Daily Prelims Notes 6 June 2023

Daily Prelims Notes

6 June 2023

Table Of Contents

1. Elephant Arikompan captured in Theni district; to be shifted to Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve
2. Some key takeaways from the Petersberg Climate Dialogue
3. Climate finance will be key at Bonn Climate Conference
4. Here is what to expect at Bonn on climate mitigation
5. Rs 2000 notes withdrawal
6. RBI Committee for Review of Customer Service Standards
7. Future roadmap for RBI’s CBDC
8. RBI’s crucial role in energy transition
9. Satellites, AI to help certify fields growing organic cotton
10. Railways to secure signalling equipment with double locks
11. Rashtriya Rail SanrakshaKosh
12. UN body faults U.S., other states over Guantanamo prisoner torture
13. Time to give up on the vaunted but unproven ‘paleo diet’
14. Iranian embassy to reopen in Saudi Arabia
15. What is affecting trade momentum?
16. Higgs boson

1. Elephant Arikompan captured in Theni district; to be shifted to Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve

Subject: Environment

Section: Species in news

Context:

• The Tamil Nadu Forest Department officials successfully tranquillised wild elephant, Arikompan also known as Arisikompan, at Uthamapalayam in the Chinna Ovulapuram reserve forest in Theni district.
• Arikomban will be released at Muththukuzhivayal beyond the Upper Gothaiyar area in Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR).

The Petition and Impleading Forum

• People for Animals – Thiruvananthapuram filed a petition challenging the forest department’s decision to capture Arikomban.
• The petitioner’s plea was to radio-collar and release the wild elephant in another location of the forest.
• Walking Eye for Animal Advocacy also impleaded in the matter related to capturing the rogue tusker. However, the division bench of Kerala High Court stayed the forest department’s decision to capture Arikomban

Mission Arikomban

• The forest department has initiated ‘Mission Arikomban’, an operation to capture the rogue tusker.
• The plan is to capture it with tranquillizer shots and later shift it to an elephant training centre. The operation was originally slated to begin on March 25.
• For this mission, the forest department has built a rapid response team of 71 members.
• Chief forest veterinary surgeon Arun Zackariah is heading the 11 groups of the rapid response team for the mission.

KalakkadMundanthurai Tiger Reserve: 

• Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) located in the South Western Ghats montane rain forests in Tirunelveli district and Kanyakumari district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is the second-largest protected area in Tamil Nadu. It is part of the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve.

2. Some key takeaways from the Petersberg Climate Dialogue

Subject: Environment

Section: International Convention

Context:

• The Petersberg Dialogue on Climate Change was held in Berlin from May 2-3, 2023. It was hosted by Germany and the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

Details:

• Global renewable target:
  • In order to limit global warming to 1.5°C, the world needs to make sharp cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions.
• $100 billion climate finance:
  • The developed countries are “on a good track” to deliver the $100 billion per year they had promised to mobilise by 2020 during the COP15 in 2009.
  • The burden of whether we can keep global temperatures from rising much beyond the 1.5 degrees of warming cannot fall on the poorest countries — those who are least responsible for the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Global Stocktake:

• 2023 is the year for the Global Stocktake, which is essentially a periodic review of global climate action which aims to assess whether current efforts will enable us to reach the objectives set out in the Paris Agreement.
• This is the first Global Stocktake year since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. The report will be released in September 2023.

What is Global Stocktake?

• The global stocktake is a critical turning point when it comes to efforts to address climate change – it’s a moment to take a long, hard look at the state of our planet and chart a better course for the future.
• The global stocktake is a Party-driven process conducted in a transparent manner and with the participation of non-Party stakeholders, that enables countries and other stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement – and where they’re not.
• It’s like taking inventory. It means looking at everything related to where the world stands on climate action and support, identifying the gaps, and working together to agree on solutions pathways (to 2030 and beyond).
• Administered by: UNFCCC.

3. Climate finance will be key at Bonn Climate Conference

Subject: Environment

Section: International Convention

Context:

• While the $100 billion climate finance goal — first pledged in 2009 — may be met this year, discussions on its successor, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, will continue at Bonn, where the Sixth Technical Expert Dialogue (TED) will deliberate on the “quantum” of money for the new goal as well as “mobilization and provision of financial sources”.

Details:

• According to an estimate by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a total of $83.3 billion was provided to developing and emerging economies in 2020 — $16.7 billion short of $100 billion.
• The Stern-Songwe report of 2022 estimated that $1 trillion per year will be needed in external climate finance by 2030 for emerging and developing economies other than China. The UNFCCC Standing Committee on Climate Finance estimated the needs of developing countries to be from $5.8-11.5 trillion.
• The currently evolving debt crisis in the Global South underlines the urgent need for more grant-based climate finance, without which developing countries will be pushed deeper into debt, negatively impacting their development.
• The International Energy Agency stated that the high cost of capital and rising borrowing costs reduce the economic attractiveness of clean energy investment in developing countries, even if they possess rich renewable resources.

What is the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)?

• By decision 1/CP.21, para. 53, Parties decided that, in accordance with Article 9, paragraph 3, of the Paris Agreement, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) shall set a new collective quantified goal (NCQG) from a floor of USD 100 billion per year, taking into account the needs and priorities of developing countries, prior to 2025.
• The NCQG is expected to be operational by 2025 and will be designed to consider the needs of developing nations.
• At COP26 in Glasgow, an ad hoc work programme for the NCQG for 2022-24 was set up.
• Under this programme, Parties agreed to have four TEDs annually through 2024 to guide the technical work to inform political deliberations at COP.

Technical Expert DIalogue (TED):

• The theme of discussion will be “quantity, mobilization and provision of financial sources”.

Climate finance:

• According to the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance, climate finance is that which “aims at reducing emissions, and enhancing sinks of greenhouse gases and aims at reducing vulnerability of, and maintaining and increasing the resilience of, human and ecological systems to negative climate change impacts”.
• But there is no standard, internationally agreed definition of what can be counted as climate finance or even what should be reported as “new” or “additional” climate finance.

4. Here is what to expect at Bonn on climate mitigation

Subject: Environment

Section: International Convention

Mitigation at COP27:

• Mitigation — the act of reducing greenhouse gas emissions so as to prevent further global warming — is a crucial pillar of climate action, covering entire economic sectors from power, industry, and transport, to even forests and land.
• The COP27 outcome document instead reiterated previous calls “towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” and also called for a just transition to renewable energy.
• Just Energy Transition:
  • The issue of a “just energy transition” gained traction at COP27 as well, since Indonesia announced at the parallel G20 summit, that it would be a recipient of about $20 billion in starter funding through a Just Energy Partnership (JET-P) deal to reduce its coal dependence.
• Unequal distribution of finances:
  • Most of the increase in clean energy investment between 2019 and 2023 taking place in China, the US and the EU.
  • Poor and vulnerable countries are not seeing a clean energy boom in line with their needs.
  • About 97 per cent of South Africa’s $8.5 billion JET-P package comprised of loans.

Efforts from private sector:

• The First Movers Coalition — a voluntary alliance of companies “using their purchasing power to create early markets for innovative clean technologies across eight hard to abate sectors”.
• They announced the joining of the cement and concrete sectors to the coalition.
• The group pledged to purchase at least 10 per cent of near-zero carbon cement and concrete by 2030 and also committed $12 billion to scale up green technologies and cut emissions.

Mitigation work programme:

• Setup in 2021 at UNFCCC forum.
• Objective: ‘work programme for urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and implementation.
• It was proposed to address the insufficiency of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), and bridge the gap by increasing ambition in pledges to cut emissions.
• Should bie guided by the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities- Respected Capabilities (CBDR-RC).
• It should not be a replication of Global Stocktake.

5. Rs 2000 notes withdrawal

Subject: Economy

Section: Monetary policy and Banking

Context:

• Withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes could see an infusion of Rs 1-1.8 lakh crore of liquidity over the June-September period, according to a Care Ratings report.

Withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes:

• While almost the entire Rs 3.6 crore worth of Rs 2,000 notes is expected to come into the banking system as another four months remain for the deadline to exchange or deposit of these notes, the surplus cash accruing to the banks is expected to bring down deposit rates as witnessed during the 2016 demonetisation.

What’s the impact on currency in circulation so far?

• Currency in circulation refers to cash or currency available with the public that is physically used to conduct transactions between consumers and businesses.
• According to RBI data, currency in circulation (CIC) has fallen by Rs 36,492 crore to Rs 34.41 lakh crore during the week ended May 26.
• The RBI asked banks to exchange or deposit Rs 2,000 notes from May 23. CIC is expected to decline further in the coming weeks. 

How do banks view this?

• With another four months to go for the deadline of September 30 for exchanging notes, banks expect almost the entire amount to come back into the banking system.
• Banks believe that almost the entire amount of Rs 3.6 lakh crore will come back (Rs 3 lakh crore excluding the amount in currency chests) to the banking system.

What’s the impact on liquidity, deposits?

• Withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes could see an infusion of Rs 1-1.8 lakh crore of liquidity over the June-September period, according to a Care Ratings report. Comfortable liquidity conditions could ease short-term rates going ahead, it said.
• According to SBI, there will be a favorable impact on liquidity, bank deposits and interest rates. Banks will already be holding some of these notes in their currency chests, thus the impact on deposits will be limited.
• Assuming that 10-15 percent of the total Rs 2000 notes are in currency chests, then of the remaining Rs 3 lakh crore, Rs 2-2.1 lakh crore would be spent by the consumers (either direct purchase or by exchanging it with smaller denominations notes), approximately Rs one lakh crore is destined deposits in banks, SBI says. However, going by the trend so far, deposits are likely to be higher than Rs one lakh crore estimated by the banks earlier.
• The withdrawal of Rs. 2,000 banknotes is likely to boost short-term liquidity in the banking sector thereby reducing the pressure on deposit rates. The banks may use incremental deposits to increase credit growth. This is likely to reduce the pressure on net interest margins,” said a Care Ratings report.

What’s the impact on bond yield?

• The transitory change in the liquidity would lead to decline in yields, more at the shorter end of the curve. “
• The yield on 10-year benchmark government bonds has fallen below 7 per cent level to 6.98 per cent on Wednesday. Various factors like comfortable liquidity, rise in deposits and fall in yields and inflation are likely to prompt the RBI to keep the policy interest rates unchanged in the June policy review.

Will cash with the public surge?

• According to the latest RBI data, cash with the public jumped by 87.6 percent, or Rs 15.74 lakh crore, from Rs 17.97 lakh crore on November 4, 2016, days before the demonetisation was announced.
• After Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were withdrawn from the system in November 2016, currency with the public, which stood at Rs 17.97 lakh crore on November 4, 2016, declined to Rs 7.8 lakh crore in January 2017 soon after demonetisation. However, analysts don’t expect a big surge in cash with the public following the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes.

6. RBI Committee for Review of Customer Service Standards

Subject: Economy

Section: Monetary policy and Banking

RBI’s Committee for Review of Customer Service Standards has made several recommendations:

• Regulatory:
  • Creating a centralised database of KYC documents
  • Consolidating customer service regulations for all regulated entities.
  • Making the Charter of Customer Rights enforceable and extending it to NBFCs
  • Evaluate the reasonableness of charges levied by Regulated Entitites (REs) for the services offered.
  • Developing and publishing a ‘Customer Service and Protection Index’
  • RBI may ask Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to create a fund to directly compensate banks’ internal ombudsmen to avoid conflicts of interest.
• Grievance Redressal:
  • Creating a Common portal for lodging and tracking
  • Strengthening banks’ grievance redressal mechanisms.
• Deposit safeguarding:
  • Extending the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Scheme to PPIs (prepaid payment instruments), as money in PPI wallets is in the nature of deposits and PPI issuers are also regulated by the RBI.
  • Examine whether Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) cover can be extended to bank PPIs and later to non-bank PPIs.
  • Mandating compulsory nomination in deposit accounts.
  • Making settlement of deceased claims online, defining a timeline for claims settlement beyond which higher interest may be applicable
• Other Measures:
  • Proposed that UPI transactions be kept outside the stipulated limits on debit savings account transactions
  • Use of digi-lockers be encouraged
  • Setting up a dedicated telephone helpline number be provided for senior citizens and differently-abled customers,
  • Standardisation of the ATM interface
  • Using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology to collect customer-related information
  • Banks take measures for fraud prevention.

7. Future roadmap for RBI’s CBDC

Subject: Economy

Section: Monetary policy and Banking

Key points:

• RBI’s annual report shows that ₹10.69 crore of wholesale e-rupee and ₹5.70 crore of retail e-rupee have been issued till March 2023.
• Retail e-Rupee: Customers appear reluctant to use e-rupee for several reasons:
  • Money transferred to the wallet does not earn interest whereas their funds can continue to earn interest from bank accounts, while linked to UPI.
  • Concerns about the absence of complete anonymity, akin to cash, with the transactions leaving a digital trail.
  • Limited use-cases,
  • Worries over data privacy and security.
• Wholesale e-Rupee: The pilot has been limited to settlement of secondary market transactions in G-secs. There are merits to use of CBDC for wholesale segment:
  • Using CBDCs for cross-border payments as an alternative to the dollar and to the SWIFT messaging system. (importance seen during Russo-Ukraine war)
  • Adoption of CBDC wholesale easier as it essentially serves the purpose of accounting entries
  • Absence of a third party will reduce settlement risk for customers.

Concerns to be addressed by RBI:

• Uncertainties in launching a sovereign digital currency not properly evaluated such as the impact it may have on bank deposits and system liquidity.
• May need a rethink on anonymity. Anonymity being considered only for low-value transactions only, but this may not be acceptable to users.
• Robustness of the technological infrastructure and the extent of data privacy offered will also be important in ensuring acceptance.

8. RBI’s crucial role in energy transition

Subject: Economy

Section: Monetary policy and Banking

RBI’s recent report highlights its key role in mitigating the risks of transitioning to a low-carbon economy. With India’ needing approximately $10 trillion by 2070 meet it’s net-zero target, need to address the climate change risks that can impact the financial system’s stability and the broader economy. The report proposes several measures to attract investments for expediting India’s energy transition:

• Prudential regulations
  • A new scheme to lower borrowing costs for renewable energy firms by extending priority sector lending and providing low-cost funds to banks.
  • Accepting Sovereign Green Bonds as collateral.
  • Offering more flexibility in margin requirements, thus making loans cheaper.
• Monetary policy measures:
  • RBI can allow Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) to cover green financing bonds. Currently, only State and central government debt are SLR-eligible.
• Other Measures:
  • RBI can establish the Counter Cyclical-Climate Buffers (Basel III norms introduced capital buffers for banks, namely the capital conservation buffer and countercyclical capital buffer(CCyB)) RBI has implemented the capital conservation buffer, the CCyB is pending.
  • RBI can ease the External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) norms to draw foreign investment in India’s clean energy sector.
  • Recognising the sector as a separate industry and relaxing sectoral caps, the RBI can allow borrowers to raise funds beyond the current $750 million per year limit on External Commercial Borrowings (ECB).
  • Creating a dedicated hedging pool for clean energy companies borrowing through ECBs can make investing in green projects more attractive and financially feasible. (Companies borrowing through ECB are required to maintain a hedge against the forex exposure, RBI’s optimal hedge ratio requires 63% of ECB exposure to be hedged.)
  • RBI can use some of its $580 billion forex reserves for risk mitigation initiatives like currency hedging subsidies and credit guarantees.

9. Satellites, AI to help certify fields growing organic cotton

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Awareness in IT

Concept :

• The European Space Agency (ESA), Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and Marple (an AI company) are aiming to combine data from satellite images and artificial intelligence (AI) to keep track of cotton certification in India.
• It will categorize cotton fields in India in line with cultivation standards.
• It will help in generating accurate estimates of organic cotton in specific regions.
• Moreover, the initiative will support those regions that demonstrate potential for a seamless transition to organic cultivation.
• The main objective of the initiative is to bolster the integrity of organic cotton and prevent fraud throughout the supply chain.
• It will also improve economic opportunity by bringing a greater number of small-scale farmers into the certified organic sector and supply chains.
• It would escalate consumer demand.
• The project was undertaken on a pilot basis in Uzbekistan (2021). It showed 98% accuracy in differentiating organic and conventional cotton fields.
• The first results in India are expected to be released in late 2023.

Cotton Crop

Cotton crop-

Conditions of Growth-

• Cotton is the crop of tropical and subtropical areas and requires uniformly high temperatures varying between 21°C and 30°C.
• Frost is enemy number one of the cotton plant and it is grown in areas having at least 210 frost-free days in a year.
• The modest requirement of water can be met by an average annual rainfall of 50- 100 cm.
• About 80 per cent of the total irrigated area under cotton is in Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
• Moist weather and heavy rainfall at the time of boll-opening and picking are detrimental to cotton as the plant becomes vulnerable to pests and diseases.
• High amounts of rainfall in the beginning and sunny and dry weather at ripening time are very useful for a good crop.
• Cotton is a Kharif crop which requires 6 to 8 months to mature.
• In the peninsular part of India, it is sown up to October and harvested between January and May because there is no danger of winter frost in these areas. In Tamil Nadu, it is grown both as a kharif and as a rabi crop.
• Cotton cultivation is closely related to deep black soils (regur) of the Deccan and the Malwa Plateaus and those of Gujarat. It also grows well in alluvial soils of the Satluj-Ganga Plain and red and laterite soils of the peninsular regions.
• Cotton quickly exhausts the fertility of the soil. Therefore, regular application of manures and fertilizers to the soils is very necessary.

Production-

• India has the largest area under cotton cultivation in the world though it is the world’s third largest producer of cotton after China and the USA.
• Currently it is grown over 6 per cent of the net sown area.

Distribution-

• In India, cotton is grown in three distinct agro-ecological zones, viz.,
  • Northern (Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan),
  • Central (Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh) and
  • Southern zone (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka).
• Maharashtra is the largest producer and produces 29.78 per cent of the total cotton production of India. Maharashtra is a traditional producer of cotton. Over 80 per cent of the production comes from Khandesh, Vidarbha and Marathwada regions.

10. Railways to secure signalling equipment with double locks

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Msc

Concept :

• The root cause of the three-train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district is suspected to be a change in the electronic interlocking system.

     Double Locking Arrangement

• Indian Railways issued a circular on a week-long safety drive, launched immediately to ensure goomties located within the railway station limits are provided with “double locking arrangements.”
• The railways would check all goomties housing signalling equipment within station limits and ensure that they are being provided with double locking arrangements.
• Goomty is a small cabin or small structure covering lever frame and other fixed equipment, at level-crossings and near railway stations.

Details

• The circular was issued to all managers of all zonal Railways. Senior officials have been told to ensure SMS alert is generated on opening/closure of all relay rooms.
• “All relay rooms in stations should be checked and ensured for proper working of double locking arrangement it should also be checked and ensured that there is data logging and generation of SMS alert for opening and closing of door of these relay rooms,” the circular read.
• Further, the authorities have been asked to make sure that the system of disconnection and reconnection for S&T (signalling and traffic) equipment is being followed strictly as per laid down norms and guidelines.
• According to the railways, the safety drive will check 100 per cent of these in all locations and “super checked to add another layer of checking by officers in that zone”.
• The results of the drive have to be sent to the railway board by June 14, 2023.

11. Rashtriya Rail SanrakshaKosh

Subject: Schemes

• Rashtriya Rail SanrakshaKosh’ has been introduced in 2017-18 for works relating to renewal, replacement, upgradation of critical safety assets under Capital segment of Budget.
• The Fund has a corpus of ` 1 lakh crore over a period of five years, with an annual outlay of ` 20,000 crore.
• The Fund is utilized to finance identified works under plan heads Track Renewals, Bridge Works, Signalling and Telecommunication Works, Road Safety Works of Level Crossings and Road Over/Under Bridges, Rolling Stock, Traffic Facilities, Electrical Works, Machinery and Plant, Workshops, Passenger Amenities and Training. The Fund has been introduced in 2017-18 and in the first year of its inception, an expenditure of ` 16091 crore has been incurred. An outlay of ` 20,000 crore has been allocated in Budget Estimates 2018-19 also.
• All safety related measures are taken in full earnestness and all maintenance and other activities are carried out with the help of existing manpower, mechanized means and need based outsourcing.
• Guidelines for operating of ‘Rashtriya Rail SanrakshaKosh (RRSK) have been issued by Ministry of Finance. These guidelines include sources of financing RRSK, definition of safety works, summary of RRSK works identified, process of identifying/preparation of action plan on safety, approval framework and monitoring framework of RRSK safety plan.
• Planning Directorate of Railway Board has been assigned the task of regularly monitoring physical and financial progress of works funded through ‘RRSK’. In addition, an independent ‘RRSK Monitoring Committee’ has been created headed by CEO, NITI Aayog to regularly examine the RRSK performance. The RRSK progress/performance shall also be reviewed annually by the ‘Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

12. UN body faults U.S., other states over Guantanamo prisoner torture

Subject : International Relations

Section: Places in news

Concept :

• The United States and seven other countries are responsible for torture and illegal detention of a Saudi prisoner awaiting a death penalty trial at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, a UN watchdog has ruled.
• The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also hinted that the systematic use of Guantanamo to hold suspects rounded up in Washington’s “war on terror” after the September 11, 2001 attacks, might in some cases amount to crimes against humanity.

Guantanamo Bay:

• Guantanamo Bay is a bay in Guantanamo Province at the southeastern end of Cuba.
• It is an inlet of the Caribbean Sea.
• The strategic importance of the bay is that it is close to the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea and Panama.
• This strategic importance was recognized during the Spanish-American War, in 1898, when U.S. marines landed there.
• Since the 1959 revolution, the Cuban government has protested the U.S. presence and periodically has threatened to seize the base.
• Often called “Gitmo” by naval personnel assigned there, it is used primarily as a U.S. fleet training base in the Caribbean Sea.

13. Time to give up on the vaunted but unproven ‘paleo diet’

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Health

Concept :

• The paleo diet’s proponents contend that by eating this way, we will lose weight and reduce our risk of chronic diseases.

Paleo Diet

• The paleo diet is based on the assumption that the simple foods of our Stone Age ancestors are healthier than contemporary diets, which generally include highly processed foods.
• The paleo diet emphasizes lean meat, fish and unprocessed, fresh foods.
• It also severely restricts carbohydrates, sugar and salt.
• This way of eating can lead to weight loss and other health benefits, research suggests, though it’s not without risks.

The paleo diet is lower in carbs. Restricted foods include:

• Grains products, such as pasta and cereals. Refined grains have a high glycemic index—meaning they can cause your blood sugar level to rise quickly, triggering the release of insulin, a fat storage hormone. Despite whole grains having health benefits, the paleo diet limits all types of grains (not just refined grains).
• Legumes, such as beans, soy and peanuts. Beans in particular have a moderate glycemic index.
• Milk, cheese and yogurt :These arenot allowed because paleo proponents say they often have hormones and are associated with gastrointestinal problems, as many people do not absorb the sugar in dairy.

14. Iranian embassy to reopen in Saudi Arabia

Subject : International Relations

Section: Places in news

Concept :

• Iran has confirmed it will reopen its embassy in Saudi Arabia this week, seven years after it was closed due to a diplomatic rift.
• In a short statement on Monday, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Tehran’s embassy in Riyadh will be reopened on Tuesday, followed by the reopening of its consulate in Jeddah and its representative office with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation a day later.

About Iran

• Iran, a mountainous, arid, and ethnically diverse country of southwestern Asia.
• The country maintains a rich and distinctive cultural and social continuity dating back to the Achaemenian period, which began in 550 BCE.
• In recent decades it has become known for its unique brand of Islamic republic. Although the system of government was intended as a parliamentary democracy, persistent instability both at home and abroad have steered its slide into a more theocratic authoritarianism.
• Geographically, much of Iran consists of a central desert plateau, which is ringed on all sides by lofty mountain ranges that afford access to the interior through high passes. Most of the population lives on the edges of this forbidding waterless waste.
• The capital is Tehrān, a sprawling jumbled metropolis at the southern foot of the Elburz Mountains.

15. What is affecting trade momentum?

Subject : Economy

Section: External Sector

Concept :

• According to information, India’s merchandise exports shrunk 12.7% on a year-on-year (YoY) basis to $34.66 billion in April — a six-month low.

About

• The fall in imports and exports is not limited to India as other countries too have recorded similar declines — affirming the notion about slowing global demand.
• The essential headwinds observed with respect to global trade are due to reasons like;
• Inflation and tightening of monetary policies,
• disrupted supply chains because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and
• Financial instability because of the collapse of several financial institutions in advanced economies.
• The collapse of financial institutions — such as of the crypto exchange FTX (November 2022) alongside three banks in the U.S. since March (the Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank), and the loss of confidence in Credit Suisse added to the troubled scenario.

Trade deficit

• In the simplest terms, a trade deficit occurs when a country imports more than it exports.
• A trade deficit is neither inherently entirely bad good nor, although very large deficits can negatively impact the economy.

Why trade deficits are matter of concern?

• A trade deficit occurs when the value of a country’s imports exceeds the value of its exports—with imports and exports referring both to ‘physical goods and services’.
• A trade deficit means a country is buying more goods and services than it is selling.
• An overly simplistic understanding means that this would generally hurt job creation and economic growth in the deficit-running country.
• A trade deficit is about an imbalance between a country’s savings and investment rates.
• It means a country is spending more money on imports than it makes on exports, and under the rules of economic accounting it must make up for that shortfall.
• The U.S., for example, can do so by either borrowing money from foreign lenders or permitting foreign investment in U.S. assets.

Merchandise exports and Imports:

• In the case of merchandise imports, the tangible commodities are bringing back to the home country.
• Example: For instance, Singapore sells its goods to Sweden; that means Singapore exports its commodities. In contrast, those commodities would be considered as imported commodities in the case of Sweden.
• Merchandise exports refer to the sale of physical goods that are shipped from one country to another. These can include products like clothing, electronics, and machinery.

16. Higgs boson

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Mega science

Concept :

• Physicists working with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle-smasher at CERN, in Europe, reported that they had detected a Higgs boson decaying into a Z boson particle and a photon.
• This is a very rare decay process that tells us important things about the Higgs boson as well as about our universe.

Higgs boson

• An electron is a subatomic particle that has mass.
• The stronger a particle’s interaction with the Higgs boson, the more mass it has.
• A Higgs boson can also interact with another Higgs boson.
• The Higgs boson is a type of boson, a force-carrying subatomic particle.
• It carries the force that a particle experiences when it moves through an energy field, called the Higgs field, that is believed to be present throughout the universe.
• The Higgs boson has a mass of 125 billion electron volts  —  meaning it is 130 times more massive than a proton.
• It is also chargeless with zero spin  —  a quantum mechanical equivalent to angular momentum.
• The Higgs Boson is the only elementary particle with no spin.

Why is the Higgs boson called the ‘God Particle?’

• The origin of this is often connected to Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman referring to the Higgs boson as the “Goddamn Particle” in frustration with regards to how difficult it was to detect.

Significance of Higgs boson:

• In 1964, researchers had begun to use quantum field theory to study the weak nuclear force  (which determines the atomic decay of elements by transforming protons to neutrons) and its force carriers the W and Z bosons.
• The weak force carriers should be massless.
• Putting mass arbitrarily onto particles also caused certain predictions to trend towards infinity.
• Yet, researchers knew that because the weak force is so strong over short distance interactions  (much more powerful than gravity)  but very weak over longer interactions, its bosons must have mass.
• The solution proposed by Peter Higgs François Englert, and Robert Brout, in 1964 was a new field and a way to “trick” nature into breaking symmetry spontaneously.
• The field quickly, in just fractions of a second, finds a stable configuration, but this in the process breaks its symmetry.
• This gives rise to the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism which grants mass to the W and Z bosons.
• What was later discovered about the Higgs field was that it would not only give mass to the W and Z bosons but that it would grant mass to many other fundamental particles.
• Without the Higgs field and the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism, all fundamental particles would race around the universe at the speed of light.
• This theory doesn’t just explain why particles have mass but also, why they have different masses.