Daily Prelims Notes 5 April 2023
- April 5, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
5 April 2023
Table Of Contents
- UN Water Conference
- Seven tourists killed as avalanche hits roadfrom Gangtoktonkatsu La
- Space Communication race: to auction or allocate
- Mughal Chronicles
- Diamond Mining in Panna
- Lokpal closes 68% graft complaints against officers without action: report
- Twitter Open-source code
- Finland joins NATO bloc
- New panel for solving issue of stalled housing project formed
- European cities go climate neutral by 2030
Subject: Environment
Section: International convention
Concept:
- Recently, the United Nations 2023 Water Conference was held in New York, USA.
About UN 2023 Water Conference:
- Since the first UN Water Conference was held in Argentina in 1977, the Earth’s population has doubled to 8 billion people and demand for water is skyrocketing.
- The UN 2023 Water Conference was, as the UN said, the most important water event in a generation.
- Objective – To raise awareness of the global water crisis and decide on action to achieve internationally agreed water-related goals.
- On March 22-24, it was co-hosted by Netherlands and Tajikistan.
Water Conference’s Outcomes
- The complexity of today’s water problems was reflected in the conference’s proceedings – a lot of talk, fragmented discussions, and no binding commitments.
- Instead, there were 713 diverse voluntary commitments by philanthropic donors, governments, corporations, and NGOs.
- 120 of these were relevant to India. They included a USD 50-billion commitment from the India to improve rural drinking water services under its Jal Jeevan Mission.
- On the technology front, there were several proposals for incubation platforms focusing on water management.
- An effort called ‘Making Rights Real’ offered to help marginalised communities and women understand how to exercise their rights.
- The ‘Water for Women Fund’ offered mechanisms for more effective and sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene outcomes for women.
- W12+ Blueprint :
- W12+ Blueprint is a UNESCO platform hosting city profiles and case studies of programs, technologies, policies that addresses common water security challenges.
- It is an online information tool for informing those working on urban water issues, thought leadership, and advocacy around global water solutions.
2. Seven tourists killed as avalanche hits roadfrom Gangtoktonkatsu La
Subject: Geography
Section: Indian Geography
Context: An avalanche at Thulokhola on the Nathula Road connecting Sikkim’s capital Gangtok with the strategic Nathula Pass killed seven tourists on April 4, 2023, the district collector of Gangtok told journalists. The dead include four men, two women and a child from Nepal, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
What are Avalaches?
- Avalanche is a rapid downslope movement of a large detached mass of snow, ice, and associated debris such as rocks and vegetation.
- Small avalanches, or Sluffs, occur in large numbers, while large avalanches that may encompass slopes a kilometer or more in length with millions of tons of snow, occur infrequently but cause most of the damage.
- Humans have been exposed to the threat of sliding snow for as long as they have inhabited mountainous regions.
Types of Avalanches:
- Loose snow avalanches-formed in snow with little internal cohesion among individual snow crystals.
- Slab avalanches-Originate in snow with sufficient internal cohesion to enable a snow layer, or layers, to react mechanically as a single entity.
- Wet snow avalanches-These move more slowly than dry ones and are seldom accompanied by dust clouds.
- Direct action avalanches –These are the immediate result of a single snowstorm. They usually involve only fresh snow.
- Climax avalanches-Result of a series of snowstorms or a culmination of weather influences. Their fall is not necessarily associated with a current storm or weather situation.
Nathu la:
Nathu La, one of the highest motorable roads in the world, is a mountain pass in the Himalayan peaks that co-joins Sikkim and China. Situated on the Indo-Tibetan border 14450 ft. above sea level, Nathu La is one of the most important Himalayan passes in the country. Nathu means ‘listening ears’, and La means ‘pass’. Nathu La is one of the three open trading border posts between India and China and is famous for its picturesque beauty and beautiful environment. The temperature here remains low for most parts
Located on the Old Silk Route, Nathu La Pass connects Sikkim to China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. It was sealed for almost 4 decades after the People’s Republic of China suppressed a Tibetan uprising in 1959. However, when the former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China in 2003, talks to open the strategic route were resumed. The Nathu La Pass was reopened in 2006 and since then, it has served as an official Border Personnel Meeting(BPM) Point.
Since it is one of the three open trading border posts between India and China, Nathu La Pass has played a key role in the Sino-Indian Trade. It has also shortened the distance between the important Buddhist and Hindu pilgrimage sites, thus strengthening the economy and improving border relations with China.
3. Space Communication race: to auction or allocate
Subject : Science and technology
Section: Space technology
Concept :
- Majority of the parties interested in the future of space communication technology largely agree that administrative allocation of spectrum would be the right approach.
- However, there is one outlier – Reliance Jio, which has in previous communications to the government made it clear that it favours an auction for the frequency bands.
TRAI Recommendation
- Last year, TRAI had sent its recommendations on auction of spectrum in respective frequency bands including 27.5-28.5 GHz as part of 24.25-28.5 GHz band, it had said, “it is for the DoT to decide whether frequency range 27.5-28.5 GHz is to be allocated/ auctioned for IMT/5G”.
About Satellite communication :
- Satellite communication refers to any communication link that involves the use of an artificial satellite in its propagation path.
- Satellite communications play a vital role in modern life.
- There are over 2000 artificial satellites in use.
- They can be found in geostationary, Molniya, elliptical, and low Earth orbits and are used for traditional point-to-point communications, mobile applications, and the distribution of TV and radio programs.
- Satellite communications tend to use high-frequency signals.
Working of a Communication satellite- Radio Communication
- A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunications signals through a transponder.
- It basically creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on earth.
- Communications satellites are used for television, telephone, radio, internet, and military applications.
- There are currently 2,134 communications satellites in the earth’s orbit and these comprise both private and government organizations.
- Several are in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles (35,785 km) above the equator, so that the satellite appears stationary at the same point in the sky.
- The orbital period of these satellites is the same as the rotation rate of the Earth, which in turn allows the satellite dish antennas of ground stations to be aimed permanently at that spot; they do not have to move along and track it.
- Since the high frequency radio waves used for telecommunications links travel by line of sight, they get obstructed by the curve of the earth.
- Communications satellites relay the signal around the curve of the earth thus making possible communication between widely removed geographical points.
- Communications satellites use a wide range of radio and microwave frequencies.
- Signal Interference
- To avoid signal interference, international organizations have regulations stating which frequency ranges (or bands) certain organizations are permitted to use. This allocation of bands reduces the chances of signal interference.
Free Space Optical Communication (FSO)
- But recent development in FSO communications has made it a strong alternative to RF systems.
- FSO systems consist of a transmitting terminal and receiving terminal. Much like an RF system, information is encoded onto electromagnetic waves using modulation and sent to the receiving system.
- FSO links operate at a much higher frequency than RF links, generally at infrared or visible band Higher frequencies result in wider bandwidths which result in higher data rates.
Subject : History
Section: Art and Culture
Context: NCERT removes chapter on Mughals
- The chronicles commissioned by the Mughal emperors are an important source for studying the empire and its court.
- They were written in order to project a vision of an enlightened kingdom to all those who came under its umbrella.
- At the same time, they were meant to convey to those who resisted the rule of the Mughals that all resistance was destined to fail.
- Also, the rulers wanted to ensure that there was an account of their rule for posterity.
- The authors of Mughal chronicles were invariably courtiers. The histories they wrote focused on events centered on the ruler, his family, the court and nobles, wars and administrative arrangements.
- Their titles, such as the Akbar Nama, Shahjahan Nama, Alamgir Nama, that is, the story of Akbar, Shah Jahan and Alamgir (a title of the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb), suggest that in the eyes of their authors the history of the empire and the court was synonymous with that of the emperor
- Mughal court chronicles were written in Under the Sultans of Delhi, it flourished as a language of the court and of literary writings, alongside north Indian languages, especially Hindaviand its regional variants.
- As the Mughals were Chaghtai Turks by origin, Turkish was their mother tongue. Their first ruler Babur wrote poetry and his memoirs in this language. It was Akbar who consciously set out to make Persian the leading language of the Mughal court. Cultural and intellectual contacts with Iran, as well as a regular stream of Iranian and Central Asian migrants seeking positions at the Mughal court, might have motivated the emperor to adopt the language.
- Persian was elevated to a language of empire, conferring power and prestige on those who had a command of it. It was spoken by the king, the royal household and the elite at court. Further, it became the language of administration at all levels so that accountants, clerks and other functionaries also learnt it.
- Even when Persian was not directly used, its vocabulary and idiom heavily influenced the language of official records in Rajasthani and Marathi and even Tamil. Since the people using Persian in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came from many different regions of the subcontinent and spoke other Indian languages, Persian too became Indianized by absorbing local idioms.
- A new language, Urdu, sprang from the interaction of Persian with Hindavi. Mughal chronicles such as the Akbar Nama were written in Persian, others, like Babur’s memoirs, were translated from the Turkish into the Persian Babur Nama. Translations of Sanskrit texts such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana into Persian were commissioned by the Mughal emperors. The Mahabharata was translated as the Razmnama (Book of Wars)
Subject: Geography
Section: Places in news
Concept:
- NMDC, the country’s largest iron ore miner, reportedly hopes to rope in State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) at Jabalpur, to study tiger movement and other environmental factors at Panna (in Madhya Pradesh), where it plans to resume diamond mining.
- NMDC has written to the State Forest Research Institute (SFRI), Jabalpur for providing their consent and budgetary offer for conducting such studies in consultation with Panna Tiger Reserve and PCCF (WL) Bhopal.
Panna Diamond Mines
- For 3,000 years, India was the only source of diamonds globally until diamond deposits were located in Brazil and South Africa.
- Panna’s mines have been supplying precious diamonds for thousands of years.
- In India, the state-controlled National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) is the only organised producer of diamonds from its Majhgawan mine in the Panna region.
- Majhgawan mine is the only Diamond mine in Asia.
- NDMC Panna is the only diamond mine in the country with more than 74 hectares of mechanised mining.
- However, small mines of Panna are open cast mines that use traditional techniques and hand tools. Most of them are operated illegally.
Tiger reserve v/s mining
- The Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) is one of the most critical habitats of tigers in India.
- In 2009, there were no tigers left in the PTR but after a series of measures now, the tiger reserve has around 50 tigers in it.
- For protecting the tiger habitat, authorities are curbing mining activities in the forest by imposing fines.
- The NMDC’s diamond mine is also under pressure to phase out its operation. The operation was suspended as the mine’s environmental clearance came to an end on December 31, 2020, but later resumed after state government intervention.
About Panna Tiger Reserve:
- The Panna tiger reserve is situated in the Vindhya Mountain range in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh.
- Ken river (a tributary of the Yamuna River) flows through the reserve.
- The region is also famous for Panna diamond mining.
- Ken-Betwa River interlinking project will be located within the tiger reserve.
- As of 2021, the reserve has a population of around 50 tigers, and efforts are being made to increase this number.
6. Lokpal closes 68% graft complaints against officers without action: report
Subject: Polity
Section: National Body
Concept:
- According to a report, close to 68% of corruption complaints against public functionaries filed with the Lokpal of India were disposed of without any action in the last four years.
- Further, it was seen that the Lokpal has not prosecuted even a single person accused of graft to date.
- The Lokpal of India is the country’s first anti-corruption office established under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 to investigate complaints against public functionaries, including the Prime Minister.
- Although the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act was enacted in 2013, India’s first Lokpal, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh along with eight other members were appointed only in March 2019.
- As per the data provided by the Lokpal office to a parliamentary panel on the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), since 2019-20, Lokpal had received about 8,703 complaints, out of which only 5,981 complaints were disposed of and the office said that only three complaints were fully investigated.
- Additionally, close to 90% of the complaints were rejected for not being “in the prescribed format”.
- The Lokpal was allocated a budget of ₹197 crores in 2022-23 and till the end of January 2023, the Lokpal had incurred an expenditure of ₹152 crores.
About Lokpal:
- The Lokpal is an independent statutory body established under Section 3 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013.
- The Act allows for setting up of anti-corruption ombudsman called Lokpal at the Centre.
Composition:
- The Lokpal will consist of a chairperson and a maximum of eight members.
- Chairperson should have been a Chief Justice of India, or is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court, or an eminent person who fulfils eligibility criteria as specified.
- 50% of the members are to be judicial members provided that not less than 50% of the members belong to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, minorities, and women.
Inquiry Wing:
- Lokpal will have an Inquiry Wing for conducting preliminary inquiry into any offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant punishable under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Prosecution Wing:
- It will also have a Prosecution Wing for the prosecution of public servants in relation to any complaint by the Lokpal under this Act.
Powers:
- The Lokpal will have the power of superintendence and direction over any investigation agency including CBI for cases referred to them by the ombudsman.
- As per the Act, the Lokpal can summon or question any public servant if there exists a prima facie case against the person, even before an investigation agency (such as vigilance or CBI) has begun the probe.
- Any officer of the CBI investigating a case referred to it by the Lokpal, shall not be transferred without the approval of the Lokpal.
- An investigation must be completed within six months. However, the Lokpal or Lokayukta may allow extensions of six months at a time provided the reasons for the need of such extensions are given in writing.
- Special courts will be instituted to conduct trials on cases referred by Lokpal.
Jurisdiction of Lokpal:
- It covers a wide range of public servants — from the Prime Minister (PM), ministers and MP, to groups A, B, C, D officers of the central government including the chairperson and members of the Lokpal. However, there are some exceptions for PM:
- Lokpal cannot inquire allegations against the PM relating to international relations, external and internal security, public order, atomic energy, and space.
- Also, complaints against the PM are not to be probed unless the full Lokpal bench considers the initiation of inquiry and at least 2/3rds of the members approve it.
- Such an inquiry against the Prime Minister (if conducted) is to be held in camera and if the Lokpal concludes that the complaint deserves to be dismissed, the records of the inquiry are not to be published or made available to anyone.
Subject : Science and technology
Section: Awareness in IT
Concept :
- Recently, twitter opened a portion of its source code to the public, including the algorithm to recommend tweets in users’ timelines.
About Open source code:
- Open source is a term that originally referred to open source software (OSS).
- Open source software is code that is designed to be publicly accessible—anyone can see, modify, and distribute the code as they see fit.
- Open-source software is developed in a decentralized and collaborative way, relying on peer review and community production.
What is Source code?
- It is the set of instructions and statements written by a programmer using a computer programming language.
- This code is later translated into machine language by a compiler. The translated code is referred to as object code.
- Source code is the source of a computer program.
- It contains declarations, instructions, functions, loops and other statements, which act as instructions for the program on how to function.
- Programs may contain one or more source code text files, which can be stored on a computer’s hard disk, in a database, or printed in books of code snippets.
What is closed-source software?
- It is software in which the public is not given access to the source code, so they can’t see or modify it in any way.
Subject: International Affairs
Section :International Organizations
Concept:
- Finland officially became the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
- This latest move marks a major shift in the security landscape in northeastern Europe amidst the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
- e. now that Finland has joined NATO, if Finland is invaded or attacked, all NATO members would come to its aid.
- The move also marks the end of an era of military non-alignment for Finland.
- Finland, after repelling an invasion attempt by the Soviet Union during the Second World War, had opted for non-alignment and maintain friendly relations with Russia.
- Finland’s accession is seen as a setback for Russia as Finland shares a 1,340-km eastern frontier with Russia.
- Russia has said that it would strengthen its military capacity in its western and northwestern regions in response to the move.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization:
- It is an intergovernmental military alliance.
- Established by Washington treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
- Headquarters — Brussels, Belgium.
- Headquarters of Allied Command Operations — Mons, Belgium.
Significance:
- It constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
Composition:
- Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30. The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020 (Before Finland).
- NATO membership is open to “any other European state in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area.”
Objectives:
- Political – NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defense and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.
- Military – NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations.
- These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO’s founding treaty – Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organizations.
NATO membership:
- NATO had 30 members before the accession of Finland.
- In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.
- The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017) and North Macedonia (2020).
9. New panel for solving issue of stalled housing project formed
Subject: Polity
Section: National Body
Concept:
- The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has set up a 14-member committee headed by former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, to examine issues related to stalled real estate projects and recommend various ways for their completion.
- The panel will deliberate on the issues of legacy stalled projects and suggest ways to complete and hand over these projects to homebuyers in a time-bound manner, the Ministry order states.
- The ministry has notified the formation of the committee almost a year after the Central Advisory Council (CAC) headed by Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri decided to set up the committee.
- Note:Legacy Project means old and hard to complete projects.
10. European cities go climate neutral by 2030
Subject: Environment
Section: Climate Change
Concept:
- The EU is pushing for 100 cities including Paris, Madrid and Amsterdam to reach net-zero emissions by the end of the decade — far earlier than their national governments plan to get there.
- As governments across the world have promised to stop polluting carbon emissions by 2050, scores of European cities have pledged to get there by 2030 — just seven years from now.
- Berlin, which is not on the list, held a referendum in March on moving its target forward to 2030.
Background
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that the world needs to cut carbon emissions to net-zero by the middle of the century.
- To keep global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) — the target to which world leaders promised to try to limit global warming — humanity must cut pollution fast.
- Net-zero means societies have to suck out as much carbon as they pump into the atmosphere. But technologies to remove carbon dioxide are limited and scientists are unsure how much they can absorb.
- Still, that finding has led more than 100 countries to set net-zero targets for around 2050. Pressure is also rising on rich countries who have polluted the most, particularly those in Europe and North America, to move faster.
EU Mission: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities
- Cities play a pivotal role in achieving climate neutrality by 2050, the goal of the European Green Deal. They take up only 4% of the EU’s land area, but they are home to 75% of EU citizens. Furthermore, cities consume over 65% of the world’s energy and account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions.
- Aims of the Mission
- The Cities Mission will involve local authorities, citizens, businesses, investors as well as regional and national authorities to
- Deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030
- Ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050
- As foreseen in its implementation plan, the Cities Mission takes a cross-sectoral and demand-led approach, creating synergies between existing initiatives and basing its activities on the actual needs of cities.
NetZero Cities Project
- NetZero Cities is part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme in support of European Union’s Green Deal.
- NetZero Cities has been designed to help cities overcome the current structural, institutional and cultural barriers they face in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.
Climate Neutrality
- Climate neutrality refers to the idea of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by balancing those emissions so they are equal (or less than) the emissions that get removed through the planet’s natural absorption; in basic terms it means we reduce our emissions through climate action.
- Note : UN Climate Change launched Climate Neutral Now back in 2015 in order to encourage stakeholders around the world to work towards net zero emissions and a climate neutral world.
Climate Neutral Now Initiative
- The Climate Neutral Now Initiative is one of several initiatives launched by the UNFCCC secretariat to increase climate action by engaging non-Party stakeholders (sub-national governments, companies, organizations, individuals).
- It was launched in 2015 based on a mandate to promote the voluntary use of carbon market mechanisms recognized under the Convention.