Daily Prelims Notes 26 December 2020

December 26, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Daily Prelims Notes 26 December 2020

Table Of Contents

1. Commerce ministry has recommended for extension of anti-dumping duty

Subject : Economics

Context : The commerce ministry has recommended for extension of anti-dumping duty for five years on carbon black used in the rubber and tyre industry from China and Russia, with a view to guard domestic players from cheap imports from these two countries.

Concept :

In a notification, the ministry’s investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has said there is a “positive” evidence of likelihood of dumping of ‘carbon black used in rubber applications’ and injury to the domestic industry if the existing anti-dumping duty would be removed.

Carbon Black

Carbon black (subtypes are acetylene black, channel black, furnace black, lamp black and thermal black) is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products such as FCC tar, coal tar, or ethylene cracking tar.
Carbon black is a form of para crystalline carbon that has a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, albeit lower than that of activated carbon.
It is dissimilar to soot in its much higher surface-area-to-volume ratio and significantly lower (negligible and non-bioavailable) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content.

Anti-Dumping Duty

Anti-Dumping Duty is a trade levy imposed by any government on imported products which have prices less than their fair normal values in their domestic market.
Thus, it is protectionist tariff that seeks to stop dumping process where company exports a product at a price lower than price it normally charged in domestic market of importing countries’.
Anti-Dumping Duty is imposed under the multilateral World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime and varies from product to product and from country to country.
In India, anti-dumping duty is recommended by the Union Ministry of Commerce (i.e. by DGAD), while the Union Finance Ministry imposes

2. CERN

Subject : Science & tech

Context :Indian physicist and Padma Shri recipient Prof Rohini Godbole talked about her journey from studying physics in Pune to her current position as a particle physicist best known for her work at CERN.

Concept :

European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is world’s largest nuclear and particle physics laboratory.
It is situated in North West suburbs of Geneva on France-Swiss Border.
Members: It has 22 member states, four associate member states (including India and Pakistan) and three International Organisations have observer status.

Functions:

The laboratory helps scientists and engineers probing fundamental structure of Universe using the most sophisticated scientific instruments and advanced computing systems
Provide the necessary infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research including particle accelerators.

Achievements:

CERN operates the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
It is associated with the discovery of the Higgs Boson which is popularly known as the God particle.
Indian scientists has been active in construction of the LHC in the areas of design, development and supply of hardware accelerator components, software development and deployment in the machine.
They also had played significant role in the CMS (Compact Muon Experiment), one of the two large experiments that led to discovery of God particle.

3. TADOBA ANDHARI TIGER RESERVE

Subject : Environment

Context : A woman was killed in yet another attack by a tiger in Gadchiroli on Friday, taking the annual tally of human victims of tiger attacks in the district to six.

Concept :

TadobaAndhari Tiger Reserve is located in Chandrapur district in Maharashtra.
It is Maharashtra’s oldest and largest national park.
It is one of India’s 50 “Project Tiger” – Tiger reserves.
Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve was established as the second Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra in 1993-94.
The first Tiger Reserve established in the State is Melghat Tiger Reserve (1973-74).
It represents Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous Teak Forests in the Tiger habitat and has viable tiger population of more than 40 tigers.

4. WMO’s provisional report on the State of the Climate 2020

Subject : Environment

Context : This year is also second hottest year on record after 2016, as per WMO’s provisional report on the State of the Climate 2020 published on December 2, which collected data from January till October 2020.

Concept :

State of the Global Climate Provisional Report

This report was released by the World Meteorological Organization.
The decade 2011-2020 would be the warmest ever on record.
Also, the year 2020 is set to be among the three warmest on record.
The record heat in 2020 has been despite La Niña conditions prevailing in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
Scientific evidence indicates increasing temperatures are a direct result of human-led global warming, an impact of Green House Gas emission.
After record GHG levels of 2019, there has been a slight dip this year due to measures taken by countries to fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Global sea-level rise was similar to 2019 values and the general decreasing trend has continued.
Extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, floods, heavy rainfall and droughts which are an expensive consequence of global warming impacted many parts of the world.

Additional Information

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to meteorology (weather), climatology (climate), operational hydrology (water) and other related geophysical sciences such as oceanography and atmospheric chemistry.

5. PM KISAN

Subject: Govt Schemes

Context : At the virtual event, which marks the birth anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, PM Modi transferred over Rs 18,000 crore to more than nine crore farmers, the latest tranche of funds under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.

Concept :

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi:

It is implemented as a central sector scheme by the Government of India.
This scheme was introduced to augment the source of income of many small and marginal farmers.
Under the Scheme an amount of Rs.6000/- per year is transferred directly into the bank accounts of the farmers, subject to certain exclusion criteria relating to higher income status.
The entire responsibility of identification of beneficiaries rests with the State / UT Governments.

Ambit:

The Scheme initially provided income support to all Small and Marginal Farmers’ families across the country, holding cultivable land upto 2 hectares. Its ambit was later expanded w.e.f. 01.06.2019 to cover all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of their land holdings.

Exceptions:

Affluent farmers have been excluded from the scheme such as Income Tax payers in last assessment year, professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants etc and pensioners pensioners drawing at least Rs.10,000/- per month (excluding MTS/Class IV/Group D employees).

Similar programmes by states:

Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana- MP.
The Rythu Bandhu scheme- Telangana.
Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income augmentation (KALIA)- Odisha.

6. TSUNAMI 16th ANNIVERSARY

Subject : Environment

Context : December 26, 2020 marks the 16th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami.

Concept :

Tsunami is a Japanese word for “Harbour wave”. A tsunami is a series of very long-wavelength waves in large water bodies like seas or large lakes caused by a major disturbance above or below the water surface or due to the displacement of a large volume of water.
They are sometimes referred to as tidal waves because of long wavelengths, although the attractions of the Moon and Sun play no role in their formation.
Earthquakes (e.g. 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami), volcanic eruptions (e.g. tsunami caused by the violent eruption of Krakatoa in 1883), landslides (tsunami caused by the collapse of a section of Anak Krakatoa in 2018), underwater explosions, meteorite impacts, etc. have the potential to generate a tsunami.

Mechanism of Tsunami Waves

Megathrust earthquakes cause a sudden displacement in a seabed sufficient to cause the sudden raising of a large body of water.
As the subducting plate plunges beneath the less dense plate, stresses build-up, the locked zone between the plates give way abruptly, and the parts of the oceanic crust is then upthrust resulting in the displacement of a large column of water vertically.
The tsunami on December 26, 2004, was caused after an earthquake displaced the seabed off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
A marine volcanic eruption can generate an impulsive force that displaces the water column and gives birth to a tsunami.
During a submarine landslide, the equilibrium sea-level is altered by sediment moving along the floor of the sea. Gravitational forces then propagate a tsunami.
Most destructive tsunamis can be caused due to the fall of extra-terrestrial objects on to the earth.

2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

The earthquake of 9.2 magnitude occurred in Indian Ocean near the Sumatra-Andaman Subduction Zone.
This triggered a massive and largest Tsunami in the Indian Ocean region. Over 2.3 lakh people died across 14 countries in the Indian Ocean region and out of which the major affected countries were Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.
At that time there was no Tsunami warning system in place in India. Though similar system existed in other parts of the world in pacific and Atlantic, but was not able to provide early warning to the Indian Ocean region.

Tsunami Early Warning System

Within 2 years a state-of-the-art Tsunami warning system was established at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad.
By October 2007, 24*7 early warning systems was in place which is capable of giving early warning within 10 minutes of occurrence of earthquake anywhere in Indian Ocean region.
INCOIS is developing 3D GIS mapping in vulnerable coastal areas to have new early warning systems for tsunamis in the eastern coast of India. This will be extended to other vulnerable areas of the Indian coasts.
There is a standard operating procedure to deal with Tsunami activities which are established by Tsunami warning centre at Hyderabad.
This information is passed on to National Disaster Management Authority within 10 minutes of occurrence of earthquake.
The coastal states administrators have been trained to provide the help required for the people living in the coastal region. There are periodic awareness programmes in the coastal region and people will be taught what to do when the Tsunami occurs.
In 2010 there was National Disaster Management Guidelines which emphasised on advanced systems like Topography, GIS database and remote sensing data.
Tsunami warning system is a system of systems where it requires various branches of science and technology to develop the system and make it operational. We require data from satellites, ocean observation systems, ships, and good communication to generate tsunami forecast.

7. DRY RUN FOR COVID 19 VACCINES

Subject : Science & tech

Context : The Centre is gearing up for the roll out of COVID-19 vaccine across the country, with four States all set to initiate a dry-run for vaccine administration next week, the Union Health Ministry said .

Concept :

Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, and Punjab have been selected considering the geographical locations.
Each State will plan it in two districts and preferably in different (five) session type settings e.g. district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach etc.
The Ministry added that this exercise will enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment.
The linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms and identify challenges and guide way forward prior to actual implementation including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process.
This two-day activity is planned on December 28 and 29, and will include activities from the necessary data entries in Co-WIN to vaccine receipt and allocation to deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries to reporting and evening meeting.
This will also include testing for cold storage and transportation arrangements for the vaccine, management of crowds at the session sites with proper physical distancing, said the Ministry.
Detailed checklist has been prepared by the Health Ministry and shared with the four States to guide them in the dry run.
Meanwhile the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of COVID-19 (NEGVAC) has recommended three prioritised population groups including Healthcare Workers (HCWs) about one crore, Frontline Workers (FLWs) about two crore, and Prioritised Age Group (about 27 crore).

8. PINK BOLL WORM

Subject : Science & tech

Context :With the cotton season in Maharashtra is about to end, this year also saw the continual attacks of Pink Boll Worms (PBW) on the crop.

Concept :

It is an insect known for being a pest in cotton farming.
The pink bollworm is native to Asia, but has become an invasive species in most of the world’s cotton-growing regions.
The female moth lays eggs in a cotton boll, and when the larvae emerge from the eggs, they inflict damage through feeding.
Since cotton is used for both fiber and seed oil, the damage is twofold.
Their disruption of the protective tissue around the boll is a portal of entry for other insects and fungi.
Infestation on susceptible cotton is generally controlled with insecticides.
Populations of bollworms are also controlled with mating disruption, chemicals, and releases of sterile males which mate with the females but fail to fertilize their eggs.

9. INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SKILLS

Subject : Current Events

Context : Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship inaugurated the first batch of Indian Institute of Skills in Mumbai.

Concept :

The institute is a joint initiative between Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India and Tata Indian Institute of Skills.
Formal agreement for setting up institute has been signed between MSDE and TATA IIS on 11th November, 2020.
The first batch at TATA-Indian Institute of Skills will commence training with two courses in Factory Automation, envisaged to be the foundation for future courses and Smart Manufacturing (Industry 4.0) technology and applications.

10. WATER QUALITY TESTING INNOVATION CHALLENGE

Subject: Current Events

Context: The National Jal Jeevan Mission has launched an innovation challenge in partnership with Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to develop portable devices for water testing.

Concept :

Water quality testing is one of the priority areas under Jal Jeevan Mission, the flagship programme of Union Government.
The aim of the innovation challenge is to ensure that water sources are tested at various locations, at different levels; thereby, helping the policy framers to design programs which address the water contamination issues.
Jal Jeevan Mission is under implementation in partnership with the States to enable every rural home to have tap water connection by 2024.
The Uniform Drinking Water Quality Protocol, 2019 has specified some important parameters to be monitored for assuring portability of drinking water as per BIS IS 10500:2012 and subsequent amendments.