Daily Prelims Notes 23 March 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

23 March 2024

1. Worrying biodiversity loss in Finnish coastal waters: report

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context:

• A report from Finnish experts, published on March 22, highlights the threat of biodiversity loss in Finland’s coastal waters, attributing it mainly to eutrophication and climate change.

Key findings:

• The Finnish Nature Panel’s first study on Finland’s coastal marine environment revealed 45 forms of biodiversity loss, primarily characterized by the local disappearance of species and declines in others.
  • Finland’s unique Baltic Sea waters, characterized by brackish and shallow conditions, are home to distinct organisms.
• The report raises concerns over the decline of key species like bladderwrack, eelgrass, and the blue mussel.
• Coastal ecosystems, crucial for carbon and nutrient sequestration, oxygen production, and maintaining fish stocks, are significantly affected by eutrophication and climate change.
• Eutrophication, driven by agricultural runoff, forestry, and wastewater, poses the greatest threat to marine biodiversity, with no coastal water areas in Finland currently in good condition regarding this issue.
• Despite some recovery signs, coastal regions have not achieved a satisfactory ecological status.
• The Baltic Sea‘s rapid changes due to climate change exacerbate the situation. To halt biodiversity loss and meet international goals, the Nature Panel advocates for enhanced marine area protection and integrating nature conservation into decision- making processes.
• The ecosystem is vulnerable due to its low diversity of invertebrates, which are crucial to the food web. The loss of any species could have irreplaceable impacts on the ecosystem’s function.

Baltic sea:

• The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North and Central European Plain.
• The Baltic Sea drains through the Danish Straits into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, Great Belt and Little Belt. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia (divided into the Bothnian Bay and the Bothnian Sea), the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga and the Bay of Gdańsk.

2. At least 69 Rohingya refugees rescued after boat capsizes off Indonesia

Subject: IR

Section: Places in news

Context:

• A wooden boat carrying an estimated 150 Rohingya refugees capsized off Aceh’s coast in Indonesia. 69 individuals have been rescued, but many are feared drowned.

Details:

• The rescued persons brought to port by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS Aceh).
• Background:
  • The Rohingya, fleeing persecution in Myanmar and living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, often attempt to reach Malaysia.

• Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees.

UN Refugee Convention, 1951:

• The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was the first comprehensive attempt to define refugees and charted a detailed guideline for host countries to ensure the adequate protection and preservation of the rights of all refugees.
• It puts out clearly who a refugee is and what kind of assistance, rights and legal protection a refugee is entitled to receive.
• It also lays down the obligations of refugees towards the host countries.
• The Convention also specifies certain categories of people, such as war criminals,

who do not qualify for refugee status.

• India is not a signatory to these conventions due to following reasons:
  • Dispute over definition of refugees
  • National security
  • Cultural strain
  • Loss of sovereignty

Definition of Refugee:

• The 1951 convention defines a refugee as:
  • A person who is outside his or her country of nationality or habitual residence
  • Has a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion
  • Unable or unwilling to avail him— or herself of the protection of that country, or
  • Unable to return there, for fear of persecution

Various Rights conferred to Refugees

• The right not to be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions.
• The right not to be punished for illegal entry into the territory of a contracting State.
• The rights to work, housing, education, public relief and assistance, freedom of religion, access courts, and freedom of movement within the territory.
• The right to be issued identity and travel documents.
• The right to be protected from refoulement apply to all refugees.

Places in news:

• Kuala Bubon and Aceh province- Indonesia

3. HC strikes down UP madrasa law, says put students in regular schools

Subject: Polity

Section: Places in news

Context:

• The Allahabad High Court declared the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004, unconstitutional for violating ‘secular’ principles and ‘fundamental rights under Article 14’ of the Constitution.
• The court instructed the Uttar Pradesh government to integrate madrasa students into regular schools recognized by the state’s education boards, ensuring adequate seat availability and establishment of new schools as needed.
• The government shall also ensure that children between the ages of 6 to 14 years are not left without admission in duly recognised institutions.

Background:

• Uttar Pradesh hosts 16,513 recognized and 8,449 unrecognized madrasas, catering to nearly 25 lakh students. The madrasa Act is also “violative of Section 22 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956”.

Legal Challenges:

• Petitioner Anshuman Singh Rathore argued that the Act violates constitutional rights to equality, non-discrimination, and education.
• It was also contended that the Act contradicts the Right to Education (RTE) Act by excluding madrasas from compulsory education norms.

Government and Madrasa Board’s Defense:

• The state and the Madrasa Board defended the educational role of madrasas, emphasizing their affordability for marginalized communities and arguing that the UGC Act does not apply to religious education.

Court’s Response to Objections:

• The court dismissed objections regarding the petitioner’s standing, recognizing the issue’s significance concerning the fundamental rights of children from financially weak minority families.

Madrasa Board’s Statement:

• UP Madrasa Board chairman Iftikhar Ahmed Javed noted the intent behind the Act was to promote oriental languages and stated that government grants were not solely for religious education.

Court’s Observations:

• The court highlighted the Act’s emphasis on Islamic studies for progression and the optional nature of modern subjects, deeming it a violation of the right to universal, quality, and secular education.

4. India’s ‘protected’ basmati varieties renamed & cultivated in Pak, IARI demands legal action

Subject: Geography

Section: Eco geography

Context:

• IARI has raised concerns about Pakistan’s unauthorized cultivation and marketing of IARI-bred basmati rice varieties, including Pusa Basmati-1121, PB-6, PB-1509, PB-1847, PB-1885, and PB-1886.
• These varieties, accounting for approximately 90% of India’s basmati exports, are protected under Indian law, limiting their cultivation to certain regions within India and restricting seed sales.
• The illegal cultivation in Pakistan undermines the rights of Indian breeders and farmers.

Variety Piracy Issues- Specific Varieties and Responses

• Pakistani seed firms need only a small quantity of seeds to multiply these varieties, facilitating illegal propagation.
• Pusa Basmati-1121 (PB-1121): Known for the extra kernel length of its grains, officially registered in Pakistan as ‘PK 1121 Aromatic’ and marketed as ‘1121 Kainat’.
• Other Varieties: PB-6 and PB-1509 have also been adopted in Pakistan, with PB-1509 being registered as ‘Kissan Basmati’.
  • Improved Pusa Basmati 1 (Pusa 1460) – First product of molecular breeding in rice in India.
  • Pusa Basmati 6 (Pusa 1401) – Superior grain quality.
  • Pusa RH10 – The world’s first superfine grain aromatic rice hybrid: It was released in 2001 for commercial cultivation in the irrigated eco-systems of

Haryana, Delhi and Uttaranchal.

• Newer Varieties: IARI’s latest varieties like PB-1847, PB-1885, and PB-1886, bred for disease resistance, are being grown in Pakistan, and acknowledged in YouTube videos by Pakistani farms.

Legal protection for these rice varieties:

• IARI Director A.K. Singh has called for legal measures against Pakistani seed firms to protect Indian interests.
• All the varieties are notified under the Seeds Act, 1966 for cultivation in the officially demarcated Geographical Indication area of basmati rice within India, covering 7 northern states.
• They are further registered under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001. This Act allows only Indian farmers to sow, save, re-sow, exchange or share the seeds of any protected/registered varieties. Even they cannot violate the breeder’s rights by selling the seeds in branded packaged and labelled form

India’s Basmati Rice Exports:

• Poised to hit a new high, with projections reaching $5.5 billion for 2023-24, driven largely by high-yielding varieties developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).
• India dominates markets in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and West Asia, with a preference for parboiled rice.
• Pakistan’s Basmati Exports:
  • Significantly lower than India’s, with exports valued at $694.55 million in 2021-22 and $650.42 million in 2022-23.
  • The first seven months of 2023-24 saw a 24.3% increase in quantity and a 35.6% increase in value over the previous year.
  • Pakistan enjoys an 85% share of the EU-UK market due to lower export prices facilitated by the depreciation of the Pakistani rupee.

5. As Kejriwal becomes first sitting CM to be held, a look at ex-CMs’ arrests: Soren to Jayalalithaa to Lalu

Subject: Polity

Section: Executive

Context:

• With the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arresting Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal Thursday night in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam, Kejriwal became the first sitting CM to have got arrested by any agency.

More on news:

• The ED’s move came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant Kejriwal protection from the central agency’s coercive action.
• On January 31 this year, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president Hemant Soren was forced to step down as the Jharkhand CM just before he was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.
• On July 25, 1997, Bihar CM Lalu Prasad was served an arrest warrant in the fodder scam.
• He stepped down from his post, made his wife Rabri Devi the CM, and went to jail for about four months before getting bail.

Judicial Pronouncements:

• Judgments in the Supreme Court and High Courts have previously concluded that constitutional morality, good governance, and constitutional trust are the basic norms for holding a public office.
• A recent judgment by the Madras High Court in S. Ramachandran versus V. Senthil Balaji referred to arguments made in court on whether a Minister must forfeit his right to occupy a public office that demands a high degree of morality if he is accused of a “financial scandal”.
• In the 2014 Constitution Bench judgment of the Supreme Court in Manoj Narula versus Union of India, which had held that the basic norm for holding a public office was constitutional morality, that is, to avoid acting in a manner contradictory to the rule of law.
• The second norm was good governance.

Rules to arrest CM:

• As far as the CBI is concerned, according to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (CrPC), the law enforcement agency can arrest any person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the court.
• The officers have no discretion in carrying out the arrest warrant issued by the

courts.

• In the case of arresting a chief minister, the CBI can arrest a person who is accused, while adhering and in compliance with certain rules and procedural aspects.
• They can only be arrested if there is enough reason to believe that the accused

would abscond, will try to destroy evidence, or act in a way so as to avoid the legal process.

• The Chief Minister or de facto head of state government is treated legally, under the capacity of a government official, who can be arrested by the CBI on other grounds which are not relevant to their discharge of official duties since, duties carried out as Chief Minister have been executed in accordance to the Constitution of India, laws, rules and regulations of the Union of India.

Immunities under Article 361:

• Under Article 361 of the Constitution only the President and Governor are granted immunity from arrest and proceedings before a court.
• The Prime Minister and Chief Minister of a state are not granted any immunity.

6. ISRO successfully conducts second Pushpak RLV landing experiment

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Space tech

Context:

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said it successfully conducted the landing experiment of Pushpak Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) at Aeronautical Test Range in Chitradurga district in Karnataka.

More on news:

• Back in 2016, the space agency conducted the maiden test flight of RLV Demonstrator at Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
• The experiment involved sending a winged spacecraft on a rocket powered by conventional solid booster (HS9) engine used by ISRO into space.
• The spacecraft travelled at a speed of Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound) when re-entering the earth’s orbit and travelled a distance of 450 km before splashdown in the Bay of Bengal.
• It was ISRO’s first attempt to develop a space vehicle that can fly numerous times into space like airplanes.

About Pushpak Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV):

• The winged vehicle called Pushpak landed precisely on the runway after being released from 4.5-kilometre altitude.
• This is ISRO’s second series of RLV landing experiments and this time, the RLV exhibited autonomous landing capability and undertook more difficult maneuvers with dispersions.
• The high-speed landing conditions and approach used by RLV while returning from space was simulated during the mission.
• ISRO conducted a series of experiments with RLV-TD.
• It was part of efforts at developing essential technologies for a fully reusable launch vehicle to enable low-cost access to space.
• ISRO’s RLV-TD, looking like an aircraft, consisted of a fuselage, a nose cap, double delta wings, and twin vertical tails.

7. An Illustrated Guide on the Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) of India

Subject: Environment

Section: Species in news

Context:

• The Zoological Survey of India published a book entitled, ‘An illustrated guide to the Lepidoptera of India: taxonomic procedures, family characters, diversity and distribution’.

More on news:

• The present work is one of the outputs from the 6th Asian Lepidoptera Conservation Symposium, hosted by Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in 2019, where a dire need was broadly discussed for a book which can guide both amateurs and professionals in the field of lepidopterology.
• The project was initiated during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The diversity of global Lepidoptera is updated to 166,320 species, 143 families and 43 super families, of which 13,124 species, 101 families and 31 super families occur in India.
• In this book, the authors rectified a taxonomic glitch and described a new family of Lepidoptera i.e., Heliocosmidae.

About the document:

• This document aims to bring a summary of the main diagnostic characters for all the families and super families of Butterflies and Moths found in India.
• Key attributes of the basal splitting and the superfamily compositions of various clades of Butterflies and Moths are summarized.
• The book outlines the methods to collect and curate voucher material in the field, taxonomic procedures followed in laboratory, superfamily and family level identification and the knowledge about the lepidopteran diversity and patterns of distribution, globally.
• Both academically technical and simpler, natural history field guide style is the core strength of the book.

8. Trials on for seven weight-loss drugs knocking on Indian doors

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Health

Context:

• Regulatory data analyzed by The Indian Express shows that advanced-stage trials for at least seven new drugs in this category have been listed with India’s clinical trial registry.

More on news:

• Studies have proved that the new category of weight-loss injectables can reduce your weight by up to 20% comparable to life-saving bariatric surgeries — these are now expected to be available in India in the next couple of years.
• Currently, there are 31 trials in place.
• Two of these medications are already approved for use among diabetics and those struggling with obesity in the US.
• Six of the seven therapies currently under trial have been developed by Novo

Nordisk, a Danish company, and Eli Lilly, a US drug manufacturer.

• These drugs are expected to be marketed in India once trials show positive results among the population.
• India is also participating in trials of more potent compounds.

More about drugs:

• Novo Nordisk sells Semaglutide (antidiabetic and weight-loss medication) as Ozempic, a low-dose injectable for diabetes, and Wegovy, a high-dose injectable for weight loss.
• Eli Lilly has rolled out Manjaro for managing diabetes and Zepbound for weight loss.
• Semaglutide essentially mimics a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1), which stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin.
• This in turn lowers blood sugar, reducing craving and slowing digestion.
• All these mechanisms keep you from overeating, ultimately leading to weight loss.
• Tirzepatide, which acts on two targets (GLP-1 and GIP) is more powerful and leads to about 15% weight loss.
• Retatrutide, an upcoming drug, acts on three targets (GLP-1, GIP and glucagon), tackling obesity more effectively at 24%.
• Novo Nordisk recently announced early results for another weight-loss medicine called Amycretin, which, like CagriSema, targets GLP-1 and a hormone called amylin.
• Novo Nordisk is also conducting trials of Semaglutide with insulin Icodec and weight-loss compound Cagrilintide, with Indian participants.
• Companies like Sun Pharma, Levim and Biocon sought permission to conduct bioequivalence studies for Liraglutide last year, firms like Torrent and Dr Reddy’s are conducting similar trials for Semaglutide injectables.