Daily Prelims Notes 28 November 2023

November 28, 2023
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

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Daily Prelims Notes

28 November 2023

Table Of Contents

1. Fibre optic cables: its origins, working and different functions

Subject : Science and Tech

Section: Awareness in IT

Context:

During COVID-19 pandemic, optical fibre highlighted the crucial role of the internet in maintaining global connectivity, facilitated largely by high-speed internet connections.
These connections, enabling video chats, online payments, and virtual meetings, largely depend on the technology of optical fibers.

About Optical Fibers

Size and Composition: Optical fibers are thin strands of glass, almost as thin as a human hair, used for transmitting information.
Information Transmission: They carry various forms of data, including text, images, and videos, at speeds close to that of light.
Everyday Relevance: Optical fibers play a vital role in everyday communications like text messaging and phone calls.
Fragility vs. Strength: Despite their thinness, these fibers are strong and durable when encased in protective materials.
Versatility: They are flexible enough to be laid underground, underwater, or wound around spools.

Genesis of optical fibre

Charles Kao’s Contribution: About 60 years ago, physicist Charles Kao proposed using glass fibers for telecommunications, a suggestion that earned him a Nobel Prize in 2009.
Replacing Copper Wires: Kao’s idea was initially met with skepticism but eventually replaced copper wires in telecommunication.

Optical Fibers Working?

Light as an Electromagnetic Wave: Light, part of the electromagnetic spectrum, can be controlled and guided through optical fibers.
Total Internal Reflection: This phenomenon allows light to travel long distances within the fiber with minimal loss of power.
Fiber Optic Communication System: This system includes a transmitter, the optical fiber, and a receiver to encode, carry, and reproduce information.

Data Transmission and Resistance

High Data-Transmission Rate: Optical fibers can transmit data at rates of several terabits per second.
Insensitivity to External Disturbances: Unlike copper cables, they are not affected by external factors like lightning or bad weather.

Development of Fiber Optic Cables

Early Experiments: The concept of guiding light in transparent media dates back to the 19th century, with demonstrations by Jean-Daniel Colladon and others.
Medical and Defense Applications: Early glass objects were used in medicine and defense before their adaptation for data transmission.
Advancements in the 20th Century: Significant progress occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, including the development of glass-clad fibers and the invention of lasers.

Present day Manufacturing

Loss Reduction: Modern optical fibers have significantly reduced signal loss, less than 0.2 dB/km.
Fiber-Optic Cable Production: Today, glass fibers are produced using the fiber-drawing technique, ensuring high purity and engineered refractive index profiles.

Prospects of Fiber Optics

Quantum Optics and Communication: The technology stands at the forefront of a new era, with expanding possibilities in quantum optics and home connectivity.
Expanding Applications: Fiber optics technology is now integral to various fields, including telecommunication, medical science, and laser technology.
India’s National Mission: The Indian government’s 2020 Union Budget announced a significant investment in quantum technologies and applications, highlighting the future potential of fiber optics.

2. Webb space telescope spots ‘teenage’ galaxies

Subject : Science and Tech

Section: Space technology

Context

The James Webb Space Telescope has provided detailed insights into slightly older galaxies, known as ‘teenagers’ in galactic terms, shedding light on their evolution and unique characteristics.
This research is part of the CECILIA Survey, utilizing Webb to analyze the chemistry of distant galaxies, named after astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.

About Teenage Galaxies

Formation Period: The study focuses on galaxies that formed around 2-3 billion years after the Big Bang, which occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.
Research Methodology: Researchers analyzed light across various wavelengths from 23 such galaxies using Webb, akin to studying their ‘chemical DNA.’
Key Discoveries: These teenage galaxies exhibit distinct chemical compositions, indicative of intense star formation and rapid developmental phases.

Features of Teenage Galaxies

Detected Elements: Observations identified these galaxies glowing with elements like hydrogen, helium, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, argon, nickel, and silicon.
Contrast with Modern Galaxies: These galaxies show significant differences in appearance and behavior compared to contemporary galaxies.
Developmental Mysteries: They undergo crucial, yet not fully understood, processes during this phase, shaping their final structure and nature.
High Temperatures in Star-Forming Regions: Star-forming areas in these galaxies show temperatures around 24,000 degrees Fahrenheit, much higher than in present-day galaxies.
Young Stars and Gas Properties: This temperature variation suggests differences in the stars and gas properties of teenage galaxies.

Importance of Oxygen and Nickel

Oxygen’s Crucial Role: As a key component of galactic DNA and the third-most abundant element in the universe, oxygen is vital for tracking galaxies’ growth history.
Nickel – An Unexpected Find: The presence of nickel, usually not bright enough to be observed in nearby galaxies, suggests unique aspects of massive stars in these galaxies.
Undetected Elements: Astronomers believe that additional elements likely exist in these galaxies but remain undetected due to current technological limits.

Outcomes of the Findings

Insights into Star Formation: Understanding the chemical makeup of these galaxies provides valuable information about their star formation history and rate.
Chemical Immaturity and Rapid Growth: The study indicates that these galaxies are in a phase of rapid formation and are still chemically immature.

3. The mechanism that removes unfit cells before you’re born

Subject : Science and Tech

Section: Biotech

Context:

In 2016, Manvendra Singh re-analysed previously published gene expression data from an early human embryo, and spotted a new group of cells that hadn’t been seen before.
These cells didn’t become a part of the later stages of the embryo and were elim-inated early in development .

Important findings of the Study:

A new group of cells were found that had died before being developed into the later stages of an embryo.
These cells were non-committed and found among cells of inner cell mass.
The inner cell mass or embryoblast is a structure in the early development of an embryo which is not yet implanted along the lines of uterus of the mother.
Human embryonic stem cells express a gene called HERVH.
HERVH is a virus-like gene that helps maintain pluripotency.
Pluripotency is seen in cells that has the ability to make other types of cells in the human body.
Most of the cells of inner cell mass express HERVH, except non-committed cells eventually dies.

Stage of development of embryo:

The development of the human body entails growth from a one-celled zygote to an adult human after fertilization.
Fertilization occurs when the sperm cell enters and fuses with an egg cell (ovum).
The genetic material of the sperm and egg then combines to form the single-cell- zygote.
Zygote than undergoes the processes of cell division and cellular differentiation leading to the formation of the embryo that occurs during the early stages of development.
An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism.
The mass of cells that form the early embryo gets implanted inside the mother’s womb and then grows bigger.
The cells then start to differentiate into different types of cells that makes up the skin, muscles, nerves, etc.
Over time, it develops into organs such as heart, lungs, the brain, and so forth.
In the early stages of the human embryo (before implantation in the womb), the cells arrange themselves in a particular way.
A blob of cells gathers towards one side of the embryo and the other cells arrange themselves around the blob, the cells that are collected on one side are called the Inner cell mass.
Inner cell mass contains pluripotent cells.

What are Jumping Genes?

Transposable elements (TEs) or jumping genes are Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences that move from one location of the genome to another.
These elements were first identified by geneticist Barbara McClintock in 1948.
They are abundantly found in almost all organisms both prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
Prokaryotes are unicellular organisms that do not contain well bounded nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. Example: Monera and archaebacteria.
Eukaryotes are those organisms that contain well bounded nucleus and membrane-bound organelles and can be either unicellular or multicellular. Example: protists, fungi, plants, and animals.
TEs make up 50% of the human genome and up to 90% of the maize genome.
These genes are dangerous little pieces of DNA that can get inserted into different regions of the genome and can damage DNA or cell death.

Role of HERVH:

HERVH itself is a transposon but without the ability to jump.
It protects early embryonic cells from dying because it does not contain another set of mutagenic transposons that causes DNA damage.
It plays a role in the pluripotency of stem cells, so it has major implications for regenerative medicine.
It could play a role in the fitness of the early embryo.
The good non-committed cells expressing HERVH are reducing, leading to less healthy embryos.

A small price to pay:

In the early embryo, when the cells form the inner cell mass and other cells surround it, the latter forms the placenta.
The placenta is a structure that is attached to the wall of the uterus, near the developing fetus, and helps move oxygen and nutrients from the mother to the fetus.
The cells that form the placenta also express transposon activity but are more tolerant of the transposons, and do not die.
But the placenta is discarded after childbirth, so the cost of the placenta is the least to the organism.

The transposon activity in the early embryo could affect its fitness, with implications for infertility treatment and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques.

4. Kambala

Subject: History

Section: Art and culture

Context: Kambala comes to Bengaluru

More about the news:

Over the weekend, Bengaluru hosted its inaugural Kambala race,
The Karnataka government, recognizing its popularity, amended legislation to permit and facilitate the continuation of these races
The event attracted a significant turnout, with thousands of spectators visiting the venue to witness the races.

What is Kambala:

Kambala is an annual buffalo race held in the south western Indian state of Karnataka.
Traditionally, it is sponsored by local Tuluva landlords and households in the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi of Karnataka and Kasaragod of Kerala, a region collectively known as Tulu Nadu.
The Kambala season generally starts in November and lasts until March.
The Kambalas are organized through Kambala samithis (Kambala Associations)
During the race, the racers try to bring the buffaloes under control by holding their reins tight and whipping them.
In its traditional form, Kambala was non-competitive and buffalo pairs raced one after another in paddy fields.
Slushy/marshy paddy field track is used for Kambala.
It was also observed as thanksgiving to gods for protecting the animals from diseases.

What are the categories in Kambala:

Kambala races are typically organized into four categories.
The first, Negilu (plough), involves using lightweight ploughs to tether buffaloes for entry-level races.
In the second category, Hagga (rope), jockeys race buffaloes with just a rope connecting the pair.
The third category, Adda Halage, has jockeys standing on a horizontal plank pulled by buffaloes, distinguishing it from Hagga and Negilu where jockeys run behind the animals.
Kane Halage, the fourth category, features a wooden plank attached to buffaloes. As the plank is dragged through slush tracks, water gushes out of holes, and the height of the splashes determines the event’s winner.

Why was Kambala outlawed by the Supreme Court:

Various organizations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), lodged a petition against traditional sporting events, alleging animal abuse.
The specific concern with Kambala was the tying of buffaloes’ noses with ropes and continuous whipping during races, constituting cruelty.
The Supreme Court, after hearing these petitions, issued a ban on Jallikattu, Kambala, and bullock cart racing in 2014.

How was the ban lifted:

In January 2016, the Environment Ministry issued a notification creating an exception allowing the training of bulls for events such as Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu and Bullock Cart Races in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, and Gujarat.
This exception was granted under the condition that certain measures be taken to minimize the suffering of animals involved in these sports.
Simultaneously, state governments amended the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to provide legal exemptions for these events.
Despite legal challenges, a five-judge Constitutional Bench in May of the same year upheld the amendments made by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.

Why has Kambala been accused of caste discrimination:

Historically, members of the Koraga community, formerly deemed “untouchable,” were subjected to mistreatment preceding the festival, with instances of them being compelled to participate in the races instead of the buffaloes.
Critics contend that even today, the sport is predominantly controlled by higher caste groups, while individuals from lower castes often find themselves relegated to menial tasks during the event.

5. Rat-hole mining

Subject: Environment

Section: Pollution

Context: Uttarakhand tunnel rescue ops

What is Rat hole mining:

It is a method of extracting coal from narrow, horizontal seams, prevalent in Meghalaya.
The term “rat hole” refers to the narrow pits dug into the ground, typically just large enough for one person to descend and extract coal.
Once the pits are dug, miners descend using ropes or bamboo ladders to reach the coal seams.
The coal is then manually extracted using primitive tools such as pickaxes, shovels, and baskets.

What are different types of rat mining:

Rat-hole mining is broadly of two types.
In the side-cutting procedure, narrow tunnels are dug on the hill slopes and workers go inside until they find the coal seam.
The coal seam in hills of Meghalaya is very thin, less than 2 m in most cases
The other type of rat-hole mining is called box-cutting.
In this type, a rectangular opening is made, varying from 10 to 100 sqm, and through that a vertical pit is dug, 100 to 400 feet deep.
Once the coal seam is found, rat-hole-sized tunnels are dug horizontally through which workers can extract the coal.

What are the Environmental and safety concerns involved:

The mines often operate without regulation, lacking essential safety measures like proper ventilation, structural support, and safety gear for the workers.
Moreover, the mining process contributes to land degradation, deforestation, and water pollution.
This mining method has garnered severe criticism for its unsafe working conditions, environmental harm, and frequent accidents resulting in injuries and fatalities.
Despite efforts by authorities to regulate or prohibit such practices, they persist due to economic factors and the lack of viable alternative livelihoods for the local population.

When and why was it banned:

In 2014, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) imposed a ban on rat-hole mining, a prevalent coal mining practice in Meghalaya.
The NGT cited numerous instances of fatalities, including workers and individuals, due to flooding in mining areas during the rainy season.
The ban was subsequently upheld in 2015.
In response, the Meghalaya state government appealed the NGT’s order, seeking a review, and took the matter to the Supreme Court.

6. EC tells Telangana govt to stop disbursal of Rythu Bandhu

Subject :Polity

Section: Elections

Context: EC tells KCR govt to stop farm aide ,cite model code

More about the news:

The Election Commission of India revoked its “no objection” for disbursement under the Rythu Bandhu scheme in Telangana, accusing BRS Minister T Harish Rao of violating the Model Code of Conduct.
The EC noted that Rao, a candidate sponsored by the BRS Party, publicized the release under the scheme, disrupting the level playing field in the ongoing election process.
The permission for disbursement was initially given with the condition that it wouldn’t be publicized for political gains and not during the silence period before the poll.
The BRS Party urged the EC to reconsider, emphasizing the scheme’s importance for farmers.
The EC directed that disbursement be halted until the MCC in Telangana ceases to apply, citing a clear violation.

What is Model Code of Conduct:

It is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India for the conduct of political parties and candidates during elections mainly with respect to speeches, polling day, polling booths, portfolios, election manifestos, processions, and general conduct.
This set of norms has been evolved with the consensus of political parties who have consented to abide by the principles embodied in the said code in its letter and spirit.
The Model Code of Conduct comes into force immediately on the announcement of the election schedule by the commission for the need of ensuring free and fair elections.
Its main purpose is to ensure that ruling parties, at the Centre and in the States, do not misuse their position of advantage to gain an unfair edge.
It is designed to avert practices that are deemed corrupt under the model code of conduct
During general elections to the Lok Sabha, the code is applicable throughout the country. During general elections to the Legislative Assembly of the state, the code is applicable in the entire State.
During bye-elections, the Model Code of Conduct would be applicable in the area of the concerned Constituency only.

Some facts about Rythu Bandhu Scheme:

The Farmer’s Investment Support Scheme (FISS), commonly known as the Rythu Bandhu scheme, was initiated by the Telangana government in 2018 as a welfare program for farmers.
This scheme has a dual purpose:
- To provide timely cash grants for the initial investment requirements of farmers,
- To prevent farmers from falling into a cycle of debt.
Under this program, a financial aid of Rs 5,000 per acre per farmer is directly transferred to their account each season.
This support is distributed twice a year, specifically allocated for both the kharif and rabi harvests.
Farmers have the flexibility to utilize this assistance for various purposes such as acquiring seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, labor, and other investments related to field operations for the chosen crop season.
Eligibility criteria for the scheme include residency in the state and land ownership.
Additionally, farmers cultivating land in forested areas, predominantly from Scheduled Tribe communities with a valid Record of Forest Rights (ROFR) document, are also eligible to receive benefits.
Notably, this initiative stands out as the country’s inaugural direct farmer investment support scheme, wherein cash is disbursed directly to the beneficiaries.

7. Mylab and Ekincare to promote Serum Institute’s nasal flu vaccine among corporates

Subject :Science and Tech

Section: Health

In the news:

Diagnostics solutions provider Mylab is partnering with Ekincare to promote the nasal influenza vaccine NASOVAC-S4, developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII), among corporates.

Ekincare:

Ekincare is a corporate health benefits platform and its collaboration with Mylab will enable businesses to incorporate NASOVAC-S4 into their employee wellness programs.
Ekincare has a network of over 10,000 cashless healthcare service providers, making it one of India’s leading integrated OPD (out-patient department) benefits platforms

About NASOVAC-S4:

It offers a non-invasive and painless alternative to traditional injections.
It is administered through the nasal route.
It includes two influenza Type A virus strains (A/H1N1 and A/H3N2) and two influenza Type B virus strains (Victoria and Yamagata lineage).
It aims to reduce the impact of influenza on the workplace.
Influenza is an acute respiratory infection caused by influenza viruses.

Source: TH BusinessLine

8. Ahead of COP28, three UNEP reports paint a grim picture of climate reality

Subject : IR

Section: Reports and Indices

Context:

The leading theme of COP28 to the UNFCCC is ‘Global Stocktake’, which means the focus will be on checking what each country has done in terms of climate action vis-à-vis its promise.
Three recent reports put out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) show that the global collective action on climate action is woefully inadequate compared with what it ought to be.

The three reports published by UNEP are:

Emissions Gap Report of 2023
- The global emissions of greenhouse gases will increase by 3 per cent in 2030 when they ought to decrease by 28 per cent if the rise in global warming is to be limited to 2 degrees and 42 per cent for the ambition of 5 degrees.
Production Gap Report 2023
- The governments plan to produce around 110 per cent more fossil fuels in 2030, which would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C and 69 per cent more for the 2°C target.
Adaptation Gap Report 2023
- The adaptation finance needs of developing countries are 10–18 times as big as international public finance flows. Developing countries will need adaptation financing of $387 billion a year. In contrast, they got $21 billion in 2021.

Source: TH BusinessLine

9. Producing more from less: How Indian agriculture has grown with limited ‘factors of production’

Subject : Economy

Section: National Income

Introduction:

In agriculture, there are four “factors of production”: Land, water, labour and energy.
Farmers use these factors or inputs to produce crops. For a given level of technology, the output produced by them is largely determined by the quantity of inputs used.
In the pre-Green Revolution era, agricultural production was primarily limited by the extent and quality of land available for cultivation.
The extent of land under agriculture:
- India’s farm sector grew by an average 2.8% a year during 1950-51 to 1961-62. The driver was expansion in the land brought under the plough. The country’s net sown area rose from 118.75 lakh to 135.40 lakh hectares (lh) over this period.
Quality of land:
- Agricultural land quality is a function of soil fertility and water availability.
- The alluvial soils in the Indo-Gangetic plains and the Kaveri, Krishna, Godavari and Mahanadi deltas of the eastern coast are the most fertile, followed by the black cotton soils of the Deccan, Malwa and Saurashtra plateaus. These yield more crops per acre than the lands with red, brown, laterite, mountain and desert soils, ranking in descending order of fertility.
Water availability is dependent on both rainfall and access to irrigation from rivers, lakes, tanks and ponds.

Factors of technology:

There are considered to be four factors of technology. They together enable more efficient use of the factors of production and result in higher yields – more produce from the same acre of land or number of labourers – besides better utilisation of water resources and replacement of animal and human power with mechanical and electrical power.
They are: Genetics, Crop nutrition, Crop protection and Agronomic interventions.

Genetics:

It is about seeds and plant breeding.
It offers many desirable traits in plants like disease and pest resistance, drought and heat stress tolerance, nutrient use efficiency or even stem sturdiness and erect/compact canopy to allow mechanical harvesting.

Crop nutrition:

Farmyard manure – the decomposed mixture of dung and urine along with other farm residues – contains 0.5% nitrogen (N), 0.2% phosphorous (P) and 0.5% potassium (K) on average.
Chemical fertilisers have much higher NPK content: Urea (46% N), di-ammonium phosphate (18% N and 46% P) and muriate of potash (60% K).
Synthetic fertilisers, in combination with the breeding of varieties responsive to high nutrient doses, led to a soaring of crop yields.

Crop protection:

It signifies defending plants against insect pests, pathogens (fungi, bacteria and viruses) and weeds, from the time of their sowing to harvesting and marketing.
Crop protection chemicals are aimed at ensuring that the yield gains from genetics/breeding and nutrition/fertilisers are realised, to the maximum possible extent, in farmers’ fields. Some are labour-saving like Herbicides, which can replace the manual removal of weeds.

Agronomic interventions:

These are- tractors, rotavators and reversible mould board ploughs that can do deep tillage, mixing and pulverisation of the soils and break their hardpan layers.
Water-saving technologies – drip irrigation and laser land levellers (which help in uniform placement of seed and fertiliser too) – and intercropping or growing more than one crop simultaneously on the same piece of land.

More from same or less:

The net sown area in India rose by just 3.3% – from 135.4 lh to 139.9 lh – between 1961-62 and 2019-20, as against 14% during 1950-51 to 1961-62.
The annual growth in gross value added from agriculture and allied activities during the period from 2005-06 to 2021-22, at 3.7%, has been the highest among all phases.

Source: Indian Express

10. Understanding Javier Milei and dollarisation, his radical policy to save Argentina’s economy

Subject: Economy

Section: External sector

In the news:

The self-proclaimed “libertarian” and “anarcho-capitalist” Javier Milei has become the President-elect of Argentina, one of the world’s biggest economies which has been grappling with high inflation of more than 100%.
Milei wants to disband Argentina’s currency and central bank, adopt the US dollar as its currency and open trade unilaterally.

Libertarian and Anarcho-capitalist:

A person of this thought believes that the government has either little or no role in the functioning of a country and an economy.
Libertarianism:
- Libertarianism is a political philosophy that gives primacy to individual liberty over everything else. A libertarian believes that individuals have certain God-given rights — such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of speech, right to property, freedom of worship, moral autonomy etc. — and seeks to define the powers of a government in this context.
- The purpose of government, according to liberals, is to protect these and other individual rights, and in general, liberals have contended that government power should be limited to that which is necessary to accomplish this task.
Anarcho-Capitalism:
- The term was coined by Murray Rothbard, a leading figure in the American libertarian movement from the 1950s until his death in 1995.
- It seems to take the libertarian view to what would appear like an extreme. Anarcho-capitalism is a political philosophy that advocates the voluntary exchange of goods and services in a society broadly regulated by the market rather than by the state.
A Libertarian and Anarcho-Capitalist society:
- It would be a society where even law & order as well as justice delivery is privatised.
- In such a society, the government has no monopoly on police like it has at present. Almost every sector of the economy is run on free market principles with the belief that people, as consumers, will choose the best option among the available ones and that demand for better quality goods and services (say policing) will incentivise entrepreneurs to come up with the most efficient solutions.

High inflation in Argentina:

Argentina’s inflation rate is anywhere between 110% to 150%. It means the domestic currency is fast losing its value.
Reason: The pandemic, Russia-Ukraine Conflict and excess government spending on welfare programmes.
The size of the Argentine economy (GDP) and per capita income have stagnated over the past decade.
Consequences: Fall of domestic economic activities, trade suffering and sharp worsening of country’s exchange rate.

Milei’s solution: Dollarisation:

One solution he proposed is to severely cut government spending.
And, another is to disband the domestic currency (Argentinian Peso) and the central bank and shift to the US dollar as the official currency. This is called Dollarisation. The basic idea behind Milei’s plan to dollarise is two-fold:
- To bring price stability to the economy in a quick manner.
- To ensure that the government and the central bank are in no position to influence monetary policy.

Why Dollarisation may fail?

Just because there isn’t a central bank to print money doesn’t necessarily mean that governments will not spend beyond their means.
For a country’s system to shift to dollars, its banks and its government should have the dollars to begin with. If they don’t have the dollars then how can the economy shift to dollars?
- Argentina’s government needs $40 billion to make the shift. It is also reported that at present Argentina is struggling to pay back the IMF’s debt of $44 billion.

Why Dollarisation may work?

Latin America’s three fully dollarized countries—Panama, Ecuador, and El Salvador—have had the region’s lowest inflation levels during the past 20 years or so.
Argentina’s central bank’s total liabilities stand at around 18.8 trillion pesos.
Central bank liabilities refer to all the money it prints; its assets are things like gold and hard currencies (such as US dollars).
If these liabilities are exchanged at the free market rate of 470 pesos to a dollar, Argentina will have the $40 billion it needs.

Source: Indian Express, The Hindu

11. In Mexico, ecologists going all out to save the iconic ‘water monster’

Subject : Environment

Section: Species in news

Context:

Ecologists from Mexico’s National Autonomous University relaunched a fundraising campaign to bolster conservation efforts for axolotls.

About Axolotls:

It is an iconic, endangered fish-like type of salamander.
It is a paedomorphic salamander closely related to the tiger salamander.
It reaches adulthood without undergoing metamorphosis. Instead of taking to the land, adults remain aquatic and gilled.
Almost all 18 species of axolotls in Mexico are critically endangered and considered to be near extinction.
Mexican axolotl is found in Lake Xochimilco, but other species can be found across the country, from valley of Mexico to the Sonora desert.
They have unique, admittedly slimy, appearance and uncanny ability to grow limbs.
Threats- Encroaching water pollution, deadly amphibian fungus (Chrytid fungus, it is a skin-eating disease) and non-native rainbow trout.

About the Campaign:

The campaign is called- Adoptaxolotl
It asks people for as little as 600 pesos (about $35) to virtually adopt one of the tiny monsters. The virtual adoption comes with live updates on your axolotl’s health.
In their main habitat, the population density of Mexican axolotls has decreased by 99.5% in under two decades.

12. GPS spoofing

Subject : Science and Tech

Section: Space technology

Context: Electronic warfare in the Middle East and Ukraine is affecting air travel far from the battlefields, unnerving pilots and exposing an unintended consequence of a tactic that experts say will become more common.

Planes are losing satellite signals, flights have been diverted and pilots have received false location reports or inaccurate warnings that they were flying close to terrain, according to European Union safety regulators and an internal airline memo viewed by The New York Times. The Federal Aviation Administration has also warned pilots about GPS jamming in the Middle East.

Global positioning system (GPS) technology is now the standard way for travelers to efficiently get from point A to point B. While GPS delivers unparalleled opportunities to businesses and individuals, there are some drawbacks to using this technology. GPS devices can be vulnerable to cyber-attacks through GPS spoofing.

GPS Spoofing

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) have been around for years in many industrialized countries, and GPS is just one of those systems. GPS spoofing happens when someone uses a radio transmitter to send a counterfeit GPS signal to a receiver antenna to counter a legitimate GPS satellite signal. Most navigation systems are designed to use the strongest GPS signal, and the fake signal overrides the weaker but legitimate satellite signal.

Commercial Hazards of GPS Spoofing

GPS spoofing isn’t to be confused with GPS jamming. GPS jamming happens when a cybercriminal blocks GPS signals altogether. Selling or using GPS jamming equipment that can block communications is illegal in the United States. While GPS jamming appears to be the greater threat, GPS spoofing delivers a sucker punch to a variety of businesses.

GPS spoofing allows hackers to interfere with navigation systems without operators realizing it. The fake GPS feeds cause drivers, ship captains, and other operators to go off course without any coercion. Businesses that are particularly vulnerable to GPS spoofing are shipping companies, taxi services, and construction companies.

13. RBI supersedes Mumbai-based Abhyudaya Co-op Bank’s Board

Subject: Economy

Section: Monetary policy

The Banking Regulations Act, enables RBI to supersede the board of directors of a bank for up to 12 months if it feels that the board is not working in the interest of shareholders and depositors. If such a step is taken, RBI could run the bank by appointing an administrator till a new board is appointed. In such a scenario, while shareholders wealth decline, depositors money stay safe.

The central bank can supersede the board if the top management fails to deliver.

RBI also retains the discretion to levy penalties depending on the gravity of the non-compliance, with powers available under the RBI Act of 1934