Daily Prelims Notes 15 May 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

15 May 2024

1. The challenge of extra-pulmonary TB

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: health

Tags: extra-pulmonary TB, Multidrug-Resistant TB (MDR-TB), Mycobacterium

Context:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) reports over 10 million new cases of TB every year and India alone accounts for 27% of the global TB burden.

What is Tuberculosis?

• Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
• TB commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect other parts (extrapulmonary TB)
• Tuberculosis spreads from person to person through the air, when people who are infected with TB infection cough, sneeze or otherwise transmit respiratory fluids through the air.
• The most common risk factor associated with TB is HIV & other conditions that impair the immune system.
• Common symptoms of tuberculosis are Chronic coughs with blood-tinged sputum, Loss of weight, Loss of appetite, Fever and night sweats, Fatigue , etc.

What are Pulmonary and Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis?

Pulmonary TB:

• Pulmonary TB is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M tuberculosis). 
• Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is a serious infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) that involves the lungs but may spread to other organs.
• When it affects the lungs, it’s called pulmonary TB.

Extra Pulmonary TB:

• TB outside of the lung is called extrapulmonary TB. 
• It can also be categorized as being either active or latent
• Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) is tuberculosis outside of the lungs.
• EPTB includes tuberculosis meningitis, abdominal tuberculosis (usually with ascites), skeletal tuberculosis, Pott’s disease (spine), scrofula (lymphadenitis), and genitourinary (renal) tuberculosis.
• EPTB is often stain negative, which means it is not detectable on regular TB stain tests.
• The infection may surface in any part of the body and present itself like other non-TB conditions.
• In 2014, a group of experts from different health institutions across the country, the WHO, and the Cochrane Infectious Disease Group came together to formulate INDEX-TB, a set of guidelines for EPTB management in India.

What are other various types of Tuberculosis?

Multidrug-Resistant TB (MDR-TB):

• In MDR-TB, the bacteria that cause TB develop resistance to antimicrobial drugs used to cure the disease.
• MDR-TB does not respond to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the 2 most powerful anti-TB drugs.
• Treatment options for MDR-TB are limited and expensive.
• CBNAAT (Cartridges Based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test) is used for early diagnosis of MDR-TB.

Extensively Drug-Resistant TB (XDR-TB):

• XDR-TB is a form of multidrug-resistant TB with additional resistance to more anti-TB drugs.
• People who are resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin, plus any fluoroquinolone and at least one of three injectable second-line drugs (amikacin, kanamycin, capreomycin) are said to have XDR-TB.

What is Mycobacterium?

• The mycobacterium that causes TB was first isolated in the eye just a year after Robert Koch identified the organism.
• Mycobacterium is a genus of over 190 species in the phylum Actinomycetota, assigned its own family, Mycobacteriaceae.
• This genus includes pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis and leprosy in humans.

Efforts to Control TB in the country:

• The National TB Control Programme was started in 1962 with the aim to detect cases earliest and treat them. In the district, the programme is implemented through the district Tuberculosis Centre (DTC) and the Primary Health Institutions.
• Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) is the practice of observing a patient swallow his or her tuberculosis (TB) medications. National guidelines recommend DOT as part of the standard of care for TB treatment, and DOT is used by TB programs throughout the U.S. and around the world.
• NI-KSHAY-(Ni=End, Kshay=TB) is the web enabled patient management system for TB control under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP).

2. Nissar Satellite will monitor tectonic movements to Centimeter Accuracy: S.Somnath

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Space tech

Tags: Nissar Satellite, NASA-ISRO

What is NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) Satellite?

• The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission is a joint project between NASA and ISRO to co-develop and launch a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar on an Earth observation satellite. The satellite will be the first radar imaging satellite to use dual frequencies.
• NISAR is the first satellite mission to collect radar data in two microwave bandwidth regions, called the L-band and the S-band, to measure changes of our planet’s surface, including movements as small as centimeters.
• NISAR uses a sophisticated information-processing technique known as synthetic aperture radar to produce extremely high-resolution images.

What is unique about the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite?

• This is a Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite with two bands.
  • One is S-band and the other is L-band. 
  • The S-band payload has been made by the ISRO and the L-band payload by the U.S.
• The U.S. will contribute the large deployable antenna.
• It is a  dual band polarisible radar.
• It is supposed to go in July but it may go only in October-November.

Benefits of NISAR:

• It has a large deployable antenna with an 18-meter diameter, it has a very high swath.
• It can fully cover the earth in approximately 14 to 15 days, in radar. It can monitor various aspects in very high resolution.
• It can monitor the tectonic movements to centimeter accuracy.
• It can accurately measure water bodies.
• It can look at water stressing on the earth, wherever there is deficiency of water.
• It can ground-penetrate to a certain depth. It is capable of monitoring the vegetation cover and snow cover

What are the features of Chandrayaan-4, which will be a sample-return mission?

• Chandrayaan-4 is a planned lunar sample-return mission and the fourth mission in the Chandrayaan programme, a series of lunar-exploration missions developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
• The mission is currently under conceptualisation phase and is slated for launch no earlier than 2028.

What is Spadex (space docking experiment)?

• SPADEX or Space Docking Experiment is a twin spacecraft mission being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation to mature technologies related to orbital rendezvous, docking, formation flying, with scope of applications in human spaceflight, in-space satellite servicing and other proximity operations
• The SPADEX mission involves a spacecraft with two components – Chaser and Target. 
• This will dock and separate as a mock drill for the Moon mission.
• While in the low-Earth orbit, the Chaser and Target will separate only to rendezvous autonomously later on.

About Gaganyaan Mission:

• Gaganyaan is an ISRO mission aiming to send Indian astronauts to low-Earth orbit using an Indian launch vehicle.
• It is a demonstration mission to test technologies essential for human spaceflight, showcasing India’s capability in producing, qualifying, and utilizing these technologies.
• Future goals for ISRO include establishing an indigenous space station by 2035 and landing an Indian on the moon by 2040.
• ISRO plans to integrate these ambitious projects with future lunar explorations, starting with a joint mission with Japan for lunar rover landing and a mission to return lunar soil samples to Earth.

PAD abort test:

• A pad abort test is a kind of test of a launch escape system which is conducted by setting the system along with the spacecraft still on the ground and letting the system activate to carry the spacecraft flying away, then separate in the air and make the spacecraft land safely. 
• The purpose of the test is to determine how well the system could get the crew of a spacecraft to safety in an emergency on the launch pad.
• As the spacecraft is set still on the ground, the test is also called “zero-altitude abort test” against “high-altitude abort test”.

Integrated Air Drop Test:

• This critical test aims to validate the functionality of the parachute system and the integrity of the crew capsule, crucial components for the safe return of astronauts from space.

What are other new projects of ISRO?

Bharatiya Antariksha Station:

• The Indian Orbital Space Station, officially called, Bharatiya Antariksha Station, is a planned modular space station to be constructed by India and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

NGLV (New Generation Launch Vehicle):

• The Next Generation Launch Vehicle or NGLV is a three-stage partially reusable rocket, currently under development by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
• This vehicle is designed to replace currently operational systems like PSLV, GSLV and LVM3.

Software-defined radio satellite:

• Space-based Software Defined Radios (SDRs) are primarily used in satellites to increase processing power, as well as to complement the overall communications architecture; both for transmitting and receiving signals.
• A satellite constellation (or swarm) is a network of identical or similar-type artificial units with the same purpose and shared control. Such groups communicate to worldwide-located ground stations and sometimes are inter-connected. They work as a system and are designed to complement each other.

IDRSS (the Indian Data Relay Satellite System):

• Indian Data Relay Satellite System or IDRSS is a planned Indian constellation of Inter-satellite communications satellites.
• It is planned to initially comprise two satellites, CMS-04 & IDRSS-2 in geostationary orbit.

Technology Development Satellite, TDS-01:

• TDS-01 (Technology Demonstration Satellite-01) is an Indian geostationary orbit technology demonstration satellite carrying payloads for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Institute of Plasma Research, Gandhinagar and the CSIR-CEERI, Pilani.

3. On the importance of regulatory sandboxes in artificial intelligence

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Awareness in IT and Computer

Tags: artificial intelligence

Context:

• Many governments and regulatory bodies have turned to innovative approaches such as “AI regulatory sandboxes” to strike a balance between fostering AI innovation and ensuring responsible development.

More on news:

• The first formal regulatory sandbox is  attributed to the Financial Conduct Authority in the U.K.
• According to data from the World Bank(November 2023),  there were approximately 73 regulatory sandboxes, both announced and operational, within the financial sector across 57 jurisdictions.

What are Regulatory Sandboxes?

• A regulatory sandbox is a tool allowing businesses to explore and experiment with new and innovative products, services or businesses under a regulator’s supervision.
• A regulatory sandbox (RS) usually refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled/test regulatory environment for which regulators may (or may not) permit certain regulatory relaxations for the limited purpose of the testing. 
• The RS allows the regulator, the innovators, the financial service providers (as potential deployers of the technology) and the customers (as final users) to conduct field tests to collect evidence on the benefits and risks of new financial innovations, while carefully monitoring and containing their risks.
• It can provide a structured avenue for the regulator to engage with the ecosystem and to develop innovation-enabling or innovation-responsive regulations that facilitate delivery of relevant, low-cost financial products.
• The RS is potentially an important tool which enables more dynamic, evidence-based regulatory environments which learn from, and evolve with, emerging technologies.
• In India, all financial sector regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, and International Financial Services Centre Authority, have launched their respective regulatory sandboxes

What are Regulatory Sandboxes for AI?

• A regulatory sandbox for Artificial Intelligence is a controlled and supervised environment where developers and innovators, under the guardianship of the governmental authorities, can test and deploy AI systems in real-world scenarios, with some regulatory flexibility.

What are the objectives of Regulatory Sandboxes(RS)?

• The RS provides an environment to innovative technology-led entities for limited-scale testing of a new product or service that may or may not involve some relaxation in a regulatory requirement before a wider-scale launch.
• The RS is, at its core, a formal regulatory programme for market participants to test new products, services or business models with customers in a live environment, subject to certain safeguards and oversight.
• The proposed financial service to be launched under the RS should include new or emerging technology, or use of existing technology in an innovative way and should address a problem, or bring benefits to consumers.

What are Benefits of Regulatory Sandboxes?

• Regulatory sandbox provides a controlled environment for experimentation, offering invaluable insights into AI technologies capabilities and limitations while fostering collaboration between innovators and regulators.
• It promotes transparency and accountability by requiring participants to disclose information about their AI models, addressing concerns about opacity and enabling tailored regulations.
• It encourages responsible innovation, mitigating potential societal impacts of AI applications and nurturing a culture of ethical development within the industry.

What are some laws regarding Regulatory Sandboxes?

• Karnataka has enacted the Karnataka Innovation Authority Act, 2020, establishing an Innovation Authority dedicated to promoting and regulating innovative technologies through a regulatory sandbox model.
• Telecommunications Act 2023 proposed a regulatory sandbox where the central Government has the authority to establish one or more regulatory sandboxes, as prescribed, to promote and facilitate innovation and technological development in the field of telecommunications, specifying the manner and duration for their implementation.
  • About  Telecommunication Act 2023:
• Article 53 of the European Union’s AI Act, has the provision of a regulatory sandbox to test technology before making it mainstream.
• Spain became the first European country to have established the statute of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA).
• The EU has come up with an AI Act, the U.S. has released a white paper on the AI Bill of Rights, and the U.K. has a national AI Strategy.

What is India’s approach to AI?

• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), released a report on AI Innovation 2023 highlighting India’s AI vision through seven working groups.
• Digital India Act, 2023 also talks about regulating AI by creating a separate set of laws and regulations.

About GPAI:

• The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence is an international initiative established to guide the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence in a manner that respects human rights and the shared democratic values of its members.
• The GPAI is a global alliance of 29 countries, including the US, UK, Germany, Israel, Singapore, Australia, Belgium and France, as well the EU.
• It is aimed at responsible development and use of artificial intelligence, grounded in human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation and economic growth.
• 29 countries of the GPAI have unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration, which promises to position GPAI at the front and center of shaping the future of AI in terms of both innovation and creating collaborative AI between the partner nations.

4. Pine needle power projects to check Uttarakhand forest fires prove to be inadequate

Sub: Geography

Sec: Indian Physical geography

Tags: Pine tree, Uttarakhand forest fires

Uttarakhand’s Bio-energy Projects Using Pine Needles:

• Project established in 2021
• Agency Involved: Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA).
• Project Objective: Utilize flammable pine needles to generate electricity, aiming to address the dual issues of energy generation and forest fire mitigation.
  • Forest Coverage and Biomass: Chir pine forests cover 16.36% of the state’s forest area, producing over 15 lakh tonnes of pine leaves annually.
• Implementation: the plan was to establish multiple units ranging from 10kW to 250 kW across the State in three phases (worth about 150 MW).
  • Though the government expected 58 units to be set up, only six units of 250 kW (totally worth 750 kW) have been established.
• Project Outcome: The projects have been deemed unsuccessful. Six plants with a total capacity of 750 kW were set up against an expectation of 58 units.

Challenges and Issues:

• The technology to efficiently use pine needles for electricity generation is not yet sustainable.
• Increased severity of annual forest fires, exacerbated by climate change-induced droughts, contribute to high accumulations of pine needles which pose a fire risk.
• The Supreme Court reprimanded the Uttarakhand government following severe forest fires. In response, the government initially planned and later scaled down the bio-energy projects, and increased the procurement price of pine needles to incentivize collection.
• The collection of pine needles is hindered by geographical (steep slopes), ecological (vulnerability to attacks by animals, competition with local flora), and socio-economic factors (lack of sufficient labour).
• Failure to meet Renewable Power Purchase Obligations partly due to unmet expectations from pine needle projects.
• The state increased the price paid for collected pine needles from ₹3/kg to ₹50/kg to motivate more extensive collection efforts.

Pinus roxburghii (Chir Pine or longleaf Indian pine):

• A species of pine tree native to the Himalayas. It was named after William Roxburgh.
• The native range extends from Tibet and Afghanistan through Pakistan, across northern India (in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh), Nepal and Bhutan, to Myanmar.
• It generally occurs at lower altitudes than other pines in the Himalayas.
• Owing to its shallow roots it is attributed to soil erosion, particularly in the Himalayas. It does not allow any vegetation to grow around it by making the soil more acidic through its fallen needles.

Renewable Power Purchase Obligation (RPO):

• RPO was instituted in 2011, it is a mandate that requires large power procurers to buy a predetermined fraction of their electricity from renewable sources.
• Under RPO bulk purchasers like discoms, open-access consumers and capacitive users are required to buy a certain proportion of RECs. They can buy RECs from renewable energy producers.

Renewable Energy Certificates (REC):

• Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are a market-based instrument to promote renewable sources of energy and the development of the market in electricity.
• One REC is created when one-megawatt hour of electricity is generated from an eligible renewable energy source.

Source: TH

5. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and NEOM Project

Sub: IR

Sec: Places in news

Tags: NEOM Project

Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia: 

• Launched in 2016, it aims to develop various sectors and introduce large-scale projects, known as giga-projects, to prepare for a post-oil future.
• It is built around three main themes which set out specific objectives that are to be achieved by 2030:

1. A vibrant society – urbanism, culture and entertainment, sports, Umrah, UNESCO heritage sites, life expectancy
2. A thriving economy – employment, women in the workforce, international competitiveness, Public Investment Fund, foreign direct investment, non-oil exports
3. An ambitious nation – non-oil revenues, government effectiveness, e-government, household savings and income, non-profits, and volunteering.

• Progress: The program is more than halfway through its timeline, with multiple giga-projects in the planning and execution stages.
• Challenges: The initiative has faced challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, inflation, and supply chain disruptions.

NEOM: A Flagship Giga-Project:

• It is an urban area being built by Saudi Arabia in Tabuk.
• NEOM is planned as a mega-city, featuring futuristic elements like a ski resort and twin skyscrapers extending 170 kilometres, known as The Line.
  • The first three letters come from the Ancient Greek prefix neo – meaning ‘new’. The ‘M’ is the first from ‘Mustaqbal’, an Arabic word meaning ‘future’. The M is also the first letter of the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
• The site is at the northern tip of the Red Sea, due east of Egypt across the Gulf of Aqaba and south of Jordan.
• Population Goals: Initially projected to house over one million residents by 2030, with ambitions to grow to nine million by 2045. However, recent reports suggest a scaled-back target of 300,000 residents by 2030, with 2.4 kilometres of The Line completed.
• Despite revised projections, NEOM’s leadership remains committed to achieving the long-term population goals.

6. More solar storms brewing after last week’s aurorae as Sun ‘wakes up’

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Space sector

Tags: aurorae, Solar storms

Context:

• On the night of May 10, 2023, a vivid display of aurorae was visible globally, including in atypical locations such as Hanle, Ladakh.

Details of the event:

• The aurorae were caused by a geomagnetic storm triggered by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun, which interacted with Earth’s magnetic field and upper atmosphere.
• The event coincided with the Sun approaching the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, marked by increased sunspot activity and magnetic field reversals.
  • The solar cycle is the cycle that the Sun’s magnetic field goes through approximately every 11 years.
  • The solar cycle affects activity on the surface of the Sun, such as sunspots which are caused by the Sun’s magnetic fields.
• The specific sunspot AR 3664 was noted to be exceptionally active, growing 16 times as wide as Earth by May 7 and releasing three CMEs that impacted Earth on May 10.
• The last similar intensity geomagnetic storm occurred in 2003. The most severe historical geomagnetic storm recorded occurred in 1859, known for causing widespread telegraph disruptions.

Potential Hazards:

• Such solar events can cause significant disruptions, including blackouts, satellite malfunctions, and dangers to astronauts due to intensified solar radiation and charged particles.

Auroras:

• Auroras are natural light displays that occur when charged particles from solar winds interact with the Earth’s magnetosphere.
  • The magnetosphere is the region surrounding the Earth where the dominant magnetic field is the Earth’s, rather than the magnetic field of interplanetary Space.
  • It protects the Earth against solar winds and is strongest at the poles.
• These particles travel along the Earth’s magnetic field and upon colliding with atmospheric molecules and atoms, cause emissions of light seen as auroras.
  • In North Pole- Aurora Borealis
  • In South Pole- Aurora Australis

Role of Aditya- L1:

• ISRO’s spacecraft Aditya-L1, positioned at the L1 Lagrange point, is equipped to monitor solar activities and played a role in observing recent solar events.
  • Instruments like ISRO’s Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) on Aditya-L1 are critical for advancing the understanding and prediction of solar storms.
  • ASPEX payload had captured the enhancement of the alpha particle and proton flux of the solar wind as signatures of the solar storm.
  • SoLEXS and HEL1OS payloads had detected “the multiple X- and M-class flares during the last few days”.
• The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter around the moon also reportedly detected “signatures” of the emissions from the Sun.

About Aditya-L1 Mission:

• Aditya-L1 is the first space based observatory class Indian solar mission to study the Sun from a substantial distance of 1.5 million kilometers.
• Aditya-L1 is also ISRO’s second astronomy observatory-class mission after AstroSat (2015).
• The spacecraft is placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system.

Objective:

• The mission aims to provide valuable insights into the solar corona, photosphere, chromosphere, and solar wind.
• The primary objective of Aditya-L1 is to gain a deeper understanding of the Sun’s behavior, including its radiation, heat, particle flow, and magnetic fields, and how they impact Earth.

Payloads of Aditya-L1 solar observatory:

7. India VIX

Sub: Economy

Sec: Financial markets

Context: India VIX, which is an indicator of the market’s expectation of volatility over the near term, surged past the 21 mark. The rise shows that fear among traders or market participants on the expected volatility is more now, as compared to 15 days earlier. Currently, the fear among the market players is coming from the outcome of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Details:

What is the Volatility Index?

• The Volatility Index (VIX or the Fear Index)is a measure of the market’s expectation of volatility over the near term.
• Volatility is often described as the ‘rate and magnitude of changes in prices’ and in finance often referred to as risk.
• Usually, during periods of market volatility, the market moves steeply up or down and the volatility index tends to rise. As volatility subsides, the Volatility Index declines.
• The Volatility Index is a measure of the amount by which an underlying index is expected to fluctuate in the near term, (calculated as annualised volatility, denoted in percentage e.g. 20 per cent) based on the order book of the underlying index options.

When was it introduced?

• The Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) was the first to introduce the volatility index for the US markets in 1993 based on S&P 100 Index option prices. In 2003, the methodology was revised and the new volatility index was based on S&P 500 Index options.
• Since its inception, it has become an indicator of how market practitioners think about volatility. Investors use it to gauge market volatility and base their investment decisions accordingly.

What is India VIX?

• India VIX is a volatility index computed by the NSE based on the order book of NIFTY Options. For this, the best bid-ask quotes of near and next-month NIFTY options contracts, which are traded on the F&O segment of NSE are used.
• India VIX indicates the investor’s perception of the market’s volatility in the near term i.e. it depicts the expected market volatility over the next 30 calendar days.
• The higher the India VIX values, the higher the expected volatility and vice versa, as per NSE.
• ‘VIX’ is a trademark of the CBOE, and Standard & Poor’s has granted a license to NSE, with permission from the CBOE, to use such a mark in the name of the India VIX and for purposes relating to the India VIX.

Why has India VIX surged?

• In May so far, the India VIX has risen by around 53 per cent to above 20.
• The volatility seen in the benchmark equity indices was amid concerns over the results of the ongoing elections, set to be declared on June 4. The market participants said a lower voter turnout ratio in this election may have some impact on the BJP’s seat count. Heavy selling by foreign portfolio investors, who have dumped Rs 18,375 crore (till May 13) of Indian equities, have also led to the fall in the domestic market.