Daily Prelims Notes 3 July 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

3 July 2024

1. Freddy’s fury: WMO confirms cyclone Freddy’s record 36-day lifespan

Sub: Geography

Sec: Climatology

Cyclone Freddy: Record-Breaking Tropical Cyclone:

• Longest-lived tropical cyclone on record (Surpassed hurricane John), lasting 36 days.
• It is the second longest-travelled tropical cyclone on record.
  • The longest distance travelled by a tropical cyclone was 13,159 km by Hurricane John in the North Pacific Ocean in 1994.
• Additional Records:
  • Rapid intensification seven times (highest on record).
  • Accumulated cyclone energy equalling an entire North Atlantic hurricane season.
• Regions Affected: Southeast Africa (Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi).
• Impact: Fierce winds, intense rainfall, destructive storm surges.
• Path and Landfall:

• Formation: Off the northwestern coast of Australia on February 4, 2023.
• Landfall: First hit Madagascar on February 21, 2023.
• Dissipation: Over Malawi on March 14, 2023.
• Distance Travelled: Second longest on record, 12,785 km.
• Energy Source: Warm sea surface waters and subsurface seawater.
• Forecasting Challenges: Rapid intensification complicated weather models and early warnings.

Impact and Damage

• Financial Cost: $481 million in damages.
• Displacement: 1.4 million people across six African countries.
  • Malawi: 659,000 displaced, highest since 2009.

Importance of Early Warnings

• Early Warning Systems: Helped mitigate higher death tolls through timely alerts and evacuations.
• UN Initiative: Emphasized the importance of early warnings for all to tackle extreme weather and climate change risks.

Source: DTE

2. Odisha resorts to palm tree planting to combat lightning deaths this year

Sub: Geography

Sec: Climatology

Odisha’s Palm Tree Initiative:

• Odisha plans to plant 1.9 million palm trees and restrict the cutting of existing ones to reduce lightning casualties.
• Palm trees act as natural conductors during lightning strikes, preventing loss of lives.
• The decision to plant and protect palm trees was made in September 2023.
• Odisha is one of India’s worst-affected states by lightning strikes during the pre-monsoon and monsoon periods.

Implementation and Financial Details:

• Special Relief Commissioner Satyabrata Sahu urged large-scale palm tree plantations in reserve forests and vulnerable districts.
• The department will plant around 1.9 million palm trees across the state in 2024-25, spending around Rs 7 crore.
• Initial restrictions on felling palm trees were withdrawn due to public demands, leading to their near extinction in rural areas.

Impact and Statistics:

• On average, 300 people die annually in Odisha due to lightning, with 2,058 deaths from 2018-19 to 2022-23.
• Lightning strikes claim nearly 2,500 human lives annually in India.
• Most victims are farmers, cattle herders, fishers, forest dwellers, and labourers working outdoors.
• Lightning was declared a state-specific disaster in Odisha in 2015, with the government providing Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia to families of the deceased.

Source: DTE

3. Biodiversity Convention: Decisions on new avatar of benefit sharing on the anvil next month

Sub: Environment

Sec: Int Conventions

Context: In August 2024, delegates will discuss the multilateral fund for sharing benefits from the use of digital sequence information, following the publication of the United Nations’ negotiation proposals.

Details:

• The requirement to share benefits is one of the three main tenets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The convention makes no recommendation on what should be done if only genetic material is used. CBD members have attempted to solve this conundrum for the better part of a decade.
• Plant, animal and microbe genetic material are all examples of digital sequence information (DSI). There is currently no internationally agreed-upon definition of DSI and its scope may include other dematerialised genetic resources, such as protein sequence data.
• The decision made by the DSI intergovernmental negotiating group would also guide discussion of similar multilateral funds under consideration by the Food and Agriculture Organization under its International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, as well as the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Treaty.
• At the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15), held in December 2022, the parties pledged a new multilateral mechanism in which industry could contribute to a global fund that would be used to support nature conservation and sustainable use, including related activities of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, as well as building capacity worldwide to generate and use
• According to the UN documents released July 1, 2024, even a small percentage of revenue from products such as drugs, cosmetics and agricultural biotechnology would be worth billions of dollars.

Digital Sequence Information (DSI) on Genetic Resources-

• Digital sequence information (DSI) is a term used in the context of certain international policy fora, particularly the Convention on Biological Diversity, to refer to data derived from genetic resources.
• DSI refers to data from DNA or RNA that can be stored digitally.
• The term is generally agreed to include nucleic acid sequence data and may be construed to include other data types derived from or linked to genetic resources, including, for example, protein sequence data.
• The exact scope of this term is an aspect of ongoing policy discussions.
• DSI is crucial to research in a wide range of contexts, including public health, medicine, biodiversity, plant and animal breeding, and evolution research.
• The Nagoya Protocol, a component of the Convention on Biological Diversity, establishes a right for countries to regulate, and to share in benefits derived from, their nation’s genetic resources by arranging Access and Benefit Sharing Agreements with users.

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a legally binding treaty to conserve biodiversity has been in force since 1993. It has 3 main objectives:
  • The conservation of biological diversity.
  • The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity.
  • The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
• Nearly all countries have ratified it (notably, the US has signed but not ratified).
• The CBD Secretariat is based in Montreal, Canada and it operates under the United Nations Environment Programme.
• The Parties (Countries) under Convention of Biodiversity (CBD), meet at regular intervals and these meetings are called Conference of Parties (COP).
• In 2000, a supplementary agreement to the Convention known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was adopted. It came into force on 11^th September 2003.
  • The Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.
• The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) was adopted in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan at COP10. It entered into force on 12^th October 2014.
  • It not only applies to genetic resources that are covered by the CBD, and to the benefits arising from their utilization but also covers traditional knowledge (TK) associated with genetic resources that are covered by the CBD and the benefits arising from its utilization.
• Along with the Nagoya Protocol on Genetic Resources, the COP-10 also adopted a ten-year framework for action by all countries to save biodiversity.
• Officially known as “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020”, it provided a set of 20 ambitious yet achievable targets collectively known as the Aichi Targets for biodiversity.
• India enacted Biological Diversity Act in 2002 for giving effect to the provisions of the CBD.

Global Environment Facility

• It is an independently operating financial organization
• GEF is multilateral financial mechanism that provides grants to developing countries for projects that benefit global environment and promote sustainable livelihoods in local communities.
• It was setup as a fund under World Bank in 1991
• In 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit, the GEF was restructured and moved out of the World Bank system to become a permanent, separate institution.
• Since 1994, however, the World Bank has served as the Trustee of the GEF Trust Fund and provided administrative services.
• It is based in Washington DC, United States.
• It addresses six designated focal areas:
  • biodiversity,
  • climate change,
  • international waters,
  • ozone depletion,
  • land degradation and
  • Persistent Organic Pollutants.
• The program supports an active portfolio of over 200 investments globally.
• GEF serves as financial mechanism for :
  • Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
  • UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
  • Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
  • Minamata Convention on Mercury
• India is both donor and recipient of GEF.

4. Coal Ministry Reviews Status of Captive/Commercial Coal Mines’ Production

Sub: Geography

Sec: Eco Geo

Context:

• As of 30th June, 2024, 54 captive/commercial coal mines are under production out of which 32 mines are allocated to the power sector, 12 to non-regulated sector and 10 mines are allocated for sale of coal.

More on news:

• 65 non-operational coal blocks are in various stages of obtaining regulatory clearances.
• These blocks are distributed across nine states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and West Bengal.

Types of Coal Mining:

Commercial Coal Mining:

• Commercial mining allows the private sector to mine coal commercially without placing any end-use restrictions. 
• The private firms have the option of either gasification of the coal or exporting it.
• They can also use it in their own end-use plants or sell them in the markets.

Captive Coal Mines:

• Under the Coal Mines (Nationalization) Act,1973 coal mining was exclusively reserved for the public sector.
• Amendment to Mines Act 1973, was brought in 1976 provided two exceptions to the mines policy:
  • (i) captive mining by private companies engaged in production of iron and steel .
  • (ii) sub-lease for coal mining to private parties in isolated small pockets not amenable to economic development and not requiring rail transport, were allowed.
• Captive mines are the mines that are owned by companies.
• The coal or mineral produced from these mines is for the exclusive use of the owner company of the mines. 
• The company cannot sell coal or minerals outside. 
•  Captive mining of coal is allowed to companies engaged in
  • (i)Production of iron & Steel
  • (ii)Generation of Power 
  • (iii)Manufacture of Cement.
• Government  provisions for granting mining plans and mining leases are contained in the Mines & Minerals Development and Regulation Act,1957 and Mineral concession Rules 1960.

Non- Captive Mines: 

• Non-captive Mines are mines from which the produced coals can be used for its own consumption and as well as for selling it.
• The MMDR Act, 1957 empowers the central government to reserve any mine as a captive mine which is utilized for a specific purpose only.
• The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023 bill removes the distinction between captive and non-captive mines. 
• The mines will not be limited to just a specific purpose/industry/sector.

5. The two vaccines that brought us to the brink of eradicating polio

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Health

Context:

• The wild poliovirus is restricted to pockets of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is beginning to reappear from here in big cities in these two countries.

About Polio:

• Polio is also called Poliomyelitis. 
• It is a viral disease that destroys the nerve cells present in the spinal cord, causing paralysis or muscle weakness to some parts of the body.
• It is a contagious disease affecting the nervous system and is caused by Picornaviridae – a poliovirus.
• The virus is transmitted by person-to-person through the following ways –
  • 1) Through the fecal-oral route.
  • 2) By contaminated water or food.
• This virus primarily grows and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can attack the nervous system and will cause polio and paralysis on an advanced level.
• In 1948, microbiologists John F. Enders, Thomas Weller, and Frederick Robbins were trying to find a method to grow different viruses in cell cultures.
• The poliovirus has only one natural host — humans — and many of the early strains of the virus were isolated from humans and wouldn’t infect non-human primates.
• The inability to culture polio in non-nerve cells was a major roadblock to developing a polio vaccine.

Eradication targets:

• Polio eradication is one of the top priorities of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
• Africa was declared polio-free in August 2020; the wild poliovirus has been restricted to rural pockets in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• The WHO’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative is thus set to miss its deadline of eradicating polio by the end of 2024.

Various Polio vaccines:

Salk:

• Salk made the first successful vaccine for polio.
• It was an Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV)
• Salk inactivated the virus by treating it with formaldehyde, and injected it into his test subjects.
• The fragments of the inactivated virus were able to induce immunity in their bodies.
• Since the vaccine was introduced into the muscle, it generated systemic immunity.
• The immune system has two main parts: the systemic and the mucosal. 
• The systemic component includes the blood, the brain, and all other organ systems. 
• The mucosal component includes the inner linings of the digestive and respiratory systems, the urogenital tract, and the eyes. 
• These regions are lined with mucous membranes that provide an additional layer of protection, as they frequently come into contact with the external environment.

Sabin:

• Albert Sabin developed another vaccine that contained live polio strains weakened by growing them serially in macaque cells, making them unfit for human infection.
• This was the oral polio vaccine (OPV).
• OPV went into the stomach, it induced a powerful protective mucosal immune response right where the virus would have to begin its infection.

Advantages of OPV over IPV:

• The OPV vaccine induced a protective response at the viral entry site — the gut — allowing it to provide a much greater degree of protection relative to the IPV. 
• The OPV was administered orally and didn’t require syringes or trained personnel for its administration.

Challenges in OPV:

• The weakened virus in the OPV would revert, and would do the very job it was designed to prevent: cause polio.
• The IPV, while being a less potent vaccine, contained inactivated virus particles and carried no risk of causing vaccine-induced polio.
• The world has used both vaccines in the fight against polio.
• While some countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, relied exclusively on the IPV, most countries have used a combination of the two. 
• The latter countries prefer the OPV for its superior protection and ease of administration.
• When the number of natural polio cases drops to zero, they switch to IPV for its enhanced safety.

6. Digital jurisprudence in India, in an AI era

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Awareness in IT

Context:

• The rapidly-evolving technology does pose a challenge to existing legal frameworks and judicial precedents that have been designed for a pre-AI world.

What is Generative AI:

• Generative AI (GAI) stands as a transformative force, wielding power to revolutionize society in ground-breaking ways, existing legal frameworks and judicial precedents that have been designed for a pre-AI world may struggle to effectively govern this rapidly-evolving technology.
• Generative AI or generative artificial intelligence refers to the use of AI to create new content, like text, images, music, audio, and videos.
• Generative AI is powered by foundation models (large AI models) that can multi-task and perform out-of-the-box tasks, including summarization, Q&A, classification, and more.

Safe harbor and liability fixation:

• One of the most persistent and contentious issues in Internet governance has been the fixing of liability on “intermediaries” for content hosted by them.
• The landmark Shreya Singhal judgment upholded Section 79 of the IT Act which grants intermediaries ‘safe harbor’ protection against hosting content, contingent upon meeting the due diligence requirements outlined in Section 3(1)(b) of the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules. 
• In Christian Louboutin Sas vs Nakul Bajaj and Ors (2018), the Delhi High Court held that safe harbour protection applies solely to “passive” intermediaries, referring to entities functioning as mere conduits or passive transmitters of information.
• Section 16 of Indian Copyright Act 1957 specifically provides that “no person” shall be entitled to protection of copyright except by the provisions of the Act. 
• The 161st Parliamentary Standing Committee Report found that the Copyright Act of 1957 is “not well equipped to facilitate authorship and ownership by Artificial Intelligence”.
• ChatGPT’s ‘Terms of Use’ attempt to shift liability to the user for any illegal output. 
• The landmark K.S.Puttaswamy judgment (2017) by the Supreme Court of India established a strong foundation for privacy jurisprudence in the country, leading to the enactment of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP).

About Right to Erasure:

• The right to erasure is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’.
• The right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances.
• The DPDP Act introduces the “right to erasure“ as well as “right to be forgotten”.

Large language model (LLM):

• A large language model is a computational model notable for its ability to achieve general-purpose language generation and other natural language processing tasks such as classification.
• LLMs are trained on huge sets of data — hence the name “large.” 
• LLMs are built on machine learning: specifically, a type of neural network called a transformer model.

7. What we know about North Korea’s new ballistic missile test

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Defence

Context:

• Recently, North Korea had successfully tested a new tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying a “super large warhead”.

More on news:

• The test, named Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5, was conducted with a simulated heavy warhead to verify flight stability and accuracy.
• South Korea reported the launch of two ballistic missiles by Pyongyang, adding that the second missile blew up over land soon after the launch.
• Ballistic missiles, depending on their design, can carry conventional high explosives as well as chemical, biological, or nuclear munitions.

Sanctions on North Korea:

• North Korea is prohibited from testing ballistic projectiles by the UN and faces several sanctions for advancing its nuclear capabilities.
• North Korea’s military is set to conduct another launch of the same type of missile in July to test the “explosion power” of the super-large warhead.

About Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5:

• The missile, designated as “Hwasong-11Da-4.5,” features a 4.5-ton-class super-large warhead and was launched by the General Missile Bureau.
• The objective of the test was to verify flight stability and hit accuracy at a maximum range of 500 kilometers and a minimum range of 90 kilometers.

8. How Can State Capacity Be Measured?

Sub: Economy

Sec: National Income  

State capacity refers to the ability of a state to successfully deliver public goods and services to its citizens. It is considered by many public policy experts to be the major factor that explains why some countries are rich or developed while others remain underdeveloped.

 Common Measures of State Capacity

• Tax Revenues:
  • Tax to GDP Ratio: The most common way to measure state capacity is by its ability to collect sufficient tax revenues.
  • Countries with a higher tax to GDP ratio, typically rich countries, are considered to possess greater state capacity.
  • Example: Developing countries like India are often urged to boost their tax to GDP ratio to build state capacity.
• Employment in Public Sector:
  • Number of Public Officials: Another indicator is the number of people employed by the state.
  • Police Officials per Capita: Indicates the state’s capacity to maintain law and order.
  • Judges and Courts per Capita: Reflects the state’s ability to deliver justice.

Criticisms of Traditional Measures

• Efficiency vs. Size:
  • Efficiency Argument: More efficient states may deliver public goods with lower taxes and fewer staff.
  • Critics argue that the number of public employees and the amount of taxes collected only reflect the state’s size, not its effectiveness.
• Causal Link Between State Capacity and Success:
  • Tautological Attribution: Critics like U.S. economist Bryan Caplan argue that attributing the success of rich countries solely to strong state capacity is tautological.
  • Economic Growth Argument: It could be that strong economic growth allowed developed countries to fund larger states, rather than large states causing economic success.

Alternative Measures

• Upholding Rule of Law:
  • Delivering Efficient Justice: A better way to measure state capacity, according to critics, is to gauge a state’s ability to uphold the rule of law and deliver efficient justice to its citizens, regardless of its size as measured by tax collections or headcount.

9. Is the Bad Loan Problem Shifting to Individuals from Industries?

Sub: Economy

Sec: Monetary Policy 

Though Indian banks are in the pink of health, the RBI is worried about slippages and delinquencies.

• Historical Context:
  • Until the mid-2010s, banks primarily lent massive loans to big industries.
  • Failures in these businesses resulted in significant bad loans that were initially hidden.
  • In 2015, the RBI carried out a review, uncovering these hidden bad loans.
  • The share of bad loans reached as high as 10% in 2017, indicating that nearly one in every 10 loans had turned bad.
• Recovery Measures:
  • Various debt recovery channels, including the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, were employed.
  • Banks managed to recover more bad loans, improving their financial health.
  • As a result, Gross Non-Performing Assets (GNPA) reached a decadal low of 2.8%, and Net Non-Performing Assets (NNPA) was 0.6% in March 2024
• Shift to Retail Loans:
  • Reducing loans to industries meant banks had to look elsewhere to lend and earn.
  • The mid-2010s saw an increase in loans to the retail sector, including personal loans, credit card receivables, and housing loans.
  • Proliferation of instant loan apps enticed consumers, leading to a debt trap.
  • The share of retail loans grew significantly, surpassing loans to industries and services.
• Current GNPA Trends:
  • The GNPA ratio of personal loans has been reducing consistently, reaching 1.2% in March 2024 — the lowest across sectors
• RBI’s Concerns:

Despite a generally positive outlook, the RBI has highlighted two signs of incipient stress:

• Slippages: Fresh additions of bad loans in a year.
  • In FY24, slippages from retail loans (excluding home loans) formed 40% of fresh additions of NPAs
• Delinquency Levels: Persistent delinquency can eventually turn an account into an NPA.
  • Delinquency levels among small borrowers with personal loans below ₹50,000 remain high.
  • Most of these loans were sanctioned by NBFC-Fintech lenders, major drivers behind digital lending apps.
  • High delinquency levels persist in small finance banks and NBFC-Fintechs
• Future Outlook:
  • While the banking system appears mostly disease-free, the RBI is worried about the symptoms of slippages and delinquencies.
  • This time, the focus of concern has shifted from industries to individuals.

Summary:

• GNPA and NNPA trends from March 2015 to March 2024, showing a decadal low in March 2024.
• GNPA ratio by sector, with personal loans having the lowest ratio at 1.2% in March 2024.
• Bank-type wise split of slippages from retail loans in new NPAs, with retail loan slippages forming 40% of new NPAs in FY24.
• Delinquency levels for personal loans below ₹50,000, highlighting persistent high levels in small finance banks and NBFC-Fintechs.