Daily Prelims Notes 1 July 2024
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Daily Prelims Notes
1 July 2024
Sub: Polity
Sec: Msc
eSankhyiki Portal:
- Launched by: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI)
- Developed to provide real-time data for planners, policymakers, researchers, and the public.
- Aims to establish a comprehensive data management and sharing system for official statistics in India.
- Officially launched on June 29, 2024, by Dr. Arvind Panagariya, Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission of India, during Statistics Day.
- The portal can be accessed through the website of MoSPI or directly at eSankhyiki Portal.
Modules of the eSankhyiki Portal:
- Data Catalogue Module:
- Catalogues major data assets of the Ministry for easy access.
- Allows users to search within datasets and download data.
- Includes seven data products:
- National Accounts Statistics
- Consumer Price Index
- Index of Industrial Production
- Annual Survey of Industries
- Periodic Labour Force Survey
- Household Consumption Expenditure Survey
- Multiple Indicator Survey
- Contains over 2291 datasets with metadata and
- Macro Indicators Module:
- Provides time series data of key macro indicators with filtering and visualization features.
- Allows users to download custom datasets and share visualizations via APIs.
- Initially includes four major products of MoSPI:
- National Accounts Statistics
- Consumer Price Index
- Index of Industrial Production
- Annual Survey of Industries
- Hosts more than 7 million records covering the past ten years.
Significance:
- Supports the theme of Statistics Day: “Use of data for Decision making.”
- Facilitates ease of data access for evidence-based decision-making.
- Promotes the use and reuse of information for impactful analysis and value addition by users.
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI):
- The Ministry is responsible for the integrated development of the national statistical system in India.
- Aims to align with global statistical practices and data dissemination standards.
- Focuses on enhancing user experience and data accessibility using advanced technologies and best practices.
Source: PIB
2. India adds 641 new animal species, 339 new plant taxa in 2023
Sub: Environment
Sec: Species in news
New Species Discoveries in India (2023)
- In 2023, India added 641 new species to its fauna, including 442 entirely new species and 199 newly recorded species.
- India also added 339 taxa to its plant database, including 326 species and 13 infraspecific taxa. Of these, 171 are new to science, and 168 are new distributional records from India.
- Fauna of India Checklist Portal: Launched by the Environment Minister, provides exhaustive checklists of 1,04,561 animal species across 36 phyla, including endemic, threatened, and scheduled species.
Significant Discoveries:
- Plants:
- Curcuma kakchingense: A new species of turmeric discovered in Kakching, Manipur.
- Asystasia venui: A flowering plant discovered in the Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah, West Bengal.
- Animals:
- Capra himalayensis: Confirms that the Himalayan Ibex is a distinct species from the Siberian Ibex, found in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, and Himachal Pradesh.
- Miniopterus srinii: A new species of bent-winged bat discovered in Kodagu district, Karnataka.
State-wise discoveries:
- Kerala: Reported the highest number of new animal discoveries (101), including 74 completely new species and 27 new records.
- West Bengal: Recorded 72 new animal species.
- Tamil Nadu: Reported 64 new animal species.
- Faunal Discoveries:
- Invertebrates: Dominated the new discoveries with 564 new species.
- Vertebrates: 77 new species, mostly fish (47 species), followed by reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and birds.
Botanical Discoveries:
- West Bengal: Highest number of new plant discoveries with 52 new taxa.
- Kerala and Uttarakhand: Also significant contributors to new plant discoveries.
- The hotspot regions such as Western Ghats, and North Eastern Regions have contributed 14% of total discoveries.
- Types of Plants: Include wild relatives of horticultural, agricultural, medicinal, and ornamental plants such as begonias, impatiens, legumes, zingibers, and orchids.
Annual Publications:
- Animal Discoveries 2023: Published by the Zoological Survey of India, highlighting the dominance of insects among invertebrates and fishes among vertebrates.
- Plant Discoveries 2023: Published by the Botanical Survey of India, recording discoveries in angiosperms, pteridophytes, bryophytes, lichens, fungi, algae, and microbes.
Source: TH
3. Study finds gene mutation that turns familiar faces into strangers
Sub: Science and tech
Sec: Biotech
Context:
- According to research published in this month’s issue of the journal Genetics, when MCTP2 gene is mutated the ability to recognise faces is severely impaired.
More on news:
- Prosopagnosia, also called face blindness, is a condition where you have difficulty recognising people’s faces.
- Its prevalence worldwide is estimated to be 1.8-2.9% in the general population.
- Prosopagnosia is one form of visual agnosia, or inability to identify everyday items just by looking at them.
- The MCTP2 gene is thus the first found to be required for a higher form of visual social cognition in humans.
Face recognition and a gene:
- By sequencing the genomic DNA, the researchers found that the MCTP2 gene, located in this segment, had been altered by a mutation.
- As a result, one amino acid in the protein encoded by the MCTP2 gene had been replaced by another.
- In the brain, the right middle fusiform gyrus, a.k.a. the fusiform face area (rFFA), is activated during facial recognition.
- When the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study individuals carrying the different MCTP2 mutations, they found abnormal responses in the rFFA.
What is MCTP2 gene:
- Multiple C2 domains, transmembrane 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MCTP2 gene.
- MCTP2 encodes a protein with poorly understood roles in lipid metabolism and lipid droplet biogenesis.
4. DRDO takes up preliminary study on development of indigenous conventional submarine
Sub: Science and tech
Sec: Defence
Context:
- As the procurement of new submarines under P-75I goes on, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has taken up a preliminary study on the design and development of an indigenous conventional submarine under Project-76.
More on news:
- DRDO is expected to take upto a year after which a formal case will be put up to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for project sanction.
- This will be a continuation of the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project, to build a conventional submarine, under which the Arihant series of nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) are being built and another project for building nuclear-powered submarines (SSN) is currently underway.
- Under P-76, there will be substantial indigenous content, including weapons, missiles, combat management system, sonars, communications, Electronic Warfare suite, mast and periscope.
- The Navy has a 30-year submarine building programme and after the P-75I, it intends to design and build conventional submarines indigenously.
About Air Independent Propulsion:
- An Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) module designed and developed by DRDO is now awaiting fitment on the Scorpene class submarines.
- The first Scorpene-class submarine Kalvari is expected to go for refit in 2025 when the fitment process would begin and is expected to take 2-3 years.
- An AIP module acts as a force multiplier as it enables conventional submarines to remain submerged for longer duration thereby increasing their endurance and reducing chances of detection.
- An AIP module is inside a submarine so there is no corrosion issue and the only aspect to be checked in a submarine is the reliability of the AIP module.
- The DRDO-developed AIP module is phosphoric acid based which is widely available.
- An AIP module has a stack of fuel cells generating hydrogen.
- The power output of each fuel cell in the DRDO AIP is 13.5 kW.
- It is being so asked up to 15.5 kW and will eventually be scaled up to 20 kW which will meet future submarine requirements like the P-76.
- The final configuration of the AIP is a stack of 24 fuel cells and the overall output will be higher than the requirement, to build in redundancy and optimize performance.
About Project 75 (I):
- The project was approved in 2007, is part of the Indian Navy’s 30-year Plan for indigenous submarine construction.
- It will be the first under the strategic partnership model which was promulgated in 2017 to boost indigenous defense manufacturing.
About Project 76:
- Project-76 will focus on the indigenous design and development of six new next-generation submarines.
- This project will leverage the robust ecosystem established through Project-75, Project-75I, and the ongoing nuclear submarine programs.
About Cabinet Committee on Security:
- The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) is a cabinet committee of the Government of India that discusses, debates and is the final decision-making body on senior appointments in the national security apparatus, defense policy and expenditure,and generally all matters of India’s national security.
- It is headed by the Prime Minister.
- Its members include the PM, Ministers of Defence, Home Affairs, Finance and External Affairs.
5. General Upendra Dwivedi assumes charge as 30th Indian Army chief
Sub: Polity
Sec: Msc
Context:
- General Upendra Dwivedi took over as the 30th Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the 1.3 million Indian Army on June 30 from General Manoj Pande who superannuated after more than four decades of service.
About Chief of the Army Staff (COAS):
- The Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) is a statutory office held by the professional head of the Indian Army (IA), the land forces branch of the Indian Armed Forces.
- Customarily held by a four-star general officer, the COAS is the senior-most operational officer of the Indian Army.
- COAS is tasked with the roles of overseeing the overall functioning of the force during peace and wartime, committing to the preparation and maintenance of the force’s operational effectiveness and defending the nation’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
- Also a permanent member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) and the National Security Council (NSC), the COAS also bears the responsibility of advising the nation’s civilian leadership i.e., the Government of India on all matters privy to the IA.
- Statutorily, the COAS ranks 12th-overall in the Indian order of precedence, and is the IA’s status-equivalent of the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff – all three positions of which are also occupied by four-star officers from the armed forces.
6. Indonesia plans import duties on clothing, ceramics, minister says
Sub: Economy
Sec: External Sector
Context: Indonesia will impose safeguard duties of 100% to 200% on imports ranging from footwear to ceramics, reviving a plan to protect domestic industries, the trade minister said.
The planned import duties average more than 100%.
Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan told reporters on Friday. “If we are flooded with (imported goods), our micro, small and medium enterprises could collapse.”
Southeast Asia’s biggest economy issued a regulation late last year to tighten monitoring for more than 3,000 imported goods, from food ingredients to electronics to chemicals.
However, the regulation was reversed after domestic industry said it hindered the flow of imported materials needed by domestic industry.
Duties will be imposed soon and could affect imports of footwear, clothing, textiles, cosmetics and ceramics, Mr. Zulkifli said.
Indonesia mainly imports apparel and clothing accessories from China, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
Concept:
- Safeguard measures include tariff increases to check increased imports of particular products that have caused ‘serious injury’ to domestic producers.
- Safeguard Duty is a tariff barrier imposed by the government on commodities to ensure that imports in excessive quantities do not harm the domestic industry.
- It is mainly a temporary measure undertaken by the government in defence of the domestic industry which is harmed or has potential threat getting hard due to sudden cheap surge in imports.
- Retaliatory custom duty-a tax that a government charges on imports to punish another country for charging tax on its own exports to that country/removing the existing concession of duty.
- Tariff-rate quota (TRQ) (also called a tariff quota) is a two-tiered tariff system that combines import quotas and tariffs to regulate import products.
- A TRQ allows a lower tariff rate on imports of a given product within a specified quantity and requires a higher tariff rate on imports exceeding that quantity.
- For example, a country might allow the importation of 5,000 tractors at a tariff rate of 10%. However, any tractor imported above this quantity would be subject to a tariff rate of 30%.
- Unlike a simple quota system, a TRQ regime does not restrict the quantity of imported products.
- The “in-quota commitment” is complemented by an “out-of-quota commitment”.
- The out of quota commitment does not set any limit on the quantity or value of an imported product, but instead applies a different, normally higher, tariff rate to that product. Imports face this higher duty rate once the in-quota quantity or value has been reached, or if any requirement associated with the “in-quota commitment” is not fulfilled
- A TRQ is generally used to protect domestic production by restricting imports. Under that regime, the quota component combines with a specified tariff level to provide the desired level of protection. In many cases, imports above the threshold may face a prohibitive “out-of-quota” tariff rate.
Other types of Safeguard duty:
- Countervailing duty (CVD) is a specific form of duty that the government imposes in order to protect domestic producers by countering the negative impact of import subsidies. CVD is thus an import tax by the importing country on imported products.
- To make their products cheaper and boost their demand in other countries, foreign governments sometimes provide subsidies to their producers. To avoid flooding of the market in the importing country with these goods, the government of the importing country imposes a countervailing duty, charging a specific amount on import of such goods.
- Anti-dumping duties are imposed when it is conclusively proved that a particular item is being exported at a price lower than what is prevailing in the domestic market of the exporter and is leading to disruption in the domestic market, injuring the local producers
- An anti-dumping duty is a protectionist tariff that a domestic government imposes on foreign imports that it believes are priced below fair market value.
- Dumping is a process where a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges in its own home market.
- The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producer’s vis-a-vis foreign producers and exporters.
