Daily Prelims Notes 26 February 2023

February 26, 2023
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Daily Prelims Notes

26 February 2023

Table Of Contents

1. Kerala to estimate wild elephant and tiger populations

Subject: Environment

Section: Species in news

Context: The Kerala Forest department is set to launch surveys to enumerate wild elephant and tiger populations as part of its efforts to mitigate man-animal conflict in the State.

Tiger census

The national tiger census is conducted once every four years.
The Nation-wide tiger census was earlier held in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) conducts tiger censuses in partnership with state forest departments, conservation NGOs, and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
Census methodology
- Double sampling based on ground-based surveys and actual images captured on camera-traps.
- Double sampling method was introduced in 2006 after the “pugmark” surveys were found to be inaccurate.
- In 2018 census, 83% of the big cats censused were individually photographed using camera traps.
- In Phases 1 & 2, ground-based surveys were carried out by Forest Department officials to collect signs of tiger presence like scat and pugmarks.
- In phase 3, the information was plotted on the forest map prepared with remote-sensing and GIS (MSTrIPES).
- In the last phase, data were extrapolated to areas where cameras could not be deployed.

Elephant census

Elephant numbers largely rely on States directly counting the number of elephants.
Elephants are counted once in five years.
Census methodology
- The direct elephant counting method is based on sightings of elephants.
- In the indirect method, surveyors follow a dung decay formula for arriving at population estimation which is being used by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka at present.
- A variation of about 8% to 9% has been noticed between the two methods.

2. Hummingbirds

Subject : Environment

Section :Species in news

Hummingbirds:

Hummingbirds are small, brightly colored birds known for their rapid wing beats and ability to hover in mid-air.
They are found in the Americas, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, and are a popular subject for birdwatchers and photographers.
There are over 300 species of hummingbirds, with a wide range of sizes and colors. The smallest hummingbird species, the bee hummingbird, is only about 2.25 inches (5.7 cm) long, while the largest species, the giant hummingbird, can grow up to 8.5 inches (21.6 cm) long.
Hummingbirds are known for their unique flying abilities. Their wings can beat up to 80 times per second, allowing them to hover in place, fly backwards, and change direction quickly.
They are also capable of flying long distances, with some species migrating thousands of miles each year.
The energy demands of hovering are very high. Relative to their body mass, hummingbirds have the highest metabolic rate among vertebrates.
Hummingbirds feed primarily on nectar from flowers, which provides them with the energy they need to sustain their high metabolism. They also eat small insects and spiders for protein.
Hummingbird species live year-round in tropical mountain habitats at high altitudes, such as in the Andes over ranges of 1,500 metres to 5,200 metres where the partial pressure of oxygen in the air is reduced, a condition of hypoxic challenge for the high metabolic demands of hummingbirds.
In Andean hummingbirds living at high elevations, researchers found that the oxygen-carrying protein in blood hemoglobin had increased oxygen-binding affinity, and that this adaptive effect likely resulted from evolutionary mutations within the hemoglobin molecule via specific amino acid changes due to natural selection.

3. Ocean energy systems

Context: National Institute of Ocean Technology, is currently coordinating the development of the maiden ocean energy-powered desalination plant, at Kavaratti island in Lakshadweep. The plant is presently powered by diesel.

Ocean Energy:

Ocean energy is a form of renewable energy which can be harnessed with the power of waves, currents, tides, temperature gradients and salinity gradients.
The energy from oceans can be harvested in the following forms:

Tidal Energy
- The difference in water level from low tide and high tide is potential energy that can be harnessed.
- Similar to hydropower generated from dams, tidal water is captured in a barrage across an estuary during high tide and forced through a turbine during low tide
Wave Energy
- Wave energy is generated by the movement of a device either floating on the surface of the ocean or moored to the ocean floor by the force generated by the ocean waves
- The kinetic energy pumps fluid through turbines and generates electric power
Current Energy
- Kinetic energy can be captured from the ocean currents, and other tidal currents with submerged turbines that are very similar in appearance to miniature wind turbines
- Similar to wind turbines, the movement of the marine current moves the rotor blades to generate electric power
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
- Ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC, uses ocean temperature differences from the surface to depths lower than 1,000 meters, to harness energy. A temperature difference of even 20°C can yield energy efficiently.
Osmotic Energy
- This technique produces energy from the movement of water across a membrane between a saltwater reservoir and fresh water reservoir.

About Deep Ocean Mission https://optimizeias.com/deep-ocean-mission-gets-rs-600-crore/

4. Neutrinos are their own anti-particle

Subject : Science and technology

Section : Space technology

Concept :

An experiment in Japan recently reported that it failed to find “strong evidence” that the neutrinos are their own anti-particles.

Anti particles

Every elementary particle has an anti-particle. If the two meet, they will destroy each other in a flash of energy.
The electron’s anti-particle is the positron. They can be distinguished because they have opposite charges.
Similarly, neutrinos have anti-neutrinos. However, neither is electrically charged, nor possesses any other properties to really differentiate between them.

Experiment

Physicists working with the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND) in Japan recently reported that after analysing two years’ data, they could not find signs that neutrinos could be their own anti-particles.
KamLAND looks for an event called neutrinoless double beta-decay.
In normal double beta-decay, two neutrons in an atom turn into two protons by emitting two electrons and two anti-neutrinos.
In neutrinoless double beta-decay, the anti-neutrinos aren’t emitted, which can happen only if anti-neutrinos are just different kinds of neutrinos.
This may rule out a few theories trying to explain neutrinos’ many mysterious properties.

What are neutrinos?

Neutrinos are the second most abundant particles in the world, after photons, or the light particle.
Neutrinos are mysterious particles, produced copiously in nuclear reactions in the Sun, stars, and elsewhere.
They also “oscillate”– meaning that different types of neutrinos change into one another.
Probing of oscillations of neutrinos and their relations with mass are crucial in studying the origin of the universe.
Neutrinos are created by various radioactive decays; during a supernova, by cosmic rays striking atoms etc.

Features of neutrinos:

Neutrinos interact very weakly with everything else – trillions of them pass through every human being every second without anyone noticing.
A neutrino’s spin always points in the opposite direction of its motion.
It is now generally believed that the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations require neutrinos to have tiny masses.

5. Marconi Prize 2023

Subject : International Awards

Concept :

Hari Balakrishnan has been awarded the 2023 Marconi Prize. He is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He has been cited “for fundamental contributions to wired and wireless networking, mobile sensing, and distributed systems”.

About Marconi Prize

The Marconi Prize is an annual award that recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of communications and information technology.
It is named after Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor and pioneer in the development of wireless communication.
The Marconi Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the field of telecommunications and is often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Telecommunications.”
The prize is administered by the Marconi Society, a non-profit organisation that promotes awareness and understanding of important scientific and technical issues in the field of communications.
The Marconi Prize consists of a cash award of $100,000 and a commemorative medal.
The Marconi Society also awards other prizes and scholarships, including the Marconi Society Paul Baran Young Scholar Award, which recognizes young researchers who have demonstrated exceptional technical and leadership abilities in the field of communications and information technology.
Previous winners of the award include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke.

6. Early Galaxy Formations

Subject: Science and technology

Section: Space Technology

Concept :

In a new study, an international team of astrophysicists has discovered several mysterious objects hiding in images from the James Webb Space Telescope: six potential galaxies that emerged so early in the universe’s history.
The telescope made observations of a population of candidate massive galaxies that formed around 500-700 million years after the Big Bang .
These galaxies are more massive than have been expected for this early point in time.
These observations offer insights into early galaxy formation.
If verified with spectroscopy, these findings provide evidence to suggest that galaxies grew quicker than expected early in the history of the Universe.
Spectroscopy is the scientific study of the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation.
It involves the analysis of the way in which different types of radiation (such as visible light, X-rays, and radio waves) interact with matter, such as atoms and molecules.

James Webb Space Telescope

The telescope is the result of an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency which was launched in December 2021.
It is currently at a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
- The Lagrange Point 2 is one of the five points in the orbital plane of the Earth-Sun system.
- Named after Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange, the points are in any revolving two-body system like Earth and Sun, marking where the gravitational forces of the two large bodies cancel each other out.
Objects placed at these positions are relatively stable and require minimal external energy or fuel to keep themselves there, and so many instruments are positioned here.
It’s the largest, most powerful infrared space telescope ever built.
It’s the successor to Hubble Telescope.
It can see backwards in time to just after the Big Bang by looking for galaxies that are so far away that the light has taken many billions of years to get from those galaxies to our telescopes.

7. IMF and FSB to flesh out global crypto rules

Subject : International relations

Section : International Organizations

Concept :

India, which is currently holding G20 Presidency, has asked the IMF and Financial Stability Board (FSB) to jointly prepare a technical paper on crypto assets, which could be used in formulating a coordinated and comprehensive policy to regulate them.

About Financial Stability Board (FSB):

FSB is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system.
It was established in April 2009 after the G20 Summit in London as the successor to the Financial Stability Forum.

Mandate:

To coordinate at the international level the work of national financial authorities and international standard-setting bodies and to develop and promote the implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory, and other financial sector policies.
The FSB, working through its members, seeks to strengthen financial systems and increase the stability of international financial markets.
Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland.
The board includes all G20 major economies.
The FSB consists of 68 member institutions.
It comprises several central banks, ministries of finance, and supervisory and regulatory authorities from 25 jurisdictions, a s well as 10 international organizations and six Regional Consultative Groups (RCGs).

Framework:

The Plenary, which serves as the sole decision-making body.
The Steering Committee, which takes forward operational work in between Plenary meetings.
Three Standing Committees, each with specific but complementary responsibilities.
The FSB’s decisions are not legally binding on its members.
India and FSB:
India is an active Member of the FSB, having three seats in its Plenary represented by Secretary (Dept of Economic Affairs), Deputy Governor-RBI, and Chairman-SEBI.

8. Earth’s innermost inner core

Subject: Geography

Section: Physical Geography

Concept:

Seismologists at The Australian National University (ANU) recently documented the evidence of a distinct fifth layer of earth at the centremost part of Earth— the “innermost inner core”.

About Earth’s innermost inner core (IMIC):

It is a 400-mile-wide (644-kilometer-wide) ball of metal.
IMIC exists in a solid state as an alloy of iron and nickel because of the extreme pressure at the center of the Earth.
Its temperature is estimated to be about 5,500-6,000 degrees (Celsius/9,930-10,830 Fahrenheit), similar to the sun’s surface temperature.
It has a distinct anisotropy, which is a property of a substance that allows it to take on different characteristics depending on the angle from which it’s approached.
The concept of the innermost part of the inner core was first proposed in 2002 by seismologists from Harvard University— Miaki Ishii and Adam Dziewonski.

About the Inner core of the Earth:

It is a solid metallic ball made mainly of iron.
The inner core is solid due to the pressure caused by the weight put on it by the Earth’s other top layers.
It is distinct from the outer core, which is a liquid.
Radius:
The inner core has an average radius of 1220 km.
The boundary between the inner and outer core is located at approximately 5150 km below the surface of the Earth.
This boundary is called the Lehman Seismic Discontinuity.
Temperature: Inner core temperatures reach extraordinary levels, estimated to be between 7,200–8,500ºF (4,000–4,700ºC).
Properties:
It is predicted to have very high thermal and electrical conductivity.
The inner core generates its own magnetic field and spins a bit faster than the rest of the planet.

9. International Intellectual Property index

Subject : Schemes

Section : Reports and Indices

Concept :

India ranks 42nd among 55 leading global economies on the International IP Index.

International Intellectual Property Index

It was released annually by the US Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Centre (GIPC).
The index was started in 2012 and the first edition compared IP environments in 11 economies.
The Intellectual Property (IP) Index evaluates each economy’s ecosystem based on 50 unique indicators which the industry believes represent economies with the most effective IP systems
Parameters: It ranks countries based on 50 unique indicators.
These indicators are divided across nine categories of protection: 1) Patents 2) copyrights 3) trademarks 4) design rights 5) trade secrets 6) commercialization of IP assets 7) enforcement 8) systemic efficiency and 9) membership and ratification of international treaties.
Significance: The IP Index serves as a roadmap for policymakers who look to support creativity, innovation and economic growth through more robust IP policy.

10. Friendshoring

Subject: International Relations

Section :Msc

Concept:

Terming India the biggest trading partner, U.S. Treasury Secretary pitched for advancing an approach called “friendshoring” to bolster the resilience of supply chains.

Friendshoring

Friendshoring is a strategy where a country sources the raw materials, components and even manufactured goods from countries that share its values.
The dependence on the countries considered a “threat” to the stability of the supply chains is slowly reduced.
It is also called “allyshoring”.
For the US, Russia has long presented itself as a reliable energy partner, but in the Ukraine war, it has weaponized the gas against the people of Europe.
It’s an example of how malicious actors can use their market positions to try to gain geopolitical leverage or disrupt trade for their own gain.
Friend-shoring or ally-shoring has become a means for the US to influence firms to move their sourcing and manufacturing sites to friendly shores—often back to the same shores in the case of the US.
The purpose of Frienshoring is to insulate countries’ supply chains from less like-minded nations, such as China in case of the US.