Daily Prelims Notes 28 September 2022

September 28, 2022
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Daily Prelims Notes

28 September 2022

Table Of Contents

Subject: Environment

Context:Assam Chief Minister HimantaBiswaSarma and spiritual leader SadhguruJaggi Vasudev visited Kaziranga National Park after sunset

Concept :

In India, entry into forests is governed by two laws — The Indian Forest Act, 1927, and The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The Indian Forest Act, 1927 applies to all reserve forests and bars trespassing. Everyone other than people who live in villages inside reserve forests, needs permission from the divisional forest officer concerned for entering these forests for any purpose.
The Wildlife Protection Act empowers the Chief Wildlife Warden of a state to frame laws for tourists entering Protected Areas — sanctuaries and national parks.
Under the same Act, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has the powers to set rules for tiger reserves. Kaziranga National Park is also a tiger reserve.

Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927:

It provides a legal framework for protection and management of forests, transit of forest produce and timber, and duty that can be levied on forest produce and timber.
IFA is an umbrella act which provides the basic architecture for the management of forests in the country.
It also includes providing mechanisms to ensure notification of reserved, protected and village forests, protection of forest resources, forest biodiversity and wildlife of the country

Reserved Forests

Reserved forests constitute more than half of the total forest area of India.
It has a certain degree of protection. They are protected by the respective state governments unlike wildlife sanctuaries and national parks which are supervised by the Government of India.
It is considered as the most valuable type of forest from the perspective of conservation.
Rights to activities like collecting timber or grazing cattle or hunting and public entry are banned in these forests.

Protected Forests

Protected forests are of two types:
- demarcated and
- undemarcated
They have a limited amount of protection.
These are looked after by the government but certain activities like hunting, grazing or timber collecting are allowed to people who live on the boundaries of forests and are partially or wholly dependent on the forest resources for livelihood, provided they don’t cause severe damage to the forests.

Village Forests

Village forests are protected and managed by village communities which are assigned by the state governments.
The local communities may use it for timber or other forest produce, pasture, recreation, plantation and so on under prescribed conditions by state governments.

Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972:

The Act was enacted for the protection of plants and animal species.
It has six schedules that give varying degrees of protection.
Schedule I and part II of Schedule II provide absolute protection – offenses under these are prescribed the highest penalties.
Species listed in Schedule III and Schedule IV are also protected, but the penalties are much lower.
Schedule V includes the animals which may be hunted. The specified endemic plants in Schedule VI are prohibited from cultivation and planting. The hunting to the Enforcement authorities has the power to compound offenses under this Schedule (i.e. they impose fines on the offenders).
The act has been amended in 1982, 1986, 1991, 1993, 2002, 2006 and 2013.

2. Taj Mahal

Subject :Art and Culture

Context:Supreme Court directed the Agra Development Authority to stop all commercial activities within a 500 metre radius of the Taj Mahal.

Concept :

About Taj mahal

The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the city of Agra.
It was commissioned in 1632 by Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658) to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself.
The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.
The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2015 would be approximately 52.8 billion rupees (U.S. $827 million).
The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.
The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”.
The Taj Mahal was declared a centrally protected monument of national importance in December 1920.

The architecture of the Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is regarded as one of the greatest architectural achievements in human history. Its design is a synthesis of Islamic, Persian, and Indian architectural traditions.
It was built out of white Makrana marble that was sourced from the Indian state of Rajasthan. To further enhance the beauty of the memorial, thousands of precious and semi-precious gemstones were also incorporated into its design.
The Taj Mahal is perched atop an elevated square plinth that features four minarets standing at each of the four corners of the structure.
The entrance to the building is in the shape of an arch. There are replicas of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal’s sarcophagi located in the main hall of the mausoleum. The actual tombs can be found within a chamber that is locked and located on a lower level.
In the inner chamber, which is in the shape of an octagon, there is jali bordering and quotations from the Quran engraved on the cenotaphs. Additionally, there are intricate decorative details that include twining vines, flowers, and fruits, which are highlighted with 28 different kinds of precious and semiprecious stones.
In accordance with the customs of Islam, the crypts that hold the primary bodies are relatively unadorned, despite the fact that the base and the casket themselves feature intricate designs.

Reasons for deterioration of Taj Mahal:

For over three decades, sulphur dioxide has been considered to be the main pollutant behind the decay in the white marbles of Taj Mahal.
In 2016, the report of the Archaeological Survey of India cited the formation of phosphorous in the Yamuna as a threat to the Taj Mahal. The phosphorous facilitated the breeding of the genus Goeldichironomus, in Yamuna water and blamed the insect excreta for the green and brownish patches on the Taj marbles.
However, a recent study highlights one more reason-
- It identifies Hydrogen Sulphide released from polluted Yamuna water for deterioration of Taj Mahal
- Hydrogen Sulphide had a more corrosive impact than sulphur dioxide (SO₂) released by industrial pollution in Agra city.

Damage caused by insects

Apart from harmful emissions from industries and vehicles, the Taj Mahal has also become discoloured due to contamination of the Yamuna, which has resulted in a loss of aquatic life, leading to insect and algae infestation of monuments situated on the river-bank.
Since the 1970s, there have been growing concerns that emissions from industries near the Taj Mahal are causing its once-gleaming white marble surface to discolour, turning it yellow and black in some places. In order to protect the monument from pollution, the central government had demarcated an area of 10,400 sq km around the Taj, called the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ).
MC Mehta vs Union of India: The environmentalist MC Mehta drew attention of the SC to the yellowing and blackening of the Taj marbles in several places, suspected to have been a result of ‘acid rains’ caused by sulphur dioxide emissions.It found that the nearby coke/coal consuming industries were damaging the monument and the people living in the TTZ. It also directed the 292 industries operating in the zone to switch to natural gas as industrial-fuel, or relocate from their area.

3. Tianwen 2 Mission

Subject: Science and technology

Context :At the heels of NASA, China is set to deflect a 40 m diameter earth-crossing asteroid.

Concept :

About the Mission

China plans to launch its second-ever deep space exploration effort in 2025(Tianwen 2), according to the chief designer of the country’s Tianwen 1 Mars mission.
The 10-year-plus Tianwen 2 mission will first target the small near-Earth asteroid Kamo’oalewa, which may actually be a blasted-off piece of Earth’s moon.
The spacecraft will collect samples from the space rock using a touch-and-go technique similar to those demonstrated by Japan’s Hayabusa 2 and NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex asteroid probes.
Tianwen 2 will also attempt an unprecedented anchor-and-attach method, using four robotic arms to land on Kamo’oalewa, with drills on the arms securing the probe to the surface of the 130-foot-wide (40 meters) asteroid.
Tianwen 2 is expected to return to Earth more than two years after launch, dropping off its invaluable cargo. But that won’t be the end of the mission.
Following release of its re-entry capsule, Tianwen 2 will use Earth’s gravity to help propel it out toward another ancient relic of the solar system: an “active asteroid,” an object with properties of both asteroids and comets. (Active asteroids used to be known as main-belt comets, but that term has lately fallen out of fashion because these bodies tend to be more asteroid-like in composition.)

About Tianwen-1:

China’s first Mars probe is called Tianwen-1 (formerly Huoxing 1).
The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.
Launched last year on a Long March 5 rocket from Xichang, China.
Landing site: Somewhere in Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in Mars’ northern latitudes and the same place NASA’s Viking 2 mission landed in the 1970s.

Asteroids

Asteroids are also known as minor planets.
They are rocky remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.
Most asteroids are irregularly shaped, though a few are nearly spherical and are known to have a small companion moon (some have two moons).

Classification of Asteroids:

Main Asteroid Belt: The majority of known asteroids orbit within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Trojans: These asteroids share an orbit with a larger planet, but do not collide with it because they gather around two special places in the orbit (called the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points). There, the gravitational pull from the sun and the planet are balanced.

4. Dispute over Electoral symbols

Subject : Polity

Context: The Supreme Court rejected the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena’s prayer to stay proceedings pending before the Election Commission of India (ECI) over a request by Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde for recognition of his faction as the real Shiv Sena and permission to use the party’s ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol.

Concept :

The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the EC to recognize political parties and allot symbols.
Under Paragraph 15 of the Order, it can decide disputes among rival groups or sections of a recognised political party staking claim to its name and symbol.
On deputes among rival groups, the Symbols Order, states that the EC is empowered to take decision after considering all the available facts and circumstances of the case that one rival section or group or none of such rival sections or groups is that recognized political party.
The decision of the Commission shall be binding on all such rival sections/groups.
This applies to disputes between recognized national and state parties.
For splits in registered but unrecognized parties, the EC usually advises the warring factions to resolve their differences internally or to approach the court.

How does the EC decide?

The ECI primarily ascertains the support enjoyed by a claimant within a political party in its organizational wing and in its legislative wing.
For Organizational Wing, the Commission examines the party’s constitution and its list of office-bearers submitted when the party was unite
ECI identifies the apex committee(s) in the organisation and finds out how many office-bearers, members or delegates support the rival claimants.
For the Legislative Wing, the party goes by the number of MPs (Member of Parliaments) and MLAs (Member of Legislative assembly) in the rival camps. ECI may consider affidavits filed by these members to ascertain where they stand.
The ECI may decide the dispute in favour of one faction by holding that it commands enough support in its organisational and legislative wings to be entitled to the name and symbol of the recognised party.
It may permit the other group to register itself as a separate political party.

What happens when there is no certainty?

Where the party is either vertically divided or it is not possible to say with certainty which group has a majority, the EC may freeze the party’s symbol and allow the groups to register themselves with new names or add prefixes or suffixes to the party’s existing names.
If reunited, the claimants may approach the EC again and seek to be recognised as a unified party.
The EC is also empowered to recognise mergers of groups into one entity. It may restore the symbol and name of the original party.

5. Ram Setu Bridge

Subject: History

Context: The teaser of Akshay Kumar’s new movie, Ram Setu, was released , once again generating buzz around the chain of shoals off the southeast coast of India that many believe is the bridge to Lanka mentioned in the Ramayana.

Concept:

Ram Sethu:

Ram Sethu is also known as Adam’s Bridge or Nala Sethu.
It is a 48 km chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island known as Rameswaram Island on the coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar Island on the coast of Sri Lanka.
The bridge separates the Gulf of Mannar (southwest) from the Palk Strait (northeast).
The bridge holds religious significance. A bridge is mentioned in Ramayana, that Lord Ram and his army built to reach Lanka.
The location of the Lanka of the Ramayana has been widely interpreted as being current day Sri Lanka and bridge as Ram Sethu.

SethusamudramProhject

The project was conceived in 1860 by Alfred Dundas Taylor
In 2005, the Government of India approved Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project
It is a proposed project to create a shipping route in the shallow straits between India and Sri Lanka across the Palk Bay cutting across Rama Setu.
The project involves digging a 44.9-nautical-mile long deep-water channel linking the shallow Palk Strait with the Gulf of Mannar.
The channel would be dredged in the Sethusamudram sea passing through the limestone shoals of Ram Sethu.

6. Encyclopaedic Sanskrit Dictionary

Subject : History

Context:

After several years, the doors of the scriptorium and the editorial room of the prestigious Encyclopaedic Sanskrit Dictionary at Pune’s Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune were opened for students and the general public.

About the project:

It aims at creating an encyclopaedic dictionary of Sanskrit, which will be the world’s biggest dictionary, and is an ongoing one at the department of Sanskrit and Lexicography, Deccan college.
The project began in 1948 under the leadership of Dr Sumitra Mangesh Katre, a renowned Indologist and linguist.
Between 1948 – 1973, around 40 scholars read through 1,464 books spread across 62 knowledge disciplines – starting from the Rigveda (approximately 1400 B.C.) to Hāsyārṇava(1850 A.D.) – in search of words that could be added to this dictionary.
The first volume took three years to be published in 1976, technological intervention and an exclusive software with a font named KoshaSHRI have quickened the process now.
The software can be easily used to scan through the books which was done manually in the past.
The dictionary contains words in alphabetical order and it also follows historic principles in stating the meaning. In addition to the word meaning, the dictionary also provides additional information, references, and context of the respective word used in a particular literature. That is why, it is an encyclopaedic dictionary wherein words have been arranged according to the chronological order of their references appearing in the text.
The Encyclopaedic Sanskrit Dictionary, once ready, will be three times larger than the Oxford English dictionary. The 35 volumes published so far contain about 1.25 lakh vocables (word).

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is one of the most ancient languages of the Indian subcontinent. The literature in Sanskrit is vast, beginning with the most ancient thought embodied in the Rig Veda, the oldest literary heritage of mankind, and the Zend Avesta in Iran. It has been argued that Sanskrit is perhaps the only language that transcended the barriers of regions and boundaries.

It has had an influence across all parts of India as can be explained by the following:

Vast arena of academic disciplines:
- Sanskrit transcends the vast arena of academic disciplines such as math, physical, natural and material sciences, astronomy, medicine, astrology, philosophy, political science, etc.
- For instance, ‘AbhijnanaShakuntalam’ and ‘Meghdoot’ by Kalidasa, Chanakya’s ‘Arthashastra’ and Vatsyayana’s’ Kamasutra’ were written in Sanskrit
- The foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit.
Philosophical language of religions:
- It is the liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
- For example, the Vedas, Upanishads related to Hinduism, Mahavastu&Lalitavistara texts related to Hinayana and Mahayana school of Buddhism are all written in Sanskrit.
Mother of many languages:
- Literatures of most of the Indian languages borrow from the vast pool of Sanskrit;
- The influence of Sanskrit can be seen on major European languages
- The numerals from one to ten are mostly similar in these languages.
- In Italian Sie- six, settle- seven, otto- eight, nove- nine, etc.
- Bhratr in the Sanskrit, Brother in the German, bhratheir in the Irish,brat in the Russian, beradar in the Persian. Pitr in the Sanskrit, Frater in the Latin, Pharater in Greek.
Geographical presence:
- The geographical extent of the language was not only confined to the Indian subcontinent but also spread to Central Asia&South-east Asia.
- For example, Kalhan’sRajatarangini written in Sanskrit gave a detailed account of the kings of Kashmir, whereas, Sanskrit manuscripts and inscriptions (Prasasti) are found in China (particularly the Tibetanmonasteries), Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia.
- Kutai inscriptions and Tugu inscriptions in Indonesia, Kedah inscriptions in Malaysia and Ligor inscriptions in Thailand.
- Rigvedic Sanskrit was first recorded in inscriptions found not on the plains of India but in what is now northern Syria under the Mitanni kings.
Temporal Expanse:
- Sanskrit transcends temporally across different periods highlighting their socio-cultural life.
- For example, vedas & puranas illustrated life during vedic period, Arathshastra showcased life during Mauryan times , whereas works of Bhasa, Shudraka, Kalidasa and Banabhatta provided us with glimpses of the social and cultural life of northern and central India in times of the Guptas and Harsha.
Scientific and computer-friendly:
- Sanskrit grammar refined and standardized by Panini’s Ashtadhyayiis mathematical, which makes this language scientific and computer-friendly.
- It is said that the language is immensely suitable towards developing an artificial language.

Thus it can be argued that Sanskrit is the one of the most refined languages and can play an

important role in promoting multilingualism, as understanding of other languages (rooted in

Sanskrit) can be made easier.

Important Authors and Works in Sanskrit:

Bhāsa–Svapnavāsvavadatta
Kālidāsa, (1^stcentury BCE to the 4^th century CE )- Śakuntalā, Vikramorvaśīya, Kumārasambhava and Raghuvaṃśa.
Śūdraka-Mṛcchakatika
Ashvaghosha-Buddhacarita
Bhāravi=Kirātārjunīya
Māgha-Śiśupālavadha
Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata

7. ICAR scientists decode pomegranate gene

Subject :Science

Context:

Scientists of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), have for the first time in the country cracked the genetic code of the Bhagwa variety of pomegranate.

Significance of the genome sequencing:

Assist the breeders in developing resistant varieties against major biotic and abiotic stresses. Eg: Bacterial Blight disease.
Helps in increasing the yield and the shelf life.
It will assist pomegranate genetic improvement programmes through genomics assisted trait mapping, breeding and genome editing applications to develop improved varieties.
Lack of resistant pomegranate varieties against major pests and diseases has led to high dependence on chemical pesticides. Genome sequence will help in growing much better and safer varieties for human nutritional needs at a much faster rate.

Bhagwa variety of Pomegranate

It has good shelf-life due to thick rind and under room conditions can be marketed up to 7-10 days after plucking.
Under cold store conditions of 5°C at 95 percent relative humidity, it can be stored for 45 days.
It covers more than 85 percent of 2.78 lakh hectares area under pomegranate cultivation (2021-22).

The genome sequencing experiment was executed at Nucleome Informatics, a Hyderabad-based genomics lab, which is affiliated with the world’s largest genomics programme ‘The Vertebrate Genome Project’.

Genome sequencing:

All organisms (bacteria, vegetables, mammals) have a unique genetic code, or genome, that is composed of nucleotide bases (A, T, C, and G). Identifying the sequence of the bases in an organism, helps in identifying its unique DNA fingerprint, or pattern. Determining the order of bases is called sequencing. Whole genome sequencing is a laboratory procedure that determines the order of bases in the genome of an organism in one process.

The Vertebrate Genome Project (VGP):

VGP aims to generate high-quality, complete reference genomes of 70000 vertebrate species.

It is an international cooperation project with members from more than 50 separate institutions and was launched in February 2017.

In 2022, VGP partnered with the Human Genome Project and the African BioGenome Project for sequencing research.

8. Jaldoot- Govt. app to capture data on groundwater levels

Subject : Geography

Context-

With the rapidly declining water table threatening to push many regions into drought, the Union government launched a mobile application — Jaldoot— jointly developed by the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Ministries to monitor the groundwater levels across the country.
The application was launched by Minister of State for Rural Development Faggan Singh Kulaste in the presence of Ministers Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Kapil Moreshwar Patil.

How will the application work?

The app will be used to capture the water levels of two or three open wells in every village twice a year, from May 1 to 31 during the pre-monsoon time and from October 1 to 31.
To ensure transparency, the officers assigned to the task have been told to upload the geotagged photographs through the app each time the measurement is done.
The mobile app will work in online and offline modes to ensure that lack of Internet connectivity does not come in the way of the exercise.
The regular data from the ‘Jaldoots’ would be integrated with the database of the National Water Informatics Centre, which can be utilised for analysis and help in conservation efforts.
The State governments and gram panchayats should involve themselves in systematically collecting groundwater level data and assimilation the same into the central digital database for analysis.

Groundwater in India:

India is the largest user of groundwater in the world. It uses an estimated 230 cubic kilometers of groundwater per year – over a quarter of the global total. More than 60% of irrigated agriculture and 85% of drinking water supplies are dependent on groundwater.

9. A ‘nightmare’ for forecasters: Here’s why hurricanes are getting stronger, faster

Subject :Geography

Context:

As Earth’s climate warms, more storms are undergoing rapid intensification, growing quickly from relatively weak tropical storms to Category 3 or higher hurricanes in under 24 hours, sometimes stunning forecasters and giving residents little time to prepare.
For example, Hurricane Ian was a tropical storm with heavy rain and winds of at least 73 mph.
But experts say the storm is gaining power rapidly and it could intensify dangerously as it nears Cuba within 14 hours.

Here are key facts about how climate change can rapidly intensify tropical storms–

a. Warming oceans fuel higher winds-

More than 90% of the excess heat from human-caused global warming over the past 50 years has been absorbed by the oceans.
Since 1901,sea surface temperatures have risen an average of 14 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That’s crucial because storms gather strength over the ocean. And, the warmer the water, the more power they pick up.
Higher surface temperatures allow hurricanes to reach higher levels of maximum sustained wind, a common metric used to describe the intensity of a storm.
A 2020 satellite image analysis showed that the likelihood of a hurricane strengthening into a Category 3 storm or higher, with sustained winds above 110 mph, has increased by about 8% a decade since

b. Those winds intensify more rapidly

Not only do warmer oceans make storms stronger, they make the rate of intensification more rapid.
Rapid intensification technically refers to an increase of at least 30 knots, or 35 mph, in the maximum sustained winds over a 24-hour period.
The likelihood of a hurricane undergoing rapid intensification has increased to 5% from 1% since the 1980s.
Previous data on rapid intensification-
A number of the past decade’s most intense Atlantic storms intensified rapidly.
Harvey in 2017 was a Category 1 hurricane on the evening of Aug. 24; by the next day, when the storm reached Texas, it was a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph winds.
Later that hurricane season, Maria intensified from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane within just 15 hours.
In 2021,Hurricane Ida strengthened from a Category 1 with 85 mph winds into a near-Category 5 hurricane with 150 mph winds less than 24 hours later.

c. Vertical wind shear-

Another element is vertical wind shear, or a measure of how much the wind changes in speed or direction at increasing heights in the atmosphere.
Strong vertical wind shear can inhibit the development of hurricanes by tilting the structure of a storm and by forcing cool, dry air into its core. (It’s like pouring cold water on a fire.)

Short notice raises the stakes-

The window of time to make a decision gets smaller for the forecasters.
The increase in the number of hurricanes that intensify quickly and unpredictably can affect a community’s preparedness.

10. Health ID

Subject :Government Schemes

Context:

Only 240 million signed up for the Health ID.

Cause?

Concerns over data privacy due to the data breaches,

What next?

The National Health Authority is working to remove personal identification information before using data for public health research, policy making and disease surveillance among others.

Concept:

Ayushman Bharat is a flagship scheme of India which was launched as recommended by the National Health Policy 2017, to achieve the vision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Ayushman Bharat Health Account ID or ABHA card

The Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA), which was earlier known as Ayushman Bharat Health ID was launched by the Indian government in 2021 and is aimed at providing a digital health ID to the population.
ABHA is a unique health ID that uses a 14-digit identification number and can be generated using an Aadhaar card or your mobile number. It allows users to share their health records digitally with hospitals, clinics, insurance providers and others.
Citizens can create their unique ABHA without any cost.

Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission

It was launched in September 2021 by the Prime Minister through a video conference.
It aims to provide digital health IDs for all Indian citizens to help hospitals, insurance firms, and citizens access health records electronically when required.
The National Health Authority (NHA) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will be the implementing Agency.
What are the Features of the Mission?
- Health ID:
  - It will be issued for every citizen that will also work as their health account.
  - This health account will contain details of every test, every disease, the doctors visited, the medicines taken and the diagnosis.
  - Health ID is free of cost, voluntary.
- Healthcare Facilities & Professionals’ Registry:
  - The other major component of the programme is creating a Healthcare Professionals’ Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registry (HFR), allowing easy electronic access to medical professionals and health infrastructure.
- Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Sandbox:
  - It will act as a framework for technology and product testing that will help organisations, including private players intending to be a part of the national digital health ecosystem become a Health Information Provider or Health Information User or efficiently link with building blocks of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

Arogya Manthan:

Launched by the Union Health Minister to commemorate four years of the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) and one year of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).
It was a two-day program held in New Delhi awarded the states for outstanding work in ‘Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission’ and ‘Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
Chhattisgarh is rewarded for its outstanding work
- It has the highest number of government hospitals registered in the country under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
- It is the top state in the country to give the benefit of this scheme to women
The Ayushman Excellence Award was given to the state by the National Health Authority.

11. Shell Company

Subject :Economy

Context:

Registration rules tightened for companies to check shell companies.

Details:

Several companies with links to Chinese entities were unearthed recently by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office.
The new rules will facilitate tech-enabled real-time oversight of company incorporation and statutory filings
It is part of the ‘company module’ of the revamped MCA 21 portal of the ministry of corporate affairs.
It involves two-factor authentication involving directors of companies and professionals like chartered accountants and company secretaries who actually submit the statutory documents.
It links the emails, user IDs and digital signatures of the person filing a company document and also requires the Permanent Account Number.
The ministry will also deploy chatbots on its portal to help users.

Concept:

Shell company:

The phrase ‘Shell Company’ is not defined anywhere, but it can be interpreted to denote firms that are formed solely to create a separate legal entity that does not conduct any activity.
The majority of the time, shell companies are used to conducting financial transactions.
In most cases, these businesses merely have assets on paper and not in reality.
Almost no economic activity is carried out by these businesses.
These are sometimes used illegitimately, such as to disguise business ownership from law enforcement or the public.
Shell corporations are used for a variety of purposes:
- To save money in order to start a business,
- As a cover for product development that a well-established corporation might want to keep secret until it’s ready,
- Facilitate financial institutions’ ability to conduct financial transactions in overseas markets,
- To raise funding and keep control over the conglomerate company,
- Create a “tax haven” in another country.
Shell corporations are legal entities. When they are employed for criminal purposes, they become illegal.

What laws are violated by the shell companies?

Benami Transactions Prohibition (Amendment) Act, 2016: This Act grants the government the authority to seize benami assets, which are assets held in the name of another person or fictional person in order to dodge taxation or hide unaccounted money.
Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA): When money that has not been taxed, i.e. unaccounted or black money, is passed via a shell corporation to appear as untainted money, it is considered money laundering under Section 3 of the PMLA and is punishable by 3 to 7 years in prison and a fine.
Indian Penal Code: When shell corporations are used for Ponzi schemes, a crime under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code relating to defrauding is committed, which is punishable by imprisonment or a term of up to 7 years in prison, as well as a fine.
Section 248 of the Companies Act 2013 empowers the Registrar of Companies to strike a company off the register of companies if it fails to commence business within one year of its incorporation or if it fails to carry on business for two financial years and has not applied for dormant company status.

Legal uses of the shell companies

A Special-Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) is utilised to finance an existing private firm by raising funds through a public stock offering. SPACs are referred to as shell companies because they may not have any company operations or employees.
To stage a hostile takeover, a shell company could be established. This occurs when a company buys another company without the consent of the target company’s management.
If a company wants to keep its dealings with another disreputable company, it can set up a shell company specifically for that purpose.
When the main firm/owner of the shell company plans to launch a new company, the money is temporarily held or stored.
People may construct shell corporations to hide money in order to avoid becoming a target for criminals and thieves, if a company is working in a risky country like Afghanistan, where terrorist activities are common.
Shell corporations can also be established in order to get access to international markets.
To safeguard assets from lawsuits.

12. What is a cryogenic engine?

Subject :Science

Context: President DroupadiMurmu will inaugurate Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.’s Integrated Cryogenic Engine Manufacturing Facility (ICMF) in the city on Tuesday

Concept:

What are cryogenic engines?

Cryogenic engines are typically very powerful and carry liquid propellant at extremely low temperatures.
They are complex but highly efficient and provide better thrust for each kilogram of fuel burnt when compared to the traditional solid and liquid propellant rocket stages.
Cryogenic engines were a crucial part of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Apollo missions to the moon, and were also used by the GSLV for the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
Only six countries have developed their own cryogenic engines: the US, France/European Space Agency, Russia, China, Japan, and India.
Cryogenic engine typically makes use of liquid oxygen (LOX), which liquifies at -183 deg C, and liquid hydrogen (LH2), which liquefies at -253 deg C. LH2 acts as the fuel while LOX acts as the oxidiser that explosively reacts with the hydrogen, producing thrust. When the engine ignites, the two liquids are pushed into a combustion chamber by booster pump continuousl.
ISRO’s cryo stage, called the C25, came after the successful flights of the earlier versions developed for previous GSLV launchers. It was designed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Center, in collaboration with Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO Propulsion Complex and Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
C25’s tanks carry over 27,000 kg of fuel and fire for approximately 720 seconds. During this time, the engine develops a thrust of 73.55kN in vacuum.

Impact of failure of cryogenic engine

Missions like Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan-3 will be launched on GSLV Mk-III, a more advanced version of the GSLV rocket that is designed to carry much heavier payloads into space. GSLV Mk-III too uses an indigenously-developed cryogenic engine in the upper stage, but, unlike the one in Mk-II, this is not a reverse-engineered Russian engine.

Instead, the cryogenic engine used in GSLV Mk-III, called CE20, has been the result of over three decades of research and development, starting from scratch, and uses a different process to burn fuel. It is closer to the designs used in the Arianne rockets that were used by ISRO earlier to send its heavier satellites into space.

13. Malthusian trap

Subject : Geography

What is Malthusian trap?

The Malthusian trap or Malthusian check refers to the theory that as the human population grows there is increasing pressure on earth’s resources, which in turn acts as a check on the further rise in population. It is named after English economist Thomas Malthus who elaborated on the concept in his 1798 book An Essay on the Principle of Population, which quite famously inspired Charles Darwin.

Details:

In his book, Malthus argued that while rise in food production in a country can lead to improved living standards for the general population, the benefit is likely to be temporary. This is because, Malthus argued, increasing availability of food would encourage people to have more kids since they could afford to feed them now, thus leading to a rise in the total population and a drop in per capita income levels.
According to Malthus there was an inverse relationship between human population and living standards with rising population leading to lower living standards

Industrial revolution and Malthus theory :

Pre modern Era

Modern environmentalists and other social scientists believe that rising human population puts unsustainable pressure on earth’s resources.
The per capita income of countries remained fairly low and largely stable for many centuries until the modern age.
In the pre-modern age, whenever there was a rise in food production due to whatever reason, this caused per capita income to rise for a while as long as population levels remained stable. However, the population of the country increased quite quickly which ensured that per capita income returned to its historical trend. Whenever food production dropped on the other hand, there was famine which caused the death of a large number of people. The drop in human population continued until the country’s per capita income rose to subsistence levels. Either way, resource constraints kept a check on human population.

Industrial era:

The industrial revolution that happened in the 18th and 19th centuries is seen as a landmark event that broke the historical relationship between human population and living standards.
It witnessed the rising use of man-made technology, which made sure that human beings could produce more output in the form of goods and services for each unit of the earth’s resource that they exploited. In other words, human productivity rose massively as a result of the rise of technology.

Criticism of the Malthusian trap

The industrial revolution decisively refuted Malthus as human population levels and living standards have risen in tandem ever since the event.
There may be no strict inverse correlation between population growth and the living standards of people.
As long as human beings can find ways to use earth’s resources more efficiently, their population can grow without compromising their living standards even in the long-term.
In fact, some argue that as human population rises, the chances of breakthrough innovations happening rise manifold as there would be more human minds working on solving humanity’s problems.

Daily Mapping

Keonjhar

Context: The district has a high share of the iron ore reserves in the country and is flush with funds meantfor welfare needs, but women and infants are struggling to access basic amenities

Details:

Keonjhar is one of the major mineral producing Districts of Odisha. Iron ore, Manganese ore, Chromate, Quartzite, Bauxite, Gold, Pyrophillite and Lime Stone are the major minerals found in this District. The Kalinga Iron Works (Barbil), Ferro Manganese Plant (Joda), Ipitata (Beleipada), Charge Crome (Brahmanipal) are the major names in the industrial scene of Keonjhar. There are also engineering and metal based industries (53 numbers), chemical and allied industries including plastic industries (48 numbers) and agro and marine based industries (242 numbers) functioning in this District.