Daily Prelims Notes 1 August 2021

August 1, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Daily Prelims Notes

1 August 2021

Table Of Contents

1. India will take over the Presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

Subject: International Relations

Context: India will take over the Presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on August 1 and is set to host signature events in three major areas of maritime security, peacekeeping and counterterrorism during the month.

Context:

The Security Council was established by the UN Charter in 1945. It is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.
The other 5 organs of the United Nations are—the General Assembly, the Trusteeship Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat.
Its primary responsibility is to work to maintain international peace and
The council has 15 members: the five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year term
The five permanent members are the United States, the Russian Federation, France, China and the United Kingdom.
Each member of the Security Council has one vote. Decisions of the Security Council on matters are made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the concurring votes of the permanent members.
A “No” vote from one of the five permanent member’s blocks the passage of the resolution.
Any member of the United Nations which is not a member of the Security Council may participate, without vote, in the discussion of any question brought before the Security Council whenever the latter considers that the interests of that member are specially affected.
The council’s presidency is a capacity that rotates every month among its 15 members.
The council is headquartered at New York.

Non-permanent member of the Security Council

The UNSC is composed of 15 members: five permanent members, and 10 non-permanent members who are elected by the General Assembly.
The non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms — so every year, the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members out of the total 10.
These 10 seats are distributed among the regions of the world: five seats for African and Asian countries; one for Eastern European countries; two for Latin American and Caribbean countries; and two for Western European and Other Countries.
India has earlier been a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92 and 2011-12.
Even a country has been endorsed by its group, it still needs to secure the votes of two-thirds of the members present and voting at the General Assembly session— which is a minimum of 129 votes, if all 193 member states participate.

2. The Food and Agriculture Organization warns Hunger Hotspots

Subject: International Relations

Context: Hunger is expected to rise in 23 global hotspots in the next three months with the highest alerts for “catastrophic” situations in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, southern Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria, two U.N agencies warned

Context:

According to a new report of FAO and World food program Hunger Hotspots Hunger is expected to rise in the next 3 months with a catastrophic situation in Ethiopia embattled with Tigray, Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan, and Northern Nigeria

The Food and Agriculture Organization

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security.
Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates to “let there be bread”.
It was founded in 1945. It completed 75 years of service to humanity on 16th Oct 2020.
The FAO is headquartered in Rome, Italy.
Composed of 197 member states, the FAO is governed by a biennial conference representing each member country and the European Union, which elects a 49-member executive council.

Initiatives

World Food Summits are convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The first food summit, the “World Food Conference”, took place in Rome in 1974.
The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) is a 1951 multilateral treaty overseen by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The World Food Programme

The World Food Programme is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations and the world’s largest humanitarian organization focused on hunger and food security.
WFP is headquartered in Rome, Italy. It is governed by an Executive Board, which consists of 36 member states.
It is headed by an Executive Director, who is appointed jointly by the UN Secretary-General and the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The Executive Director is appointed for fixed five-year terms.
The WFP operations are funded by voluntary donations from world governments, corporations and private donors.
WFP food aid is also directed to fight micronutrient deficiencies, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and combat disease, including HIV and AIDS.

Objectives of the World Food Programme:

Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies.
Support food security and nutrition and (re)build livelihoods in fragile settings and following emergencies.
Reduce risk and enable people, communities and countries to meet their own food and nutrition needs.
Reduce under-nutrition and break the inter-generational cycle of hunger.
Zero Hunger in 2030.

3. Light pollution

Subject: Environment

Context: Globally, nights are becoming ever brighter. Increasing urbanisation and the installation of new streetlights, security floodlights and outdoor ornamental lighting all contribute to growing light pollution.

Context:

Dung beetles mechanism of dung pile

They are found across southern Africa, India, collect dung from various animals, fashioning it into a ball. By rolling this ball away from the dung pile they need not share it with other insects
They leave the dung pile as quickly as possible, by using their internal compass to travel in a straight line away from it.
Before rolling the dung away to an area where it can safely dig into the ground, rest and feed, each beetle climbs on top of its ball and performs a brief pirouette termed the orientation ‘dance’. It scans the scene for features it can use to hold its course.
Since it starts each night in unfamiliar territory, the most reliable references are those in the sky that stay stable while the beetle maintains the same heading. On starlit nights, the Milky Way acts as these beetles’ primary reference.
When the beetles relied on artificial lights to navigate, they all rolled towards them — numerous beetles rolling in the same direction. Under natural conditions, they almost always roll in different directions. Rolling towards artificial lights makes them more likely to encounter one another and fights may break out as the beetles try to steal each other’s dung balls.
Artificial light is also more likely to guide beetles into the concrete and asphalt regions of their immediate environment, where they may find themselves unable to dig into the ground and bury their ball.

Effect of Light pollution in dung beetle

The light floods directly into the eyes of animals that are active at night and also into the skies. There a proportion of it is redirected back downwards towards an earthbound observer. This is known as ‘skyglow’, an omnipresent sheet of light across the night sky in and around cities that can block all but the very brightest stars from view.
On a study of ‘sky compass’ of the nocturnal dung beetle, Scarabaeus satyrus, to compare orientation under pristine and light polluted skies.
The study compared the dung-rolling performance of beetles with that of beetles and the findings confirm that beetles exposed to light pollution both directly through the glare of bright artificial lights and indirectly via skyglow that obscures the stars are forced to change strategy. They abandon their sky compass and rely instead on earthbound artificial lights as beacons.

Other species affected by light pollution

Nocturnal ants use landmarks for outbound journeys, but need their sky compass when returning home. Migratory birds have a magnetic compass, with which they check latitude and magnetic North, but use their sky compass to calibrate their magnetic compass to geographic North.
In the worst case, animals that need the stars to find their home or breeding site may never make it. But even with their backup systems, Brighter night skies may cause them to gradually deviate off course, wasting energy and risking predator encounters.

Solutions

The simple solution is to reducing animals’ experience of direct and indirect light pollution: turning off unnecessary lights at night. Where lights cannot be turned off, they can be shielded so that they do not shed light into the surrounding environment and sky.
The International Dark-Skies Association has certified more than 130 ‘International Dark Sky Places’, where artificial lighting has been adjusted to reduce skyglow and light trespass. However, nearly all are in developed countries in the northern hemisphere.
Less-developed regions are often both species-rich and, currently, less light-polluted, presenting an opportunity to invest in lighting solutions before animals there are seriously affected.

4. Herd immunity

Subject: Science and Technology

Context: The fourth sero survey conducted across India found that on an average 67.6% of the population has been infected. Also, over 25% of people have been vaccinated with one dose. It is Erroneous to conclude we have attained herd immunity,’ says Dr. Srinath Reddy

Context:

Herd immunity happens when so many people in a community become immune to an infectious disease that it stops the disease from spreading.

This can happen in two ways:

Many people contract the disease and in time build up an immune response to it (natural immunity).
Many people are vaccinated against the disease to achieve immunity.
When a large percentage of the population becomes immune to a disease, the spread of that disease slows down or stops.
Many viral and bacterial infections spread from person to person. This chain is broken when most people don’t get or transmit the infection.
This helps protect people who aren’t vaccinated or who have low functioning immune systems and may develop an infection more easily.

5. Controller General of Account

Subject: Polity

Context: Shri Deepak Das took charge as the new Controller General of Accounts here today. Shri Deepak Das is the 25^th officer to hold the position of Controller General of Accounts (CGA)

Context:

Controller General of Accounts (CGA), in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, is the Principal Accounting Adviser to Government of India and is responsible for establishing and maintaining a technically sound Management Accounting System.
The Office of CGA prepares monthly and annual analysis of expenditure, revenues, borrowings and various fiscal indicators for the Union Government.
The Annual Appropriation Accounts (Civil) and Union Finance Accounts are submitted to Parliament under Article 150 of the Constitution.
Its statutory mandate {duties and functions} have been defined in the Allocation of Business Rules, 1961, which include:
- Defining general principles of government accounting {both state and union} and framing rules, manuals, forms etc.
- Reconciliation of Cash Balance of Union with RBI
- Overseeing of accounting functions.
- Administration of Central Treasury Rules
- Cadre Management of Group A {Civil servants} and Group B {Central Civil Account Offices} and matters related to accounts related group C and D staff.
- Disbursement of payments of Central Civil Pensioners; Freedom Fighters; High Court Judges; Ex MPs and Ex-Presidents via Public Sector Banks

It is is also responsible for coordination and monitoring the progress of submission of corrective/remedial action taken notes (ATNs) on the recommendations contained in Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) reports as well as the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) reports through its web based Audit Para Monitoring System (APMS).

6. ASI breathes life into 17th century Dutch cemetery

Subject: History

Context: ASI breathes life into 17th century Dutch cemetery. As early as 1656 after the decline of the Portugese, the western bank of the river Hooghly was occupied by the Dutch. For nearly two centuries, a Dutch settlement flourished at Chinsurah and started intra-Asian trade

Context:

Vasco-da-Gama reached the port of Calicut in 1498 during the reign of King Zamorin (Hindu ruler of Calicut).
Dutch East India Company was formed in AD 1602. Dutch were defeated by English at the Battle of Bedara in AD 1759
The English East India Company was formed in 1599 under a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1600. Jahangir granted a farman to Captain William Hawkins permitting the English to erect a factory at Surat (1613).
The Danish East India Company was formed in 1616.The Danish colony ‘Tranquebar’ was established on Southern Coromandel coast of India
The French East India Company was formed by Colbert in 1664. The First French factory was established at Surat by Francois Caron in 1668. It set up a factory at Masulipatnam was set-up in 1669.

Portuguese (1498)English East India Company (1600)Dutch East India Company (1602)Danish East India Company (1616)French East India Company (1664)

7. Vanishing Permafrost

Subject: Geography

Context: About 13% of permafrost, an area on Daisetsu Mountains in Japan, estimated to be approximately 150 sq. kms. in 2010 is likely to disappear by 2100 under business as usual scenario.

Concept:

About the permafrost:

Areas with ground temperatures that remain below zero degrees celsius for more than two years are called permafrost.
It is composed of rock, sediments, sand, dead plant and animal matter, soil, and varying degrees of ice and is believed to have formed during glacial periods dating several millennia.
It is mainly found near the polar zones and regions with high mountains covering parts of Greenland, Alaska, Russia, Northern Canada, Siberia and Scandinavia. These are found in mountains as well as high latitude tundra and taiga regions.
Its thickness reduces progressively towards the south and is affected by a number of other factors, including the Earth’s interior heat, snow and vegetation cover, presence of water bodies, and topography.

Permafrost & Global Warming:

A study has shown that every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature can degrade up to 39 lakh square kilometers due to Permafrost thawing (the ice inside the permafrost melts, leaving behind water and soil).
Permafrost in the Arctic region stores large amounts of methane, which is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
When permafrost is frozen, the organic carbon contained in it can’t decompose, or rot away and as permafrost thaws the microbes in the soil decompose the dead organic matter (plants and animals) to produce methane (CH4) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which in turn will increase the rate of global warming. This will result in a vicious cycle that may result in a climate catastrophe.

8. End to end genome sequencing

Context: On May 27, a preprint titled “The complete sequence of the human genome” was posted in the online repository bioRxiv.

Researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have produced the first end-to-end DNA sequence of a human chromosome.
The effort is part of a broader initiative by the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium, partially funded by NHGRI. The consortium aims to generate a complete reference sequence of the human genome.
The T2T consortium is continuing its efforts with the remaining human chromosomes, aiming to generate a complete human genome sequence in 2020.
They have, in the process, discovered over a hundred new genes that code for proteins. The total size of the genome they have sequenced is close to 3.05 billion base pairs.
In this study, researchers did not sequence the X chromosome from a normal human cell. Instead, they used a special cell type — one that has two identical X chromosomes. Such a cell provides more DNA for sequencing than a male cell, which has only a single copy of an X chromosome. It also avoids sequence differences encountered when analyzing two X chromosomes of a typical female cell.

Significance:

The Human genome project announced in 1990 announced a complete human genome but about 15% of it was incomplete. Due to limitations of technology scientists were not able to piece together some of the repetitive parts of the human genome.
This study adds 200 million base pairs to the last draft of the human genome that was published in 2013. The results come with the caveat that about 0.3% may still have errors, and that among the sex chromosomes, only the X chromosome has been sequenced.

Concept:

What is special about protein-coding genes?

There are long stretches that do not seem to have a particular function. On the other hand, protein-coding sequences or protein-coding genes are DNA sequences that get transcribed on ribonucleic acid (RNA) as an intermediate step.
These in turn make the proteins responsible for various functions such as keeping the body healthy or determining the colour of the eye — proteins carry out the instructions encoded in the genes.

Genome Sequencing:

Genome Sequencing means deciphering the exact order of base pairs in an individual.

In this particular piece of DNA, an adenine (A) is followed by a guanine (G), which is followed by a thymine (T), which in turn is followed by a cytosine (C), another cytosine (C), and so on.

Whole/End to end Genome Sequencing:

Whole-genome sequencing involves breaking the genome up into small pieces, sequencing the pieces, & reassembling the pieces into the full genome sequence.
To know which genes of a person’s DNA are “mutated” the whole genome sequencing is required.
Whole genome sequencing is the process of determining the complete DNA sequence of an organism’s genome at a single time.
Because a human genome is incredibly long, consisting of about 6 billion bases, DNA sequencing machines cannot read all the bases at once. Instead, researchers chop the genome into smaller pieces, then analyze each piece to yield sequences of a few hundred bases at a time. Those shorter DNA sequences must then be put back together.

Advantages of End to end Genome Sequencing:

The ability to generate truly complete sequences of chromosomes and genomes is a technical feat that will help us gain a comprehensive understanding of genome function and inform the use of genomic information in medical care.

9. Reverse gear in some bacteria that can be mimicked for bio imaging

Subject: Science and Technology

Context:

Some microorganisms exhibit a unique kind of reversing motion that can be mimicked for drug delivery, bio-imaging.

Indian scientists have found a theoretical model explaining a unique kind of motion, called direction reversing active motion, exhibited by some bacteria that feed on other microorganisms.
This analysis can help in building more efficient artificial micro- and nano-motors used in drug delivery and bio-imaging using the concept to incorporate a reverse gear.
Normally Bacteria move by propelling themselves with a velocity that changes direction randomly, which is called active motion.
Besides bacteria, this kind of motion is found in living systems ranging from cells at the microscopic scale to the flocking of birds and fish schools at the macroscopic scale.
It is also seen in artificial systems, including granular matter, self-catalytic swimmers, and nano-motors.
Some microorganisms, such as predator bacteria Myxococcus Xanthus and saprotrophic bacteria Pseudomonas putida, exhibit a unique kind of reversing active motion, whereby, in addition to a diffusive change of direction, the motion also completely reverses its direction intermittently. However, very little has been understood theoretically about the statistical properties of such motion.

Bioimaging:

Bioimaging relates to methods that non-invasively visualize biological processes in real-time.
Bioimaging aims to interfere as little as possible with life processes and it is often used to gain information on the 3-D structure of the observed specimen from the outside, i.e., without physical interference.

10. Dholavira

Context: Recently, UNESCO has announced the Harappan city of Dholavira in Gujarat as India’s 40^th world heritage site.

It is the first site of Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) in India to be included on the UNESCO list.

Concept:

About Dholavira:

It was discovered in 1968 by archaeologist Jagat Pati Joshi.
It is one of the most remarkable and well-preserved urban settlements in South Asia.
The ancient city of Dholavira is an archaeological site at Kachchh District, in the state of Gujarat, which dates from the 3^rd to mid-2^nd millennium BCE. It is located on Khadir bet island in the Kachchh Desert Wildlife Sanctuaryin the Great Rann of Kachchh.
Dholavira’s location is on the Tropic of Cancer.
Unlike other Harappan antecedent towns normally located near to rivers and perennial sources of water, the location of Dholavira in the island of Khadir bet. This facilitated internal as well as external trade to the Magan (modern Oman peninsula) and Mesopotamian regions.
After Mohen-jo-Daro, Harappa,Rakhigarhi, Ganweriwala, Dholavira is the fifth largest metropolis of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC).
The site has a walled city, a castle, a ceremonial ground (cemetery), two seasonal streams and houses of different categories indicating a social hierarchy.
The three stage settlement in Dholavira ( citadel- middle town & lower town) was designed for different categories of residents and purposes. There was a castle for an important person, while the middle town housed rich merchants and generals and the lower town was for the common people.
A series of reservoirs are found to the east and south of the Citadel.
Dholavira consists of an efficient water management system with a cascading system of reservoirs.

Archeological Findings:

Artifacts that were found here include terracotta pottery, beads, gold and copper ornaments, seals, fish hooks, animal figurines, tools, urns, and some imported vessels.
Remains of a copper smelter indicate Harappans, who lived in Dholavira, knew metallurgy.
It was also a hub of manufacturing jewellery made of shells and semi-precious stones, like agate and used to export timber.
Unlike graves at other IVC sites, no mortal remains of humans have been discovered at Dholavira.
Nine gates with unique designs including a north gate that had a signboard, a first of its kind found at Harappan site.
Funerary architecture featuring tumulus — hemispherical structures like the Buddhist Stupas.

Decline of Dholavira:

Dholavira entered a phase of severe aridity due to climate change and rivers like Saraswati drying up. Due to a drought-like situation, people started migrating towards the Ganges valley or towards south Gujarat and further beyond in Maharashtra.

11. Stellar mid-life crisis

Subject: Science and Technology

Context: IISER scientist’s study peeks into Sun’s ‘stellar midlife crisis’ The Sun and other stars constantly spew electrically-charged particles also called the stellar wind. This steady drain causes stars to slow down their rotation over billions of years.

Calcutta scientists have proposed an explanation for a mysterious phenomenon called the stellar midlife crisis under which the Sun and many other stars display abrupt, dramatic declines in their output of high energy particles and radiation.
At about 4.6 billion years of age, the sun is middle aged, that is, it will continue to live for roughly the same period. There are accurate methods for estimating the age of the Sun, such as by using radioactive dating of very old meteorites that have fallen on the Earth.
However, for more distant stars which are similar in mass and age to the Sun, such methods are not possible. One of the methods used is called ‘stellar gyrochronology’. There is a relationship between rotation rate and age, that is the rotation rate of a star slows down with age.
Recent observations, however, indicate that this intimate relationship breaks down around middle age because after midlife, a star’s rate of spin does not slow down with age as fast as it was slowing down earlier.
This allows stars to exist in two distinct activity states – low activity mode and active mode. A middle-aged star like the sun can often switch to low activity mode resulting in drastically reduced angular momentum losses by magnetised stellar winds.