Daily Prelims Notes 17 May 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

17 May 2024

1. Violence rages in New Caledonia as France rushes security forces to islands

Sub: IR

Sec: Places in news

Context:

• Violence continued in New Caledonia for a third day, following France’s declaration of a state of emergency in the French Pacific territory.

Details:

• This move was intended to address deadly unrest fueled by long-standing independence desires among some residents.
• The violence, which erupted after protests against voting reforms by President Emmanuel Macron’s government, has resulted in five deaths.
• Among the deceased were two members of the Indigenous Kanak community.
• The pro-independence movement is known as The Field Acton Coordination Unit.

About New Caledonia:

• New Caledonia is a sui generis collectivity of overseas France in the southwest Pacific Ocean, south of Vanuatu, about 1,210 km (750 mi) east of Australia, and 17,000 km (11,000 mi) from Metropolitan France. 
• Capital- Nouméa.
• The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets.
• The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea.
• French people, especially locals, call Grande Terre “Le Caillou” (“the pebble”).
• New Caledonia is one of the European Union’s Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) but is not part of the European Union.
• New Caledonia has a land area of 18,575 km2 (7,172 sq mi) divided into three provinces.
• The North and South Provinces are on the New Caledonian mainland, while the Loyalty Islands Province is a series of three islands off the east coast of the mainland.
• Demography:
  • New Caledonia’s population is of diverse origins and varies by geography; in the North and Loyalty Islands Provinces, the indigenous Kanak people predominate, while the wealthy South Province contains significant populations of European (Caldoches and Metropolitan French), Kanak, and Polynesian (mostly Wallisian) origin, as well as smaller groups of Southeast Asian, Pied-Noir, and North African heritage.
• Geography:
  • New Caledonia was part of the continent Zealandia, which broke off from the supercontinent Gondwana between 79 million and 83 million years ago
• Cultural significance:
  • In 2008, six lagoons of the New Caledonian barrier reef, the world’s longest continuous barrier reef system, were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
• British exploration:
  • British explorer James Cook was the first European to sight New Caledonia.
• French colonialism:
  • On 24 September 1853, under orders from Emperor Napoleon III, Admiral Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of New Caledonia.
  • Captain Louis-Marie-François Tardy de Montravel founded Port-de-France (Nouméa) on 25 June 1854.
  • In 1946, New Caledonia became an overseas territory.
  • By 1953, French citizenship had been granted to all New Caledonians, regardless of ethnicity.
• Kanak Independence Movement:
  • 1976 and 1988: The periods of serious violence and disorder by the Kanak indigenous people, referred to as ‘the events’.
• The Matignon Agreements, signed on 26 June 1988, ensured a decade of stability. The Nouméa Accord, signed on 5 May 1998, set the groundwork for a 20-year transition that gradually transferred competencies to the local government.

2. U.S. faces strategic setback in Africa as it is set to withdraw troops from Niger

Sub: IR

Sec: Places in news

Context:

• On April 19th, 2024 the United States announced the withdrawal of its military forces from Niger under pressure from the ruling junta, the Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP).

US-Niger Relations:

• Previously, the US considered Niger a crucial partner in combating Islamist extremism.
• The coup in July 2023 significantly strained these relations, leading to the suspension of US aid and military operations in Niger.
• Reasons for Withdrawal:
  • Sovereignty and Legitimacy: The CNSP framed the decision to expel US troops as a move to reclaim sovereignty and gain legitimacy for its non-democratic government.
  • Anti-Western Sentiment: Similar to the expulsion of French forces, the removal of US troops played into local anti-Western sentiments, which bolstered support for the junta.
• Fact: Niger was colonised by the French and got independence in 1960.

Impact and Analysis:

• The withdrawal is expected to hinder the fight against terrorism in the region. The US military presence was vital for operations against al-Qaida and ISIS.
• Strategic Shift: This move represents a setback for US influence in the Sahel, as Russia and China are increasingly filling the vacuum left by Western powers.
• The US seeks to maintain strong ties across Africa, focusing on democratic governance and economic partnerships. However, growing anti-Western sentiment and local political dynamics pose challenges.

Influence of Russia and China:

• Russia has been actively disrupting Western influence in Africa, using military aid and mercenaries to establish ties with regimes like the CNSP. The arrival of Russian forces in Niger underscores this trend.
• While Russia is making strategic inroads, China’s economic engagement and long-term investments present a more significant challenge to US interests in Africa.

Niger:

• A landlocked country in West Africa.
• Bordered by Libya to the northeast, Chad to the east, Nigeria to the south, Benin and Burkina Faso to the southwest, Mali to the west, and Algeria to the northwest.
• Largest landlocked country in West Africa and the second largest landlocked nation in Africa behind Chad.
• Over 80% of its land area lies in the Sahara.
• Capital- Niamey

What is Niger’s uranium history?

• Uranium was first discovered at Azelik in Niger in 1957, and commercial uranium production began at Arlit – 900 km northeast of the capital Niamey – in 1971.
• COMINAK (Compagnie Minière d’Akouta) – also majority-owned by Orano (French company) – began production from an underground mine at Akouta in 1978.
• The Societe des Mines d’Azelik SA (SOMINA) joint venture was set up in 2007 to mine at Azelik/Teguidda, 160km southwest of Arlit, in the Agadez region.
• China National Uranium Corporation has recently been carrying out studies towards the restart of production at SOMINA.
• Imouraren project: Located about 50 miles south of Arlit and about 100 miles north of Agadez, this deposit, discovered in 1966, contains one of the largest reserves in the world.

How much uranium does Niger produce?

• Niger produced 2020 tU in 2022, just over 4% of world uranium output.
• Current production is from the open-pit operations of SOMAÏR (Société des Mines de l’Aïr), near the town of Arlit.
• SOMAÏR is 63.4% owned by French company Orano and 36.66% owned by Sopamin (Société du Patrimoine des Mines du Niger). Sopamin manages Niger’s state participation in mining ventures.
• According to data from the World Bank, uranium is Niger’s second largest export, in monetary terms, after gold.
• Export:
  • Niger supplies around 5% of the world’s uranium but is a leading supplier of uranium to the European Union.

• Highest Uranium producers globally: Kazakhstan, followed by Canada, Namibia, Australia, Uzbekistan, Russia, Niger, China and India.

3. State cannot acquire property without proper procedure: Supreme Court

Sub: Polity

Sec: Constitution

Context:

• The Supreme Court on Thursday took a significant step to protect private property from arbitrary state takeover for a “public purpose”.

General assumption of Right to Property:

• It is generally assumed that for a valid acquisition all that is necessary is to possess the power of eminent domain i.e. power of the sovereign to acquire property of an individual for public use without consent to acquire, followed by grant of reasonable and fair compensation.

About the ruling:

• It was ruled that compulsory acquisition without following mandatory procedures followed by a grant of compensation to the owners will not make the accession constitutional.
• A Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Aravind Kumar declared in a judgment that the right to property is protected as a constitutional right and has even been interpreted to be a human right.
• Compulsory acquisition will still be unconstitutional if proper procedure is not established and followed before depriving a person of his/her right to property.
• The judgment upheld a Calcutta High Court order rejecting an appeal filed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation defending its acquisition of a private land.
• It was noted that the 44th Constitutional Amendment omitted the right to property as a fundamental right, Article 300A, which was simultaneously inserted into the Constitution, provided that “no person shall be deprived of his property, save by authority of law.

Other seven basic rights:

• The court laid down seven basic procedural rights of private citizens constituting the “real content of the right to property under Article 300A” that the state should respect before depriving them of their private property.
• They include,
  • the right to notice or the duty of the state to inform the person that it intends to acquire his property; 
  • the right of the citizen to be heard or the duty of the state to hear the objections to the acquisition; 
  • the right of the citizen to a reasoned decision or the duty of the state to inform the person of its decision to acquire property; 
  • the duty of the state to demonstrate that the acquisition is exclusively for public purpose; 
  • the right to fair compensation of the citizen; 
  • the duty of the state to conduct the process of acquisition efficiently and within prescribed timelines; and 
  • the conclusion of the proceedings leading to vesting or the right of conclusion.

Acquisition Process:

• The culmination of an acquisition process is not in the payment of compensation, but also in taking over the actual physical possession of the land.
• If possession is not taken, acquisition is not complete.

Constitutional Provisions in news:

Article 300A:

• Article 300A required the state to follow due procedure and authority of law to deprive a person of his or her private property.
• The right to property is now considered to be not only a constitutional or statutory right, but also a human right.
• Procedure is an integral part of the ‘authority of law’ in Article 300A. 
• The phrase ‘authority of law’ in the Article should not be understood as merely the power of eminent domain vested in the state.
• The requirement of a ‘law’ in Article 300A does not end with the mere presence of a legislation which empowers the state to deprive a person of his property.

Doctrine of Eminent Domain:

• Eminent Domain is the power of the sovereign to acquire property of an individual for public use without the necessity of his consent. 
• This power is based on sovereignty of the State.
• Payment of just compensation to the owner of the land which is acquired is part of exercise of this power.

4. Supreme Court limits ED’s power to arrest PMLA accused

Sub: Polity

Sec: Constitution

Context:

• The Supreme Court said when an accused appears before a court in pursuance of a summons, the agency will have to apply to the court concerned to get his custody.

More on news:

• The judgment was based on an appeal filed by Tarsem Lal against the ED challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court denying him anticipatory bail. 

About the recent ruling:

• In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the Enforcement Directorate and its officers cannot arrest an accused under Section 19 of the PMLA after the Special Court has taken cognizance of the complaint.
• If the accused appears before the special court pursuant to a summons, it cannot be treated that he is in custody.
• If the ED wants custody of such an accused, it will have to apply to court for custody.
• ED can get custody after application to the special court. 
• The court will only grant custody with reasons satisfying that custodial interrogation is needed.
• The special court can direct the accused to furnish bonds in terms of Section 88 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
• Accused who appeared before the court pursuant to the summons are not required to apply for bail, and thus, the twin conditions of Section 45 of PMLA are not applicable.
• It is not necessary for the accused to apply for baiL.
• An accused who appears in a special court pursuant to its summons, could be exempted from personal appearance in the future.
• If an accused does not appear after a summons is served, the special court could issue a bailable warrant followed by a non-­bailable one.
• When the ED wants to conduct a further investigation concerning the same offense, it may arrest a person not shown as an accused in the complaint filed under Section 44(1)(b) of the PMLA, provided the requirements of Section 19 (procedures of arrest) under the Act were fulfilled.

What are the twin conditions?

• The twin conditions of bail under Section 45 of the PMLA pose stringent thresholds for an accused.
  • The person has to prove in court that he or she is prima facie innocent of the offense.
  • The accused should be able to convince the judge he would not commit any offense while on bail. 
• The burden of proof is entirely on the incarcerated accused, who would be often handicapped to fight the might of the state.
• In November 2017, the Supreme Court invalidated Section 45(1) of the PMLA, which concerned the imposition of two extra conditions for granting bail to money laundering accused.
• However, the Center subsequently reinstated this provision through amendments to the PMLA.

What is the PMLA act?

• Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) was enacted to fight against the criminal offense of legalizing the income/profits from an illegal source. 
• The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 enables the Government or the public authority to confiscate the property earned from the illegally gained proceeds.
• Section 19 of the PMLA allows ED officers to arrest an individual on the basis of material in possession (and) reason to believe (to be recorded in writing) that the person is guilty.

About ED?

• It is a Multi-Disciplinary Organization mandated with the task of enforcing the provisions of two special fiscal laws – Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). 
• The administrative control of the Directorate was transferred from the Department of Economic Affairs to the Department of Revenue in 1960.
• The Directorate enforces two laws;
  • FEMA, a Civil Law having quasi-judicial powers, for investigating suspected contraventions of the Exchange Control Laws and Regulations with the powers to impose penalties on those adjudged guilty.
  • PMLA, a Criminal Law, whereby the Officers are empowered to conduct enquiries to locate, provisionally attach/confiscate assets derived from acts of Schedules Offenses besides arresting and prosecuting the Money Launderers.

5. As US hikes  China tariffs , imports hiked from China reliant Vietnam

Sub: Economy

Sec: External sector

Context:

• As the United States intensifies efforts to reduce trade with China by hiking tariffs, it has greatly boosted imports from Vietnam.

More on news:

• The surge in the China-Vietnam-U.S. trade has vastly widened trade imbalances, with the Southeast Asian country.
• Vietnam now has the fourth-highest trade surplus with the United States, lower only than China, Mexico and the European Union.
• At over $114 billion last year, U.S. imports of goods from Vietnam were more than twice as big as in 2018 when the Sino-American trade war began.
• The European Commission (EC) in October last year launched an anti-subsidy investigation into the imports of battery electric vehicles (BEV) from China.

Tariffs imposed by US on China:

• The tariffs imposed by the US on ship-to-shore cranes will rise to 25 per cent from zero, those on syringes and needles will rise to 50 per cent from nothing now and some personal protective equipment (PPE) used in medical facilities will rise to 25 per cent from as little as 0 per cent now.
• More tariffs will follow in 2025 and 2026 on semiconductors, as well as lithium-ion batteries that are not used in electric vehicles, graphite and permanent magnets as well as rubber medical and surgical gloves.

Vietnam exports to U.S.:

• Vietnam now has the fourth-highest trade surplus with the United States, lower only than China, Mexico and the European Union.
• Vietnam’s export boom has been fuelled by imports from neighboring China, with inflows from China almost exactly matching the value and swings of exports to the United States in recent years.
• The surge in Chinese imports in Vietnam coinciding with the increase in Vietnamese exports to the U.S. may be seen by the U.S. as Chinese firms using Vietnam to skirt the additional tariffs imposed on their goods
• The growing trade imbalance comes as Vietnam seeks to obtain market economy status in Washington.
• In key industries such as textiles and electric equipment, Vietnam captured more than 60% of China’s loss.
• One-third of Vietnam’s imports come from China, mostly electronics and components.

Symbiotic Relationship:

• The symbiotic relationship is reflected in latest data: In the first quarter of this year, U.S. imports from Vietnam amounted to $29 billion, while Vietnam’s imports from China totalled $30.5 billion, mirroring similarly corresponding flows in past quarters and years.

How will it negatively impact India?

• Indian exporters feared that the loss of a major market for China could trigger dumping of Chinese products into India.
• China accounts for over half of the global EV sales, largely driven by its near dominance in battery production which is a critical element for EV manufacturing.
• In 2023, China’s production of lithium-ion batteries was equivalent to the global demand that stood at 2,600 GWh.
• Indian exporters feared that the  recent US move will start a tariff war between two major economic powers as a retaliation is soon expected from China.
• A threat of dumping also comes as the European Union is expected to announce similar barriers citing possible injury from Chinese imports.

Opportunities for  India:

• The US-China tariff war could also open up opportunities for the Indian players.
• It provides an opportunity for India and other competitors to chip in the supply gap.
• India has opportunities in facemasks, Personal Protective Equipment Kit (PPE), syringes & needles, medical gloves, aluminum and iron & steel.
• Opportunity may come in China also with retaliation on US exports.

What is Dumping?

• Dumping is a term used in the context of international trade. 
• Dumping occurs when a country or company exports a product at a price that is lower in the foreign importing market than the price in the exporter’s domestic market.
• Dumping is legal under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules unless the foreign country can reliably show the negative effects the exporting firm has caused its domestic producers.

What is Anti Dumping Duty?

• Anti-dumping duties are taxes imposed on imported goods in order to compensate for the difference between their export price and their normal value, if dumping causes injury to producers of competing products in the importing country.

6. The use of AI in drug development

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Awareness in IT and computers

Context:

• The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has opened up a world of possibilities with respect to fast-tracking drug development.

How does the process start?

• The process of developing a drug starts with identifying and validating a target.
• A target is a biological molecule (usually a gene or a protein) to which a drug directly binds in order to work.
• Only those proteins with ideal sites where drugs can go and dock to do their business are druggable proteins.
• Target proteins are identified in the discovery phase, wherein a target protein sequence is fed into a computer which looks for the best-fitting drug out of millions in the library of small molecules for which the structures are stored in the computer. 
• The process assumes that the structures of the target protein and drug are known.
• Computers use models to understand the sites where a drug can bind.
• This discovery process avoids time-consuming laboratory experiments that require expensive chemicals and reagents and have a high failure rate.
• Once the suitable protein target and its drug are identified, the research moves to the pre-clinical phase, where the potential drug candidates are tested outside a biological system, using cells and animals for the drug’s safety and toxicity.
• After this the drug is tested on a small number of human patients before being used on more patients for efficacy and safety. 
• Finally, the drug undergoes regulatory approval and marketing and post-market survey phases. 
• Due to a high failure rate, the discovery phase limits the number of drugs that pass and carry on to the pre-clinical and clinical phases.

How can AI help this process?

• AI has the potential to revolutionize target discovery and understand drug-target interaction by drastically cutting down time, increasing the accuracy of prediction of interaction between a drug and its target, and saving money.
• The development of two AI-based prediction tools, AlphaFold and RoseTTAFold has provided a major scientific breakthrough in the last four years in the area of computational drug development. 
• Both tools are based on deep neural networks. 
• The tools’ neural networks use massive amounts of input data to produce the desired output — the three-dimensional structures of proteins.
• The new avatars of AlphaFold and RoseTTAFold, called AlphaFold 3 (developed jointly by Isomorphic Labs, a DeepMind spinoff) and RoseTTAFold All-Atom  respectively, take the capability of these tools to an entirely new level. 
• Upgraded Versions:
  • The significant difference between the upgraded versions and their previous forms is their capability to predict not just static structures of proteins and protein-protein interactions but also their ability to predict structures and interactions for any combination of protein, DNA, and RNA, including modifications, small molecules and ions.
• Additionally, the new versions use generative diffusion-based architectures (one kind of AI model) to predict structural complexes.

What are the drawbacks?

• The tools can provide up to 80% accuracy in predicting interactions (the accuracy comes down drastically for protein-RNA interaction predictions).
• The tools can only aid a single phase of drug development, target discovery and drug-target interaction.
• Insufficient training data causes the tool to produce incorrect or non-existent predictions.
• Unlike the previous versions of AlphaFold, DeepMind has not released the code for AlphaFold 3, restricting its independent verification, broad utilization and use for protein-small molecule interaction studies.

Aspects for  India?

• Developing new AI tools for drug development requires large-scale computing infrastructure, especially ones with fast Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to run multiple tasks with longer sequences.
• GPU chips are expensive, and with newer and faster ones being produced by hardware makers every year, they have a quick expiration date.
• India needs such large-scale computing infrastructure.

What are Deep neural networks (DNN)?

• Deep neural networks (DNN) is a class of machine learning algorithms similar to the artificial neural network and aims to mimic the information processing of the brain.
• Deep neural networks can recognize voice commands, identify voices, recognize sounds and graphics and do much more than a neural network.

What is a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)?

• The graphics processing unit (GPU) in your device helps handle graphics-related work like graphics, effects, and videos.
•  Integrated GPUs are built into your PC’s motherboard, allowing laptops to be thin, lightweight, and power-efficient.

About AlphaFold and RoseTTAFold:

• AlphaFold is an artificial intelligence program developed by DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet, which performs predictions of protein structure. The program is designed as a deep learning system.
• RoseTTAFold is a “three-track” neural network, meaning it simultaneously considers patterns in protein sequences, how a protein’s amino acids interact with one another, and a protein’s possible three-dimensional structure.