Daily Prelims Notes 2 May 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

2 May 2024

1. Sea also rises: On understanding the Indian Ocean’s local impact

Subject: Environment

Sec: Climate change

Tags: Ocean warming , Climate change impact on ocean

Impact of Global Warming on the Indian Ocean

• A study led by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune and other global institutions has examined the effects of projected carbon emissions on the Indian Ocean.

Increase in Temp: The Indian Ocean’s temperature has increased by 1.2°C and is expected to rise further by 1.7°C to 3.8°C from 2020 to 2100.

 Marine Heatwaves: The frequency of marine heatwaves is predicted to significantly increase, rising from an average of 20 days per year to 220-250 days per year, potentially pushing the tropical Indian Ocean into a near-permanent heatwave state.

Coral Bleaching: It accelerates coral bleaching and adversely affect the fisheries sector.

• The oceanic thermal energy stored in the Indian Ocean, measured from the surface down to 2,000 meters, is increasing.
• It currently rises at a rate of 4.5 zetta-joules per decade, with future rates projected between 16 and 22 zetta-joules per decade.

Broader Implications for India:

• The warming ocean is linked to more frequent and severe cyclones and an erratic monsoon pattern in India, characterized by long droughts interrupted by heavy rains and flooding.

Global Warming and Policy Response:

• Anthropogenic activities, notably fossil fuel combustion, are major contributors to global warming and consequent oceanic changes.
• Current international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are deemed insufficient to significantly alter the trajectory of oceanic warming.
• India is urged to enhance its collaboration with other Indian Ocean-bordering nations to improve data collection and projections.
• This collaborative effort should aim at better preparing for and mitigating the effects of climate change on infrastructure and populations.

Source: TH

2. Particles called quarks hold the key to the final fate of some stars

Subject: Science and tech

Sec: Space sector

Tags: Quarks , Neutron Star

What is Quark?

• Matter is made up of atoms, consisting of a nucleus with protons and neutrons, and electrons around it.
• Protons and neutrons are not fundamental particles but are composed of even smaller particles called quarks.
• Quarks are unique because they cannot exist alone but only in groups, known as hadrons, like protons and neutrons.
• Origin and naming:
  • The concept of quarks emerged in the 1960s when physicists, explaining why neutrons (neutral in charge) have a magnetic moment, hypothesized that neutrons are composed of smaller, charged particles (quarks) whose charges cancel out. This theory was confirmed in the 1970s.
  • Quarks, named by physicist Murray Gell-Mann from James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake,” come in six “flavors,” including charm and strange, and have properties such as “color charge.”
• Properties:
  • Quarks, which come in six types (up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm) and each bear one of three color charges, are fundamental components of matter.
  • Their antimatter counterparts are known as antiquarks.
  • Quark-antiquark pairs form mesons, while clusters of three quarks make up baryons, the constituents of normal matter.
  • Quarks are bound together by gluons through the strong nuclear force, described by quantum chromodynamics, which suggests that under extremely high energies, quarks can become ‘deconfined’.
  • This deconfined state, called quark-gluon plasma, has been briefly observed in high-energy lead ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, reminiscent of the early universe conditions postulated by the Big Bang theory.
  • This plasma indicates a phase where quarks are not bound into clumps, potentially leading to phenomena like quark stars, an area still under exploration in physics.

When quarks clump:

• Two recent studies have advanced our understanding of how quarks, the fundamental constituents of matter, group together.
  • The first study found that clumps of three quarks are more likely to form than clumps of two when certain types of quarks are densely surrounded by other particles, challenging traditional particle physics models that view quark consolidation as independent of surrounding particles.
  • The second study observed clumps made entirely of heavier quarks, which unlike the more stable, lighter-quark clumps found in protons and neutrons, are very short-lived and difficult to study.
• Despite these challenges, understanding heavy-quark clumps is crucial for a complete picture of quark behavior, which influences key processes such as nuclear fusion and the evolution of stars, including potentially in quark stars.

The tension of every star:

• A star maintains its existence by balancing two opposing forces: gravity, which pulls its mass inward, and the nuclear force from fusion reactions in its core, which pushes outward.
• This equilibrium enables the star to shine. However, once a star exhausts its nuclear fuel, gravity begins to dominate, leading to the star’s collapse and eventual death.
• The outcome of this collapse—whether the star ends up as a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole—depends on its mass.
  • For instance, if the Sun were 20 times more massive, it could collapse into a black hole, and if it were 8 times heavier, it might become a neutron star.
• This raises a question about the existence of stars with specific mass ranges that might collapse into neither a neutron star nor a black hole but instead become a quark star.

Enter ‘quark matter’:

• In neutron stars, extreme pressures may convert all protons and electrons into neutrons due to the intense gravitational collapse, giving these stars their name.
• However, a longstanding question in physics is whether these neutrons might be further compressed into quark matter, a hypothetical state consisting solely of quarks.
• Researchers from the University of Helsinki reported that there is an 80-90% likelihood that the cores of the most massive neutron stars contain quark matter.
• These results are preliminary, and more data is needed to confirm the presence of quark matter and understand its properties fully.
• The Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation, used in neutron star physics, incorporates data about physical properties to predict other attributes, including the probability of quarks being present in neutron stars.

Neutron stars:

• A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star.
• The stars that later collapse into neutron stars have a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially rich in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
• Except for black holes, neutron stars are the smallest and densest known class of stellar objects.

Black hole:

• A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light and other electromagnetic waves, is capable of possessing enough energy to escape it.
• Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole.
• The boundary of no escape is called the event horizon.
• A black hole has a great effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, but it has no locally detectable features according to general relativity.
• In many ways, a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light.

Source: TH

3. How the next government will push ‘balanced fertilization’

Subject: Environment

Sec: Agriculture

Context:

• The fiscal ended March 2024 saw urea consumption hit a record 35.8 million tonnes (mt), 16.9% higher than the 30.6 mt in 2013-14, the year before the Narendra Modi government came to power.

More on news:

• The consumption of urea, containing 46% nitrogen (N), actually fell during 2016-17 and 2017-18, which was attributed to the mandatory coating of all urea with neem oil from May 2015.

What is Balanced Fertilization:

• Fertilizers are basically food for crops, containing nutrients necessary for plant growth and grain yields.
• Balanced fertilization means supplying these primary (N, phosphorus-P and potassium-K), secondary (sulfur-S, calcium, magnesium) and micro (iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum) nutrients in the right proportion, based on soil type and the crop’s own requirement at different growth stages.
• Balanced fertilization aims at discouraging farmers from applying too much urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) or muriate of potash (MOP), which only have primary nutrients in high concentrations.

About Neem coated urea:

• Neem coating was intended to check illegal diversion of the highly-subsidized urea for non-agricultural uses, including by plywood, dye, cattle feed and synthetic milk makers.
• Neem oil supposedly also acted as a mild nitrification inhibitor, allowing more gradual release of nitrogen.
• Improved nitrogen use efficiency, in turn, brought down the number of urea bags required per acre.

About Nutrient Based Subsidy:

• The nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) system, instituted in April 2010 to promote balanced fertilization.
• Under it, the government fixed a per-kg subsidy for N, P, K and S. 
• The subsidy on any fertilizer was  linked to its nutrient content. 
• The underlying idea was to induce product innovation and wean away farmers from urea, DAP (18% N and 46% P content) and MOP (60% K), in favor of complex fertilizers containing N, P, K, S and other nutrients in balanced proportions with lower concentrations.

India and opportunities:

• India is heavily import-dependent in fertilizers, be it of finished products or intermediates and raw materials.

About PM PRANAM scheme:

• The Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother Earth is known as the PM PRANAM Scheme in short.
• The government plans to reduce subsidies for chemical fertilizers and direct 50% of subsidy savings as a grant to states to invest in new fertilizer technology.
• The scheme will have no separate budget and will be financed through the savings of existing fertilizer subsidies under schemes run by the Department of Fertilizers.

About Nano Urea:

• Nano Urea is a nanotechnology based revolutionary Agri-input which provides nitrogen to plants.
• Nano Urea (Liquid) is a source of nitrogen which is a major essential nutrient required for proper growth and development of a plant.
• Nano Urea (Liquid) contains nanoscale nitrogen particles which have more surface area (10,000 times over 1 mm Urea prill) and number of particles (55,000 nitrogen particles over 1 mm Urea prill).which makes it more impactful.
• In comparison to Urea the uptake efficiency of Nano Urea is more than 80 %.

4. Article 31C: Why the SC is deciding if a fundamental right still exists in a case about private property?

Subject: Polity

Sec: Constitution

Context:

The Supreme Court Constitution Bench reserved its judgment on the issue of whether private resources form part of the ‘material resource of the community’ under Article 39(b) of the Constitution.

More on news:

• A nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud decided to take up another issue of “radical constitutional consequence”: does Article 31C still exist?
• The court is hearing a challenge to Chapter VIII-A of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Act, 1976 (MHADA). 

Introduction of Article 31C:

• Article 31C was introduced by The Constitution (Twenty-fifth) Amendment Act, 1971.
• In the  “Bank Nationalization Case” (Rustom Cavasjee Cooper vs Union Of India, 1970), the Supreme Court stopped the Centre from acquiring control of 14 commercial banks by enacting The Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1969.
• An eleven-judge Bench struck the Act down by referring to the now-repealed Article 31(2), which states that the government could not acquire any property for public purposes under any law unless the law fixes compensation for the property.
• In the Bank Nationalization case, the court held that the ‘right to compensation’ was not appropriately ensured by the Banking Act.
• The government, through the 25th Amendment sought to surmount the difficulties placed in the way of giving effect to the Directive Principles of State Policy.
• One of the means employed to do so was the introduction of Article 31C, which stated its two provisions as follows:
  • No law giving effect to the policy of the State towards securing the principles specified in clause (b) or clause (c) of article 39 shall be deemed to be void on the ground that it is inconsistent with, or takes away or abridges any of the rights conferred by article 14, article 19 or article 31; and
  • no law containing a declaration that it is for giving effect to such policy shall be called in question in any court on the ground that it does not give effect to such policy.

The journey of Article 31C:

• The 25th amendment was challenged in the seminal Kesavananda Bharati case (1973) which held that the Constitution has a “basic structure” that cannot be altered, even by a constitutional amendment.
• As a part of this verdict, the court struck down the last portion of Article 31C, i.e., the part that states “and no law containing a declaration that it is for giving effect to such policy shall be called in question in any court on the ground that it does not give effect to such policy”.
• This opened the door for the court to examine laws that had been enacted to further Articles 39(b) and 39(c), to determine whether the purpose of those laws actually lined up with the principles espoused in these provisions.
• In 1976, Parliament enacted the Forty-second Amendment Act, which expanded the protection under Article 31C to all or any of the principles laid down in Part IV of the Constitution, under clause 4.
• As a result, every single directive principle (Articles 36-51) was protected from challenges under Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution.
• It was meant to give precedence to the directive principles over those fundamental rights which have been allowed to be relied upon to frustrate socio-economic reforms for implementing the directive principles.
• In 1980, in Minerva Mills v. Union of India, the SC struck down clauses 4 and 5 of the amendment. 
• The five-judge Bench held that Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution was limited, and it could not be used to remove these limitations and grant itself unlimited and absolute powers of amendment.

Constitutional Provisions in news:

• Article 39(b) obligates the state to direct its policy towards securing the ownership and control of the material resources of the community that are so distributed as best to subserve the common good.
• Article 39(c) of the DPSP states that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment.
• Article 300A required the state to follow due procedure and authority of law to deprive a person of his or her private property.