Daily Prelims Notes 24 January 2021

January 24, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

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Daily Prelims Notes 24 January 2021

By

Santosh Sir

All 6 Prelims qualified

4 CSE Mains qualified

If I can do it, you can too

Table Of Contents

1. SUKHOI 30 MKI

Subject: Defence

Context: The resurrection of 222 Squadron at Thanjavur with Sukhoi-30 aircraft has paved the way for strengthening maritime security in the southern peninsula and maintaining Indian interests in the Indian Ocean region, Air Marshal Amit Tiwari, Air has said.

Concept:

Sukhoi 30 is a twin-engine Fighter Jet manufactured by Sukhoi Aviation Corporation.
There are many variants of Sukhoi-30 aircraft, and the variant used by Indian Air Force is Sukhoi 30 MkI.
Apart from the Russian and Indian Air Force, the other users of Sukhoi-30 aircraft are Algeria, China, Vietnam, Venezuela, Malaysia.
Sukhoi 30 MKI is the backbone of the Indian Air Force. As of January 2020, India operates around 260 Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter jets.
Range – 3000 Km
Maximum Speed – Mach 2.

2. NASAL VACCINE

Subject: Science & tech

Context: Recently, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation recommended granting permission for phase 1 human clinical trials for Bharat Biotech’s nasal COVID-19 vaccine, BBV154.

Concept:

About the Vaccine

Bharat Biotech has partnered with Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis for a novel intranasal coronavirus vaccine (BBV154).
Intranasal vaccines are vaccines that are administered through the nose to the mucosal layer.
An intranasal vaccine stimulates a broad immune response – neutralizing IgG, mucosal IgA, and T cell responses.
Immune responses at the site of infection (in the nasal mucosa) – essential for blocking both infection and transmission of COVID-19.
So far, intranasal vaccination is being used only for influenza.
However, it cannot be used on certain groups of people, particularly those who have compromised immune systems.

Vaccine Advantages

The nasal route has excellent potential for vaccination due to the organized immune systems of the nasal mucosa.
Non-invasive, Needle-free.
Single dose regimen.
Ease of administration – does not require trained health care workers.
Elimination of needle-associated risks (injuries and infections).
High compliance (Ideally suits for children’s and adults).
Scalable manufacturing – able to meet global demand.

3. NATIONAL EMERGENCY

Subject: Polity

Context: Justices N.V. Ramana and D.Y. Chandrachud of the Supreme Court on Saturday shared their personal experiences as students when the Emergency was declared in 1975.

Concept:

Emergency can be declared due to war / external aggression [external emergency] or armed rebellion [internal emergency]. A proclamation can be issued by the president for different grounds. It can be issued when an already existing proclamation is in force too.
It can apply to entire country or a part.
It can be declared even before an actual occurrence if president is satisfied of imminent threat.
The president can declare this only after written recommendation of the entire cabinet.
A proclamation can be subject to judicial review.
A proclamation must be approved by both houses within one month by a special majority. This extends the life of emergency by six months at a time. This can be done infinite times.
If Lok Sabha is dissolved then the approval of proclamation or extension of its life can be done by Rajya Sabha. The proclamation survives till 30 days after first sitting of the newly reconstituted Lok Sabha.
A proclamation can be revoked by president anytime [this doesn’t need parliament ratification]. Also Lok Sabha can force a revocation by disapproving it with a simple majority. Thus Rajya Sabha has no role in revocation.

Effects of national emergency:

Centre can issue executive directions to states on any matters. However state governments aren’t suspended.
Parliament can make laws on matters in the state list. If parliament isn’t in session president can pass ordinances on state list matters.
Parliament can also confer powers and duties on center and its authorities to carry out tasks under its extended jurisdiction.
Such legislative actions become inoperative within 6 months of the emergency ceasing to operate. Such laws apply even to states where the emergency isn’t imposed.
President can modify distribution of revenues between centre and states till the end of financial year when emergency is over. Such orders have to be laid before parliament.
Parliament by law can extend term of Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly by 1 year at a time [any number of times]. This becomes inoperable by the end of 6 months of emergency ending.
Under article 358, all fundamental rights under Article 19 i.e. Right to Freedom, are automatically suspended when a proclamation of national emergency on external grounds [not armed rebellion] is declared. This action applies to whole country not a part.
Any law can be passed that violates these rights but not any other, such a law can’t be invalidated till the emergency is operative. Any action as per laws also remains above judicial remedy even after emergency is revoked.
Under article 359 a presidential order can be passed disallowing people from seeking judicial remedy to enforce other fundamental rights i.e. article 14-32 that are specified in that order [ except article 20&21: right to life and liberty] for a specific period only.
The rights remain in force but right to seek remedy is suspended. The state can make laws abridging the fundamental rights mentioned in the order such laws can’t be challenged in court.
Any executive action under such laws is also protected. Presidential order has to be approved by both houses. Article 359 is available even during national emergency on armed rebellion. The presidential order can apply to whole country or a part.

4. BIJU PATNAIK

Subject: History

Context : Tucked away inside the Indonesian Embassy in New Delhi is a special room — one that has been built in recognition of the nation’s freedom struggle from Dutch colonialism 74 years ago, and named, unusually, for an Indian leader, Biju Patnaik.

Concept:

Bijayananda Patnaik (1916 – 1997), popularly known as Biju Patnaik, was an Indian politician, aviator and businessman.
Aviation: As a pilot, Patnaik flew with private airlines but at the start of the Second World War he joined the Royal Indian Air Force eventually becoming head of air transport command.
Role in Indian freedom struggle: During quit India Movement, he used air force transports to fly clandestine missions that carried freedom fighters like Ram Manohar Lohia from hideouts across India to secret meetings that charted the independence struggle.
Role in Kashmir integration: Biju Patnaik had fearlessly flown a DC-3 transport aircraft to Srinagar on October 27, 1947, ferrying soldiers of the Sikh regiment after the tribal invasion from Pakistan in Kashmir.
Role in Indonesian freedom struggle: Patnaik rescued two key Indonesian independence leaders from a remote hideout in Indonesia and flew them to India, outraging the Dutch. For this act of bravery, he was given honorary citizenship in Indonesia and awarded the ‘Bhoomi Putra’ the highest Indonesian award.
Politics: As politician, he served twice as the Chief Minister of the State of Odisha. Biju Patnaik’s younger son, Naveen Patnaik, is the current Chief Minister of Odisha.

5. FLASH DROUGHTS

Subject: Geography

Context: A new study has now pointed out that India could experience more such flash droughts by the end of this century.

Several factors including atmospheric anomalies, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions play an important role.

Concept:

Fash drought is the rapid onset of drought.
It can develop in as little time as 10 to 15 days.
In contrast with conventional drought, which is mainly driven by lack of precipitation, flash drought usually includes abnormally high temperatures, winds, and/or incoming radiation that leads to abnormally high evapotranspiration (ET) rates.
Flash droughts occur more often than perceived and can cause major agricultural losses if they are not predicted and detected in a timely manner.
The prediction of flash droughts on subseasonal timescales is of critical importance for impact assessment, disaster mitigation, and loss prevention.

Findings of the study

The research team found that flash droughts had sudden decreases in ET anomaly over the drought regions before onset.
That means that soil moisture was plentiful prior to the drought, but rapidly evaporated due to heat/wind/radiation.
The researchers noticed sharp declines in soil moisture anomaly associated with the sudden decreases in ET anomaly.
Temperatures during the development periods were warmer than normal, due to heatwaves in the regions, and the three-month Standardized Precipitation Indexes were negative for flash droughts.
This suggests that closely monitoring rapid changes in ET (a responding variable to temperature), along with soil moisture and precipitation conditions, can provide early warnings of flash drought development.

6. US and CLIMATE ACTION

Subject: Environment

Context: Joe Biden assumed office as President of the United States on January 20, 2021, and among the first orders he signed was one to restore America’s participation in the United Nations Paris Agreement on climate change.

Concept:

US National Pledge

To achieve an economy-wide reduction of its GHG emissions by 26%-28% below the 2005 level in 2025 and to make best efforts to reduce emissions.
Contribution of about $3 billion to the UN’s Green Climate Fund. However it had stopped its contribution, after transferring an estimated $1 billion.

Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement, adopted at COP 21 in Paris, on 2015, constitutes a landmark agreement on climate change that seeks to limit global average temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and endeavour to limit the increase to 1.5°C.
The agreement, which came into force on November 4, 2016, currently has 188 parties.
All parties to it are expected to undertake ambitious efforts to support the agreement’s goals and communicate their related intentions every five years in the form of NDCs.

UN Green Climate Fund

The GCF was set up in 2010 under the UNFCCC’s financial mechanism to channel funding from developed countries to developing countries to allow them to mitigate climate change and also adapt to disruptions arising from a changing climate.
The Green Climate Fund will support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing country Parties using thematic funding windows.
It is intended to be the centre piece of efforts to raise Climate Finance of $100 billion a year by 2020.
The Fund will promote the paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways by providing support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions .
The Fund is governed and supervised by a Board that will have full responsibility for funding decisions and that receives the guidance of the Conference of Parties (COP). The Fund is accountable to, and functions under the guidance of, the COP.

7. ALABAMA FOREST

Subject: Geography

Context: Among the petitions before United States President Joe Biden from environmentalists is one to save a unique forest off the coast of Alabama.

Concept:

Entire Alabama forest is underwater — 10 fathoms (60 feet) deep — and made up of the remains of cypress trees that grew in the ice age, 60,000 years ago, when prehistoric humans were just starting to move out of Africa.
Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae.
The forest was submerged in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico as sea levels rose, and remained entombed in thick layers of sediment, mud and sand for millennia.
The sediments prevented oxygen from decomposing the stumps, barks and other remnants of the forest.
The forest was discovered only after Hurricane Ivan hit the Gulf Coast in 2004 and unleashed giant waves that removed the sediments.
Divers thereafter saw a perfectly preserved cypress forest that was unlike anything else on earth.

8. PEPSEQ TECHNOLOGY

Subject: Science & tech

Context : The results of a new study suggest that the immune systems of people infected with Covid-19 may rely on antibodies created during infections from earlier coronaviruses (other than SARS-CoV-2) to help fight the disease.

Concept:

The study sought to understand how coronaviruses ignite the human immune system and conduct a deeper dive on the inner workings of the antibody response.
The researchers used a tool called PepSeq to finely map antibody responses to all human-infecting coronaviruses. .
Besides SARS-CoV-2, researchers examined the antibody responses from two other potentially deadly coronaviruses: MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-1.

PepSeq Technology

Molecules that bind to critical targets (organisms, proteins, toxins, or other biological molecules) have great potential as diagnostic/detection tools and also as potential therapeutic drugs.
For detection/diagnostics, the current standard is antibodies that are produced in rodents or with phage display technologies. This is labor intensive and lacks in cost and time effectiveness.
This technology relates to a method for identifying synthetic molecular binding agents from peptide libraries using the PepSeq technology.
This method uses large libraries of peptides tagged with DNA sequences to precisely identify particular peptides.
Target molecules (e.g., proteins, toxins, enzymes, pathogens, biomarkers) are incubated with the libraries to identify specific peptides that bind to the targets.