Daily Prelims Notes 4 November 2022

November 4, 2022
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Daily Prelims Notes

4 November 2022

Table Of Contents

1. BS VI norms

Subject: Environment

Context: Annual case of Delhi pollution during the time of winter.

Bharat stage (BS):

Bharat stage (BS) emission standards are laid down by the government to regulate the output of air pollutants from the internal combustion engine and spark-ignition engine equipment, including motor vehicles.

The central government has mandated that vehicle makers must manufacture, sell and register only BS-VI (BS6) vehicles from April 1, 2020.

Background:

The first emission norms were introduced in India in 1991for petrol and in 1992 for diesel vehicles. Following these, the catalytic converter became mandatory for petrol vehicles and unleaded petrol was introduced in the market.

Difference Between BS4 and BS6

Both BS-IV and BS-VI are unit emission norms that set the maximumpermissible levels for pollutants that an automotive or a two-wheeler exhaust can emit.

What area unit BSI, BSII, BSIII, BSIV, and BSVI emission norms?

The abbreviation BS, as mentioned above, refers to ‘Bharat Stage’.

BSI- was introduced in the year 2000,
BSII (BS2) was introduced in 2001
BSIII (BS3) was introduced in 2005
BSIV was introduced in 2017

the delay between the introduction of BS3 and BS4 resulted in fast-tracking the BSVI or BS6 emission norms rather than BSV (BS5) norms.

Supreme court ruling –

On 29 April 1999, the Supreme Court of India ruled that all vehicles in the country had to meet Euro I or India 2000 norms by June 1, 1999, and Euro II would be mandatory in the National Capital Region (NCR) from April 2000.
Carmakers were not prepared for this transition and in a subsequent judgment, the implementation of Euro II was deferred.
In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court banned the sale and registration of motor vehicles conforming to Bharat Stage IV emission standard in the entire country from 1 April 2020.

Committee Recommendations: Mashelkar Committee

In 2002, the government accepted the report submitted by the Mashelkar committee, which proposed a road map for the rollout of Euro-based emission norms in India.
It also recommended a phased implementation of future norms, with regulations being implemented in major cities first and extended to the rest of the country after a few years.
Based on the recommendations of the committee, the National Auto Fuel policy was announced officially in 2003.
The road map for the implementation of the BS norms was laid out until 2010. The policy also created guidelines for auto fuels, reduction of pollution from older vehicles and R&D for air quality data creation and health administration.
The standards and the timeline for implementation are set by the Central Pollution Control Board under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Since October 2010, Bharat Stage (BS) III norms were enforced across the country. BS-IV emission norms were put in place in 13 major cities from April 2010, and the entire country from April 2017.
In 2016, the government announced that the country would skip the BS-V norms altogether and adopt BS-VI norms by 2020.
However, in Delhi, due to the sudden rise of pollution, it was planned to introduce in 2018 only, which was protested by automobile companies, since they planned their policy according to the 2020 timeline.

What makes BS-VI fuel better?

Sulphur content in fuel is a major cause for concern. Sulphur dioxide released by fuel burning is a major pollutant that affects health as well.

BS-VI fuel’s sulphur content is much lower than BS-IV fuel. It is reduced to 10 mg/kg max in BS-VI from 50 mg/kg under BS-IV. However, Vehicles that are compliant with BS-VI will also be more expensive.

AIR QUALITY INDEX (AQI)

The air quality index (AQI) is an index for reporting air quality on a daily basis.
It is a measure of how air pollution affects one’s health within a short time period.
The purpose of the AQI is to help people know how the local air quality impacts their health.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculates the AQI for five major air pollutants, for which national air quality standards have been established to safeguard public health.

Ground-level ozone
Particle pollution/particulate matter (PM2.5/pm 10)
Carbon Monoxide
Sulfur dioxide
Nitrogen dioxide

The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concerns. The concept of AQI has been widely used in many developed countries for over the last three decades. AQI quickly disseminates air quality information in real-time.

In India, The National Air Quality Quality (AQI) India was launched on 17 September 2014 in New Delhi under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by the then Environment Minister Shri PrakashJavadekar.

Objectives of Air Quality Index (AQI)

Comparing air quality conditions at different locations/cities.
It also helps in identifying faulty standards and inadequate monitoring programmes.
AQI helps in analysing the change in air quality (improvement or degradation).
AQI informs the public about environmental conditions. It is especially useful for people suffering from illnesses aggravated or caused by air pollution.

Who is most at risk from air pollution?

People with lung diseases, such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema
Children, including teenagers
Active people of all ages who exercise or work extensively outdoors
Some healthy people are more sensitive to ozone

What is the National Air Quality Index?

Launched in 2014 with outline ‘One Number – One Color -One Description’ for the common man to judge the air quality within his vicinity.
The measurement of air quality is based on eight pollutants, namely: Particulate Matter (PM10), Particulate Matter (PM2.5), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Ozone (O3), Ammonia (NH3), and Lead (Pb).
AQI has six categories of air quality. These are: Good, Satisfactory, Moderately Polluted, Poor, Very Poor and Severe.
It has been developed by the CPCB in consultation with IIT-Kanpur and an expert group comprising medical and air-quality professionals.

Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas

This was formed to tackle the pollution situation in areas around Delhi NCR.

SAFAR

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) is a national initiative introduced by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) to measure the air quality of a metropolitan city, by measuring the overall pollution level and the location-specific air quality of the city.
The system is indigenously developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and is operationalized by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
SAFAR is an integral part of India’s first Air Quality Early Warning System operational in Delhi.
It monitors all weather parameters like temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction, UV radiation, and solar radiation.
Pollutants monitored:5, PM10, Ozone, Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Benzene, Toluene, Xylene, and Mercury.

2. Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE) 2021-22 Report

Subject: Governance

Context:

The Ministry of Education has released a detailed report recently on Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22 on school education of India.

What is UDISE+:

It is one of the largest Management Information Systems on school education and was launched in 2018-2019 to speed up data entry, reduce errors, improve data quality and ease its verification.
It is an application to collect the school details about factors related to a school and its resources.
It is an updated and improved version of UDISE, which was initiated in 2012-13 by the Ministry of Education.
It covers more than49 million schools, more than 9.5 million teachers and more than 265 million children.
It helps measure the education parameters from classes 1 to 12 in government and private schools across India.
In UDISE+ 2021-22, additional data on important indicators like digital library, peer learning, hard spot identification, number of books available in school library, etc have been collected for the first time to align with the National Education Policy 2020 initiatives.

What UDISE+ School Data Capture:

UDISE+ has the mandate of collecting information from all schools imparting formal education from Classes I to XII.
In UDISE+ school acts as the unit of data collection and district as the unit of data distribution.
It collects information on school profile, physical infrastructure, teachers, enrolments, examination results through an online Data Collection Form (DCF).
The DCF is divided into eleven sections and each section contains multiple questions to capture various performance indicators of the school.

What is in the latest report:

According to the report, Gross Enrollment Ratio has improved at primary, upper primary, and higher secondary levels of school education in 2021-22 as compared to 2020-21.
GER in higher secondary schools has made a significant improvement from 8 percent in 2021-21 to 57.6 percent in 2021-22.
In 2021-22, the Pupil Teacher Ratio stood at 26 for primary, 19 for upper primary, 18 for secondary, and 27 for higher secondary showing an improvement since 2018-19.
In 2021-22, over29 crore girls are enrolled in primary to higher secondary showing an increase of 8.19 lakh as compared to the enrolment of girls in 2020-21.
More than 20,000 schools were closed across the country during 2020-21 while the number of teachers also declined by 1.95% in comparison to the previous year.
It pointed out that only85% of schools had computer facilities while nearly 34% had internet connection.
While only 27% schools have special toilets for children with special needs while more than 49% of them have ramps with handrails

3. India abstains in UNSC on Russian motion on Ukraine ‘bio weapons’

Subject: International Relations

Context:

India abstained on Russia-sponsored draft resolution at UNSC for probe on Ukraine’s alleged bio weapons.

What was the motion all about:

The motion sponsored by Russia sought to establish a commission to investigate claims by Moscow that the US and Ukraine are carrying out military biological activities in laboratories in Ukraine in violation of the biological weapons convention.
The resolution failed to get adopted as only two Council membersRussia and China voted in its favour, while the US, the UK and France voted against it and the other Council members including India abstained from voting.

What was India stand:

The Counsellor Amarnath from India’s Permanent Mission to the UN said that India attaches high importance to the Biological Weapons Convention which is the first non-discriminatory disarmament treaty banning a complete category of weapons of mass destruction.
India also reiterated the need to negotiate a comprehensive legally binding protocol providing for an effective, universal and non-discriminatory verification mechanism to strengthen the implementation of the Convention.

What is Biological Weapons Convention:

It was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.
The Convention came into force in 1975 and the Convention was negotiated by the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva,
The treaty prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological weapons.
It has 183 signatories, including the United States, Russia, and Ukraine.
Ten states have neither signed nor ratified the BWC i.e Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan, and Tuvalu.

What are the Obligations of the treaty:

The treaty prohibits the development, stockpile, production, or transfer of biological agents and toxins of types and quantities that have no justification for protective or peaceful use.
Furthermore, the treaty bans the development of weapons, equipment or delivery systems to disseminate such agents or toxins.
The convention stipulates that states shall cooperate bilaterally or multilaterally to solve compliance issues.

4. Performance Grading Index (PGI) for 2020-21

Subject: Governance

Context:

The Ministry of Education has recently released the Performance Grading Index for States and Union Territories for 2020-21.

What is Performance Grading Index (PGI):

The Performance Grading Index (PGI) is a unique index for evidence-based comprehensive analysis of the school education system in India.
The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education has initiated this index to promote evidence-based policymaking and highlight course correction to ensure quality education for all.
It assesses states performance in school education based on data drawn from several sources including the –
Unified District Information System for Education Plus,
National Achievement Survey,
Mid-Day Meal.
The Education Ministry released the first PGI in 2019 for the reference year 2017-18.

What is the methodology used:

PGI 2020-21 classified the States and UTs into ten grades of which the highest achievable Grade is Level 1 for the states scoring more than 950 points out of a total of 1000 points.
The lowest grade is Level 10 which is for a score below 551.
The PGI structure comprises 1000 points across 70 indicators grouped into 2 categories,
Outcomes,
Governance Management
These categories are further divided into 5 domains, viz.,
Learning Outcomes
Access
Infrastructure and Facilities
Equity
Governance Process.

About Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2020-2021:

As per the report, no state or union territory managed to attain the highest achievable grade of level I as a score above 950 was required.
Punjab shared top honours with Kerala and Maharashtra as all three states have scored 928 out of a total of 1,000 points to make it to Level II(901-950) of the annual grading index.
Apart from the above three states, four new states have been listed in Level II of the index for the first time.Thesefour states and UTs are Gujarat, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
The newly formed UT Ladakh has made significant improvement in PGI from Level 8 to Level 4 in 2020-21 and improved its score by 299 points in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20 resulting in the highest ever improvement in a single year.
The inter-state disparity in school education in India has reduced in the last four years.

5. Astronomers spot ‘planet killer asteroid’: Is it a threat to Earth?

Subject :Science and Technology

Context-

A team of astronomers has discovered three massive near-Earth asteroids hiding in the glare of the Sun. Of these, one called 2022 AP7 is believed to be the largest planet killer-sized asteroid to be spotted in nearly a decade and is “potentially hazardous” to Earth.

What do we know about these asteroids?

Scientists have so far discovered only around 25 asteroids with their orbits within Earth’s orbit.
The three asteroids are from a group that is found within the orbits of Earth and Venus.
The three discovered asteroids are- 2021 LJ4, 2021 PH27, and 2022 AP7 asteroids.
Two of the three discovered asteroids — 2021 LJ4 and 2021 PH27 — have orbits that are safely constrained inside the limits of Earth’s orbit.
At less than a kilometre in diameter, 2021 LJ4 is the smallest in size.
The asteroid, 2021 PH27, is the closest known asteroid to the Sun.
Due to this, its surface gets hot enough to melt lead.
The 1.5-kilometre-wide 2022 AP7 asteroid has an orbit that may someday put it on a collision course with our planet.
An asteroid like 2022 AP7 could have “a devastating impact on life” and could potentially lead to a “mass extinction event”.

Why are they tough to spot?

They are tough to spot as the brightness of the Sun shields them from telescope observations.
Another major issue is that, since the asteroids are close to the horizon, they are blurred and distorted by the Earth’s atmosphere.
Asteroids that are further away from the Sun are easier to detect.

How did they spot the asteroids?

Since they were concealed by the Sun’s glare, the astronomers conducted their observation during twilight hours — a brief but favourable 10-minute window every night.
They used a Dark Energy Camera at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
With the high-tech camera, a programme of the US National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) NOIRLAB, they were able to capture large swathes of the sky with immense sensitivity.
The camera was originally built to carry out a Dark Energy Survey, conducted by the US Department of Energy and the NSF between 2013 and 2019.

Is there an immediate threat to Earth?

At present, the asteroid only crosses the Earth’s orbit while it is on the opposite side of the Sun i.e. when the Sun comes between the Earth and the asteroid.
This will continue for several centuries as it takes the asteroid about five years to orbit the sun.
Over time, its orbital movement will slowly evolve to be more in sync with Earth’s.

Asteroids

Asteroids are small, airless rocky objects revolving around the sun that are too small to be called planets. They are also known as planetoids or minor planets.
In total, the mass of all the asteroids is less than that of Earth’s moon. But despite their size, asteroids can be dangerous. Many have hit Earth in the past, and more will crash into our planet in the future.

Asteroids are divided into three classes:

First Group:
- Those found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is estimated to contain somewhere between 1-1.9 million asteroids.
Second Group:
- It is that of trojans, which are asteroids that share an orbit with a larger planet.
- NASA reports the presence of Jupiter, Neptune and Mars trojans.
- In 2011, they reported an Earth trojan as well.
Third Group:
- It is Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA), which have orbits that pass close to the Earth.
- Those that cross the Earth’s orbit are called Earth-crossers.
- More than 10,000 such asteroids are known, out of which over 1,400 are classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs).
- NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Study (CNEOS) determines the times and distances of these objects, when their approach to the Earth is close, through the Asteroid Watch Widget.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs)

It means that an asteroid has the potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth.
Specifically, all asteroids with a Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) of 0.05 AU (which is about 7,480,000 Km) or less and an Absolute Magnitude (H) of 22.0 (about 150 mt in diameter) or less are considered PHAs.

What Are The Differences Between An Asteroid, Comet, Meteoroid, Meteor and Meteorite?

Asteroid: A relatively small, inactive, rocky body orbiting the Sun.
Comet: Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun.
- Its ice can vaporize in sunlight forming an atmosphere (coma) of dust and gas and, sometimes, a tail of dust and/or gas.
Meteoroid: A small particle from a comet or asteroid orbiting the Sun.
Meteor: The light phenomena which result when a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes; a shooting star.
Meteorite: A meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and lands upon the Earth’s surface.

6. Beyond Amur falcons: Nagaland to undertake first bird count

Subject: Environment

Context-

Nagaland is undertaking the first avian documentation exercise to go beyond Amur falcons, the migratory raptor that put the State on the world birding map.
The four-day TokhüEmong Bird Count (TEBC) from Friday has been timed with the post-harvest TokhüEmong festival of the Lothas, the Naga community that dominates the Wokha district, arguably the most preferred stopover of the Amur falcons while travelling from east Asia to southern Africa.

AboutTokhüEmong Bird Count (TEBC)-

TokhüEmong Bird Count (TEBC) is Nagaland’s first bird documentation event to celebrate the birds of the state. This event is being organised in collaboration with the Wokha Forest Division and the Divisional Management Unit, Nagaland Forest Management Project (NFMP), Wokha, Nagaland and Bird Count India.
The exercise entails watching and counting birds on any or all days from November 4-7 from anywhere in Nagaland for at least 15 minutes and uploading the avian names on eBird (www.ebird.org/india), the bird recording platform.
- The eBird India portal is managed by Bird Count India, a partnership of a large number of organizations and groups working to increase the collective understanding of the distribution, abundance, and population trends of Indian birds.
The TEBC falls within the Salim Ali Bird Count, a nationwide event conducted by the Bombay Natural History Society in 2018 to commemorate the birth anniversary (12 November) of the “Bird Man of India”, the late Dr Sálim Ali (1896–1987).

About TokhüEmong festival-

TokhüEmong is a village festival celebrated by the Lotha Nagas in Nagaland, India.
It is celebrated in the first week of November every year.
The nine-day Fall festival celebrates the end of the harvest season.
Tokhü means feast (eating food and drinking), and Emong means the Halt on the appointed time.
It is also accompanied by folk dances and the singing of folk songs.

Lotha Naga community-

The Lotha Nagas, also known as Kyong, are a major Naga ethnic group native to the Wokha District in the Indian state of Nagaland.
Beyond Wokha District, a large population of Lothas are permanently settled in Kohima, Chümoukedima, Dimapur and Medziphema.

7. ISRO’s RISAT-2 satellite makes re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere

Subject: Science and Technology

Context-

ISRO’s RISAT-2 satellite, launched in 2009, has made an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere into the Indian Ocean near Jakarta.

No explosion expected-

Since its injection, RISAT-2’s radar payload services were provided for various space applications.
On re-entry, there was no fuel left in the satellite and hence there are no contaminations or explosion by fuel is expected.
Studies confirmed that the pieces generated due to aero-thermal fragmentation would not have survived re-entry heating and hence no fragments would have impacted Earth.
The orbital data available from USSPACECOM were regularly used to predict the re-entry time and impact
The Indian System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS4OM) facility in ISTRAC, Bengaluru had been monitoring the re-entry for the last one month with analysis carried out by VSSC and ISTRAC teams through its in-house developed analysis software and tracking the object utilising Multi-Object Tracking Radar (MOTR) at SDSC, Sriharikota.

About the Radar Imaging Satellite-2 (RISAT-2)-

It was an Indian radar imaging reconnaissance satellite that was part of India’s RISAT programme.
It was launched by the PSLV-C12 launch vehicle 13 years ago in 2009.
The satellite has a mass of 300 kg (660 lb).
It is India’s first dedicated reconnaissance satellite.
RISAT-2 was built at an accelerated pace following the 2008 Mumbai attacks, due to a delay with the indigenously developed C-band for RISAT-1.
The launch of RISAT-1 came several years after that of RISAT-2.
The RISAT-2 mission was prioritised over RISAT-1 following the 2008 Mumbai attacks, resulting in RISAT-1 being delayed by several years.
The principal sensor of RISAT-2 was an X-band synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

Technical capabilities-

RISAT-2 was India’s first satellite with a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR).
It possesses day-night as well as all-weather monitoring capability.
Potential applications include tracking hostile ships at sea that are deemed a military threat to India.
It is designed to monitor India’s borders and as part of anti-infiltration and anti-terrorist operations.
ISRO said that though the initial designed life of the satellite was four years, due to proper maintenance of orbit and mission planning by the spacecraft operations team in ISRO and by economical usage of fuel, RISAT-2 provided very useful payload data for 13 years.

About Indian System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS4OM)-

The control centre would facilitate the intensified activities foreseen for Space Situational Awareness & Management (SSAM) in view of the increasing debris population and operational space assets.
IS40M will undertake
- Observation and monitoring of space objects and space environment,
- Processing the observations for orbit determination
- Object characterization and cataloguing
- Analysis of space environment evolution
- Risk assessment and mitigation
- Data exchange and collaboration.
The system would safeguard all Indian Space assets by mitigating the collisional threats from space objects through specific orbit manoeuvres and complying with international guidelines on post-mission disposal and satellite end-of-life operations.
It would assimilate the tracking data of inactive satellites from indigenous observation facilities and generate useful information from bare observations through analysis.
For sustainable use of space, the control centre would enable research activities pertaining to active debris removal, space debris modelling and mitigation.
IS4OM facility will aid India in achieving its SSA (Space Situational Awareness) goals by providing comprehensive and timely information on the space environment to users.
- Space Situational Awareness (SSA) refers to the knowledge of the space environment, including the location and function of space objects and space weather phenomena.
- SSA is generally understood as covering three main areas: Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) of man-made objects.

8. Adaptation Gap Report 2022 raises alarm on climate finance

Subject: Environment

Context-

The Adaptation Gap Report (AGR)- 2022 is released on 3 nov 2022.

About the Report-

The Adaptation Gap Report (AGR) is an annual UNEP flagship report.
The report’s primary objective is to inform about the status and trends within climate adaptation at global and regional levels.
The AGR also provides a set of science-based options to policymakers and decision-makers to increase ambition in adapting to climate change across key climate-sensitive sectors.

Report findings-

Global efforts in adaptation planning, financing and implementation are not enough to prepare vulnerable communities around the world to adapt to the rising risks from the impacts of climate change.
The report found some progress on adaptation plans from national governments, but they are not backed by finance.
A third of the 197 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have incorporated quantified and time-bound targets on adaptation. And 90 per cent of them have considered gender and disadvantaged groups.
On the other hand, international adaptation finance flows are five-10 times lower than required and this gap continues to grow.
Finance for adaptation increased to $29 billion in 2020 — only a four per cent increase over 2019. While the developing countries’ estimated annual adaptation needs are $160-$340 billion by 2030 and $315-$565 billion by 2050.
The report also highlighted that the best way was to link actions on mitigation and adaptation in terms of planning, financing and implementation, which would provide co-benefits. One example of this could be nature-based solutions.
- Nature-based solutions (NBS) refer to the sustainable management and use of nature for tackling socio-environmental challenges.
- The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines NbS as actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.

The adaptation gap must be addressed in four critical ways-

Increase financing for adaptation.
The urgent need of a new business model for turning adaptation priorities into investable projects.
The availability of climate risk data and information — an issue for adaptation planning in many developing countries.
The implementation and operationalisation of early warning systems against extreme weather events and slow onset changes such as sea level rise.

A proposal for the same would be presented by the World Meteorological Organisation at the COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, beginning November 7.

Key Points-

Adaptation Cost:
- It includes costs of planning, preparing for, facilitating and implementing adaptation measures.
- The ever-increasing adaptation cost has also outpaced the growth in adaptation finance and that is the reason for a maintained Adaptation Finance gap.
Adaptation Finance:
- It refers to the flow of funds to developing countries to help them tide over the damages caused by weather events from climate change.
Adaptation Finance gap:
- It is the difference between Adaptation Cost and Adaptation Finance.
Adaptation costs, in actual terms, is higher in developed countries but the burden of adaptation is greater for developing countries in relation to their gross domestic product.
The developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, which are least equipped to tackle climate change will also be the most impacted by it.

Difference between Adaptation and Mitigation-

Adaptation means anticipating the adverse effects of climate change and taking appropriate action to prevent or minimise the damage they can cause, or taking advantage of opportunities that may arise.
Mitigation means making the impacts of climate change less severe by preventing or reducing the emission ofgreenhouse gas (GHG) into the atmosphere.

9. Where Mauna Loa, Hawaii’s biggest volcano, will erupt from

Subject: Geography

Context:

The ground is shaking and swelling at Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, indicating that it could erupt. Scientists say they don’t expect that to happen right away but officials on the Big Island of Hawaii are telling residents to be prepared in case it does erupt soon.

About Mauna Loa-

It is an active shield volcano with relatively gentle slopes, with a volume estimated at 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km3),[5] although its peak is about 125 feet (38 m) lower than that of its neighbor, Mauna Kea.
Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, and they tend to be non-explosive.

What are shield volcano?

A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a warrior’s shield lying on the ground.
It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava erupted from a stratovolcano.
Repeated eruptions result in the steady accumulation of broad sheets of lava, building up the shield volcano’s distinctive form.
Shield volcanoes are found wherever fluid low-silica lava reaches the surface of a rocky planet.
However, they are most characteristic of ocean island volcanism associated with hot spots or with continental rift volcanism.
They include the largest volcanoes on earth, such asTamu Massif and Mauna Loa.
Giant shield volcanoes are found on other planets of the Solar System, including Olympus Mons on Mars and Sapas Mons on Venus.

What are the other types of volcanoes?

Volcanoes are grouped into four types:

Cinder cones
Composite volcanoes
Shield volcanoes
Lava volcanoes

Cinder Cones

Cinder cones are circular or oval cones made up of small fragments of lava from a single vent that have been blown up.
Cinder cones result from eruptions of mostly small pieces of scoria and pyroclastics that build up around the vent.
Most cinder cones erupt only once. Cinder cones may form as flank vents on larger volcanoes, or occur on their own.
Mauna Kea, a volcano on the American island of Hawaii, and Mount Etna, a volcano on the Italian island of Sicily, are both covered with hundreds of cinder cones.

Composite Volcano

Composite volcanoes, also known as stratovolcano, are steep-sided volcanoes composed of many layers of volcanic rocks, usually made from high-viscosity lava, ash and rock debris.
These types of volcanoes are tall conical mountains composed of lava flows and other ejecta in alternate layers, the strata that give rise to the name.
Composite volcanoes are made of cinders, ash, and lava.
Cinders and ash pile on top of each other, lava flows on top of the ash, where it cools and hardens, and then the process repeats.
Mount Rainier in Washington is one of several active composite volcanoes in this range that also includes Mount St. Helens.

Lava Domes

Lava domes are formed when erupting lava is too thick to flow and makes a steep-sided mound as the lava piles up near the volcanic vent.
They are built by slow eruptions of highly viscous lava.
They are sometimes formed within the crater of a previous volcanic eruption.
Like a composite volcano, they can produce violent, explosive eruptions, but their lava generally does not flow far from the originating vent.
A classic example of a lava dome is Obsidian Dome near Mono Lake in southern California.

Types of Volcanic Eruptions-

Types of volcanic eruptions depend on various factors such as chemistry of magma, temperature, viscosity, volume, presence of groundwater, and water and gas content.
Following are the different types of volcanic eruptions:
- Hydrothermal eruption: These eruptions include ash and not magma. They are driven by the heat caused in hydrothermal systems.
- Phreatic eruption: This is driven when the heat of the magma interacts with the water. These eruptions to do not include magma and only ash.
- Phreatomagmatic eruption: This eruption takes place when there is the interaction between the newly formed magma and water.
- Strombolian and Hawaiian eruption: Hawaiian eruption has fire fountains while the Strombolian eruption has explosions due to lava fragments.
- Vulcanian eruption: These eruptions last for a short period of time and can reach up to a height of 20 km.
- Subplinian and Phinian eruptions:Subplinian eruptions reach up to 20 km height, while Plinian eruptions reach up to 20-35 km.

10. The Bank of England raised its key interest rate

Subject: Economy

Context:

The Bank of England raised its key interest rate by 0.75 percentage point on Thursday, its largest rise since 1989, as it fights a surge in inflation from rising energy prices even as the UK economy slides into an expected recession.

Implication

Higher borrowing costs will hurt an already weak economy as consumers brace for falling real incomes and rising prices.
It led to bond sell out and bond yield rose.

What is monetary policy?

Monetary policy is an action that a country’s central bank or government can take to influence how much money is in the economy and how much it costs to borrow.

Monetary policy of England:

Low and stable inflation is good for the UK’s economy and its main monetary policy aim.It also supports the Government’s other economic aims for growth and employment.
The UK’s central bank uses two main monetary policy tools.
- Bank Rate-The BoE’s primary monetary policy tool is the bank rate, the interest rate it pays on reserve deposits to domestic banks
- Quantitative easing (QE)-The BoE has also provided economic stimulus through asset purchases, a policy known as quantitative easing (QE).
The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) pursues its primary mandate of price stability by targeting an annual inflation rate determined by the government to be most consistent with that objective.
- The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decides what monetary policy action to take. The MPC sets and announces policy eight times a year (roughly once every six weeks).

Impact of rise in interest rate on bonds:-Bond yields are significantly affected by monetary policy—specifically, the course of interest rates.

A bond’s yield is based on the bond’s coupon payments divided by its market price; as bond prices increase, bond yields fall.
- Example-Let’s say you have a $1,000 bond that has an annual coupon payment of $100, and it’s selling near par, for $1,010. Its yield is 9.9% ($100 / 1010). Now, let’s say the bond’s price jumps to $1,210. Its yield falls to 8.3% (100 / 1210).
Falling interest rates make bond prices rise and bond yields fall. Conversely, rising interest rates cause bond prices to fall, and bond yields to rise.

Example- When the risk-free rate of return rises, money moves from financial assets to the safety of guaranteed returns i.e., if the interest rate rises from 2% to 4%, a bond yielding 5% would become less attractive. The extra yield would not be worth taking on the risk. Demand for the bond would decline given supply. Thus, bond price falls and the yield would rise until supply and demand reached a new equilibrium.

11. Currency in circulation

Subject: Economy

Context:

The currency in circulation declined by ₹7,600 crore in the Diwali week, making it the first such incident in two decades according to the report by economists at SBI.

Causes:

Greater reliance on digital payments by people-over the years, the Indian economy, which was cash led, has changed to a smartphone led payment economy.

Implications:

Less currency in circulation is similar to a cut in the cash reserve ratio for the banking system as it results in lower leakage of deposits and will have a positive impact on monetary transmission as well.

Concept:

Currency in Circulation (CiC)

Currency in Circulation (CiC) refers to currency notes and coins issued by the central bank within a country that is physically used to conduct transactions between consumers and businesses. It is a major liability component of a central bank’s balance sheet. Thus, Currency in circulation comprises of:
- Currency notes and coins with the public
- Cash in hand with banks.
  - RBI’s definition, currency with public is arrived at after deducting cash with banks from total currency in circulation (CiC).

The money supply is the total stock of money circulating in an economy. In the most simple language, Money Supply is Currency in Circulation plus Deposits in Commercial Banks.

Monetary supply aggregates

In the money supply statistics, central bank money is M0 while the commercial bank money is divided up into the M1 and M3 components. M2 and M4 components also include Post-Office deposits as well.

Reserve Money (M0):-Reserve money is also called central bank money, monetary base, base money, or high-powered money.
- In the most simple language, Reserve Money is Currency in Circulation plus Deposits of Commercial Banks with RBI.
- Mo = Currency in circulation + Bankers’ deposits with the RBI + ‘Other’ deposits with the RBI
- It is the monetary base of the economy.
M1 (Narrow Money) =Currency with the public + Deposit money of the public (Demand deposits with the banking system + ‘Other’ deposits with the RBI).
M2=M1 + Savings deposits with Post office savings banks.
M3 (Broad Money) = M1+ Time deposits with the banking system
M4 = M3 + All deposits with post office savings banks

A money multiplier is an approach used to demonstrate the maximum amount of broad money that could be created by commercial banks for a given fixed amount of base money and reserve ratio.

The money multiplier, m, is the inverse of the reserve requirement, R:

m=1/R

For example, with the reserve ratio of 20 per cent, this reserve ratio, R, can also be expressed as a fraction:

R=1/5

So then the money multiplier, m, will be calculated as:

m=1/1/5=5

12. Captive mines

Subject: Economy

Context:

Captive mines producing major minerals may soon be allowed to sell half their output in the open market.

Concept:

Captive Mines: 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. Some electricity generation companies used to have captive mines.
Example- Other than coal, captive mines produce minerals such as iron ore, bauxite, limestone, copper, potash, lead and zinc.
Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 empowered central to reserve any mine for the particular end-use. These were the captive mines.
- The government amended the MMDR Actin 2021 giving permission for open market sale of 50% of annual production from captive mines with restrictions and after payment of additional amount to state governments as royalty
Currently, captive mine operators can sell 50% of the annual output from their mines but only after meeting the entire needs of the end-use plant for which a mineral block was originally allocated by the government.

Non- Captive Mines: Non-captive Mines are mines from which the produced coals of minerals could be used for its own consumption and as well as for selling it.

13. India’s central counterparties

Subject: Economy

Context:

The EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor–the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), said six of India’s central counterparties (CCPs) would be de-recognised in accordance with the European Market Infrastructure Regulation.

Details:

The six institutions on ESMA’s list are The Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL), Indian Clearing Corporation (ICCL), Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing (MCXCCL), and NSE Clearing (NSCCL), India International Clearing Corporation (IFSC) (IICC) and the NSE IFSC Clearing Corporation (NICCL).

Concept:

A counterparty (sometimes contraparty) is a legal entity, unincorporated entity, or collection of entities to which an exposure of financial risk may exist.

Within the financial services sector, the term market counterparty is used to refer to governments, national banks, national monetary authorities and international monetary organisations such as the World Bank Group that act as the ultimate guarantor for loans and indemnities.

Also within financial services, counterparty can refer to brokers, investment banks, and other securities dealers that serve as the contracting party when completing “over the counter” securities transactions.

Example:

The Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL), supervised by RBI,
Indian Clearing Corporation (ICCL), Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing (MCXCCL), and NSE Clearing (NSCCL), supervised by Sebi;
India International Clearing Corporation and the NSE IFSC Clearing Corporation (NICCL), supervised by the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA).

Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL)

CCIL was set up in April 2001 by banks, financial institutions and primary dealers, to function as an industry service organisation for clearing and settlement of trades in money market, government securities and foreign exchange markets.
The Clearing Corporation plays the crucial role of a Central CounterParty (CCP) in:
- The government securities,
- USD –INR forex exchange (both spot and forward segments) and
- Collaterised Borrowing and Lending Obligation (CBLO) markets.
- CCIL plays the role of a central counterparty whereby the contract between buyer and seller gets replaced by two new contracts – between CCIL and each of the two parties. This process is known as ‘Novation’.
  - Through novation, the counterparty credit risk between the buyer and seller is eliminated with CCIL subsuming all counterparty and credit risks.
- In addition to the guaranteed settlement, CCIL also provides non guaranteed settlement services for National Financial Switch (Inter bank ATM transactions) and for rupee derivatives such as Interest Rate Swaps.
- CCIL is also providing a reporting platform and acts as a repository for Over the Counter (OTC) products.

Indian Clearing Corporation Limited

It was incorporated in 2007 as a wholly owned subsidiary of BSE Ltd. (“BSE”). ICCL carries out the functions of clearing, settlement, collateral management and risk management for various segments of BSE. ICCL undertakes to act as the central counterparty to all the trades it provides clearing and settlement services for.

Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing Corporation Limited (MCXCCL) has entered into an agreement with Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX), for providing Clearing and Settlement services to MCX.

NSE Clearing Limited (National Clearing) formerly known as National Securities Clearing Corporation Limited (NSCCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of NSE, was incorporated in August 1995. It was the first clearing corporation to be established in the country and also the first clearing corporation in the country to introduce settlement guarantee.