Daily Prelims Notes 31 July 2020

July 31, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

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Table Of Contents

1. Green-Ag Project

Subject: Government scheme

Context:

Indian government has launched a project named Green – Ag in Mizoram

Concept:

The project will be implemented in Dampa Tiger Reserve and Thorangtlang Wildlife Sanctuary in the state covering more than 30 villages
Mizoram is among the five states where the Green-Ag project funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF) is being implemented.
The other states are Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
The project aims to catalyse transformative change of India’s agricultural sector to support achievement of national and global environmental benefits and conservation of critical biodiversity and forest landscapes.
The institutionalization of inter-sectoral mechanisms (agricultural and allied sectors, forestry and natural resources management, and economic development) at the national and five States will facilitate continued mainstreaming of environmental concerns and priorities related to resilience into the agriculture sector.

2. Central Consumer Protection Authority established

Subject: Government bodies

Context:

The government has established the Central Consumer Protection Authority to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers.

Concept:

The authority is being constituted under Section 10(1) of The Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
The CCPA aims to protect the rights of the consumer by cracking down on unfair trade practices, and false and misleading advertisements that are detrimental to the interests of the public and consumers.
It will have a Chief Commissioner as head, and only two other commissioners as members— one of whom will deal with matters relating to goods while the other will look into cases relating to services.The CCPA will have an Investigation Wing that will be headed by a Director General.

Powers and Functions:

Inquire or investigate into matters relating to violations of consumer rights or unfair trade practices suomotu, or on a complaint received, or on a direction from the central government.
Recall goods or withdrawal of services that are “dangerous, hazardous or unsafe.
Pass an order for refund the prices of goods or services so recalled to purchasers of such goods or services; discontinuation of practices which are unfair and prejudicial to consumer’s interest”.
Impose a penalty up to Rs 10 lakh, with imprisonment up to two years, on the manufacturer or endorser of false and misleading advertisements. The penalty may go up to Rs 50 lakh, with imprisonment up to five years, for every subsequent offence committed by the same manufacturer or endorser.
Ban the endorser of a false or misleading advertisement from making endorsement of any products or services in the future, for a period that may extend to one year. The ban may extend up to three years in every subsequent violation of the Act.

3. AIM-iCREST

Subject: Government scheme

Context:

NITI Aayog’sAtal Innovation Mission (AIM) has launched AIM iCREST – an Incubator Capabilities enhancement program.

Concept:

AIM has joined hands with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation – organizations that can lend credible support and expertise in the entrepreneurship and innovation space.
AIM iCREST has been designed to enable the incubation ecosystem and act as a growth hack for AIM’s Atal and Established incubators across the country.
Under the initiative, the AIM’s incubators are set to be upscaled and provided requisite support to foster the incubation enterprise economy, that will help them to significantly enhance their performance. This will be complemented by providing training to entrepreneurs, through technology driven processes and platforms.
The program aims at going beyond incubator capacity building. Given the current pandemic crisis, the effort will focus on supporting start-up entrepreneurs in knowledge creation and dissemination as well as in developing robust and active networks.

4. TRIPS flexibilities

Subject: IR

Context:

As many COVID drugs reach final stage of clinical trial, there is rising concern over equitable access of drugs.

Concept:

Flexibilities in TRIPS are agreed upon in the 2001 Doha Declaration of the WTO
In which it is mentioned that patents do not run against the interests of public health and access in times of a pandemic.
Compulsory licensing is when a government allows someone else to produce the patented product or process without the consent of the patent owner. this is usually associated with pharmaceuticals, but it could also apply to patents in any field.
The agreement allows compulsory licensing as part of the agreement’s overall attempt to strike a balance between promoting access to existing drugs and promoting research and development into new drugs.
But the term “compulsory licensing” does not appear in the TRIPS Agreement. Instead, the phrase “other use without authorization of the right holder” appears in the title of Article 31. Compulsory licensing is only part of this since “other use” includes use by governments for their own purposes.
Compulsory licensing and government use of a patent without the authorization of its owner can only be done under a number of conditions aimed at protecting the legitimate interests of the patent holder.
For example: “national emergencies”, “other circumstances of extreme urgency” or “public non-commercial use” (or “government use”) or anti-competitive practices.
Compulsory licensing must meet certain additional requirements. In particular, it cannot be given exclusively to licensees (e.g. the patent-holder can continue to produce), and usually it must be granted mainly to supply the domestic market.

5. Production linked incentive (PLI) scheme

Subject: Government schemes

Context:

Global electronics equipment manufacturers had approached the MeitY to avail benefits under the government’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

Concept:

The scheme proposes production linked incentive to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in mobile phone manufacturing and specified electronic components including Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) units.
The Scheme shall extend an incentive of 4% to 6% on incremental sales (over base year) of goods manufactured in India and covered under target segments, to eligible companies, for a period of five years subsequent to the base year as defined.
The proposed scheme is likely to benefit 5-6 major global players and few domestic champions, in the field of mobile manufacturing and Specified Electronics Components and bring in large scale electronics manufacturing in India.
The scheme has a direct employment generation potential of over 2,00,000 jobs over 5 years.

6. PLpro and type 1 interferons

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

In a research new protein has been identified as potential cure for coronavirus

Concept:

PLpro, a protein is produced by the human cell itself after the virus hijacks the cell mechanism.
PLpro is essential for replication of the virus.
A new study in Nature has found that pharmacological inhibition of PLpro blocks virus replication and also strengthens our immune response.
When SARS-CoV-2 infects human, the infected body cells release messenger substances known as type 1 interferons.
These attract our killer cells, which kill the infected cells.
However SARS-CoV-2 fights back by letting the human cell produce PLpro. This protein suppresses the development of type 1 interferons, which would have attracted our killer cells.

Interferons

They are a group of signaling proteins made and released by host cellsin response to the presence of several viruses.
In a typical scenario, a virus-infected cell will release interferons causing nearby cells to heighten their anti-viral defenses.
IFNs belong to the large class of proteins known as cytokines, molecules used for communication between cells to trigger the protective defenses of the immune system that help eradicate pathogens.
They are typically divided among three classes: Type I IFN, Type II IFN, and Type III IFN.
IFNs belonging to all three classes are important for fighting viral infections and for the regulation of the immune system.

7. Ammonia pollution

Subject: Environment

Context:

High levels of ammonia were detected in the Yamuna river.

Concept:

The level of ammonia in raw water of Yamuna river was 1.8 parts per million (ppm) but the acceptable maximum limit of ammonia in drinking water, as per the Bureau of Indian Standards, is 0.5 ppm.
Ammonia is a colourless gas and is used as an industrial chemical in the production of fertilisers, plastics, synthetic fibres, dyes and other products.
Ammonia occurs naturally in the environment from the breakdown of organic waste matter, and may also find its way to ground and surface water sources through industrial effluents or through contamination by sewage.
If the concentration of ammonia in water is above 1 ppm it is toxic to fishes. In humans, long term ingestion of water having ammonia levels of 1 ppm or above may cause damage to internal organs.
The most likely source to Yamuna river is effluents from dye units, distilleries and other factories in Panipat and Sonepat districts in Haryana, and also sewage from some unsewered colonies in this stretch of the river.

8. Tuting-Tidding Suture Zone

Subject: Geography

Context:

Seismicity study of Arunachal Himalaya reveals low to moderate earthquakes at two crustal depths

Concept:

The Tuting-Tidding Suture Zone (TTSZ) is a major part of the Eastern Himalaya, where the Himalaya takes a sharp southward bend and connects with the Indo-Burma Range.
This part of the Arunachal Himalaya has gained significant importance in recent times due to the growing need of constructing roads and hydropower projects, making the need for understanding the pattern of seismicity in this region critical.

Findings:

Low magnitude earthquakes are concentrated at 1-15 km depth, and slightly higher greater than 4.0 magnitude earthquakes are mostly generated from 25-35 km depth.
The intermediate-depth is devoid of seismicity and coincides with the zone of fluid/partial melts.
The crustal thickness in this area varies from 46.7 km beneath the Brahmaputra Valley to about 55 km in the higher elevations of Arunachal, with a marginal uplift of the contact that defines the boundary between crust and the mantle technically called the Moho discontinuity.
This, in turn, reveals the under thrusting mechanism of Indian plate in the Tuting-Tidding Suture Zone.
Extremely high Poisson’s ratio was also obtained in the higher parts of the Lohit Valley, indicating the presence of fluid or partial melt at crustal depths.

Need for study:

The exhumation and growth of the Himalaya is a continuous process that results predominantly from reverse faults in which the rocks on the lower surface of a fault plane move under relatively static rocks on the upper surface, a process called under thrusting of the Indian plate beneath its Eurasian counterpart.
This process keeps modifying the drainage patterns and land forms and is the pivotal reason for causing an immense seismic hazard in the Himalayan mountain belt and adjoining regions, necessitating assessment and characterization of earthquakes in terms of cause, depth and intensity before construction activities are initiated.