Daily Prelims Notes 30 June 2023

Daily Prelims Notes

30 June 2023

Table Of Contents

1. Background hum of the universe heard, Pune astrophysics lab listens in
2. Climate Change and the role played by Oceans
3. Odisha’s Debrigarh Sanctuary freed from human settlement
4. Centre identifies 30 critical minerals: Why, how, and importance of the exercise
5. India to secure lithium blocks in Argentina
6. Russian oil: payment issues
7. SEBI amends regulations for REIT and InvIT
8. India-Mongolia to set shipping route for coking coal supply
9. India’s largest radio telescope plays vital role in detecting universe’s vibrations
10. Tamil Nadu Governor Dismisses Minister V Senhil Balaji from the Council of Ministers
11. Banking on World Heritage
12. Sri Lankan Central Bank moots recast of pension funds, haircut on bonds
13. Will appeal decision against Rwanda policy, says Sunak
14. Govt unveils guidelines for green hydrogen production, electrolyser manufacturing
15. South Koreans Rush to Buy Salt Before Japan Dumps Nuclear Waste In Sea

1. Background hum of the universe heard, Pune astrophysics lab listens in

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Context:

• Scientists have picked up evidence to suggest that a multitude of gravitational waves are ever-present in any area of the universe, their combined effects constantly deforming and reshaping spacetime, and altering the motion and behaviour of every heavenly body.

Gravitational wave background and background humming:

• This multitude of gravitational waves is named ‘Gravitational wave background’.
• The gravitational waves were produced by the merger of blackholes or explosion of stars and can take millions of years, providing a steady supply of gravitational waves. And there are many such events happening all the time.
• So, there is a sort of gravitational wave background that exists all the time.
• The noisy presence of several such gravitational waves, each with different characteristics, is what is now being referred to as the ‘background hum’.

Disruption in signals of pulsars as evidence of Gravitational wave background:

• Radio astronomers representing the different teams including the Indian Pulsar Timing Array (InPTA) shared that a time aberration, or delay, was observed in the signals emerging from distant rapidly-rotating neutron stars called pulsars that are sometimes spinning more than 1000 times every second.
  • They are so named because they emit pulses of radiation, observed from Earth as bright flashes of light, at every rotation. The time period of these pulses of radiation is fixed and predictable, the reason why these neutron stars are called ‘cosmic clocks’.
• In order to detect gravitational wave signals, scientists studied several ultra-stable pulsar clocks randomly distributed across our Milky Way galaxy through six of the largest radio telescopes in the world, including GIRT.
• The arrival of these signals can be calculated accurately, but during experiments, it was observed that some of them arrived a little early while a few others were late, the discrepancies ranging in millionths of seconds.
• These irregularities showed consistent effects of the presence of gravitational waves.
• Scientists say that possible sources of these low-frequency gravitational waves could be colliding pair of very large, ‘monster’, black holes, millions of times bigger than our Sun.
• Such large black holes are usually found at the centres of galaxies.
• Gravitational waves originating from the collision or mergers of such black holes can have very large wavelengths, extending up to light years, and consequently, very low frequencies.
• In all, six of the world’s most powerful and large radio telescopes – uGMRT, Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope, Effelsberg Radio Telescope, Lovell Telescope, Nançay Radio Telescope and Sardinia Radio Telescope – were deployed to study 25 pulsars over a period of 15 years.
• In addition to data from these facilities, highly sensitive UGMRT data of more than three years were analysed too.
• It has been concluded that radio flashes from these pulsars were affected by the nano-hertz gravitational waves believed to emerge from ‘monster’ black holes.

Gravitational waves:

• Gravitational waves are ripples, or disturbances, produced in the fabric of spacetime by large moving objects.
• The existence of gravitational waves was predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity more than a century ago, but its experimental confirmation came only in 2015.
  • As per the General Theory of relativity (1905) space and time were not independent entities but had to be woven together as spacetime.
• He also proposed that spacetime was not transparent, inert, static or fixed background to all the events in the universe. Instead, spacetime was flexible and malleable, interacted with matter, was influenced by it, and in turn, influenced the events that take place there.

Gravitational wave detection:

• In 2015, scientists detected gravitational waves for the first time through LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) detectors.
• Those waves were produced by the merger of two black holes that took place about 1.3 billion years ago.
• But scientists contend that such events, mergers of black holes or explosions of stars, keep happening all the time, regularly producing gravitational waves. Even the simple motion of large bodies can produce detectable gravitational waves.
  • Only the waves produced just ahead of the merger, when the energy released was maximum, could be detected.

LIGO India Project:

• LIGO is an international network of laboratories that detect the ripples in spacetime produced by the movement of large celestial objects like stars and planets.
• LIGO-India will be located in Hingoli district of Maharashtra, about 450 km east of Mumbai, and is scheduled to begin scientific runs from 2030.

LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory):

• It is an international network of laboratories meant to detect gravitational waves.
• Under this, two large observatories (~ 3000 Km apart) were built in the US (Hanford Site, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana) with the aim of detecting gravitational waves by laser interferometry.
• Interferometry is a technique which uses the interference of superimposed waves to extract information.
• Besides the US, such gravitational wave observatories are currently operational in Europe and Japan.

LIGO-India will be the fifth, and possibly the final node of the planned network.

2. Climate Change and the role played by Oceans

Subject :Environment

Section: Climate change

Context:

• Oceans cool the planet by releasing short-lived halogens that contribute 8-10 per cent of cooling: Stud

Study findings:

• Ocean absorbs the carbon and moderates the climate.
• They also cool the planet by releasing short-lived halogens such as chlorine, bromine and iodine.
• Currently, these halogens contribute 8-10 per cent of cooling. This could increase to 18-31 per cent by 2100.
• Climate models that make future projections do not account for this.
• The cooling by chlorine, bromine and iodine since the preindustrial era has risen by −0.05 ± 0.03 watts per square metre, which represents a 61 per cent spike. This is driven by the anthropogenic amplification of natural halogen emissions.

Short-lived halogens:

• Naturally produced by the oceans.
• They have a lifespan of six months.
• Human activities have amplified their release into the atmosphere.
• Halogen emissions from the ocean are not the same across the world.
• Over continents, the emissions are small while it is bigger in polar regions and some places with higher ozone levels.
• How do they moderate the effects of global warming?
• Human activities cause pollutants such as ozone to deposit in the ocean, which then convert the soluble short-lived halogens into insoluble ones, forcing them out of the seawater and into the atmosphere.

Impact of short-lived halogens on the substances that causes global warming:

1. Ozone:
   • Halogens cause a depletion of ozone in the Ozone is a greenhouse gas that traps outgoing radiation, leading to warming.
   • The short-lived halogens from oceans reduce warming by depleting ozone. Its cooling effect was -0.24 ± 0.02 Watts per square metre (W m−2).
2. Methane:

• However, their effect on methane is the opposite. Short-lived halogens increase methane’s lifetime in the atmosphere by destroying hydroxyl radicals (OH). OH is a sink as it is known to break down this greenhouse gas.
• These short-lived halogens increased the global methane burden by 14 per cent and 9 per cent for pre-industrial and present-day conditions, This leads to a warming effect of 0.09 ± 0.01 W m−2 of warming.

3. Water Vapour:

• Similarly, these halogens increase the levels of water vapour, a greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere, causing a warming effect of 011 ± 0.001 W m−2.

4. Aerosols:

• These short-lived halogens reduce the formation of cooling aerosols, which are minute particles suspended in the atmosphere that reflect sunlight. It causes a small warming of 03 ± 0.01 W m−2.

The overall impact of these short-lived halogens:

• Though these halogens drive an increase in warming by influencing methane, water vapour and aerosols, they compensate this by destroying ozone, which exerts a cooling effect.

Overall, the net cooling effect was found to be −0.13 ± 0.03 W m−2.

3. Odisha’s Debrigarh Sanctuary freed from human settlement

Subject :Environment

Section: Protected Area in news

Context:

• Debrigarh, a wildlife sanctuary in Odisha’s Bargarh district, has been made completely free from any human settlement following one of the country’s largest ‘peaceful’ relocations of forest-dwellers.

Details:

• In a State where permanent human settlements are common even within wildlife sanctuaries, Debrigarh now stands out as an exception alongside Nalabana Bird Sanctuary in Chilika Lake.
• Significance of this relocation:
  • Drop in cases of man-animal conflict.
  • Inhabitants did not have access to basic facilities such as electricity, healthcare and education.
  • It was also a mandate to make critical wildlife sanctuaries inviolable.
  • No force was used for relocating villagers from the sanctuary.

Rehabilitation measure adopted are:

• During the construction of the Hirakud Dam in 1950s, many families of Rengali, Bhutuli, Kurumkel and Lambipali villages were stranded inside the sanctuary.
• 359 families – comprising about 800 persons – from Kurumkel, Bhutuli, Rengali and Lambipali villages are relocated.
• Each individual eligible family was paid ₹15 lakh compensation.
• All 400 families have been provided temporary shelter where they could easily stay for three to four years.
• Peripheral development like strengthening of basic hospital facility, solar street lights, strengthening of community house and Anganwadi has been carried out.

About Debrigarh sanctuary:

• The Debrigarh wildlife sanctuary is located in the Bargarh district in the Indian state of Odisha, covering a total area of 346.91 km2.
• It is situated near the city of Sambalpur’s Hirakud Dam. The Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary is an important location for the conservation of various local wildlife and their habitat.
• The sanctuary is bound on the east and north by the huge Hirakud reservoir. 
• It is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna.
• As per the State Forest and Environment department,Debrigarh Sanctuary, which is proposed to be a tiger reserve, has high prey base (46 animals per sq. km).
• It boasts of having 82 leopards and one Royal Bengal Tiger, besides wild animals such as Bison, Leopard, Sambar, wild boar, spotted deer, wild dog, porcupine and Nilgai.
• The sanctuary is home to more than 40 species of mammals, 234 species of birds, 41 species of reptiles, 12 species of amphibians, 65 species of fishes and 85 species of butterflies.
• The sanctuary is flanked by Hirakud Reservoir which is a Ramsar Site and International Bird Area.

Nalbana bird sanctuary:

• Nalbana Bird Sanctuary or Nalbana Island is the core area of the Ramsar designated wetlands of Chilika Lake.
• It was declared a bird sanctuary under the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972.
• In the heart of the park, one can see thousands of birds descending during the migratory season.
• The island disappears during monsoon season due to inundation only to emerge again in post-monsoon.
• Nalbana means a weed covered island In the Odia language.
• The island gets completely submerged during the monsoon season. As the monsoon recedes in the winter, lake levels decrease and the island is gradually exposed, birds flock to the island in large numbers to feed on its extensive mudflats.

Nalbana was notified in 1987 and declared a bird sanctuary in 1973 under the Wildlife Protection Act.

4. Centre identifies 30 critical minerals: Why, how, and importance of the exercise

Subject : Geography

Section: Economic geography

Context:

• The Centre has identified 30 critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, tin and copper, which are essential for the country’s economic development and national security.
• Earlier in 2011, Planning Commission initiated some efforts to identify the critical minerals.

Critical minerals:

• As per the report, a mineral is critical when the risk of supply shortage and associated impact on the economy is (relatively) higher than other raw materials.
• The European Union also carried out a similar exercise and categorised critical minerals on the basis of two prerequisites:supply risk and economic importance.
• Australia refers to critical minerals as: “metals, non-metals and minerals that are considered vital for the economic well-being of the world’s major and emerging economies, yet whose supply may be at risk due to geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, trade policy or other factors”.

The exercise:

• The identification of these minerals was done on the basis of a report on critical minerals prepared by an expert team constituted by the Ministry of Mines in November 2022.
• The ministry will revisit the list periodically.
• In November 2022, the Ministry of Mines constituted a seven-member Committee under the chairmanship of the Joint Secretary (Policy), Ministry of Mines to identify a list of minerals critical to our country and the panel decided to have a three-stage assessment to arrive at a list of critical minerals.
• The specific trigger for the latest exercise is India’s international commitments towards reducing carbon emissions, which require the country to urgently relook at its mineral requirements for energy transition and net-zero commitments.
• That report analysed 11 groups of minerals under categories such as metallic, nonmetallic, precious stones and metals, and strategic minerals.

Three-stage process:

1. In the first stage the panel looked at the strategies of various countries to classifying the mineral as critical. Accordingly69 elements/minerals are segregated for further examination.
2. In the second stage of assessment, an inter-ministerial consultation was carried out with different ministries to identify minerals critical to their sectors.
3. The third stage assessment was to derive an empirical formula for evaluating minerals criticality, taking cognizance of the EU methodology that considers two major factors — economic importance and supply risk.

Final list of critical minerals:

• Based on this process, a total of 30 minerals were found to be most critical for India, out of which two are critical as fertiliser minerals: Antimony, Beryllium, Bismuth, Cobalt, Copper, Gallium, Germanium, Graphite, Hafnium, Indium, Lithium, Molybdenum, Niobium, Nickel, PGE, Phosphorous, Potash, REE, Rhenium, Silicon, Strontium, Tantalum, Tellurium, Tin, Titanium, Tungsten, Vanadium, Zirconium, Selenium and Cadmium.

Specialised agency:

• The committee also called for a need for establishing a National Institute or Centre of Excellence on critical minerals on the lines of Australia’s CSIRO, which is the largest minerals research and development organisation in Australia and one of the largest in the world.
• This proposed Centre will periodically update the list of critical minerals for India and notify the critical mineral strategy from time to time and will execute a range of functions for the development of an effective value chain of critical minerals in the country.
• A wing in the Ministry of Mines can be established as a Centre of Excellence for Critical Minerals.

Domestic and global outreach:

• The Geological Survey of India, an attached office of the Ministry of Mines, has carried out a G3 stage mineral exploration (fairly advanced) during Field Season 2020-21 and 2021-22 in Salal-Haimna areas of Reasi district, Jammu & Kashmir, and estimated an inferred resource of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium ore.
• A joint venture company namely KhanijBidesh India Ltd. (KABIL) has been incorporated with equity contributions from three Central Public Sector Enterprises.
• It is mandated to identify and acquire overseas mineral assets of critical and strategic nature such as lithium, cobalt and others so as to ensure supply-side assurance.
• India has recently been inducted into the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP), a US-led collaboration of 14 countries that aims to catalyse public and private investment in critical mineral supply chains globally.

Global practices:

• The USA:
  • The US adopted a two-stage screening methodology to arrive at the list of critical minerals. An early warning screening tool assesses a mineral’s potential criticality using three fundamental indicators: supply risk, production growth, and market dynamics.
  • This was followed by an in-depth supply chain analyses and inter-agency collaboration, wherein a detailed analysis of the underlying factors was carried out.
• The UK:
  • In the UK, the criticality to the British economy was determined in terms of their global supply risks and the economic vulnerability to such a disruption.
  • Three indicators were used to estimate the production concentration, companion metal fraction and recycling rate.
  • A total of 18 minerals were identified as critical to the UK economy.
• The European Commission:
  • The European Commission has been issuing a list of critical raw minerals since 2011 that is updated every three years.
  • The main parameters used to determine the criticality of the mineral for the EU are the economic importance and supply risk.
  • A total of 34 raw materials are identified as Critical Raw Materials for 2023.
• Japan:
  • Japan’s first list of critical minerals was prepared by the country’s Advisory Committee on Mining Industry in 1984, under the direction of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (current METI).
  • Japan has identified a set of 31 minerals as critical for its economy.
• Australia:
  • The Australian Government, in 2019, released its inaugural Critical Minerals List and associated national strategy and a list of 24 critical minerals was first identified. Two more elements were added to the latest critical mineral strategy.

5. India to secure lithium blocks in Argentina

Subject : Geography

Section: Economic geography

Key Points:

• India is in advanced talks to secure lithium blocks in Argentina.
• KABIL (KhanijBidesh India Ltd) to soon sign a pact with Argentina to secure a few lithium blocks.
• KABIL is also exploring tie-ups and acquisition opportunities for lithium across other LATAM nations like Chile and Brazil
• India, currently, imports all major components that go into lithium-ion cell manufacturing
• Argentina, together with Chile and Bolivia, forms the so-called “Lithium Triangle” and is currently the fourth largest producer and has the third largest world reserve of lithium.
• KABIL is said to have entered into MoUs for exploration of two lithium blocks and three cobalt blocks in Australia.

6. Russian oil: payment issues

Subject :Economy

Section: External sector

Details:

• Russian oil trade is under sanction of the G-7 countries because of the Ukraine conflict, as per which a price cap of $60 per barrel was decided for Russian crude. The measure was taken in an effort intended to reduce Russia’s ability to finance its war on Ukraine.
• Till now India was importing Russian oil at rates below the sanction limit, and was making payments in dollars. This is likely to be a problem as the price of Russian oil is set to exceed the sanction limit of $60 per barrel.
• The reason for the price rise is, firstly Russia is reducing the discount at which it was selling its oil driven by increased demand from China, and secondly a reduction in the supply of cheaper varieties of crude oil.
• The only viable option in the present situation is to make payments in Rupee, but already Russia is struggling with rising levels of Rupee deposits (at over $2 billion), received due to India’s imports of defence equipment.
• As India emerged as a reliable buyer for Russian oil with the country facing sanctions due to its attack on Ukraine, imports to India have reached a record level of $31 billion in 2022-23 from just $2.5 billion in 2021-22 (increased 13 times).

7. SEBI amends regulations for REIT and InvIT

Subject : Economy

Section: Capital market

Key Points:

• SEBI has brought some changes in regulations of Real estate investment trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvIT) regarding the lock-in period of sponsors (Sponsor is the party who sets up the REIT/InvIT).
• SEBI has amended the minimum unitholding requirement for sponsors. As per the approved changes, sponsors of REITs and InvITs would be required to hold a certain minimum stake in the investment vehicles on a reducing scale for perpetuity. These units will be locked-in and will also be unencumbered (not have any debt against them).
• Motivation for the changes:
  • The intention is to ensure skin in the game and that the sponsor’s interests are aligned with that of the unitholders.
  • The rider of the lock-in units being unencumbered means that the sponsors cannot use the units for leverage. This will ensure that sponsors are not able to indirectly transfer the ownership by pledging these in any way.
• Currently, there is a 15 % unit holding lock-in for at least three years. Under the amended regulations, it starts at 15 % for up to three years, then reduces over time with the lower of 1 % of unit capital or ₹1,000 crore after 20 years.
• Implications:
  • The changes will increase retail investor confidence knowing that the sponsor is there to stay.
  • Sponsors will likely find it difficult to undertake mergers and acquisitions or get new sponsors on board owing to the lock-in restrictions .

8. India-Mongolia to set shipping route for coking coal supply

Subject : International Relations

Section: Places in news

Key Points:

• Discussions are ongoing between the two countries to decide on a shipping route for coking coal import from Mongolia. Coking coal is a key feedstock material for steel-making.
• The two probable shipping routes for the transport are:
  • Far East corridor that uses the Vladivostok – Chennai shipping path
  • International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) through use of Chabahar port.
• A third route, which uses the Russia -Mongolia-China economic corridor, was dropped from consideration.
• The trade arrangement is significant considering that Mongolia is a landlocked country bordered by just two countries, Russia to the north and China to the south.

Coking coal:

• Coking Coal is being imported by Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and other Steel manufacturing units mainly to bridge the gap between the requirement and indigenous availability and to improve the quality. Coal based power plants, cement plants, captive power plants, sponge iron plants, industrial consumers and coal traders are importing non-coking coal.
• Coke is imported mainly by Pig-Iron manufacturers and Iron & Steel sector consumers using mini-blast furnace.
• According to National Steel Policy 2017, to achieve steelmaking capacity of 300 MTPA (including 180 MTPA through Blast Furnace route) by 2030, ~170 MT coking coal will be required by 2030.
• Government has launched Coking Coal Mission to meet the demand of domestic coking coal as projected by the Ministry of Steel and has set target for raw coking Coal production by 2030

9. India’s largest radio telescope plays vital role in detecting universe’s vibrations

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Concept :

• Recently, an international team of astronomers announced scientific evidence confirming the presence of gravitational waves using pulsar observations.
• India’s Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) was among the world’s six large telescopes that played a vital role in providing this evidence.

Analysing the signals from pulsars

• Nicknamed as cosmic clocks, pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars that send out radio signals at regular intervals which are seen as bright flashes from the Earth.
• As these signals are accurately timed, there is a great interest in studying these pulsars and to unravel the mysteries of the Universe.

How analysis is done?

• In order to detect gravitational wave signals, scientists explore several ultra-stable pulsar clocks randomly distributed across our Milky Way galaxy and create an ‘imaginary’ galactic-scale gravitational wave detector.
• There are several signals travelling through spacetime of the Universe.
• But, the presence of gravitational waves influences the arrival of these signals when detected from Earth.
• It was noticed that some signals arrive early while others, with a slight delay (less than a millionth of a second).

What has been detected?

• Nano-hertz signals were heard as humming from the Universe.
• It is expected that ultra-low frequency gravitational waves, also known as nano-hertz gravitational waves, emerge from a colliding pair of very large monster black holes, many crores of times heavier than our Sun.
• The signals or ripples that emerge from within these blackholes are known as nano-hertz gravitational waves.
• Their wavelengths can be many lakhs of crores of kilometres and oscillate with a periodicity anywhere between a 1 year to 10 years.
• When there is continuous arrival of these nano-hertz gravitational waves, it creates a consistent humming in our Universe, which gets detected using powerful radio telescopes from the Earth.
• These were caused due to the presence of gravitational waves and due to signal irregularities emerging from pulsars.

Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT)

• GMRT is a low-frequency radio telescope that helps investigate various radio astrophysical problems ranging from nearby solar systems to the edge of the observable universe.
• Located at Khodad, 80 km north of Pune, the telescope is operated by the National Centre of Radio Astrophysics (NCRA).
• NCRA is a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.
• GMRT is a project of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), operating under the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
• It consists of 30 fully- steerable dish type antennas of 45-meter diameter each, spread over a 25-km region.
• GMRT is presently the world’s largest radio telescope operating at meter wavelength.

Objectives of GMRT

• GMRT is a very versatile instrument for investigating a variety of radio astrophysical problems.
• Two of its most important astrophysical objectives are:
• to detect the highly redshifted spectral line of neutral Hydrogen expected from proto-clusters or protogalaxies before they condensed to form galaxies in the early phase of the Universe;
• Redshift represents the signal’s wavelength change depending on the object’s location and movement.
• to search for and study rapidly-rotating Pulsars in our galaxy.
• Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars with extremely high densities.
• A pulsar is like a cosmic lighthouse as it emits radio beams that flashes by the Earth regularly akin to a harbour lighthouse.

10. Tamil Nadu Governor Dismisses Minister V Senhil Balaji from the Council of Ministers

Subject : Polity

Section: Executive

Concept :

• Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi’s decision dismissing arrested minister V Senthil Balaji tests the constitutional limitations on the role of the Governor and pushes the Raj Bhavan into uncharted political territory.

Governor’s Role in Parliamentary System:

• The position, role, powers, and conditions of office of the Governor are described in Articles 153-161 of the Constitution.
• The Governor is the chief executive head of the state. But, like the President, he is a nominal executive head (titular or constitutional head).
• Being the head of the state’s executive power, he acts on the advice of the council of ministers, barring some matters.
• The council of ministers, in turn, are responsible to the state legislature.
• Being appointed by the President, the Governor acts as a vital link between the Union and the state governments.
• The Governor appoints the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers.

Does a Governor have the power to remove a Minister?

• Article 164(1) says state “Ministers shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor”.
• However, as per the constitutional experts the Governor cannot remove a minister in their own capacity without obtaining the sanction of the Chief Minister or consulting with the latter.
• If a Governor removes a minister in their own capacity, that will result in ‘parallel governance’.
• Only when the Chief Minister allows it, then the Governor is empowered to remove the minister.

Important Judgements w.r.t. appointment/removal of Council of Ministers:

Shamsher Singh &Anr vs State Of Punjab (1974) –

• The Supreme Court held that the President and Governor shall exercise their formal constitutional powers only upon and in accordance with the advice of their Ministers except in a few well known exceptional situations.
• The Court also added that even in case of the Prime Minister/Chief Minister cease to command majority in the House OR the government loses majority but refuses to quit office OR for “the dissolution of the House where an appeal to the country is necessitous” –
• The Head of the State (President/Governor) should avoid getting involved in politics and must be advised by his Prime Minister (Chief Minister) who will eventually take the responsibility for the step.

Nabam Rebia And Etc. vs Deputy Speaker AndOrs (2016) –

• The Supreme Court cited the observations of B R Ambedkar –
• “The Governor under the Constitution has no function which he can discharge by himself; no functions at all. While he has no functions, he has certain duties to perform, and I think the House will do well to bear in mind this distinction.”

Recommendations of Various Commissions:

Sarkaria Commission (1983) –

• The Commission was set-up to look into Centre-state relations.
• The Commission proposed that the Vice President of India and Speaker of Lok Sabha should be consulted by the Prime Minister in the selection of Governors.
• National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2000) –
• The Commission recommended significant changes in the selection of Governors.
• The Commission suggested that the “Governor of a State should be appointed by the President, after consultation with the Chief Minister of that State”.
• Punchi Commission (2007) –
• The Commission proposed that a committee comprising the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Vice President, Speaker, and the concerned Chief Minister should choose the Governor.
• The Commission recommended deleting the “Doctrine of Pleasure” from the Constitution, but backed the right of the Governor to sanction the prosecution of ministers against the advice of the state government.
• It also argued for a provision for impeachment of the Governor by the state legislature.

11. Banking on World Heritage

Subject : History

Section:  Art and Culture

Concept :

• Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts is organising an exhibition to showcase a first-of-its kind exhibition, “Banking on World Heritage.”
• The exhibition will display banknotes depicting world heritage sites listed by UNESCO at IGNCA in a unique manner and will be at display from Friday, June 30th – Sunday, July 9th 2023.
• To commemorate the ongoing celebrations under India’s presidency of the G-20 Summit, the exhibition focuses on banknotes of the member nations.

Significance

• It is also a special occasion that coincides with the celebration of India’s 75th year of independence along with UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention’s 50th year.
• The theme proposed, “VasudhaivaKutumbakam” or “One Earth One Family One Future” perfectly matches the “Outstanding Universal Values of World Heritage.”
• Apart from this, it will also create awareness about the World Heritage Sites of different civilizations.
• It will provide an opportunity for exchange of ideas between scholars and researchers from different countries.
• Never before have banknotes depicting UNESCO World Heritage Sites around the world been presented and commemorated in such a unique way.

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA)

• The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture, as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts.
• The IGNCA has a trust (i.e. Board of Trustees), which meets regularly to give general direction about the Centre’s work. The Executive Committee, drawn from among the Trustees, functions under a Chairman.
• It is a research unit under Project Mausam.
• Project ‘Mausam’ is a Ministry of Culture project with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi as the nodal agency.
• The central themes that hold Project ‘Mausam’ together are those of cultural routes and maritime landscapes that not only linked different parts of the Indian Ocean littoral, but also connected the coastal centres to their hinterlands.
• A project on design and development of a Vedic Heritage Portal was initiated at IGNCA, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The portal aims to communicate messages enshrined in the Vedas.

12. Sri Lankan Central Bank moots recast of pension funds, haircut on bonds

Subject : International Relations

Section: International Organization

Concept :

• Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has proposed restructuring the beleaguered nation’s debt by recasting the outgo on the country’s pension funds and offering international sovereign bondholders a repayment plan that entails a 30% haircut.

Debt Situation in Sri Lanka

• The government’s latest move is part of its efforts to restructure both its foreign and domestic debt, in line with the expectations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that extended a nearly-$3 billion External Fund Facility in the wake of Sri Lanka’s painful economic crash last year.
• As of March 2023, the crisis-hit country’s foreign and domestic debt were estimated at about $41.5 billion and $42.1 billion, respectively.
• Key bilateral creditors, India and Japan, along with the Paris Club group of creditors, have set up a common platform to jointly evolve a debt restructuring plan for Sri Lanka, based on the principle of creditor parity.
• All eyes are on China, Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor, which is yet to officially join in the process and remains an observer, although Beijing has assured Colombo of cooperation.
• Meanwhile, Mr. Weerasinghe said Sri Lanka would ask its private creditors, holding International Sovereign Bonds and the largest chunk of the island nation’s foreign debt, to take a 30% haircut.

Paris Club

• The Paris Club is a group of mostly western creditor countries that grew from a 1956 meeting in which Argentina agreed to meet its public creditors in Paris.
• It describes itself as a forum where official creditors meet to solve payment difficulties faced by debtor countries.
• Their objective is to find sustainable debt-relief solutions for countries that are unable to repay their bilateral loans.
• Members:
• Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• All 22 are members of the group called Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

13. Will appeal decision against Rwanda policy, says Sunak

Subject : International Relations

Section: Places in news

Concept :

• The UK Court of Appeal has ruled against the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration.

Rwanda policy

• The policy, known as the “Rwanda policy,” is part of the government’s strategy to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel to seek asylum in the UK.
• It involves relocating potential asylum seekers to Rwanda while their applications are processed.

Rwanda

• Rwanda is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge.
• Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

14. Govt unveils guidelines for green hydrogen production, electrolyser manufacturing

Subject :Schemes

Concept :

• The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has released the framework document for the first tranche of incentive schemes for manufacturing of electrolysers and production of Green Hydrogen.
• The two incentive schemes have a total financial outlay of Rs 17,490 crore and will be implemented by the MNRE through Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) under the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) Programme.
• While Component I, which envisages offering incentives for electrolyser manufacturing, has a financial outlay of Rs 4,440 crore, Component-II, which seeks to provide support for Green Hydrogen production has an outlay of Rs 13,050 crore.
• Both the schemes will be implemented during the period FY 2025-26 and FY 2029-30.

Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) Programme

• The SIGHT programme is a major financial measure under the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an outlay of Rs 17,490 crore.
• The programme proposes two modes of providing financial incentive mechanisms to support domestic manufacturing of electrolysers and production of Green Hydrogen — bidding on the least incentive demanded over the three-year period through a competitive selection process and the implementing agency will aggregate demand and call for bids for procurement of Green Hydrogen and its derivatives at the lowest cost.
• The frameworks released by the MNRE on Wednesday are for the first mode of providing incentives for green hydrogen production and electrolyser manufacturing. MNRE Secretary Bhupinder Singh Bhalla said that the framework for inviting bids under the demand aggregation mode will be released later.

For futher notes on Green Hydrogen and Mission, refer – https://optimizeias.com/green-hydrogen-mission-gets-cabinet-nod-initial-outlay-rs-19744-crore/

15. South Koreans Rush to Buy Salt Before Japan Dumps Nuclear Waste In Sea

Subject : Science and tech

Section: Nuclear technology

Concept :

• South Korean shoppers are snapping up sea salt and other items as worry grows about their safety with Japan due to dump more than 1 million metric tons of treated radioactive water from a wrecked nuclear power plant into the sea.
• The water was mainly used to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima power plant north of Tokyo, after it was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
• The release of the water from huge storage tanks into the Pacific is expected soon though no date has been set.
• Japan has given repeated assurances that the water is safe, saying it has been filtered to remove most isotopes though it does contain traces of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen hard to separate from water.

Nuclear Waste Disposal

• All radioactive waste facilities are designed with numerous layers of protection to make sure that people remain protected for as long as it takes for radioactivity to reduce to background levels.

Types of nuclear waste and their disposal

• Exempt waste4 (EW): Waste that meets the criteria for clearance, exemption or exclusion from regulatory control for radiation protection purposes.
• Very short-lived waste (VSLW): Waste that can be stored for decay over a limited period of up to a few years and subsequently cleared from regulatory control according to arrangements approved by the regulatory body, for uncontrolled disposal, use or discharge. This class includes waste containing primarily radionuclides with very short half-lives often used for research and medical purposes.
• Very low-level waste (VLLW): Waste that does not necessarily meet the criteria of EW, but that does not need a high level of containment and isolation and, therefore, is suitable for disposal in near surface landfill type facilities with limited regulatory control. Such landfill type facilities may also contain other hazardous waste. Typical waste in this class includes soil and rubble with low levels of activity concentration. Concentrations of longer-lived radionuclides in VLLW are generally very limited.
• Low level waste (LLW): Waste that is above clearance levels, but with limited amounts of long lived radionuclides. Such waste requires robust isolation and containment for periods of up to a few hundred years and is suitable for disposal in engineered near surface facilities. This class covers a very broad range of waste. LLW may include short lived radionuclides at higher levels of activity concentration, and also long lived radionuclides, but only at relatively low levels of activity concentration.Low-level waste is made up of lightly-contaminated items like tools and work clothing from power plant operation and makes up the bulk of radioactive wastes. It represent 90% of the total volume of radioactive wastes, but contain only 1% of the radioactivity.
• Intermediate level waste (ILW): Waste that, because of its content, particularly of long lived radionuclides, requires a greater degree of containment and isolation than that provided by near surface disposal. However, ILW needs no provision, or only limited provision, for heat dissipation during its storage and disposal. ILW may contain long lived radionuclides, in particular, alpha emitting radionuclides that will not decay to a level of activity concentration acceptable for near surface disposal during the time for which institutional controls can be relied upon. Therefore, waste in this class requires disposal at greater depths, of the order of tens of metres to a few hundred metresIntermediate-level wastes might include used filters, steel components from within the reactor and some effluents from reprocessing.
• High level waste (HLW): Waste with levels of activity concentration high enough to generate significant quantities of heat by the radioactive decay process or waste with large amounts of long lived radionuclides that need to be considered in the design of a disposal facility for such waste. Disposal in deep, stable geological formations usually several hundred metres or more below the surface is the generally recognized option for disposal of HLWHigh-level wastes from nuclear generation, but they contain 95% of the radioactivity arising from nuclear power.
• The regular monitoring is done as per the requirements which are in line with the guidelines of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• The monitoring of various environmental matrices such as air, water, soil etc., in and around the waste disposal facilities is carried out by independent Environmental Survey Laboratories (ESL) of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) which are stationed at all the nuclear sites.