Daily Prelims Notes 2 August 2020
- August 2, 2020
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Table Of Contents
- Khurja pottery
- NATO
- Category B2 of EIA
- Aarhus Convention
- GPS
- Smog Tower
- Genome Sequencing programme
- Omega 3 fatty Acid
Subject: Arts and culture
Context:
Artisans in Khurja is in need of government support to overcome drop in demand, revenue and want technology upgrade in manufacturing and sales
Concept:
- Khurja pottery is an Indian pottery work manufactured in Khurja of the Bulandshahr district in Uttar Pradesh.
- A huge portion of the ceramics used in the country is supplied by Khurja hence it is sometimes called “The Ceramics City“.
- There are at least two conflicting versions of the origins of the pottery-manufacturing sector in Khurja.
- In one version there was a historical cluster of traditional potters, who had established themselves in Khurja, several hundred years ago. In this version potters from Egypt and Syria accompanied the Afghan King Taimur Lung when he passed by Khurja on an easterly campaign 500 years ago.
- In another, the origins of the tradition go back to people with knowledge of pottery who had moved there during the Mughal empire.
- Khurja pottery, which the GI tag, boasts of a variety of tea-sets, crockery, and ceramic tile works. Among the most popular glazed pottery forms, the process involves a range of labour-intensive tasks such as clay churning, moulding, colouring, followed by glazing.
2. NATO
Subject: IR
Context:
US President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw nearly 12,000 American soldiers as part of NATO stationed in Germany.
Concept:
- NATO is a multilateral organisation founded by 12 member states following the signing of the Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949.
- The objective of the Treaty was to create an alliance to counter the Soviet Union and its influence in western Europe.
- The Treaty derives its authority from Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which confers the inherent right to a nation to “individual or collective self-defence”.
- NATO is a security alliance of 30 countries from North America and Europe.
- NATO’s fundamental goal is to safeguard the Allies’ freedom and security by political and military means.
- NATO remains the principal security instrument of the transatlantic community and expression of its common democratic values.
- It is the practical means through which the security of North America and Europe are permanently tied together.
- Article 5 of the Washington Treaty i.e that an attack against one Ally is an attack against all is at the core of the Alliance, a promise of collective defense.
Subject: Environment
Context:
Draft environment impact assessment 2020 included list of projects into Category B2.
Concept:
- All projects and activities are broadly categorized in to two categories – Category A and Category B, based on the spatial extent of potential impacts and potential impacts on human health and natural and manmade resources.
- All projects or activities included as Category ‘A’ in the Scheduleshall require prior environmental clearance from the Central Government on the recommendations of an Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) to be constituted by the Central Government for the purposes of this notification
- All projects or activities included as Category ‘B’ in the Schedule will require prior environmental clearance from the State/Union territory Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). The SEIAA shall base its decision on the recommendations of a State or Union territory level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) as to be constituted for in this notification.
- The projects requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment report shall be termed Category ‘B1’ and remaining projects shall be termed Category ‘B2’ and will not require an Environment Impact Assessment report.
- The projects under this category include offshore and onshore oil, gas and shale exploration, hydroelectric projects up to 25 MW, irrigation projects between 2,000 and 10,000 hectares of command area, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in dye and dye intermediates, bulk drugs, synthetic rubbers, medium-sized paint units, all inland waterway projects, expansion or widening of highways between 25 km and 100 km with defined parameters, aerial ropeways in ecologically sensitive areas, and specified building construction and area development projects.
Subject: IR
Context:
EIA rules must meet the requirements of the precautionary principle of avoiding harm, and intergenerational equity in accordance with the Aarhus Convention, 1998.
Concept:
- The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters was adopted on 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus at the Fourth Ministerial Conference as part of the “Environment for Europe” process.
- The Aarhus Convention establishes a number of rights of the public with regard to the environment.
- The Parties to the Convention are required to make the necessary provisions so that public authorities (at national, regional or local level) will contribute to these rights to become effective. The Convention provides for:
- Right of everyone to receive environmental information that is held by public authorities
- Right to participate in environmental decision-making.
- Right to review procedures to challenge public decisions that have been made without respecting the two aforementioned rights or environmental law in general
5. GPS
Subject: Science and tech
Context:
China has officially commissioned the navigation system BeiDou
Concept:
- The GPS is owned by the US government and operated by the US Air Force.
- Apart from this, Russia has its navigation system called GLONASS, the European Union (EU) has Galileo, while India’s is called Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC).
- GPS is a satellite navigation system used to determine the ground position of an object.
- GPS technology was first used by the United States military in the 1960s and expanded into civilian use over the next few decades.
- GPS receivers are included in many commercial products, such as automobiles, smartphones, exercise watches, and GIS devices.
6. Smog Tower
Subject: Environment
Context:
Supreme Court has directed two smog towers should be installed in the capital by April on a pilot project basis. But the deadline is not met.
Concept:
- A smog tower is a structure designed to work as a large-scale air purifier, fitted with multiple layers of filters which trap fine dust particles suspended in the air as it passes through them.
- Air is drawn through fans installed at the top of the tower, passed through filters, and then released near the ground.
- The large-scale filters would use carbon nano fibres as a major component, and would be fitted along the peripheries of the towers.
7. Genome Sequencing programme
Subject: Science and tech
Context:
Department of Biotechnology had launched a Pan India 1000 SARS–CoV-2 RNA Genome Sequencing programme to be done by Autonomous Institutes of DBT, collaborating with national laboratories and clinical organizations.
Concept:
- Genome sequencing involves revealing the order of bases present in the entire genome of an organism
- Genome: It is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes. Each genome contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism
- Indian scientists have started genome sequencing strains of the novel coronavirus isolated from patients in different parts of the country as they work against time to track its spread and look for signs of emerging mutations.
- Generating at least 400 such sequences could help researchers extract valuable information on the behaviour of the deadly coronavirus in India
- This would help guide the strategies for designing potential treatments for local populations, vaccines and drugs that might have to undergo changes if the virus evolves over time.
Subject: Science and tech
Context:
Many nutritionists have suggested that besides pulses, meals should include vegetables like spinach and other green leafy vegetables, milk/curd and fruits like bananas, and omega 3 and 6 fatty acids to reduce malnutrition.
Concept:
- Fish oil is a dietary source of omega-3 fatty acids which is needed for many functions, from muscle activity to cell growth.
- They can’t be manufactured in the body.
- People take fish oil to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, to treat high triglycerides and high blood pressure, and to improve symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
- There’s strong evidence that omega-3 fatty acids can significantly reduce blood triglyceride levels. There also appears to be a slight improvement in high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or “good”) cholesterol.