Daily Prelims Notes 14 July 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

14 July 2024

Table Of Contents

1. Resolve Tibet Act
2. Chance discovery of treasure pot sparks frenzy
3. Russia – China joint naval exercise
4. Air pollution harms pollinators more than pests, study finds
5. Withdrawal of Accommodation
6. How is India’s hunt for critical minerals going?
7. Nobel laureate supports India’s pursuit for a neutrino lab
8. Nipah monoclonal antibody trials may begin in India in 2025
9. What caused the rare failure of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket
10. 6 lakh fake pollution-trading certificates unearthed in three States

1. Resolve Tibet Act

Sub: IR

Sec: Places in news

Why in news?

US President Joe Biden signed the Promoting a Resolution to Tibet-China Dispute Act, also known as the Resolve Tibet Act, calling for a peaceful resolution of the dispute Tibet, which Beijing refers to as Xizang.

Objectives of the Act

• Countering Misinformation: Act seeks to counter Chinese government misinformation regarding Tibet’s history, culture, and political status. It refutes Beijing’s claim that Tibet has been part of China since ancient times.
• Promotion of Dialogue: Act encourages substantive dialogue between the Chinese government and Dalai Lama and elected Tibetan leaders without preconditions, aiming for a settlement, without preconditions.
• Multilateral Efforts: The Act calls for the U.S. to work with other governments in multilateral efforts to support Tibet and its people.
• Human Rights Focus: The act emphasizes the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination and human rights.
• Geographical Definition: The Act clarifies that U.S. policy considers Tibet to include not just the Tibet Autonomous Region but also Tibetan areas within the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan.

Differences from previous legislation

• Resolve Tibet Act is the third major U.S. legislation on Tibet after

1. Tibetan Policy Act (TPA) of 2002
2. Tibetan Policy and Support Act (TPSA) of 2020.

• Unlike its predecessors, the Resolve Tibet Act directly challenges China’s historical claims over Tibet.

India’s position:

India has refrained from making any strong statements regarding the Act.

History of the dispute over Tibet

• In 1950, the People’s Liberation Army of China invaded Tibet.
• In 1951, Tibetan leaders were forced to sign a treaty dictated by China, known as the Seventeen Point Agreement. Tibet was formally incorporated into the People’s Republic of China by the agreement.
• In 1959, a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule led to the exile of the 14th Dalai Lama to India.

About Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama belongs to the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism

• There have been only 14 Dalai Lamas in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, and the first and second Dalai Lamas were given the title posthumously.
• The 14th and current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.
• The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet.

2. Chance discovery of treasure pot sparks frenzy

Sub: History

Sec: Art and Culture

The chance discovery of a pot containing 18th century gold and silver coins, and other period artefacts has suddenly elevated the profile of the sleepy village of Chengalai in Kannur district of Kerala.

• Coins bore the hallmarks of the late 18th century, with some displaying Indo-French and Kannur Ali Raja markings.
• The bead necklaces appeared to be from the same era.

King Ali Raja

• Ali Raja was the title of the Muslim king of Arakkal dynasty of Kannur, who ruled during the 17^th – 19^th
• Arakkal dynasty Kerala’s only Muslim kingdom
• The eldest member of the family, whether male or female, became its head and ruler.
• While male rulers were called Ali Rajah, female rulers were known as Arakkal Beevis.

3. Russia – China joint naval exercise

Sub : IR

Sec: Msc

Two Russian warships have arrived in the southern Chinese port city of Zhanjiang to take part in joint naval exercises.

• China and Russia have greatly reinforced ties since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine that began in February 2022.
• Their common goal is also to reduce the role of the United States and the West on the international stage.
• The two countries hold joint military exercises regularly, but their level of interoperability is greatly inferior to that of the Western military alliance NATO.

Zhanjiang Port

Zhanjiang is a natural deepwater harbour in Southeast China, situated in Guangzhou Bay

4. Air pollution harms pollinators more than pests, study finds

Sub: Environment

Sec: Climate

A study by researchers from University of Reading found that:

• Pollinators including bees, moths and butterflies experienced a 39% decline in foraging efficiency after being exposed to elevated air pollution levels.
• In contrast, plant-eating aphids and other pests were not significantly impacted.

How pollutants affect insects?

• Beneficial insects such as bees and wasps are more affected by air pollution due to their reliance on scent-based communication.
• Insects use airborne chemical signals to locate flowers, find mates, or hunt their prey. 
• Air pollutants can chemically alter these scent trails or interfere with insects’ ability to detect them, essentially disrupting their sensory landscape.
• In contrast, many pests rely less on long-distance scent cues and more on direct contact or visual cues, making them less vulnerable to air pollution’s effects on airborne chemical signals.
• The study focused on various aspects, including feeding, growth, survival, reproduction, and ability to locate food sources.
• Of all these factors, insects’ ability to find food was most severely impaired by air pollution, declining by about one-third on average.

Detrimental Air Pollutants

• Among air pollutants, ozone emerged as particularly harmful to beneficial insects, reducing their ability to thrive and carry out their roles in the ecosystem by 35%.
• Even low ozone levels below current air quality standards can cause significant damage.
• Nitrogen oxides also substantially impaired beneficial insects.

5. Withdrawal of Accommodation

Sub: Eco

Sec: Monetary Policy

Why in news?

State Bank of India’s economic research department said RBI will revisit its “withdrawal of accommodation” policy stance around September 2024, in line with its expectations.

What does it mean?

• An accommodative stance means the central bank is prepared to expand the money supply to boost economic growth.
• Withdrawal of accommodation means reducing the money supply in the systemwhich will rein in inflation.
• RBI has maintained a withdrawal of accommodation stance since June 2022, to ensure that inflation remains within target, going forward, while supporting growth.
• Correspondingly, repo rate has been kept unchanged at 6.5%.

Change in stance

• RBI has maintained its stance of “to remain focused on withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation progressively aligns to the target, while supporting growth” in June 2024.
• Decline in US inflation, creates ground for Fed rate cut by September 2024. This is expected to make RBI rethink its stance.

Expansionary vs Contractionary Monetary Policy

6. How is India’s hunt for critical minerals going?

Sub: Geo

Sec: Eco Geo

Context:

Why are lithium, copper, cobalt, graphite and others essential for the economy’s green transition? In which States have reserves been found? Why have there been hiccups in the auction process? What lies ahead? Which country dominates global supplies?

More About News:

• The Centre declared the winning bidders for mining rights in six blocks of critical minerals, including graphite, phosphorite and lithium, for which India largely relies on
• Copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt are known as critical minerals, as they along with some rare earth elements, are essential for the world’s ongoing efforts to switch to greener and cleaner energy.
• The International Energy Agency (IEA), lithium demand rose by 30% in 2023, followed by nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements which saw an 8% to 15% growth, with the aggregate value of such minerals pegged at $325 billion.
• By 2040, the demand for copper is expected to rise 50%, double for nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements, quadruple for graphite and eightfold for lithium, which is crucial for
• 95% of India’s copper requirements are met through imports. China is a key supplier or processor of many of these items.

What is being done to spur production?

• India holds 11% of the world’s deposits of ilmenite, the main source of titanium dioxide used in many applications.
• The discovery of Lithium Reserves in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) while the Geological Survey of India (GSI) was exploring the State’s terrain for
• Announced as the first discovery of lithium in the
• Central government amended the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 in August 2023 to enable it to grant mining concessions for 24 critical and strategic minerals.
• By November, the first auctions of 20 critical mineral blocks, with the lithium block identified in J&K’s Reasi district on the list, were launched, followed by two more tranches with 18 more blocks offered this February and March.
• The Mines Ministry on June 24, announced six winners from the maiden auction tranche for three blocks in Odisha, and one each in Tamil Nadu, P. and Chhattisgarh. The Ministry has initiated a fourth tranche, which includes 10 blocks that are being offered for the second time.

Why are some blocks not finding takers?

• Among the first attempt blocks offered in the latest auction, two phosphorite blocks along with a glauconite block are in Chhattisgarh, while two blocks each are up for grabs in P. (phosphorite and rare earth elements), Karnataka (phosphate and nickel), and Rajasthan (potash and halite).
• A graphite block is being auctioned in Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh, with five additional blocks of graphite, tungsten and vanadium offered in the northeastern State for the second time.
• The ‘second attempt’ blocks also include a tungsten reserve in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district, a cobalt and manganese block in Karnataka’s Shimoga, and a chromium and nickel block in Sindhudurg, Maharashtra.

Reasons for Low Interest Among Miners:

• Lack of adequate data on the potential reserves buried within them.
• Technology challenges a
• The lithium block in J&K has clay deposits, and the technology for the mineral’s extraction from clay remains untested globally.

When is domestic production likely to begin?

• “India’s manufacturing is thus likely to remain exposed to potential future supply shocks of these minerals till then,”.
• Apart from spurring exploration and attracting more miners, the Centre is looking to acquire overseas assets from key resource-rich regions as a parallel measure to bolster mineral security.
• The first such mine, for lithium brine, was acquired in Argentina this year by Khanij Bidesh India Limited, a joint venture of NALCO, Hindustan Copper, and Mineral Exploration Company. While it scouts for more assets, India has also joined the S.-led Mineral Security Partnership, a block consisting of large buyers and sellers of critical minerals.

Applications:

• Electric vehicles: cobalt, lanthanum, lithium
• Fuel cells: platinum, palladium, rhodium
• Wind energy technologies: neodymium, dysprosium, terbium
• Aviation sector: titanium
• Photovoltaic solar technologies: cadmium, indium, gallium

7. Nobel laureate supports India’s pursuit for a neutrino lab

Subject: Science and tech

Sec: Space sector

Context:

Nobel laureate Takaaki Kajita opens up about the parallels and contrasts between Japan and India’s quests to further research on enigmatic elementary particles called neutrinos.

More About News:

• About 60 years ago, historic science experiments inside a goldmine in Kolar, Karnataka, would lead to the 1965 discovery of atmospheric neutrinos. This was a collaboration between Indian, Japanese and British scientists.
• Japan continued with experiments on or rather, under their soil, in the underground Kamioka Observatory situated under Mount Ikeno. This was where Masatoshi Koshiba’s team would discover cosmic neutrinos in the late
• Japan established a dedicated neutrino observatory, Super-Kamiokande, which began operation in 1996. In 2002, Koshiba won a Nobel Prize for his contributions.
• A proposal was drawn and in 2011, the Indian government announced its intention to set aside about 1,350 crores for an India-based Neutrino Observatory, which would be situated 1.3 km underground in Tamil Nadu. Over a decade later, there has been no progress.
• Japanese researchers received the first evidence for a phenomenon called neutrino oscillation within a year of the Super-Kamiokande. This discovery would go on to (jointly) win Koshiba’s student Takaaki Kajita, another Nobel in 2015.

Two of the main reasons for opposition to INO:

1. Environmental impacts: The observatory would be located a kilometre underground and hence would have minimal impact on wildlife and the ecosystem.
2. Fear of radioactivity

What about radioactivity?

• The experiment will neither produce any radioactivity nor can it function well where there is radiation.
• The whole point of housing the detector underground is to protect it from the natural radiation that hits the surface of Earth.
• The original experiment was designed to search not for neutrinos but for a hypothetical phenomenon called proton decay.
• The biggest stroke of luck for the Japanese neutrino scientists was the timing of a supernova that was observed in February 1987.
• The Supernova 1987A happened while the Kamiokande-II detector was online, leading to the discovery of cosmic neutrinos by the team led by Koshiba. This had a great impact.
• A neutrino observatory at home is envisioned to give the Indian scientific community, including students of particle physics, the opportunity to work with a world-class detector without needing to travel outside national borders.
• INO dream is worth salvaging.

What is a neutrino?

• Neutrinos are the smallest particles that form the universe.
• Neutrinos which are elementary particles have no charge and almost no mass and therefore do not affect anything they pass through.
• They are naturally produced in the atmosphere of the Earth and are present around us at all times, causing no damage.

About Indian Neutrino Observatory:

• INO Project is a multi-institutional effort aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory with a rock cover of approx. 1200 m for non-accelerator based high energy and nuclear physics research in India.
• The proposed site is spread across Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• It is funded by Dept. of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Dept. of Science and Technology (DST).
• Objectives: INO will observe neutrinos and antineutrinos produced in the atmosphere of the Earth.
  • This observation will tell us more about the properties of neutrino particles, whose main source is the Sun and the Earth’s atmosphere.
• The project includes:
  • Underground laboratory and associated surface facilities at Bodi West Hills.
  • Construction of a magnetized Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector for studying neutrinos. When completed, ICAL will have the world’s largest magnet.
  • Setting up Inter Institutional Centre for High Energy Physics (IICHEP) at Madurai

What’s special about locating the INO in the South?

• A project report says most of the neutrino detectors are at latitudes over 35 deg.
• It is possible to push such a detector down to almost 8 deg latitude in South India, within proximity to the Equator.
• This permits neutrino astronomy searches covering the whole celestial sky and study of solar neutrinos passing through the Earth’s core.

Periyar Tiger Reserve:

• It falls in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta in Kerala (southern region of Western Ghats).
• Declared a Sanctuary during 1950 and Tiger Reserve in 1978.
• It gets its name from the River Periyar which has its origin deep inside the reserve.

Mathikettan Shola National Park:

• Mathikettan Shola National Park is a national park in Poopara village in Idukki district of Kerala.
• Considering the unique nature of the shola forest in Mathikettan and its importance as an elephant strip, the state government has declared it as a National park in 2008.

8. Nipah monoclonal antibody trials may begin in India in 2025

Subject: Science and tech

Sec: Health

Context:

The Indian drug regulator greenlights it, a human clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of a novel Nipah monoclonal antibody MBP1F5, which might offer immediate protection to people at risk of infection against the deadly disease, might begin next year.

More About News:

• A trial will be carried out in Bangladesh as well. Though trials on many vaccines are currently under way, there is no approved vaccine against the Nipah virus anywhere in the world.
• Nipah virus has a 40% to 75% mortality rate in people who are

Outbreaks:

• India and Bangladesh have been chosen for the trial as Nipah virus outbreaks have been reported in these two countries in recent years.
• Nipah outbreaks have occurred in Kerala in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023. In the case of Bangladesh, Nipah outbreaks have been occurring since 2001; the virus has been reported from 34 of 64 districts in Bangladesh with 341 cases detected so far and 242 deaths.
• The novel Nipah monoclonal antibody is currently undergoing a phase-1 clinical trial in the U.S., which is carried out by the S. Department of Defence.
• The trial in India and Bangladesh will begin “upon completion of the U.S. Department of Defence Phase-1 trial in the U.S”. The trial in India is planned to begin in 2025, pending regulatory review.
• The number of participants who will be recruited for the clinical trial will depend on whether the clinical trial begins as a phase-1 or phase-2 trial in India. But the intention is to recruit at least 200 participants.

Study of Nipah Virus:

• Preclinical studies for pre-exposure prophylaxis have been completed in animal models, the monoclonal antibody has demonstrated high potency against the Nipah virus, providing it effective at preventing the virus from entering the host cell.
• The monoclonal antibody is designed to bind to the Nipah virus F protein, preventing the virus from entering a host cell and causing infection in people.
• This mechanism will offer protection against both known strains of Nipah virus (Bangladesh and Malaysia) and its closely related viral cousin, Hendra virus, for at least six months enough time for vaccine immunity to build.

Availability:

• Ensuring pricing commitments for Global South countries, a reserve of monoclonal antibody doses will be stored in a Nipah-affected country, helping to enable rapid availability in the event of an outbreak and accessibility for those most in need.

9. What caused the rare failure of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket

Subject: Science and tech

Sec: Space sector

Context:

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)  grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9 — one of the world’s most active rockets — after the failure of its upper stage engine that stranded 20 Starlink internet satellites in a low, non-survivable orbit. The mishap occurred on the rocket’s 354th mission, and marks the first Falcon 9 failure since 2015

What is Falcon 9?

• Falcon 9 is a partially reusable rocket designed and manufactured by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX. It can transport crew and payloads to low Earth orbit (an altitude of 2000 km or less) and beyond.
• The rocket has two stages. The first stage or booster stage comprises nine Merlin engines (a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX), and aluminium-lithium alloy tanks containing liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene propellant. The second stage consists of a single Merlin engine.
• The first stage, which is reusable, is capable of re-entering the atmosphere, and landing vertically after separating from the second stage.

What went wrong with Falcon 9?

• The issue occurred roughly 30 minutes after the launch of Falcon 9 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
• The rocket’s second stage experienced a liquid oxygen leak, and failed to complete a second, short engine burn needed to put 20 Starlink satellites in the correct orbit.
• “Although the stage survived and still deployed the satellites, it did not successfully circularise its orbit. This left the satellites in an eccentric orbit with a very low perigee of 135 kilometres (84 miles), which is less than half the expected perigee altitude.”
• The mishap occurred on the rocket’s 354th mission, and marks the first Falcon 9 failure since 2015, when the rocket exploded on a launch site in Falcon 9 is considered one of the most successful and reliable rockets ever made.

What happens next?

• The rare failure is expected to impede Falcon 9’s launch pace. In 2023 alone, the rocket made 96 launches, and exceeded the annual launch total in any country.
• The grounding of Falcon 9 is also likely to postpone upcoming missions taking astronauts to orbit. The private Polaris Dawn mission spearheaded by the entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is slated for the end of July.
• The rocket is also scheduled to take four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA in mid-August — Falcon 9 is the only US rocket capable of taking NASA astronauts to ISS.
• The rocket will remain grounded till the time SpaceX investigates the cause of failure, fixes the issue, and gets approval from the FAA.

10. 6 lakh fake pollution-trading certificates unearthed in three States

Sub: Env

Sec: Pollution

Context: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2023 had unearthed more than 6,00,000 fake pollution-trading certificates

What is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) certificates?

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) certificates are used by companies that use plastic packaging. Certificates are generated by registered plastic waste recyclers, who collect plastic waste and recycle them.
• Extended Producers Responsibility is essentially the use of financial incentives to encourage manufacturers to design environmentally friendly products by making producers accountable for their product management during end-stage consumption.
• It differs from product stewardship as it relieves the government from the burden of managing certain products by making manufacturers internalize the cost of recycling within the product price.
• EPR is carried out bearing in mind that brand owners have the greatest control over product design and hence are in a better position to design their products in such a manner that it will reduce harmful effects on the environment as a whole.
• Extended Producers Responsibility is done through, reuse, buyback, or recycling. The producer has also the option of delegating this responsibility to a third-party which can be paid by the producer for used-product management.

• This shifts the responsibility for waste management from the government to private industries, making it easy for producers or sellers to internalise waste management and ensure the safe handling of their products.

More About News:

• . The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2023 had unearthed more than 6,00,000 fake pollution-trading certificates from audits at four plastic-recycling companies in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, public documents show
• Multiple sources from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and from the plastic waste recycling industry confirmed that the potential number of fake certificates could be manifold as these were only four of the 2,348 plastic waste recyclers registered with the
• Between 2022-23, the latest year for which information is available, there were about 18,000 companies that use plastic packaging and were registered with the CPCB, which manages the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, as either producers, importers or ‘brand-owners’.
• The Plastic Waste Management Rules mandate all companies that use plastic packaging to register with the CPCB. These EPR certificates, are used by thousands of companies that use plastic packaging in some form for business operations and are legally obliged to either ensure that a prescribed percentage of the plastic used annually is collected and recycled, or that they buy enough certificates to make good on their targets.
• Every tonne of plastic recycled by them generates a certificate.
• As per a report by the CPCB this May, nearly 7 million tonnes worth of certificates were generated but given that companies have differing obligations, the exact number of certificates they buy from recyclers is not clear.
• While 6,00,000 fake EPRs were bought by packaging companies as part of meeting their obligations, is unclear who bought these certificates as the break-up is not publicly available.
• The details vary, but the basic pattern in how recyclers produced fake certificates is similar. The four recycling companies, Enviro Recyclean Pvt. Ltd (Karnataka), Shakti Plastics Industries (Maharashtra), Technova Recycling India Pvt. Ltd and Asha Recyclean Pvt. Ltd, were hauled up for claiming to have generated many more EPR certificates than the installed capacity of their plants.
• The malpractice came to light after the CPCB conducted physical checks on their premises.
• Certificates generated by recycling companies are considered legitimate only if the recyclers are actually able to sell the recycled plastic.
• Companies were expected to file their compliance targets for 2023-24 by June this year.

Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2022

• The Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2022, introduce guidelines on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)for plastic packaging.
• These guidelines set mandatory targets for EPR, recycling of plastic packaging waste, reuse of rigid plastic packaging, and the use of recycled plastic content.