Daily Prelims Notes 10 April 2023
- April 10, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
10 April 2023
Table Of Contents
- Tiger Census 2022
- Theppakkadu elephant camp
- Endometriosis
- Livestock Insurance Scheme
- Language Friendship Bridge
- International Prize Of Statistics
- Existing vaccines versus new variants
- SC to hear identification of minorities at state level
- Comstock Act 1873
Subject: Environment
Section: Species in news
Context: Tiger Census 2022: India’s tiger population increased by 200 in last four years. The tiger population numbers were made public by Prime Minister at an event to mark the International Big Cat Alliance conference as well as the 50th anniversary of Project Tiger
Census Findings:
- The tiger population in India grew by 200 from 2018 to 2022, according to the fifth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation (2022).
- The number of tigers in India was 3,167 in 2022, up from 2,967 in 2018, the report showed.
- The growth, however, slowed to 6.7 per cent in these four years from around 33 per cent during 2014-2018, analysis of the latest data showed.
- The tiger population has grown the most in the Shivalik hills and Gangetic flood plains, followed by central India, the north eastern hills, the Brahmaputra flood plains, and the Sundarbans. There was a decline in the Western Ghats numbers, though “major populations” were said to be stable.
- Decline in tiger occupancy was also observed outside the protected areas of Anamalai-Parambikulam complex. Although the tiger populations in the Periyar landscape remained stable, the tiger occupancy has declined outside Periyar.
- Tiger occupancy in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana showed a decline.
- The genetically unique and small population of tigers in Simlipal is of high conservation priority in the landscape.
- The northeastern hill tiger populations are genetically unique and should be the top priority of conservation action in the country due to their low population size and genetically unique lineage
- With tigers increasing outside Tiger Reserves in the landscape (Shivalik hills and Gangetic plains), Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh need to invest in mitigating conflict with tigers and mega herbivore.
- The wildlife habitats (Protected Areas and corridors) within this region (Central Indian highlands and Eastern Ghats) face a range of threats, including habitat encroachment, illegal hunting of both tigers and their prey, conflicts between humans and wildlife, unregulated and illicit cattle grazing, excessive harvesting of non-timber forest produce, human induced forest fires, mining, and ever-expanding linear infrastructure. This region is also having several mines of important minerals, hence mitigation measures like lower mining impact techniques and rehabilitation of mining sites should be done on priority.
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 imagescaptured on camera-traps.
- Double sampling method was introduced in 2006 after the “pugmark” surveyswere 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.
Subject: Environment
Section: Places in news
Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, Theppakadu Elephant camp is the oldest elephant camp in Asia. This elephant camp was established 100 years before. This elephant camp having 28 elephants including 2 calves at present. In this elephant camp elephants are mainly used in Human- Wild animal conflicts, Forest Mansoon patrolling, eco-tourism, elephant conservation, Education etc.
The Elephant camp is located on the bank of the river Moyar, opposite to the Reception center.
Subject : Science and technology
Section: Health
Concept :
Endometriosis
- Endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. It can cause severe pain in the pelvis and make it harder to get pregnant.
- Endometriosis can start at a person’s first menstrual period and last until menopause.
- With endometriosis, tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. This leads to inflammation and scar tissue forming in the pelvic region and (rarely) elsewhere in the body.
- The cause of endometriosis is unknown.
- There is no known way to prevent endometriosis. There is no cure, but its symptoms can be treated with medicines or, in some cases, surgery.
- Endometriosis affects roughly 10% (190 million) of reproductive age women and girls globally.
- It is a chronic disease associated with severe, life-impacting pain during periods, sexual intercourse, bowel movements and/or urination, chronic pelvic pain, abdominal bloating, nausea, fatigue, and sometimes depression, anxiety, and infertility.
Diagnosis Delay
- A careful history of menstrual symptoms and chronic pelvic pain provides the basis for suspecting endometriosis.
- Although several screening tools and tests have been proposed and tested, none are currently validated to accurately identify or predict individuals or populations that are most likely to have the disease.
- Endometriosis can often present symptoms that mimic other conditions and contribute to a diagnostic delay.
- Ovarian endometrioma, adhesions and deep nodular forms of disease often require ultrasonography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect.
- Histologic verification, usually following surgical/laparoscopic visualization, can be useful in confirming diagnosis, particularly for the most common superficial lesions.
- The need for histologic/laparoscopic confirmation should not prevent the commencement of empirical medical treatment.
Subject :Schemes
Concept :
- According to information by a Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) regarding zero insurance coverage of livestock in 2022-23, the Centre is considering a comprehensive livestock insurance scheme modelling the Prime Minister’s Fasal Bima Yojana.
Findings of the Parliamentary panel:
- At present, less than 1% of the country’s cattle population is insured and the average yearly premium is 4.5% of the insured amount.
- The report also highlighted that not even a single livestock was insured during 2022-23, whereas during 2021-22, 1, 74,061 animals were insured.
- The Committee asked Department of Animal Husbandry to explore the possibility of developing an App-based Livestock Insurance facility for livestock owners.
- Committee noted that high policy premium rates and general economic conditions of farmers are reasons for lower enrolment in such schemes.
About Livestock Insurance scheme:
- The Livestock Insurance Scheme, a centrally sponsored scheme was implemented on a pilot basis during 2005-06 and 2006-07.
- The scheme was later implemented on a regular basis from 2008-09 in 100 newly selected districts of the country.
- The scheme was later subsumed under the Sub-mission on ‘Innovation and Extension: on livestock development of National Livestock Mission’.
- Coverage: The scheme is implemented in all the districts of the Country from 21.05.2014.
- Animals covered:
- The indigenous/crossbred milch animals, pack animals (Horses, Donkey, Mules, Camels, Ponies and Cattle/Buffalo Males), and Other Livestock (Goat, Sheep, Pigs, Rabbit, Yak and Mithun etc.) are covered under the purview of this component.
Livestock Related Facts
India has rich Livestock resources which can be seen in the following manner:
- World’s highest livestock owner at about 535.78 million
- First in the total buffalo population in the world – 109.85 million buffaloes
- Second in the population of goats – 148.88 million goats
- Second largest poultry market in the world
- The second largest producer of fish and also the second largest aquaculture nation in the world
- Third in the population of sheep (74.26 million)
- Fifth in the population of ducks and chickens (851.81 million)
- Tenth in camel population in the world – 2.5 lakhs
Other Livestock related initiatives
- Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM): To undertake a breed improvement programme for indigenous breeds so as to improve the genetic makeup and increase the stock.
- E-PashuHaat Portal: This portal connects breeders and farmers regarding the availability of quality bovine germplasm.
- National Animal Disease Control Programme: It has been launched for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis with a total outlay of Rs.13,343 crores to ensure 100% vaccination of cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pig population.
- National Livestock Mission: IT is for the intensive development of livestock, tiny livestock along with adequate availability of quality feed and fodder.
- LivestockHealth& Disease Control Scheme: Assistance is provided for the prevention and control of animal diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) etc.
- Disease Protection of Livestock: For livestock protection, the diagnostic kits against Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Bluetongue (BT) diseases and Subviral Particle-based Infectious Bursal Disease Vaccine were developed.
Subject : International Relations
Section: Msc
Concept :
About the Project
- The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has envisaged a special project called ‘The Language Friendship Bridge’, which plans to train five to 10 people in the official languages of Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Indonesia.
- Aim :
- To expand its cultural footprint in nations with which it has historical ties.
- To facilitate better people-to-people exchanges.
- Languages :
- As of now, the ICCR has zeroed in on 10 languages: Kazakh, Uzbek, Bhutanese, Ghoti (spoken in Tibet), Burmese, Khmer (spoken in Cambodia), Thai, Sinhalese and Bahasa (spoken in both Indonesia and Malaysia).
- Experts also feel that the ICCR’s list of languages needs to be expanded, with India seeing a boom in cultural and economic ties with other neighbouring countries as well.
How will it be done?
- There are two possibilities.
- One is to start tie-ups wherein teachers from these countries come and teach courses in India.
- The second approach is the ICCR offering scholarships to Indian students to go and study these languages in the countries where they are spoken.
- Language experts feel that the second option is the better one as a proper cultural environment is needed to learn a language in its entirety.
About ICCR
- The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), is an autonomous organisationof the Government of India, involved in India’s global cultural relations, through cultural exchange with other countries and their people.
- It was founded on 9 April 1950 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, thefirst Education Minister of independent India.
- The ICCR Headquarter is situated at Azad Bhavan, New Delhi, with regional offices.
- The council also operates missions internationally.
Activities
- The Council addresses its mandate of cultural diplomacy through a broad range of activities.
- In addition to organising cultural festivals in India and overseas, the ICCR financially supports a number of cultural institutions across India, and sponsors individual performers in dance, music, photography, theatre, and the visual arts.
- It also administers the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, established by the Government of India in 1965, whose last award was in 2009.
6. International Prize Of Statistics
Subject : International relations
Section :Awards
Concept :
- Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, an Indian-American statistician, has been awarded the 2023 International Prize in Statistics, the statistical equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Contributions of Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao
- In 1945, Professor Rao’s article, “Information and Accuracy Attainable in the Estimation of Statistical Parameters,” was published. It encouraged the rapid growth of contemporary statistics and their use in research.
- In 1948, one of Professor Rao’s publications proposed a revolutionary general technique for evaluating hypotheses, which became known as the “Rao score test.” This and two other tests devised by Jerzy Neyman, E.S. Pearson, and Abraham Wald are commonly referred to as the “holy trinity” of statistics.
- Professor Rao’s work has influenced statistics, economics, genetics, anthropology, geology, national planning, demography, biometry, and medicine.
International Prize in Statistics
- It is awarded to an individual or group once every two years “for significant breakthroughs utilising statistics to improve science, technology, and human welfare.”
- The prize is modelled after the Nobel Prize, Abel Prize, Fields Medal, and Turing Award, and it carries an $80,000 monetary award.
- The International Prize in Statistics and the COPSS Presidents’ Award are the two top honours in statistics.
7. Existing vaccines versus new variants
Subject : Science and technology
Section: Biotechnology
Concept :
- As COVID19 cases began rising yet again in India in March, many wondered whether the existing vaccines, based on the SARSCoV2 virus that was first reported in China, would still be effective against newer versions of the same virus.
Two pronged response
- Vaccines generate a two pronged immune response. The first is the production of antibodies by B cells, a type of white blood cells.
- Antibodies directly attack and destroy viruses. The second is the Tcell response. T cells are another type of white blood cells.
- They have many roles, of which one is to patrol the body and destroy virus infected cells. Both these arms also give rise to specialised memory cells, which are stored away for future needs.
- These two commodities are ‘freshly made’ by our body following an encounter with the antigen, introduced during vaccination.
- Soon after vaccination, our antibody levels go up. This provides an early window of protection from infection.
- However, the levels of ‘freshly made’ antibodies start dropping within three months or so, and eventually plateau to a low baseline. This low level is not enough to prevent infection later.
Why do the levels drop?
- It is natural for the body to scale down the production of antibodies after the immediate threat has passed.
- If this immune contraction did not occur, our blood would be as thick as grease from all the antibodies produced against every pathogen we have encountered in our lives.
- The gradual drop in the level of antibodies is one reason why people sometimes pick up infections despite vaccination —this can occur even after receivingmultiple booster doses.
- The other reason is that the virus has altered itself, and some of the older antibodies are not able to lock on to the new targets.
Role of T cells in prolonged Immunity
- Like B cells, which produce antibodies, T cells are central players in the immune response to viral infection.
- For your immune system to fight off any kind of invader, such as a virus, you need a kind of white blood cell called a B cell, which makes antibodies, and a similar-looking white blood cell called a T cell.
- T cells can play different roles altogether.
- They can act as “killer cells”, attacking cells which have been infected with a virus or another kind of pathogen, or they can act as “helper cells” by supporting B cells to produce antibodies.
How do they function?
- Alongside antibodies, the immune system produces a battalion of T cells that can target viruses.
- Some of these, known as killer T cells (or CD8+ T cells), seek out and destroy cells that are infected with the virus.
- Others, called helper T cells (or CD4+ T cells) are important for various immune functions, including stimulating the production of antibodies and killer T cells.
- T cells do not prevent infection, because they kick into action only after a virus has infiltrated the body. But they are important for clearing an infection that has already started.
- In the case of COVID-19, killer T cells could mean the difference between a mild infection and a severe one that requires hospital treatment.
What did the latest research find?
- The researchers found that neutralising antibodies were detectable even 12 months after infection in “most individuals”.
- It remained stable 6-12 months after initial infection in people younger than 60 years.
- The researchers found that “multifunctional T cell responses were detected for all SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins tested”.
- And most importantly, the magnitude of T cell responses did not show any difference immaterial of how severe the disease was.
- While the ability of antibodies to neutralise was nearly absent against the Beta variant, it was reduced in the case of the Delta variant.
Neutralizing antibodies
- SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralising antibody and T cell responses were retained 12 months after initial infection.
- Neutralising antibodies to the D614G, Beta, and Delta were reduced compared with those for the original strain, and were diminished in general.
- Memory T cell responses to the original strain were not disrupted by new variants.
- The findings show that robust antibody and T cell immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is present in majority of recovered patients 12 months after moderate-to-critical infection.
Robustness of antibodies
- The study reveals the durability and robustness of the T cell responses against variants, including Delta, even after one year of infection.
- Most importantly, the robust and longstanding T cell responses were seen in people who have not been reinfected or vaccinated.
- This would mean even in the absence of vaccination, a person who has been infected by the virus even one year ago would have robust immune responses.
- It would offer protection against disease progressing to a severe form requiring hospitalization.
8. SC to hear identification of minorities at state level
Subject : Polity
Section: Constitution
Concept :
- The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a batch of pleas seeking the identification of minorities at the state level.
- A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ahsanuddin Amanullah will take up for hearing the petitions raising various issues related to the identifiation of minorities, including challenging the constitutional validity of the National Minority Commission Act, 1992 and the National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutes Act, 2004.
- The pleas include the one filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay who has sought directions for framing guidelines for the identification of minorities at the state level, contending that Hindus are in minority in 10 states.
How is a community notified as a minority?
- Under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992 central government has the power to notify a community as a minority
Notified Minorities in India
- Currently, only those communities notified under section 2(c) of the NCM Act, 1992, by the central government are regarded as minority.
- In 1993, the first Statutory National Commission was set up and five religious communities viz. The Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) were notified as minority communities.
- In 2014, Jains were also notified as a minority community.
Constitutional Provisions for Minorities
Article 29
- It provides that any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script or culture of its own, shall have the right to conserve the same.
- It grants protection to both religious minorities as well as linguistic minorities
Article 30:
- All minorities shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
- The protection under Article 30 is confined only to minorities (religious or linguistic) and does not extend to any section of citizens (as under Article 29).
Article 350-B:
- The 7th Constitutional (Amendment) Act 1956 inserted this article which provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President of India.
- It would be the duty of the Special Officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under the Constitution.
Judgements related to determination on minority status
- TMA Pai Case:
- The SC had said that for the purposes of Article 30 that deals with the rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions, religious and linguistic minorities have to be considered state-wise.
- Bal Patil Case:
- In 2005, the SC in its judgement in ‘Bal Patil’ referred to the TMA Pai ruling.
- The legal position clarifies that henceforth the unit for determining status of both linguistic and religious minorities would be ‘state’.
Subject : International Relations
Section: Msc
Concept :
- A 19th century “anti-vice” law is at the center of a new court ruling that threatens access to the leading abortion drug in the U.S.
- Dormant for a half-century, the Comstock Act has been revived by anti-abortion groups and conservative states seeking to block the mailing of mifepristone, the pill used in more than half of U.S. abortions.
Comstock Act
- Originally passed in 1873 and named for an anti-vice crusader, the Comstock Act was intended to prohibit the mailing of contraceptives, “lewd” writings and any “instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing” that could be used in an abortion.
- The law’s scope has been repeatedly narrowed by federal courts and Congress, which eliminated the reference to contraceptives in the 1970s. And the federal government hasn’t enforced the law since the 1930s, according to legal experts.
Current Issue over the law
- The law was essentially dormant in the 50 years after Roe v. Wade established a federal right to abortion. And until the FDA loosened its requirements on mifepristone in 2021, there was no real way to enable abortion through the mail.
- But Rachel Rebouché of Temple University’s law school says anti-abortion groups — emboldened by the Supreme Court decision overturning of Roe — have seized on Comstock to try and shut off the flow of abortion drugs.
Medical Abortion
- Medication abortion is a regimen of pills women can take at home, a method increasingly used around the world.
- Mifepristone, blocks a hormone called progesterone that is necessary for a pregnancy to continue.
- Misoprostol, brings on uterine contractions.
- Mifepristone, used along with misoprostol, is the most commonly used method of abortion in the US