Daily Prelims Notes 17 September 2021
- September 17, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
17 September 2021
Table Of Contents
- Chola Dynasty port city in Tamil Nadu
- Shankhalipi Script
- India now world’s No 6 stock market by M-cap
- Nuclear-powered Submarine
- Small Finance Bank
- United Nations children’s agency UNICEF
- Char Dham Yatra
- Essential Defence Services Act, 2021
- Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD)
- KVIC launches series of schemes to empower artisans in Varanasi
- Rhinocerous
- Bad Banks
- Edible Plants into Vaccines
- Climate Targets
- IPO Price Discovery
- Dolphins
- Inspiration4 flight
- GST Council
- Agni-V Missile
- UNSC Resolution 1173
- National Cadet Corps
- National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA)
- Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
1. Chola Dynasty port city in Tamil Nadu
Subject – History
Context – Poompuhar: Scientists to digitally recreate Tamil Nadu port city swallowed by sea 1,000 years ago
Concept –
- The Chola Dynasty port city in Tamil Nadu that vanished from maritime history around 1,000 years ago will be digitally reconstructed by a consortium led by the Department of Science and Technology.
- DST officials said there are exhaustive narrations in works of Sangam Tamil literature to infer that the city, located 30 km from the existing Poompuhar town in southern TN, was submerged due to “kadalkol” or rising sea levels.
- However, despite several studies on Tamil literature, archaeology, history, epigraphy, underwater exploration and geosciences, the mystery of the exact location of initial establishment of Poompuhar, its age, later shifts, along with periods, time-series spatial evolution in the present location at the mouth of river Cauvery, and the reasons and periods of its extinction, remain unresolved.
- The study involves underwater surveys and photography by remotely operated vehicles and sea bed drilling, remote sensing-based geodynamic studies to bring out comprehensive information on the time series evolution and extinction.
- A similar project is being rolled out at the Dwarka city in Gujarat, too.
- The reconstruction of Poompuhar is part of DST’s Indian Digital Heritage project — an exhibition of its first project ‘Digital Hampi’ is currently on display at the National Museum.
- The Hampi project brings to life tangible and intangible heritage in the area offering visitors a peak into how marketplaces looked and the musical pillars were constructed.
- For the Poompuhar project, the DST has set up a network of 13 academicians and research institutions to trace the history of the ancient city. Some of these include the School of Marine Sciences, Alagappa University, Academy of Marine Education and Training University in Chennai, National Institute of Ocean Technology and others.
- Researchers say that initial studies carried out by the Indian Remote Sensing Satellites show that the city was established initially in the Cauvery Delta-A about 30km away from the present town around 15,000 years ago.
- It shifted further 10 km to the west to Delta-B around 11,000 years ago and again further 10 km west to Delta-C around 8000 years ago. Finally, it was re-established at the present location at the mouth of the river Cauvery around 3,000 years ago. The shifts took place due to the continuous rise of sea levels and the submergence of the deltas.
Subject – Art and Culture
Context – Gupta era temple in Etah has put focus back on shankhalipi script
Concept –
- Last week, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) discovered remains of an ancient temple dating back to the Gupta period (5th century) in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Etah district.
- The stairs of the temple had ‘shankhalipi’ inscriptions, which were deciphered by the archaeologists as saying, ‘Sri Mahendraditya’, the title of Kumaragupta I of the Gupta dynasty.
- The discovery becomes significant since only two other structural temples from the Gupta age have been found so far — Dashavatara Temple (Deogarh) and Bhitargaon Temple (Kanpur Dehat).
- In the 5th century, Kumaragupta I ruled for 40 years over north-central India. The Guptas were the first to build structural temples, distinctly different from the ancient rock-cut temples.
Shankhalipi script
- Shankhalipi or “shell-script” is a term used by scholars to describe ornate spiral characters assumed to be Brahmi derivatives that look like conch shells or shankhas.
- They are found in inscriptions across north-central India and date to between the 4th and 8th centuries.
- A similar inscription was found on the back of a stone horse sculpture from that period that is at present in the State Museum at Lucknow.
- Both Shankhalipi and Brahmi are stylised scripts used primarily for names and signatures. The inscriptions consist of a small number of characters, suggesting that the shell inscriptions are names or auspicious symbols or a combination of the two.
- The script was discovered in 1836 on a brass trident in Uttarakhand’s Barahat by English scholar James Prinsep, who was the founding editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
- Prominent sites with shell inscriptions include the Mundeshwari Temple in Bihar, the Udayagiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh, Mansar in Maharashtra and some of the cave sites of Gujarat and Maharashtra. In fact, shell inscriptions are also reported in Indonesia’s Java and Borneo.
- Scholars have tried to decipher shell script but have not been successful.
- Shankhalipi is found to be engraved on temple pillars, columns and rock surfaces. No such inscriptions with dates or numbers have been reported so far even as their chronology can be determined by the objects on which they are written.
3. India now world’s No 6 stock market by M-cap
Subject – Economy
Context – As Sensex tops 59,000, India now world’s No 6 stock market by M-cap
Concept –
- The slew of reforms announced by the Centre for the telecom sector along with the expected announcement on a bad bank pushed India’s benchmark indices to new highs on Thursday with the Sensex breaching the 59,000 mark and the Nifty topping 17,600.
- India is now the world’s sixth biggest stock market, overtaking France for the first time in market capitalisation, with the benchmark Sensex surging more than 23 percent this year.
- Market capitalization, commonly called market cap, is the market value of a publicly traded company’s outstanding shares.
- Market capitalization is equal to the share price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding. Since outstanding stock is bought and sold in public markets, capitalization could be used as an indicator of public opinion of a company’s net worth and is a determining factor in some forms of stock valuation.
- Market cap only reflects the equity value of a company.
Difference between BSE and NSE –
Subject – Security
Context – The United States, United Kingdom, and Australia announced a new defence deal, under which America and Britain will help Australia deploy nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific region.
Concept –
- The nuclear-powered submarines will give Australia naval heft in the Pacific, where China has been particularly aggressive. While the US and Britain have had the capability for decades, Australia has never had an n-sub.
- China has nuclear-powered submarines, as well as submarines that can launch nuclear missiles.
- A nuclear-powered submarine gives a navy the capability to reach far out into the ocean and launch attacks.
- Unlike conventional submarines, which are generally considered helpful for defensive purposes, the ability of a nuclear-powered submarine to go long distances, at a higher speed, without being detected gives a nation the ability to protect its interests far from its shores.
- In the context of the AUKUS agreement, nuclear-powered submarines will give the Royal Australian Navy the capability to go into the South China Sea, where China is increasingly getting aggressive, to protect its assets and conduct patrols — even though this has not been spelt out by the three countries.
- The US has in the past shared its nuclear propulsion technology only with the UK, in accordance with the nuclear power sharing arrangement that the two countries have had since 1958.
- A nuclear-powered submarine is classified as an “SSN” under the US Navy hull classification system, wherein ‘SS’ is the symbol for submarine, and ‘N’ stands for nuclear. A nuclear-powered submarine that can launch ballistic missiles is called “SSBN”.
- Conventional diesel-engine submarines have batteries that keep and propel — though not very fast — the vessel underwater. The life of these batteries can vary from a few hours to a few days.
- The newer Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) submarines have additional fuel cells that allow them to stay underwater for longer and move faster than the conventional vessels. However, the fuel cells are used only at strategic times, when the endurance to remain submerged is required.
- Both conventional and AIP subs need to come to the surface to recharge their batteries using the diesel engine. The diesel engine also propels the vessel on the surface. However, the fuel cells of AIP can only be charged at on-land stations, not while at sea.
- The great advantage of an SSN is that its nuclear-powered propulsion gives the submarine a near infinite capacity to stay dived. Since it is propelled by a nuclear-powered engine rather than by batteries, it does not have to emerge on the surface at all, except to replenish supplies for the crew.
- SSNs are also able to move faster underwater than the conventional submarines. Added together, these advantages allow a navy to deploy these submarines quicker and at farther distances.
Do you know?
At present only 6 countries have nuclear powered submarine
Does India have nuclear-powered submarines?
- Yes, India is among the six nations that have SSNs. The other five are the US, the UK, Russia, France and China.
- India has had the capacity since it got the Soviet-built K-43 Charlie-class SSN in 1987. Commissioned with the Red Fleet of the USSR in 1967, it was leased to the Indian Navy, and was rechristened INS Chakra. The submarine was decommissioned in 1991.
- In 2012 India got another Russian SSN on a 10-year lease, called INS Chakra 2.
- In the mean time, India was working on building its own SSN, and the first Indian nuclear submarine, the INS Arihant, was commissioned in 2016. A second Arihant-class submarine, INS Arighat, was secretly launched in 2017, and is likely to be commissioned soon.
- After it demonstrated the capability to launch nuclear weapons in 2018, the INS Arihant is now classified as a Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine or SSBN, which means it is a nuclear-powered ballistic submarine.
- INS Arihant is important because it completes India’s nuclear triad, which means that the country has the capacity to launch nuclear missiles from land, aircraft, and submarine.
To know more about AUKUS, please click here.
Subject – Economy
Context – The Reserve Bank has given its go-ahead to Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (SFB) to form a special committee of directors to oversee operations in the absence of an MD and CEO.
Concept –
To know about Small Finance banks, please click here.
6. United Nations children’s agency UNICEF
Subject – IR
Context – UNICEF report calls for schools to reopen in pandemic-hit countries
Concept –
- The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, has urged education authorities to reopen schools as soon as possible in countries where millions of students are still not allowed to return to classrooms 18 months into the pandemic.
- Schools in around 17 countries remain fully closed, while those in 39 countries remain partially closed, according to a report released by UNICEF.
- Among those “almost completely closed” are schools usually attended by nearly 77 million students in Bangladesh, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Panama and Kuwait.
- Pupils from the six countries represent more than half of the 131 million students worldwide that have missed more than three-quarters of their in-person learning, said UNICEF.
- The report said teachers should be prioritised for vaccines, after health workers and those most at risk, to protect them from community transmission.
- Students may be safer at home, but the availability of computers, mobile phones and internet, and the uneven quality of education, are among challenges they continue to face.
To know about UNICEF, please click here.
Subject – Art and Culture
Context – The Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday lifted its stay on the Char Dham Yatra, allowing the state government to hold the pilgrimage under a strict Covid-19 protocol.
Concept –
- Char Dham means Four Dhams i.e. Four religious places. Char Dham in Uttarakhand is a collective term used for religous circuit covering Holy hindu pilgrimage centres of Badarinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
- All four temple shrines are located in Garhwal Himalayas range of Uttarakhand.
- This is considered as most sacred religious places to be visited by Hindus, to get rid of their sins and pave path to ultimate goal of human life – the Moksha.
- Akha-Trij or Akha-Teej marks the beginning of the Chota Char Dham Yatra. The ‘Yatra’ typically closes 2 days after Diwali, on the day of Bhai-Bij
Brief about Chota Chardham Temples:-
- Yamunotri :- The first shrine of chota chardham,this temple is dedicated to River Yamuna (Hindu Goddess,Daughter of Sun God).It is situated in Gharwal Region of Uttarakhand State.
- Gangotri :- The temple is devoted to Goddess Ganges (Most sacred River in India). It is second shrines of chota chardham circuit.
- Kedarnath :- The temple is devoted to God Shiva. There is 12 main Jyotirlinga of shiva & Kedarnath is one of the main jyotirling. Third shrine of chota chardham.
- Badrinath:- The temple is dedicated to God Vishnu. It is also the part of main Chardham Circuit in India & forth shrine of Chota chardham Yatra.
8. Essential Defence Services Act 2021
Subject – Security
Context – The Delhi High Court issued notices to the Centre on a petition challenging the constitutionality of the Essential Defence Services Act, 2021 which prohibits strikes in essential defence services.
Concept –
Key features of the Act include:
- Essential defence services: Essential defence services include any service in: (i) any establishment or undertaking dealing with production of goods or equipment required for defence related purposes, or (ii) any establishment of the armed forces or connected with them or defence. These also include services that, if ceased, would affect the safety of the establishment engaged in such services or its employees. In addition, the government may declare any service as an essential defence service if its cessation would affect the: (i) production of defence equipment or goods, (ii) operation or maintenance of industrial establishments or units engaged in such production, or (iii) repair or maintenance of products connected with defence.
- Public utility service: The Bill amends the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 to include essential defence services under public utility services. Under the Act, in case of public utility services, a six-week notice must be given before: (i) persons employed in such services go on strike in breach of contract or (ii) employers carrying on such services do lock-outs.
- Strikes: Under the Bill, strike is defined as cessation of work by a body of persons acting together. It includes: (i) mass casual leave, (ii) coordinated refusal of any number of persons to continue to work or accept employment, (iii) refusal to work overtime, where such work is necessary for maintenance of essential defence services, and (iv) any other conduct which results in, or is likely to result in, disruption of work in essential defence services.
- Prohibition on strikes, lock-outs, and lay-offs: Under the Bill, the central government may prohibit strikes, lock-outs, and lay-offs in units engaged in essential defence services. The government may issue such order, if necessary, in the interest of: (i) sovereignty and integrity of India, (ii) security of any state, (iii) public order, (iv) public, (v) decency, or (vi) morality. The prohibition order will remain in force for six months, and may be extended by another six months.
- Strikes and lock-outs that are declared after the issue of the prohibition order, or had commenced before the prohibition order was issued will be illegal. The prohibition will not apply to lay-offs made due to power shortage or natural calamity, or lay-offs of temporary or casual workmen.
- Punishment for illegal lock-outs and lay-offs: Employers violating the prohibition order through illegal lock-outs or lay-offs will be punished with up to one year imprisonment or Rs 10,000 fine, or both.
- Punishment for illegal strikes: Persons commencing or participating in illegal strikes will be punished with up to one year imprisonment or Rs 10,000 fine, or both.
- All offences punishable under the Bill will be cognisable and non-bailable.
To know about the Fundamental Rights associated with Right to Strike, please click here.
Subject – Environment
Context – UNESCO declares world’s first 5-country biosphere reserve in ‘Amazon of Europe’
Concept –
- The UNESCO September 15, 2021, designated Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD) as the world’s first ‘five-country biosphere reserve’, according to a statement by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature.
- The biosphere reserve covers 700 kilometres of the Mura, Drava and Danube rivers and stretches across Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia.
- The total area of the reserve — a million hectares — in the so-called ‘Amazon of Europe’, makes it the largest riverine protected area on the continent.
- The strategy’s aim is to revitalise 25,000 km of rivers and protect 30 per cent of the European Union’s land area by 2030.
- MDD’s recognition “was a mandate to all five countries to jointly advance the protection and revitalisation of the Mura-Drava-Danube area and boost sustainable business practices”.
- The reserve is home to floodplain forests, gravel and sand banks, river islands, oxbows and meadows.
- It is home to continental Europe’s highest density of breeding white-tailed eagle (more than 150 pairs), as well as endangered species such as the little tern, black stork, otters, beavers and sturgeons.
- It is also an important annual resting and feeding place for more than 250,000 migratory birds, according to WWF. Almost 900,000 people live in the biosphere reserve.
- Additional projects for nature and people are already being implemented in the area. They have a combined funding of around 20 million Euros and are co-financed by the European Union.
- These projects put river revitalisation, sustainable business practices enhancing cross-border cooperation into focus.
- One such project is the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme-funded Amazon of Europe Bike Trail, a long-distance cycling trail following the Mura, Drava and Danube river landscapes for over 1,250 km.
About Biosphere Reserve:
- Biosphere Reserve (BR) is a designation by UNESCO for representative parts of natural and cultural landscapes extending over large areas of terrestrial or coastal/marine ecosystems or a combination of both.
- Biosphere Reserves tries to balance economic and social development and maintenance of associated cultural values along with the preservation of nature.
- It has three-part structure:
- Core areas: It is most protected area of a biosphere reserve and free from human interference. It may contain endemic plants and animals.
- Buffer Zone: It is around the core areas and help in the protection of core areas. Some activities like restoration, limited tourism, fishing, grazing, research and educational activities etc. are allowed.
- Transition zone: It is the zone of cooperation where human activities and conservation are done in harmony (Ex- settlements, croplands, managed forests and areas for intensive recreation and other economic uses etc. are done).
Biosphere Reserves in India
10. KVIC launches series of schemes to empower artisans in Varanasi
Subject – Government Schemes
Context – On Prime Minister’s birthday, KVIC launches series of schemes to empower artisans in Varanasi
Concept –
- Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) launched a unique Scheme called SPIN (Strengthening the Potential of India) and set up a pottery cluster under SFURTI Scheme in Varanasi to empower over 1100 people of the marginalized potters’ community on the occasion of “Sewa Diwas”, the birthday of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
SPIN (Strengthening the Potential of India) Scheme
- 780 potters from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Jharkhand have registered for financial assistance from the bank to begin their own business.
- Unlike Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana, which is a subsidy-based program, SPIN Scheme enables the registered potters to get a direct loan from the banks under Pradhan Mantri Shishu Mudra Yojana.
- Under the SPIN Scheme, KVIC is acting as a facilitator for financial aid to potters through RBL bank and also providing training to the artisans, opting for this scheme.
- Under this scheme, there will be no financial burden on the exchequer and the loan will be repaid by the potter in easy installments.
- The SPIN scheme, thus, aims at infusing self-sustainability in the Indian pottery sector.
- Salient Features of SPIN Scheme
- It is a no-subsidy program
- KVIC facilitates potters to get bank loans under Pradhan Mantri Shishu Mudra Yojana
- No financial burden on the exchequer
- Beneficiaries can repay the loans in easy installments.
Kashi Pottery Cluster
- “Kashi Pottery Cluster” was inaugurated at Village Bhatti in Varanasi.
- This is the first pottery cluster in Varanasi district set up by KVIC under the SFURTI Scheme.
- The cluster, set up over an area of 7100 square feet at the cost of Rs 2.50 crore, has provided direct employment to 340 pottery artisans who have been trained by KVIC.
- The cluster is equipped with modern equipment like furnaces, electric potter wheels, blunger machines, pug mills and other modern equipment for higher production of clay pottery.
Subject – Environment
Context – Assam to destroy nearly 2,500 rhino horns; to preserve few as exhibits
Concept –
- The Assam cabinet decided to destroy over 2,000 rhino horns which have been preserved in government treasuries across the state during the past four decades.
- The horns, which were seized from poachers and traders of animal parts or recovered from dead rhinos in the state’s national parks and wildlife sanctuaries from 1979 till now, are stored in 12 district treasuries at present.
- Though there is no scientific basis, rhino horns are part of traditional medicine in some Asian countries such as China and Vietnam. Each horn, which is made up keratin (found in hair, nails), is valued over thousands of US dollars, leading to rampant killing of rhinos in Asia and Africa.
- Assam is home to the world’s largest population of one-horned rhinos. According to a 2018 census, there are nearly 2,650 rhinos in the state with around 2,400 of them concentrated in Kaziranga National Park.
- Rhinos are listed in Schedule 1 of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 as an endangered animal and there is an international ban on trade of rhino horns under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna).
- Three species of rhino—black, Javan, and Sumatran—are critically endangered.
- Today, a small population of Javan rhinos is found in only one national park on the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Java.
- A mainland subspecies of the Javan rhino was declared extinct in Vietnam in 2011.
- Successful conservation efforts have led to an increase in the number of greater one-horned (or Indian) rhinos, from around 200 at the turn of the 20th century to around 3,700 today.
To know about Indian Rhino Vision 2020, please click here.
To know about Kaziranga National Park, please click here.
Subject – Economy
Context – Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the formation of India’s first-ever “Bad Bank”
Concept –
- “National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited” (NARCL) has already been incorporated under the Companies Act. It will acquire stressed assets worth about Rs 2 lakh crore from various commercial banks in different phases.
- Another entity — India Debt Resolution Company Ltd (IDRCL), which has also been set up — will then try to sell the stressed assets in the market.
- The NARCL-IDRCL structure is the new bad bank. To make it work, the government has okayed the use of Rs 30,600 crore to be used as a guarantee.
- In every country, commercial banks accept deposits and extend loans. The deposits are a bank’s “liability” because that is the money it has taken from a common man, and it will have to return that money when the depositor asks for it. Moreover, in the interim, it has to pay the depositor an interest rate on those deposits.
- In contrast, the loans that banks give out are their “assets” because this is where the banks earn interest and this is money that the borrower has to return to the bank.
- The whole business model is premised on the idea that a bank will earn more money from extending loans to borrowers than what it would have to pay back to the depositors.
- A scenario where a bank finds a huge loan not being repaid because, say, the firm that took the loan has failed in its business and is not a position to pay back either the interest or the principal amount is called a “bad loan”.
- In normal functioning, as the proportion of bad loans — they are typically calculated as a percentage of the total advances (loans) — rise, two things happen.
- One, the concerned bank becomes less profitable because it has to use some of its profits from other loans to make up for the loss on the bad loans.
- Two, it becomes more risk-averse. In other words, its officials hesitate from extending loans to business ventures that may remotely appear risky for the fear of aggravating an already high level of non-performing assets (or NPAs).
- In India, as can be seen from Charts 1 and 2, the level of NPAs rose alarmingly since 2016. In a big way, this was a result of the RBI requiring banks to clearly recognise the bad loans on their books. The fact is several banks had witnessed progressive souring of their loans portfolio since the global financial crisis of 2008-09.
- From the taxpayer’s perspective, the most worrisome fact was that an overwhelming proportion of NPAs was with the public sector banks, which were owned by the government and hence by the Indian public. To keep such PSBs in business, the government was forced to recapitalise them — that is, use taxpayers’ money to improve the financial health of PSBs so that they could carry on with the business of lending and funding economic activity.
- But with each passing year, NPAs continued to mount — not helped by the fact that the economy itself started to lose its growth momentum since the start of 2017.
- It was argued by many that the government needs to create a bad bank — that is, an entity where all the bad loans from all the banks can be parked — thus, relieving the commercial banks of their “stressed assets” and allowing them to focus on resuming normal banking operations, especially lending.
- While commercial banks resume lending, the so-called bad bank, or a bank of bad loans, would try to sell these “assets” in the market.
How will the NARCL-IDRCL work?
- The NARCL will first purchase bad loans from banks. It will pay 15% of the agreed price in cash and the remaining 85% will be in the form of “Security Receipts”. When the assets are sold, with the help of IDRCL, the commercial banks will be paid back the rest.
- If the bad bank is unable to sell the bad loan, or has to sell it at a loss, then the government guarantee will be invoked and the difference between what the commercial bank was supposed to get and what the bad bank was able to raise will be paid from the Rs 30,600 crore that has been provided by the government.
Will a bad bank resolve matters?
- From the perspective of a commercial bank saddled with high NPA levels, it will help. That’s because such a bank will get rid of all its toxic assets, which were eating up its profits, in one quick move. When the recovery money is paid back, it will further improve the bank’s position. Meanwhile, it can start lending again.
- From the perspective of the government and the taxpayer, the situation is a little more muddled. After all, whether it is recapitalising PSBs laden with bad loans or giving guarantees for security receipts, the money is coming from the taxpayers’ pocket. While recapitalisation and such guarantees are often designated as “reforms”, they are band aids at best. The only sustainable solution is to improve the lending operation in PSBs.
- Lastly, the plan of bailing out commercial banks will collapse if the bad bank is unable to sell such impaired assets in the market. If that happens, guess who will have to bail out the bad bank itself? Indeed, the taxpayer.
13. Edible Plants into Vaccines
Subject – Science and Tech
Context – University of California, Riverside scientists are studying whether they can turn edible plants like lettuce into mRNA vaccine factories.
Concept –
- Messenger RNA or mRNA technology, used in Covid-19 vaccines, works by teaching our cells to recognize and protect us against infectious diseases.
- One of the challenges with this new technology is that it must be kept cold to maintain stability during transport and storage.
- If this new project is successful, plant-based mRNA vaccines — which can be eaten — could overcome this challenge with the ability to be stored at room temperature.
- The project has three goals: showing that DNA containing the mRNA vaccines can be successfully delivered into the part of plant cells where it will replicate, demonstrating the plants can produce enough mRNA to rival a traditional shot, and finally, determining the right dosage.
- Ideally, a single plant would produce enough mRNA to vaccinate a single person.
- Key to making this work are chloroplasts — small organs in plant cells that convert sunlight into energy the plant can use. They’re tiny, solar-powered factories that produce sugar and other molecules which allow the plant to grow. They’re also an untapped source for making desirable molecules.
Subject – Environment
Context – UN says world likely to miss climate targets despite COVID pause in emissions
Concept –
- The pace of climate change has not been slowed by the global COVID-19 pandemic and the world remains behind in its battle to cut carbon emissions, the United Nations said.
- The virus-related economic downturn caused only a temporary downturn in CO2 emissions last year and it was not enough to reverse the rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.
- Reduction targets are not being met and there is a rising likelihood the world will miss its Paris Agreement target of reducing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the WMO said in its United in Science 2021 Report.
- The United in Science 2021 report presents the latest scientific data and findings related to climate change.
- Concentrations in the atmosphere of the major greenhouse gases – CO2, methane and nitrous oxide – continued to increase in 2020 and the first half of 2021, the UN said.
- The average global temperature for the past five years was among the highest on record, estimated at 1.06C to 1.26C above pre-industrial levels. There is now a 40% chance that average global temperature in one of the next five years will be at least 1.5C warmer than pre-industrial levels, the report said.
Subject – Economy
Context – Ajay Tyagi: IPO price discovery not as ‘transparent’ as stock markets
Concept–
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairman Ajay Tyagi on Thursday said the initial public offering (IPO) market price discovery is not as “transparent and efficient” as secondary market price discovery and urged retail investors to “focus” more on secondary market since there is greater disclosure for listed companies.
- Sebi has introduced an optional T+1 trade settlement cycle for domestic investors from January 1. This was done in the interest of investors.
- The transition from T+3 to T+2 took place in 2003. There is a need to reduce it further now as there has been significant reforms in the payments and banking system. Investors have the right to receive what they purchase as quickly as possible. T+1 settlement cycle is in the interest of all market participants.
- Starting this month, Sebi has barred brokerages from allowing any additional intraday leverages for equity and derivatives trading.
To know more about IPOs, please click here.
To know about FPOs, please click here.
Subject – Environment
Context – Slaughter of more than 1,400 dolphins in the Faroe Islands sparks condemnation worldwide
Concept –
- Hunters in the Faroe Islands riding speed boats and jet skis ambushed and slaughtered a super-pod of more than 1,400 white-sided dolphins on Sunday (Sept. 12), leading to outcry from conservationists and even some supporters of the archipelago’s centuries-old tradition of killing the marine animals for food.
- Dolphin hunting is an ancient tradition in the Faroe Islands — an autonomous territory of Denmark located between Norway, Scotland and Iceland — that dates back to Viking times. Known as a Grindadráp, or just “the grind,” the controversial custom involves driving pilot whales or other large dolphin species into the islands’ fjords in order to kill them with a specialized lance. It is the only Indigenous whaling practice still undertaken in Western Europe.
- Currently, dolphin hunting in the Faroe Islands is legal, though it does require a license and permission from local authorities.
About Dolphins –
- The Ganges River Dolphin or also called ‘Susu,’ is the National Aquatic Animal of India. It is one of the National Symbols of India. Gangetic Dolphins are found in the river systems of Ganga, Brahmaputra, Meghna, and Karnaphuli- Sangu in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.
To know about Indus and Ganges River Dolphin, please click here.
To know about Irrawaddy dolphin, please click here.
To know about Project Dolphin, please click here.
To know about National Dolphin Research Centre (NDRC), please click here.
Subject – Science and Tech
Context – SpaceX launches four civilians into orbit on historic Inspiration4 flight
Concept –
- SpaceX made history tonight as it launched a crew of private citizens on a jaunt around Earth. For an added bonus, the rocket landed on its drone ship, marking the company’s 92nd booster recovery.
- A four-person crew was strapped inside a Crew Dragon spacecraft which sat perched atop a slightly sooty 229-feet-tall (70 meters) Falcon 9 rocket.
- The Falcon 9 lit up the sky, turning night into day and it climbed through the atmosphere on a pillar of flames and smoke. The rumble from its engines even set off car alarms at the viewing area.
- The vehicle is designed to be fully autonomous, so Proctor and the rest of the crew ideally won’t actually be doing any piloting, that responsibility will rest with SpaceX crews here on the ground.
- Crew Dragon was selected by NASA (along with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft) to serve as the agency’s means of transporting astronauts to and from space. Previously the agency relied on Russia and its Soyuz spacecraft following the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. But now, the agency has options and hopes to have a Russian Cosmonaut fly on a Dragon soon.
- Following its development and testing, two NASA astronauts — Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — climbed on board and flew Dragon to the International Space Station for the first time in May 2020. That mission, called Demo-2, paved the way for NASA to being regular astronaut flights to the orbital outpost.
- The Dragon used in this mission, named Resilience by the Crew-1 astronauts, will carry the Inspiration4 crew on a higher-than-normal trajectory. They will travel to an altitude of 357 miles (575 km) above the Earth, which is actually higher than both the space station and the Hubble Space Telescope. But it’s not the farthest that humans will have traveled since the Apollo moon landings — the crew of the space shuttle mission STS-82 actually flew a little higher when they went to service Hubble in 1997.
- When the Dragon separated from the Falcon 9 about 12 minutes after liftoff, it marked the first time that three different Dragon spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. (The other two, Crew Dragon Endeavour and a cargo Dragon spacecraft, are currently docked with the space station.)
Subject – Economy
Context – Packed agenda for GST Council today
Concept –
To know about GST Council, please click here.
Subject – Science and Tech
Context – China questions India’s missile project
Concept –
- Agni-V is the most advanced surface-to-surface indigenously built ballistic missile.
- It is a three-stage, solid fuel 17-metre tall, and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead of about 1.5 tonnes.
- Agni-V is a fire and forget missile, which once fired cannot be stopped, except by an interceptor missile.
- It has been developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).
- Agni- 5 is the intercontinental surface-to-surface nuclear capable ballistic missile. It is the latest in India’s “Agni” family of medium to intercontinental range missiles.
- Agni-5 has a range of over 5,000 km and can carry about a 1500-kg warhead. It can target almost all of Asia including Pakistan and China and Europe.
- The 17-metre long Agni-5 Missile weighs about 50 tonnes and is a very agile and modern weapon system.
- India has already joined an elite club of nations that possess the ICBM launch capability when the maiden test-firing of Agni-V was successfully conducted in April, 2012. Only the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United States and Britain, along with Israel, have so far possessed such long-range missiles.
To know about other Agni Missiles, please click here.
Subject – IR
Context – China questions India’s missile project. Foreign Ministry spokesperson refers to UNSCR 1172, adopted in 1998
Concept –
- United Nations resolutions are formal expressions of the opinion or will of United Nations organs.
- UNSC resolution 1172 was adopted in June 1998.
- The resolution, in the aftermath of the 1998 nuclear tests, calls upon India and Pakistan immediately to stop their nuclear weapon development programmes, to refrain from weaponisation or from the deployment of nuclear weapons, to cease development of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and any further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, to confirm their policies not to export equipment, materials or technology that could contribute to weapons of mass destruction or missiles capable of delivering them and to undertake appropriate commitments in that regard.
Subject – Security
Context – Dhoni, Anand Mahindra on NCC reform panel
Concept –
- The National Cadet Corps is the youth wing of the Indian Armed Forces with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
- It is open to school and college students on voluntary basis as a Tri-Services Organisation, comprising the Army, the Navy and the Air Wing, engaged in grooming the youth of the country into disciplined and patriotic citizens.
- The soldier youth foundation in India is a voluntary organization which recruits cadets from high schools, higher secondary, colleges and universities all over India.
- The Cadets are given basic military training in small arms and drill.
- The officers and cadets have no liability for active military service once they complete their course.
To know more about NCC, please click here.
22. National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA)
Subject – Economy
Context – ‘NFRA needs to have standalone legislation
Concept –
- The NFRA may take action against auditors for professional misconduct but when it came to other functionaries of a company who have the responsibility for financial reporting, penal powers continue to be vested with the Centre.
- NFRA operated under a single section of the Companies Act, the section did not provide comprehensive coverage of all the functions and powers that are required to constitute the authority as a ‘corporate financial reporting regulator’.
To know more about NFRA, please click here.
23. Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
Subject – IR
Context – Russia led bloc to hold military drills on Afghanistan border
Concept –
- CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance that was signed on 15 May 1992.
- In 1992, six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States signed the Collective Security Treaty (also referred to as the “Tashkent Pact” or “Tashkent Treaty”).
- Its 6 members are: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
- Headquarters: Moscow, Russia.
- The objectives of the CSTO is to strengthen peace, international and regional security including cyber security and stability, the protection on a collective basis of the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the member states.