Daily Prelims Notes 30 May 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

30 May 2024

1. S&P Revises India’s Economic Outlook to ‘Positive’

Sub: Economy

Sec: National Income

Tags: Rating agency

Key Highlights:

• S&P Global Ratings upgraded India’s economic outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘positive’.
• The sovereign rating remains at ‘BBB-Minus’, the lowest investment-grade rating, which has been maintained since 2007.
• This outlook change suggests a potential rating upgrade within the next two years if certain fiscal conditions are met.
• Fitch Ratings also affirmed India’s ‘BBB-Minus’ rating with a stable outlook in January.

Reasons for the Outlook Upgrade:

• Robust Economic Growth: India’s GDP is expected to grow close to 7% annually over the next three years.
• Quality of Government Spending: There has been a pronounced improvement in government expenditure, focusing on high infrastructure investment.
• Policy Stability: The continuation of economic reforms and cautious fiscal and monetary policies are contributing to sustained long-term growth prospects.
• Fiscal Consolidation: Political commitment to reducing the fiscal deficit is noted, with projections of the deficit decreasing from 7.9% of GDP in FY25 to 6.8% by FY28.

Implications of the Positive Outlook:

• Potential Rating Upgrade: The positive outlook indicates a potential upgrade in India’s sovereign rating if fiscal deficit management improves and economic resilience is bolstered.
• Bank Ratings: S&P also revised the outlook on six Indian banks (Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Indian Bank) from stable to positive.
• Corporate Entities: The outlook for several major corporations, including EXIM Bank, NTPC, Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd, and Power Grid Corp of India, was also revised to positive.

Challenges and Conditions:

• Fiscal Deficit Management: A significant narrowing of the fiscal deficit is required for a rating upgrade.
• Political Commitment: Continued political commitment to maintaining sustainable public finances is crucial.
• External Position: Avoiding a widening current account deficit that could weaken India’s external position is essential.

Economic Growth Dynamics:

• Medium-term Prospects: Improvements in infrastructure and connectivity are expected to enhance economic growth dynamics.
• Corporate Capex Revival: A potential revival in private corporate capital expenditure, particularly in the latter half of the year, could provide additional growth momentum.

Conclusion

The upgrade to a ‘positive’ outlook by S&P Global Ratings reflects confidence in India’s economic growth prospects, fiscal management, and structural reforms. This change underscores the importance of continued policy stability and fiscal prudence in achieving a potential rating upgrade in the near future.

2. An overview of the AMRUT scheme

Sub: Schemes

Sec: Infra

Tags: AMRUT scheme

What is the AMRUT scheme?

• The AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) scheme was a flagship programme launched by the NDA-1 government in June 2015, with its 2.0 version launched on October 1, 2021.
• AMRUT 2.0 was launched in October 2021 for a period of 5 years, i.e., Financial Year 2021-22 to 2025-26.
• AMRUT 2.0 was aimed at making cities ‘water secure’ and providing functional water tap connections to all households in all statutory towns.
• Ambitious targets were set up such as providing 100% sewage management in 500 AMRUT cities.
• It is an extension of the AMRUT mission, which was launched in June 2015 and aims to provide every household with access to a tap with a guaranteed supply of water and a sewer connection.
• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is the nodal ministry for the scheme.
• The purpose of the AMRUT mission was to

• (i) ensure that every household has access to a tap with assured supply of water and a sewerage connection
• (ii) increase the value of cities by developing greenery and well-maintained open spaces such as parks and
• (iii) reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorised transport.
• The total outlay for AMRUT was ₹50,000 crore for five years from FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-20.

Data on housing patterns:

• Around 36% of India’s population is living in cities and by 2047 it will be more than 50%.
• The World Bank estimates that around $840 billion is required to fund the bare minimum urban infrastructure over the next 15 years.

What is the reality of AMRUT schemes?

• It is estimated that about 2,00,000 people die every year due to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene. 
• In 2016, the disease burden due to unsafe water and sanitation per person was 40 times higher in India than in China. 
• Around 21 major cities are going to run out of ground water. In a NITI Aayog report it was stated that 40% of India’s population will have no access to drinking water by 2030.
• A National Clean Air Programme was launched by the central government in 2019, as AMRUT 2.0 focused only on water and sewerage and because the air quality concerns of AMRUT 1.0 were far from addressed.

Challenges in the scheme:

• The basic fundamental of the scheme was erroneously constructed. 
• Instead of a holistic approach, it took on a project-oriented attitude. 
• AMRUT was made for cities with no participation from the cities. 
• In the governance architecture, the apex committee is headed by the secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) and all the members are non-elected.
• The State level high powered committee is headed by the chief secretary with a private nexus of consultants and professionals.
• Peoples’ representatives are completely missing, in violation of the 74th constitutional amendment.

About National Clean Air Programme(NCAP):

• It was launched by the MoEFCC in January 2019 as a long-term, time-bound, national-level strategy that features:
  • Making determined efforts to deal with the air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner.
  • Achieving 20% to 30% reduction target in Particulate Matter concentrations by 2024 where 2017 is kept as the base year for the comparison of concentration.
• Identification of 122 non-attainment cities (presently 131 non-attainment cities) across the country based on the 2014-2018 Air Quality data.
• Non- Attainment Cities are the cities which do not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

3. New light-based tool could cut cost of spotting viral infections

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Space sector

Tags: Venus

Context:

• Recently, researchers from Harvard University, Cambridge, and Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, reported developing one such tool which can detect if cells have been infected by a virus using only light and some knowledge of high-school physics.

Viral infections:

• A virus’ spread from animals to humans could unleash pandemics like COVID-19 creating significant public health crises with considerable economic and social fallout.
• To nip such infections in the bud, public health researchers have advocated the ‘One Health’ approach: 
  • monitoring and protecting plants, animals, environment, and human health in an integrated fashion.
• The one going on around the world killed more than 131 million poultry in 81 countries in 2022 and 2023, according to the World Health Organisation.
• The methods they use include polymerase chain reaction or antigen tests, which detect the genes or proteins associated with the H5N1 virus.

Methodology of the light based tool:

• A viral infection can stress cells and change their shapes, sizes, and features.
• The researchers behind the new study translated the cellular changes into patterns that could be used to say if a cell had been infected. They infected cells from a pig’s testicles with pseudorabies virus, shone light on them through a microscope, and tracked how changes in the cells distorted the light.
• Then they compared these distortions with those in light that had been shone through healthy cells. They finally reported that the difference between the two light patterns represented a ‘fingerprint’ of virus-infected cells.

Diffraction:

• Diffraction is the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. 
• Diffraction is the tendency of light waves to spread out after they pass through narrow openings or around small objects. 
• Once this diffracted light reaches a wall it renders a pattern of alternating light and dark rings or stripes around a dark center.
• The fingerprint was based on two parameters: 
  • the contrast between the light and dark stripes and
  • the inverse differential moment, a mathematical value that defined how textured the diffraction pattern was.
• The method can differentiate between uninfected, virus-infected, and dead cells.
• Virus-infected cells were elongated and had more clear boundaries than uninfected cells.
• This changed the contrast between light and dark stripes of the diffraction fingerprint, and increased the differences in light intensity.

Other methods used to detect viruses:

• In one technique, researchers isolate infected cells in the lab and add chemical reagents like dimethyl thiazolyl diphenyl tetrazolium bromide to them. 
• The reagent destroys the cells, but not before the enzymes in the cells (called oxidoreductases and dehydrogenases) react with the reagent to produce purple crystals of a chemical entity called formazan.
• This color change tells researchers the cells could have had a viral infection.
• Cells dying of a viral infection lack these enzymes and thus produce little to no amounts of formazan crystals.

Advantages of Light Based methods:

• The researchers compared their new technique with this standard for accuracy, time, and cost. 
• The light-based method could detect viral infections as accurately or even more accurately than the standard method.
• The new method was also cheaper than the standard: while the equipment cost for the standard method using chemical reagents is about $3,000 (Rs 2.5 lakh), the cost of the new method described in this paper was about a tenth. 
• The new method reportedly takes only about two hours to detect virus infected cells, against the 40 hours the current standard required.
• The low cost and ease of use point are likely to be lucrative to people working closely with animals, especially livestock or common pets such as dogs and cats.
• The new tool can help spot viral infections in their bodies as well as for the selection and breeding of excellent livestock and poultry species at the cellular level.
• While the new method is not specific to certain kinds of viruses, it can help detect viral infections in general and help stakeholders take preventive measures in time to avoid significant losses.

4. Venus has more volcanoes than previously known, new analysis finds

Sub: Science and tech

Sec: Space sector

Tags: Venus

Context:

• Venus appears to be more volcanically active than previously known, according to scientists whose new analysis of decades-old radar images has spotted evidence of eruptions at two additional sites on the surface of Earth’s inhospitable planetary neighbor.

More on news:

• The new study builds on previous findings of ongoing Venusian volcanic activity. A 2023 study found that a volcanic vent on Maat Mons in a region called Atla Regio, near the equator, expanded and changed shape during the Magellan mission.
• Despite Venus and Earth being very similar in terms of size, mass, chemical composition and internal structure, there are fundamental differences that make Venus an infernal planet.

About the study:

• Radar images obtained by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft from 1990 to 1992 indicated large lava flows at these two locations in the Venusian northern hemisphere at the time of the observations.
• Magellan mapped 98% of the Venusian surface. 
• Advances in computing capability have made analyzing Magellan’s radar data easier in recent years.
• One of the two sites is a volcano called Sif Mons, which is about 200 miles (300 km) wide and situated in a region called Eistla Regio.
• The before-and-after radar images indicate a lava flow amounting to about 12 square miles (30 square km) of rock.
• The other site is a large volcanic plain in a region called Niobe Planitia.
• The new rock at both locations was estimated to have an average depth between about 10 and 66 feet (three and 20 meters).
• The lava flows observed along the western flank of Sif Mons exhibit linear features with sinuous patterns that follow the direction of the maximum slope, generally towards the west.
• Regarding the flows in Niobe Planitia, the lava flows appear to originate near small shield volcanoes and extend towards the northeast, also following the direction of the slope.

About Magellan spacecraft:

• The Magellan spacecraft was a 1,035-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA of the United States, on May 4, 1989.
• It aims to map the surface of Venus by using synthetic-aperture radar and to measure the planetary gravitational field.

About Venus:

• It is the second-brightest object in the sky after the moon.
• It appears bright because of its thick cloud cover that reflects and scatters light.
• It is called the Earth’s twin because of their similar sizes.
• The planet’s thick atmosphere traps heat and is the reason that it is the hottest planet in the solar system, despite coming after Mercury.
• The surface temperatures on Venus can go up to 471 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough to melt lead.
• It moves forward on its orbit around the Sun but spins backwards around its axis slowly which implies that on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the East.
• One day on Venus is equivalent to 243 Earth days because of its backward spinning, opposite to that of the Earth’s and most other planets.
• Venus also does not have a moon and no rings.

5. ICJ orders Israel to halt military assault in Rafah: The case and the ruling

Sub: IR

Sec: Int Org

Tags : ICJ

Context:

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, Netherlands, on May 24 ordered Israel to halt its military assault in the city of Rafah.

More on news:

• The new order has come in regard to a fresh request made by South Africa on May 10.
• The March 28 order said that Israel, in conformity with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and in view of the worsening conditions faced by Palestinians in Gaza must take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to the Palestinians in Gaza.

About the case:

• South Africa approached ICJ, asking for an urgent order to protect the Palestinians in Gaza from grave and irreparable violation of their rights, owing to Israel’s ongoing military assault on Rafah.
• The situation brought about by the Israeli assault on Rafah, and the extreme risk it poses to humanitarian supplies and basic services into Gaza.
• The country accused Israel of conducting a brutal military attack on the sole remaining refuge of the Palestinian people in Gaza, who were simultaneously being subjected to a humanitarian aid blockage. South Africa called for an urgent ceasefire for the sake of humanity and to prevent further violations of the Genocide Convention.

About the ruling:

• The ICJ, in a 13:2 majority, ruled that Israel must immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah Governorate that may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
• The court also directed Israel to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to allow the flow of humanitarian aid.
• It asked the Jewish state to provide access for any fact-finding or investigative missions sent by the UN to investigate the genocide allegations in Gaza.
• Israel was ordered to report back on its progress to the ICJ within a month.
• Rulings by ICJ are legally binding but it has no way of enforcing them.

Article 76 of the Rules of Court:

• It says that the ICJ at the request of a party or on its own, may at any time before the final judgment, revoke or modify any decision concerning provisional measures if  in its opinion, “some change in the situation” justifies such revocation or modification.

About Genocide Convention:

• The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) is an instrument of international law that codified for the first time the crime of genocide.
• The Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly of the UN on 9 December 1948.

About International Court of Justice (ICJ):

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN).
• It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
• The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands).
• The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.
• The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of nine years by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.

6. Monsoon sets in over Kerala and northeast earlier than forecast

Sub: Geography

Sec: Climatology

Tags : Onset  of monsoon

Context:

• The Southwest monsoon arrived in Kerala a day earlier than forecasted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which had predicted a May 31 onset.

Details:

• Typically, the monsoon begins around June 1 and gradually covers the entire country by mid-July.
• All criteria for the monsoon’s declaration were met, with significant rainfall over Kerala and surrounding areas and appropriate Outgoing Longwave Radiation and wind patterns.
• Kerala usually receives an average of 2018.7 mm of rain during the four-month monsoon season, with June typically getting around 648.3 mm and July being the wettest month with 653.4 mm on average.
• The IMD has forecasted above-normal rainfall for Kerala and the entire country this year, partly due to the expected development of La Nina.
• Additionally, Cyclone Remal, which affected West Bengal and Bangladesh, has influenced the monsoon’s early onset over the northeast regions, which usually experience it by June 5.

“Onset of the Monsoon”:

• A monsoon is a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation and associated with the annual latitudinal oscillation of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).
• The onset of the monsoon over Kerala signals the beginning of the four-month (June-September) southwest monsoon season, during which India gets more than 70% of its annual rainfall.
• The monsoon covers the entire country by July 15.
• Contrary to what is sometimes assumed, the onset does not mean the first rain of the season.
  • For example, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands usually start receiving monsoon rainfall between May 15 and May 20, and it starts raining along the Kerala coast in the last week of May.
• However, ‘onset’ is a technical expression with a specific definition and the IMD does not officially declare onset until certain prescribed conditions are met.

Conditions Determining the Onset of Monsoon:

• According to the IMD, the onset of the monsoon happens when there is a significant transition in the large-scale atmospheric and ocean circulations in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The IMD essentially looks at the consistency of rainfall over a defined geography, the intensity of the rainfall, and the wind speed.
• Rainfall: The onset is declared if at least 60% of 14 designated meteorological stations in Kerala and Lakshadweep record at least 2.5 mm of rain for two consecutive days at any time after May 10.
• Wind field: The depth of westerlies should be up to 600 hectopascal (1 hPa is equal to 1 millibar of pressure) in the area that is bound by the equator to 10ºN latitude (passes through Kochi), and from longitude 55ºE to 80ºE.
• Heat: The measure of the energy emitted to space by the Earth’s surface, oceans, and atmosphere should be below 200 watts per sq m (wm2) in the area between the 5ºN and 10ºN latitudes, and 70ºE and 75ºE longitudes.

Source: TH

7. Belarus halts participation in European military treaty

Sub: IR

Sec: Places in news

Tags: Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Belarus halts participation in European military treaty

Context:

• President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree suspending Belarus’ participation in a treaty limiting conventional forces in Europe, aligning with Russia’s earlier move.

Details:

• Although Belarus is not directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, it hosted Russian troops before Moscow’s military operation against Kyiv in February 2022.
• Russia provides financial, military, and diplomatic support to Lukashenko’s regime.

Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE):

• The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), first signed by NATO and the Warsaw Pact in 1990, limits the deployment of military equipment between the Atlantic and the Ural Mountains.
  • The treaty proposed equal limits for the two “groups of states-parties”, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact. 
• Russia unilaterally suspended its participation in the CFE treaty in December 2007, calling it outdated.
• Russia’s suspension followed Western countries’ and NATO members’ refusal to ratify a 1999 amendment to the treaty, contingent on the withdrawal of Russian forces from Transnistria in Moldova and parts of Georgia.
• In 2008, Russia deployed troops to the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin officially confirmed Russia’s exit from the treaty in May 2023.

Belarus bordering countries:

• Belarus shares a border with five countries: Poland in the west, Lithuania in the northwest, Latvia and the Russian Federation in the north, northeast and east, and Ukraine in the south.

Source: TH

8. Moldova receives U.S. aid to counter Russian influence

Sub: IR

Sec: Places in news

Tags : Moldova receives U.S. aid

Context:

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged $135 million in aid to Moldova for energy security and to counter Russian disinformation during a visit to Chisinau on May 29.

Details:

• This brings the total U.S. aid to Moldova since the Ukraine war began in February 2022 to $774 million, including $300 million for energy security.
• Blinken’s visit, part of a trip to Eastern Europe, comes amid concerns about renewed Russian threats to Moldova and Georgia.
• The visit coincides with a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Prague and follows an unannounced trip to Ukraine two weeks earlier to reaffirm U.S. support amid increased Russian attacks.
• Russia has 1,500 troops in Transnistria, a disputed Moldovan territory, and is allegedly behind anti-Western moves in Georgia.
• Moldova accuses Russia of conducting a “hybrid war” involving election meddling and disinformation to destabilise its government and hinder its EU aspirations, which Russia denies.
• In Georgia, parliament overrode a presidential veto of a “foreign agents” bill requiring entities with over 20% foreign funding to register as foreign agents, sparking protests and concerns about media freedom and EU membership prospects.
• Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili vetoed the bill, accusing the ruling party of jeopardizing the country’s democratic future.
• The U.S. announced travel bans on Georgian officials undermining democracy and is reviewing its cooperation with Georgia.
• The NATO ministerial meeting in Prague will address issues in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine ahead of NATO’s 80th-anniversary summit in Washington in July.

Moldova:

• A landlocked country in Eastern Europe, on the northeastern corner of the Balkans.
• Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south.
• Capital and largest city: Tiraspol
• Transnistria:
  • Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), is a breakaway state internationally recognized as part of Moldova.

Georgia:

• A transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and West Asia.
• It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the north and northeast, Turkey to the southwest, Armenia to the south, and Azerbaijan to the southeast.
• Capital and largest city: Tbilisi.
• Abkhazia and South Ossetia:
  • Abkhazia and South Ossetia are separatist regions of Georgia in the Caucasus.
  • Most countries recognise them as part of Georgia, while Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria regard them as independent. 
  • Russia’s initial recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia occurred in the aftermath of the Russo-Georgian War in 2008.
  • Abkhazia and South Ossetia recognise each other and also have some recognition from non-UN member states.

Source: TH