Daily Prelims Notes 22 February 2022
- February 22, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
22 February 2022
Table Of Contents
- ENDEMIC STAGE OF A PANDEMIC
- PRIVACY SANDBOX
- DRAFT INTEGRATED PLANT NUTRITION MANAGEMENT BILL 2022
- NON FUNGIBLE TOKENS (NFTs)
- MINSK AGREEMENT
- WHO PRIORITY PATHOGENS
- FAANG STOCKS
- CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY
- SEPARATIST REGIONS OF UKRAINE
- TAX HAVENS
1. ENDEMIC STAGE OF A PANDEMIC
TOPIC: Science & Tech
Context- California has announced a shift to an endemic approach to Covid-19 that will focus on watching out for new variants and reacting quickly to outbreaks rather than issuing mandates for masking indoors.
Concept-
Infectious disease:
- Infectious diseases are spread by either bacterial or viral agents and are ever-present in society. Usually infected cases are present in numbers below an expected threshold but every once in a while there may be an outbreak, a new strain or a new disease that has a significant impact at either a local or global level.
- The spread and rate of new cases can be classified as:
- Endemic – describes a disease that is present permanently in a region or population
- Epidemic – is an outbreak that affects many people at one time and can spread through one or several communities
- Pandemic – is the term used to describe an epidemic when the spread is global.
What does endemic stage mean?
- Endemic is derived from Greek en meaning in and demos meaning people. It is used to describe a disease that is present at an approximately constant level within a society or country. Each country may have a disease that is unique:
- For example, flu which goes up in the winters and when the season is changing because of lower immunity in people or dengue which goes up after monsoons because of the availability of vectors.
- An infection becomes endemic when the rates become static in a given geographical location, meaning that the pathogen causing the disease — SARS-CoV-2 in this case — is likely to remain in circulation without causing large outbreaks as witnessed over the last two years.
- Endemic means that the virus will continue circulating in the population and there will be periodic ups and downs when the conditions are favourable to the virus and less favourable to humans.
TOPIC: Science & Tech
Context- Google announced that it would bring the Privacy Sandbox — the privacy solution that it is building for the web — to Android devices. The new solution would “limit” the sharing of user data with third parties, and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising IDs.
Concept-
How do cookies work?
- Imagine you are flying with a friend, and you have a check-in bag each.
- Imagine that before putting the bags in the aircraft belly, airline personnel go through their contents. They find a bottle of Chanel perfume and Tommy Hilfiger clothes in your bag, and put a red sticker on it. In your friend’s bag they find a camera tripod and books on photography, and put a blue sticker. (These stickers are cookies.)
- At the destination, the driver of your cab notes the stickers, and hands you separate advertisement flyers: to you for Hermes bags, and to your friend for Canon DSLRs.
- Brands and local businesses have paid the cab company to hand over pamphlets to passengers, and your ride is now free.
What is the Privacy Sandbox?
- Privacy Sandbox will phase out third-party cookies and limit tracking.
- A ‘cookie’ is a small piece of data stored in the browser when a user visits a website.
- Third-party cookies are stored by a service that operates across multiple sites.
- For example, an ad platform might store a cookie when you visit a news site. First-party cookies are stored by the website itself.
- So, if the news site is storing a cookie, it will use it to offer curated news items the user is more likely to read.
- But if an ad platform like Facebook stores a cookie when one visits a news site, it is likely to use that information and categorise the user in certain buckets based on preferences, and will offer advertisers the ability to target the user with specific ads. This can also be used for political advertisements.
3. DRAFT INTEGRATED PLANT NUTRITION MANAGEMENT BILL 2022
TOPIC: Agriculture
Context- Centre has come up with a draft Integrated Plant Nutrition Management Bill, 2022, that, if passed, will take the industry back to the Dark Ages of licences and controls.
Concept-
About the Bill:
- It is aimed at promoting development and sustainable use of balanced fertilizers, including bio-fertilizers, nano-fertilizers, bio-stimulates, and organic fertilizers.
- The bill seeks to establish an ‘Integrated Plant Nutrition Management Authority of India’.
- States have been empowered to appoint State Controllers of Fertilisers and Fertiliser Inspectors, who can conduct impromptu inspections on industry and trade armed with overarching powers to search, seize and confiscate.
- No person would be able to manufacture, import for sale, sell, or market without obtaining appropriate registration.
- It seeks to simplify the process for manufacturing production, distribution and price management of fertilizers across India. This will help in improving the ease of doing business.
- The Bill empowers the Centre with sweeping powers to cap the maximum selling prices for fertilisers, while allowing it to fix different prices for different regions and customers.
- The Centre will have powers to restrict the movement of fertilisers from one State to another and to dictate the quantities of fertiliser a manufacturer may sell in each State.
Integrated Nutrient Management:
- Integrated Nutrient Management refers to the maintenance of soil fertility and of plant nutrient supply at an optimum level for sustaining the desired productivity through optimization of the benefits from all possible sources of organic, inorganic and biological components in an integrated manner.
- It is based on the concept of:
- Regulated nutrient supply for optimum crop growth and higher productivity.
- Improvement and maintenance of soil fertility.
- Zero adverse impact on agro – ecosystem quality by balanced fertilization of organic manures, inorganic fertilizers and bio- inoculant
- Determinants of INM:
- Nutrient requirement of cropping system as a whole.
- Soil fertility status and special management needs to overcome soil problems, if any
- Local availability of nutrients resources (organic, inorganic and biological sources)
- Economic conditions of farmers and profitability of proposed INM option.
- Social acceptability.
- Ecological considerations.
- Impact on the environment
TOPIC: Science & Tech
Context- The sales of NFTs surged $25 billion in 2021 as the crypto asset exploded in popularity.
Concept-
What are NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens)?
- Anything that can be converted into a digital form can be an NFT.
- Everything from your drawings, photos, videos, GIF, music, in-game items, selfies, and even a tweet can be turned into an NFT, which can then be traded online using cryptocurrency.
- But what makes NFTs unique from other digital forms is that it is backed by Blockchain technology.
- Blockchain is a distributed ledger where all transactions are recorded. It is like your bank passbook, except all your transactions are transparent and can be seen by anyone and cannot be changed or modified once recorded.
- Terra Nulius was the first NFT on EthereumBlockchain
How do NFTs work?
- NFT works on blockchain as it gives users complete ownership of a digital asset.
- For instance, if you’re a sketch artist, and if you convert your digital asset to an NFT, what you get is proof of ownership, powered by Blockchain.
How is an NFT different from cryptocurrency?
- NFTs and cryptocurrencies are very different from each other. While both are built on Blockchain, that is where the similarity ends.
- Cryptocurrency is a currency and is fungible, meaning that it is interchangeable.
- For instance, if you hold one crypto token, say one Ethereum, the next Ethereum that you hold will also be of the same value.
- But NFTs are non-fungible that means the value of one NFT is not equal to another. Every art is different from other, making it non fungible, and unique.
TOPIC: IR
Context- US authorities have warned Russia not to invade Ukraine and urged both countries to return to a set of agreements designed to end a separatist war by Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.
Concept-
Minsk Ceasefire Agreement:
- Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists agreed a 12-point ceasefire deal aka MINSK-I Agreement in the capital of Belarus in September 2014. The agreement quickly broke down, with violations by both sides.
- MINSK II: Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the leaders of two pro-Russian separatist regions signed a 13-point agreement in February 2015 in Minsk.
- The 13 points were, in brief:
- An immediate and comprehensive ceasefire
- Withdrawal of all heavy weapons by both sides
- Monitoring and verification by the OSCE
- To start a dialogue on interim self-government for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in accordance with Ukrainian law, and acknowledge their special status by a resolution of parliament.
- A pardon and amnesty for people involved in the fighting
- An exchange of hostages and prisoners.
- Provision of humanitarian assistance.
- Resumption of socio-economic ties, including pensions.
- Restore full control of the state border by the government of Ukraine.
- Withdrawal of all foreign armed formations, military equipment and mercenaries.
- Constitutional reform in Ukraine including decentralisation, with specific mention of Donetsk and Luhansk.
- Elections in Donetsk and Luhansk on terms to be agreed with their representatives.
- Intensify the work of a Trilateral Contact Group including representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE.
Russia-Ukraine Crisis:
- Nord Stream 2 is an undersea Gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. It bypasses Ukraine thus deny its transit fee for Russia’s Gas exports
- The 1,200-km pipeline that runs from Ust-Luga in Russia to Greifswald in Germany through the Baltic Sea.
- Some EU members have security concerns regarding Russia’s presence in Baltic Sea.
- US fears that it could give Russia too much leverage in Europe and increase threat of Ukraine Invasion by Russia.
TOPIC: Science & Tech
Context- Number of antibiotics, investment not sufficient to minimise threat of wide-spread infection according to a new report. Of the 12 antibiotics companies that have gone public in the past 10 years, only 5 are still active today.
- WHO published its list of antibiotic-resistant “priority pathogens” – a catalogue of 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.
Concept-
WHO’s Global Priority Pathogen List?
- This list is a new tool to ensure R&D responds to urgent public health needs.
- The WHO list is divided into three categories: critical, high and medium priority.
- PRIORITY 1: CRITICAL
- Acinetobacterbaumannii, carbapenem-resistant
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carbapenem-resistant
- Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant, ESBL-producing
- PRIORITY 2: HIGH
- Enterococcus faecium, vancomycin-resistant
- Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate and resistant
- Helicobacter pylori, clarithromycin-resistant
- Campylobacter spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant
- Salmonellae, fluoroquinolone-resistant
- Neisseria gonorrhoeae, cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant
- PRIORITY 3: MEDIUM
- Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin-non-susceptible
- Haemophilusinfluenzae, ampicillin-resistant
- Shigella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant
- The Indian Pathogen Priority List (IPPL) released by Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare is aligned with WHO’s Global Priority Pathogen List of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
TOPIC: Economy
Context- Thanks to the meme stocks and the vitality of the ‘FAANG’ stocks in the US markets during the pandemic, retail participation in developed markets peaked at 56 percent in 2021.
Concept-
FAANG Stocks:
- FAANG is an acronym for five big tech giants namely: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet (which owns Google).
- Amid the ongoing pandemic, FAANG companies have prospered while other businesses have suffered.
- For instance, more online shopping was done, people scrolled social media to curb their boredom and so on.
- The share prices of FAANG Companies have escalated in the year 2020 by close to 50% despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
8. CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY
TOPIC: Economy
Context- The Budget has proposed the introduction of digital currency, using blockchain and other technologies, by the RBI in FY23.
Concept-
About CBDC:
- According to the RBI, the CBDC will be a legal tender in digital form.
- It will be the same as fiat currency and will be exchangeable one-to-one with fiat currency.
- The Finance Bill has provisions for amending the RBI Act, 1934, to introduce the CBDC.
- An amendment needs to be made to Sections 2 and 22 of the Act, which will ensure that CBDC is regarded as bank notes.
- It is further proposed to insert a new Section 22A relating to the non- applicability of some sections of the Act for the digital bank note.
- Sections 24 (denomination of notes),
- Section 25 (form of bank notes),
- Section 27 (re-issue of notes),
- Section 28 (recovery of notes lost, stolen, mutilated or imperfect) and
- Section 39 (obligation to supply different forms of currency)
9. SEPARATIST REGIONS OF UKRAINE
TOPIC: Geography
Context- President Vladimir Putin told his Security Council on Monday that Russia should consider recognising the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic in Donbass as independent.
Concept-
- The Lugansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics are located in the historical Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine.
- Since Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Eastern and Western Ukraine typically voted for different candidates in presidential elections.
- President Yanukovych’s overthrow in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution led to protests in Eastern Ukraine, which gradually escalated into an armed conflict between the newly formed Ukrainian government and the local armed militias.
TOPIC: Economy
Context- ‘Himalayan yogi’ planned vacation to Seychelles, shared songs with NSE chief, email exchange reveals.
Concept-
About Tax Havens:
- A tax haven is a jurisdiction with very low “effective” rates of taxation for foreign investors.
- In some traditional definitions, a tax haven also offers financial secrecy.
- However, while countries with high levels of secrecy but also high rates of taxation, most notably the United States and Germany in the Financial Secrecy Index (“FSI”) rankings, can be featured in some tax haven lists, they are not universally considered as tax havens.
- A list of some of the most popular tax haven countries includes: Andorra, the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, the Cook Islands, The Island of Jersey, Hong Kong, The Isle of Man, Mauritius, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Panama, St. Kitts, and Nevis.
- Some notable authors on tax havens describe them as “captured states”. The term is particularly used for smaller tax havens, with examples being Antigua, the Seychelles, and Jersey.
- Worldwide there is not a comprehensively defined standard for the classification of a tax haven country. However, there are several regulatory bodies that monitor tax haven countries, including the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
- Characteristics of tax haven countries generally include:
- no or low income taxes,
- minimal reporting of information,
- lack of transparency obligations,
- lack of local presence requirements, and
- marketing of tax haven vehicles.