Daily Prelims Notes 15 April 2024

April 15, 2024
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

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Daily Prelims Notes

15 April 2024

Table Of Contents

1. Fertility levels drop below one in many Asian nations

Subject: Geography

Section: Human geography

Context:

East and Southeast Asian countries are experiencing declining birth rates and record-low fertility rates, causing some hospitals in China to cease newborn delivery services.

Details:

Between 1950 and 1970, the fertility rates in these regions ranged from 3.5 to 7.5 children per woman.
Notably, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have fertility rates lower than one child per woman, indicating that many women are having one child or none at all.
Chart 1 details the fertility rates over time in China, Japan, and four other countries, showing a significant decline compared to other countries with low fertility like Ukraine, Finland, Italy, and Spain.
Policy Impact:
- The sharp decline in China’s fertility rate, for instance, is largely attributed to strict family planning policies. Similar policies in South Korea and Singapore also significantly influenced birth rates.
Factors Contributing to Low Fertility:
- Increased career opportunities for women, higher costs of child-rearing, and the economic impact of maternity on careers have all contributed to declining birth rates.
Aging Population:
- In Japan, a third of the population was over 65 by 2023. South Korea and Hong Kong are projected to reach similar demographics by the early 2030s, showing a rapid ageing trend.
Government Responses:
- Governments have introduced costly programs to encourage childbirth.
- South Korea alone has spent $211 billion since 2006, yet the fertility rates have not improved significantly.
Mass Social Initiatives: In an attempt to address the falling birth rates, cities like Seongnam in South Korea have organized mass blind dates.

India’s scenario:

Current TFR and Sex Ratio:

TFR Decline: India’s TFR has decreased from 2.2 in 2015-16 to 2.0 at the national level, with variations observed between urban (1.6) and rural areas (2.1).
Sex Ratio: NFHS-5 reports a sex ratio of 1,020 women per 1,000 men, a notable deviation from previous surveys.
TFR Target: Replacement level fertility, set at 2.1, ensures each generation replaces itself. An additional 0.1 child per woman accounts for infant mortality.

Implications of TFR in India:

Population Stability: A TFR of 2.0 indicates stable long-term population trends, with two parents replaced by two children.
Future Growth: India may not experience population decline for 30-40 years due to a substantial youth population.

Reasons for Fertility Decline:

Education: Higher female education levels contribute to fertility decline.
Economic Factors: Increased mobility, late marriages, and financial independence influence family planning decisions.
Family Planning Programs: Enhanced access to family planning methods and higher contraceptive prevalence rates play a role.

Source: TH

2. What is Doxxing and what can you do if it happens to you?

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Awareness in IT

Context:

A woman in Mumbai reported harassment after a man shared a video of her dancing at an event on social media, likening her performance to sex work without her consent. Despite requests to remove the video, the man refused, and the video was widely shared, leading to further harassment.
The video was eventually taken down by the platform (X) on copyright grounds, but the man, a verified user, defended his actions.

What is Doxxing?

Doxxing involves publicly releasing someone’s private information without consent. This can include sensitive personal details like home addresses, phone numbers, and even medical records, often sourced through illicit means like hacking.
Doxxing is a direct attack on a person’s physical, digital, and emotional security.
Legal and Social Implications:
- Sharing private or semi-private content without consent can also be considered a form of doxxing, leading to legal and emotional distress for the victim.
- This can compel victims to alter their lives drastically, impacting their physical, digital, and emotional security.
Suggestions:
- keeping an incident log, reporting the abuse to all relevant platforms, changing passwords, and enabling two-factor authentication.
- Victims in India can report incidents through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and file an FIR.
- Victims are advised to secure their Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and ensure account security before returning to social media.

Platform Policies and Tools:

Platforms like Meta, Google, X, and Reddit have mechanisms to address doxxing, with some providing specific tools for removing personal information and reporting abuse.
Legal Framework and Policy Changes:
- Recent updates, such as Discord’s new guidelines, separate doxxing from harassment to clarify policy enforcement.
- Under India’s IT Rules, platforms are obligated to act swiftly on cybercrime complaints.

Security practices to follow when posting on social media:

Use Strong Passwords: Create unique, strong passwords for each social media account and enable multi-factor authentication to enhance security.
Be Cautious with Photos: Avoid posting images that could reveal your location, such as those showing your neighbourhood, house facade, local landmarks, or places you frequently visit.
Workplace Privacy: Refrain from sharing photos of your workplace, ID badges, or other sensitive company information that could identify your exact location or role.
Limit Location Details: Be mindful of sharing videos or images, like apartment tours or vlogs, that could inadvertently disclose your daily routines or commuting paths.
Protect Conversations: Avoid posting screenshots of private text conversations to prevent accidentally exposing personal phone numbers or private information.
Consider Content Impact: Think carefully about the potential consequences of posting controversial or provocative content, as it could attract unwanted attention or go viral beyond your intended audience.
Avoid Sharing Others’ Information: Be cautious not to share media or information that could lead to doxxing others, as this could result in legal repercussions.

Source: TH

3. As war looms over West Asia, many of its major water bodies are already on the brink

Subject: IR

Section: Places in news

Context:

Tensions have escalated sharply in West Asia, highlighted by Iran’s missile attack on Israel on the night of April 13-14, 2024.

Details:

The region also faces an acute water crisis. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), holding only 1% of the world’s renewable freshwater but 5% of its population, is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions globally.
This scarcity is aggravated by rising temperatures and ongoing desertification, impacting security and stability.

Cradle of civilization no more:

West Asia, once the cradle of ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia, is now facing severe water crises due to anthropogenic activities and historical conflicts.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, essential to historical civilizations such as Assyria, Akkad, Sumer, and Babylon, are threatened by upstream dam constructions by Iraq’s neighbours, Turkey and Iran.
Additionally, environmental damage from past policies, such as the drainage of southern Iraq’s marshes under Saddam Hussein, exacerbates the situation.
Similarly, the Jordan River basin, crucial for Jordan, Syria, and Israel, faces challenges despite existing treaties for water sharing. These treaties overlook Palestinian interests and fail to address the diminishing Dead Sea, underscoring the broader water crises in the region.

Iranian Plateau:

Iran faces severe internal challenges from a burgeoning water crisis, leading to significant protests and instability.
The Zayandeh Rud protests in 2021 were sparked by the drying up of the river due to diversion and mismanagement, affecting the city of Isfahan and its surrounding areas.
- The Zayandeh River, which ends in Lake Gavkhouni near the fabled city of Isfahan, began to dry up in the early 2000s
Additionally, tensions over water resources extend beyond domestic issues, involving cross-border disputes with Afghanistan over the Helmand River, which have escalated to violent confrontations.
The strategic location of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf further complicates regional dynamics, as they are crucial choke points in global supply chains.

Water bodies	Description
Tigris River	The Tigris is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Taurus in Turkey, then through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, emptying into the Persian Gulf. Major cities on the river basin: Elazığ (Turkey), Diyarbakır (Turkey), Mosul (Iraq), Baghdad (Iraq).
Euphrates River	The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Originating in Turkey, the Euphrates flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab in Iraq, which empties into the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates is the fifteenth-longest river in Asia and the longest in Western Asia, at about 2,780 km (1,730 mi), with a drainage area of 440,000 km2 (170,000 sq mi) that covers six countries.
Jordan River	The Jordan River, also known as Nahr Al-Sharieat is a 251-kilometre-long (156 mi) river in the Middle East that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and onto the Dead Sea. Jordan and the Golan Heights border the river to the east, while Israel and the occupied West Bank lie to the west. Both Jordan and the West Bank derive their names in relation to the river. The river holds major significance in Judaism and Christianity. According to the Bible, the Israelites crossed it into the Promised Land and Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John the Baptist in it.
Helmand River	The Helmand River is the longest river in Afghanistan and the primary watershed for the endorheic Sistan Basin. It originates in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush mountains in the northeastern part of Maidan Wardak Province, where it is separated from the watershed of the Kabul River by the Unai Pass. The Helmand feeds into the Hamun Lake on the border between Afghanistan and Iran.
Zayandeh River	The Zayandeh River originates in the Zagros mountains, and travels around 300 km, before terminating in Gavkhouni. It is the largest river of the Iranian Plateau in central Iran.
Lake Gavkhouni	Gavkhouni or Batlaq-e-Gavkhuni, located in the Iranian Plateau in central Iran, east of the city of Isfahan, is the terminal basin of the Zayandeh River. Gavkhouni is a salt marsh with a salinity of 31.5% and an average depth of about 1 m. The marshes were designated a Ramsar site in 1975, the 19th wetland in Iran designated as a Wetland of International Importance on the Ramsar list. The wetland is home to a variety of migratory birds including flamingos, ducks, geese, gulls, pelicans, and grebes. The vegetation of the area is very specialised; there are no green plants and trees around the lake due to soil salinity, but in the wetland, different species such as reeds, cattail, Schoenoplectus, pondweeds and various algae grow.
Lake Hāmūn	Lake Hāmūn or the Hamoun Oasis, is a seasonal lake and wetlands in the endorheic Sīstān Basin in the Sistan region on the Afghanistan–Iran border. In Iran, it is also known as Hāmūn-e Helmand, Hāmūn-e Hīrmand, or Daryācheh-ye Sīstān. The Hamun is fed by numerous seasonal water tributaries; the main tributary is the perennial Helmand River, which originates in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan.
Dead Sea	The Dead Sea, also known by other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel to the west. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.

Source: DTE

4. Brightening up to fight climate change

Subject: Geography

Section: Climatology

Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) Program:

The Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) program at the University of Washington explores an innovative geoengineering strategy to combat global warming by enhancing the reflectivity of marine clouds.
Method:
- This method involves spraying tiny particles of sea salt into the clouds to increase their density and ability to reflect sunlight.
While this approach builds on older concepts like cloud seeding and aerosol-based sunlight reflection, MCB’s use of sea salt is distinct.
However, the effectiveness of this technique, including the extent of brightness and potential climate cooling, remains uncertain.

Challenges and Risks Associated with Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB):

Technical Feasibility: MCB requires large-scale spraying of seawater into high altitudes, posing challenges in the design, cost, maintenance, and operation of the necessary equipment.
Environmental Impacts: Potential alterations in cloud patterns and precipitation could disrupt regional climates and water cycles, possibly causing adverse effects such as droughts or floods.
Ethical Issues: There are ethical concerns about human intervention in natural systems and the appropriate governance and decision-making processes for implementing such technologies.
Moral Hazard: There is a risk that MCB could foster complacency among policymakers and the public, possibly detracting from efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pursue necessary adaptations to climate change.

Source: TH BL

5. Decoding genomics for public health

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Biotech

Context:

Genomics is significantly enhancing our understanding of health and disease genetics, impacting all stages of disease management including aetiology, risk assessment, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Details:

Genomics has improved the diagnosis rate for rare diseases to 25-35% for previously undiagnosed cases, with technologies like exome sequencing reducing diagnosis time and associated costs.
Preventive Screening: Technologies like carrier screening and Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT) are becoming more accepted for assessing risks of genetic conditions such as anaemia, cystic fibrosis, Fragile X syndrome, and Down syndrome, particularly in contexts like In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
The GenomeAsia 100K project, launched by the Government of India, aims to create a reference genomic database for India’s diverse population, addressing the underrepresentation of Asian populations in global genomic databases.
Application of Genomic Data:
- Studies utilizing the GenomeAsia database are already underway, including research on coronary artery disease that uses polygenic risk scores to assess CAD risk in the Indian population.
Public Health Initiatives:
- India’s UMMID (Unique Methods of Management and Treatment of Inherited Disorders) initiative promotes genetic screening of pregnant women and newborns for inherited genetic disorders prevalent in the population.
Effective use of genetic data requires building comprehensive databases that support public health efforts, necessitating collaboration among government, researchers, healthcare providers, industry, and community organizations.
Ongoing advancements in genomics hold the potential to develop accessible and cost-effective public health initiatives, helping to forge a healthier and more resilient future globally.

GenomeAsia 100k Project:

The objective of the GenomeAsia 100k project, first announced in 2016, is to sequence the whole genomes of 100k Asians, including 50,000 Indians.
It is being led out of the National Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
The project is similar to the projects in the United Kingdom, China, Japan and Australia and the information from this will be used to improve health by designing ‘personalised medicine.’
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Biotechnology would be closely associated with the project.

Genome India project:

The Genome India Project is a gene mapping project sanctioned by the Department of Biotechnology.
It was launched with the goal of creating a comprehensive database of genetic variations among the Indian population.
The project aims to sequence the genomes of over 10,000 Indians from different regions of the country and establish a reference genome for the Indian population.

Source: TH BL

6. Qudsia Bagh: This morning walkers’ paradise was once a symbol of a queen’s ambition, a casualty to 1857 aftermath

Subject: History

Section: Art and Culture

About Qudsia Bagh:

Qudsia Bagh is an 18th-century garden complex and palace located in Old Delhi, India.
The complex was constructed in 1748 for Qudsia Begum, the mother of Mughal emperor Ahmad Shah Bahadur.
The garden is situated in North Delhi, a short walk from the Kashmere Gate Metro Station.
It is situated north of the old city.
Formerly a splendid palace, it belonged to the heir apparent before falling into disrepair.
Large parts of it were destroyed during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
The buildings in this garden were severely damaged during the summer of 1857 when they fell in the line of fire that was exchanged between the Indian troops who were holding the city.

About Qudsia Begum:

Qudsia Begum, born Udham Bai was a wife of Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah and mother of emperor Ahmad Shah Bahadur.
She was early born an administrator and served as de facto regent from 1748 to 1754
She was introduced to Muhammad Shah’s harem in the beginning of his reign
A Hindu by origin, Udham Bai had been formerly a public dancing girl..
She considered herself the Noor Jehan (wife of Emperor Jahangir) of her times and fashioned herself into a Queen Mother.
She remote-controlled the empire since Ahmed Shah was considered a weak king.
She sought a legacy and, like Noor Jehan, wanted to build monuments that would give people something to remember her by.
Qudsia Begum commissioned various public and private works in Delhi.
The Sunehri Masjid near the Red Fort was constructed between 1747 and 1751 for Nawab Bahadur Javid Khan.

7. Astronomers unravel the mystery of the ‘Dragon’s Egg’ nebula

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Space sector

Context:

Two large stars residing inside a spectacular cloud of gas and dust nicknamed the “Dragon’s Egg” nebula have presented a puzzle to astronomers.

More on news:

One of the stars has a magnetic field, as does our sun.
Its companion does not.
Such massive stars are not usually associated with nebulae.

What has the new research found?

Researchers now appear to have resolved this mystery while also explaining how the relatively few massive stars that are magnetic got that way.
The bigger star apparently gobbled up a smaller sibling star, and the mixing of their stellar material during this hostile takeover created a magnetic field.
This merger was likely very violent.
When two stars merge, material can be thrown out, and this likely created the nebula we see today.
Computer simulations previously had predicted that the blending of stellar material during such a merger could create a magnetic field in the combined star born in this process.
These two stars – gravitationally bound to each other in what is called a binary system – are located in our Milky Way galaxy about 3,700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Norma.
A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
The magnetic star is about 30 times more massive than the sun.
Its remaining companion is about 26.5 times more massive than the sun.
They orbit at a distance from each other varying from seven to 60 times the distance between Earth and the sun.

What is Egg Nebula?

The Dragon’s Egg is so named because it is located relatively near a larger nebula complex called the Fighting Dragons of Ara.
The stars inside the Dragon’s Egg appear to have started out 4-6 million years ago as a triple system – three stars born at the same time and gravitationally bound.
The triple system’s two innermost members included a larger star – perhaps 25 to 30 times the mass of the sun – and a smaller one – maybe five to 10 times the sun’s mass.

Many sun-sized stars generate magnetic fields:

For low-mass stars like our sun, convective heating – like the movement of hot water in a radiator in your home – creates a movement of stellar material.
This in turn creates a dynamo effect which induces a magnetic field.
However, for massive stars – greater than eight times the mass of our sun – different heating effects are in play, and so explaining the presence of magnetic fields for these types of stars is more tricky.