of value.
• This discovery is a shining example of how two premier research agencies can come together to propel India’s capacity towards cutting edge translational research and development.

6. Learning from new life forms

Context-

• The Geological era that we live in is called the anthropocene. This is because of the global impact that humans and their activities have made after they evolved.
• A notable effect of changes seen in the anthropocene has been a rapid increase in the rate of extinction of other species.
• A range of 24 to 150 species are being lost per day.
• Either of these numbers is alarming. A total of about 1,000 species of animals have been actually documented to have gone extinct in the last 400 years.

Looking for new species-

• Finding new species can be a painstaking work. Many new species are found in biodiversity hotspots that are heaven for snakes and mosquitos, but are not very hospitable to humans.
• Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata found a new species of shrew on the island of Narcondam, a part of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and named it crociduranarcondamica.
• This shrew is found nowhere else.
• Narcondam is a small island and has a dormant volcano.
• Nearly all of it is densely forested.

Narcondam shrews-

• Endemic to Narcondam island of Andaman and Nicobar islands.
• Scientific name– crociduranarcondamica
• They are small in size; our own recent discovery being about 10 cm long.
• Their hearts can beat at 1,000 times per minute.

The Nicobar treeshrew

• ZSI have published the mitochondrial genome sequence of another rare mammal endemic to the Nicobar Islands — the Nicobar treeshrew.
• Treeshrews are not really shrews; more closely resembling squirrels.
• They are endemic to A&N islands.
• IUCN status- Endangered
• They are considered to be promising models for the study of influenza H1N1 and Hepatitis virus infections.

Need for documenting new species-

• We do not have a reasonably complete inventory of the animals and plants on our planet.
• New species are still being found and documented. For instance, a report in The Hindu dated March 3, 2021, described five new frogs from the Western Ghats.
• In India, a few groups (at the IISc Bengaluru, University of Delhi, Kerala Forest Research Institute, etc.) have made stellar contributions to lists of new discoveries.

Of what potential use could such discoveries be?

• A few shrew species are venomous, which is highly unusual for a mammal.
• A few studies, not very detailed, have indicated that this venom contains chemical entities of interest to health professionals.
• The accelerated extinction of life forms has led to major initiatives to sequence as many species as possible.
• There is a hope that with scientific advances, we may have ‘Jurassic Park’ scenarios where at least some extinct life forms are brought back to life.
• At a more prosaic level, comparing genomes can provide clues for the betterment of human health.
• A regularly updated Wikipedia list of completely sequenced genomes lists 100 bird species and 150 mammals.
• Many more are needed.

7. Centre considering Sri Lanka’s proposal to translocate gaurs

Context-

• The Indian government is considering a proposal from Colombo to export a number of gaurs, or Indian bisons, to Sri Lanka to revive the population of gavaras that have been extinct in the island since the end of the 17th century.

Zoological diplomacy-

• If the project is cleared, it would be the first such agreement between India and Sri Lanka, and part of a global trend of “wildlife or zoological diplomacy”.
• Sources said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which received the request in August, has now forwarded it to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), “seeking comments” on the proposal to transport at least six specimens,including a bull and three to five cows.
• According to the  proposal, the Sri Lankan Department of Zoological Gardens would then carry out “captive breeding a herd of about a dozen specimens over a five year period before trial reintroduction to the wild could take place in accordance with [internationally mandated] guidelines for re-introductions”.
• The suggestion for the proposal came from  Sri Lankan conservationist Rohan Pethiyagoda, who was awarded the Linnean medal 2022 (U.K.­based equivalent of the Nobel prize for zoology) for his work on restoring fresh water and forest biodiversity.

Indian Bison or Gaur (Bos gaurus)

• Location: Native to South and Southeast Asia
  • In India, they are found in Nagarhole, Bandipur, Masinagudi National Parks and BR Hills.
• Conservation Status:Vulnerable in IUCN Red List.
  • Included in the Schedule I of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972.
• Important Facts:
  • It is the tallest species of wild cattle found in India and largest extant bovine.
  • Recently, the first population estimation exercise of the Indian Gaur (Bison) was carried out in the Nilgiris Forest Division, Tamil Nadu.
  • Recently, the conservation breeding of Gaur was started at Mysuru zoo under the conservation breeding programme of the Central Zoo Authority (CZA).

8. Lectures trans created from English to five Indian languages

Context-

• In India, people speak many different languages, yet the medium of higher education is mainly English.
• It would be a grand feat if quality lectures available in English could be transcreated into various Indian languages.
• This idea first occurred to Prof. Rajeev Sangalof Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, who in discussion with then Principal Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister Prof. Vijay Raghavan, initiated the process.

Aim of the project-

• This project aims to transcreate about 40,000 videos of lectures from the NPTEL and SWAYAM programmes into five Indian languages at first and then into 13.
• The pilot project spiralled out from IIIT Hyderabad, with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and IIT Bombay as partners. 

The process

• In the project, every video is first subjected to speech recognition.
• The extracted file is cleaned up with errors being manually removed (at IIIT Hyderabad and IIT Bombay).
• The identification and discovery of technical “domain terms” is done at IIIT Hyderabad.
• This is followed bytext to text machine translation, carried out at IIIT Hyderabad and IIT Bombay.
• A manual error correction is then done at IIT Madras and IIIT Hyderabad. From the translated, corrected text, speech is synthesised at IIT Madras where also the speech is made to synchronise with the lip movement.
• In future, this technology would develop to the extent that the synthesised speech will perfectly match with the original speaker’s voice itself.
• The project is meant to engage a large number of startups for not only technical lectures, but also general topics.

Future goals

• In all, 75 videos have been transcreated in five different Indian languages.
• Once machine translation is developed for more languages, this can be extended to 13 languages.
• The software is indigenous and available in open source, and to startups for commercial purposes at no fee.
• Future goals include making 100 courses available in 18 Indian languages.

Also, the researchers plan to perform spoken language identification, provide keyword search and transcreations between two Indian languages and Indian English.

9. American Express to resume sharing card holders financial information with NeSL

Subject: Economy

Context:American Express has written to its card holders saying that it will report financial information related to their cards to National E-Governance Services Ltd (NeSL) starting next month, a move that has irked card holders as they fear it may put their privacy at risk.

This is the second time this year that the company has informed card holders that their data will be shared with NeSL. In April 2022, American Express had issued a similar communication, but the drive was put on the back burner after many card holders voiced concerns on data privacy.

RBI regulation

As per RBI’s December 19, 2017 regulation  a financial creditor shall submit financial information and information relating to assets in relation to which any security interest has been created, to an information utility (IU) in such form and manner as may be specified by regulations.

NeSL

• NeSL was registered as the first Information Utility (IU) by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) on September 25, 2017.
• The primary role of NeSL is to serve as a repository of legal evidence holding information pertaining to any debt/claim, as submitted by the financial or operational creditor and verified and authenticated by parties to the debt.

Concerns:

Legal experts believe that sharing personal financial information related to card holders spending with any entity, including a government-registered one, is a breach of their privacy.