Daily Prelims Notes 7 December 2022

December 7, 2022
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Daily Prelims Notes

7 December 2022

Table Of Contents

1. UN Groundwater Summit 2022 to help raise awareness on aquifer protection, sustainable use

Subject: Geography

Context-

The importance of protecting groundwater and methods for its sustainable use will be the highlights of the United Nations-Water Summit on Groundwater 2022 that begins December 7, 2022, in Paris, France.

Organised by

The two-day conference will be organised by UN-Water, UNESCO and the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre.
The discussions will highlight the opportunities and challenges of groundwater management across the world as presented in The United Nations World Water Development Report 2022.
Aim- To raise awareness of groundwater conservation on the global stage.
UN-Water is also running the campaign- Groundwater: Making the invisible visible.
- The campaign highlighted the role of groundwater in alleviating poverty, food and water insecurity and other socioeconomic development hurdles.

United Nations Water (UN-Water)-

It is an interagency mechanism that coordinates the efforts of United Nations entities and international organizations working on water and sanitation issues.
Over 30 UN organizations carry out water and sanitation programmes, reflecting the fact that water issues run through all of the UN’s main focus areas.
UN-Water’s role is to coordinate so that the UN family ‘delivers as one’ in response to water-related challenges.
The majority of the offices are located in Geneva, Switzerland.

2. Cyclone Mandous to form December 7 will be slow-moving

Subject : Geography

Context-

A cyclone may impact the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts from December 8 onwards.

About the cyclone mandous-

Name suggested by the United Arab Emirates.
Location- Southern Bay of Bengal on the coasts of Tamilnadu and Pudduchhery.
A low-pressure area formed over the south Andaman Sea and intensified into a well-marked low-pressure area.
Slow-moving cyclones often absorb a lot of moisture, carry humongous amounts of rainfall and gain strength in the form of wind speeds.
Data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) and the Global Forecasting System (GFS) of the United States showed that the system is moving quite slowly after its intensification into a cyclone.

3. Black soil in red: Climate change threatens world’s food basket

Subject : Geography

Why in news-

Black soils, which feed the global population, are under threat, with most losing at least half of their soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, according to a new United Nations report.

Black soils-

These soils are characterised by a thick, dark-coloured soil horizon rich in organic matter. They are amongst the most productive and fertile soils in the world.
Black soils have the potential to provide 10 per cent of the total SOC sequestration globally if they receive proper attention.
Europe and Eurasia have the highest potential at over 65 per cent and Latin America and the Caribbean at around 10 per cent.
Black soils were home to 2.86 per cent of the global population and had 17.36 per cent of cropland, 8.05 per cent of global SOC stock and 30.06 per cent of SOC stock of global cropland.
Globally in 2010, 66 per cent of sunflower seeds, 51 per cent of small millet, 42 per cent of sugar beet, 30 per cent of wheat and 26 per cent of potatoes were harvested from black soils.
93 per cent of the Moldovan population and 52 per cent of the Ukrainian population live on black soil.
Two-thirds of the black soil area is currently used for agricultural production.

Distribution of black soils-

The Russian Federation has the largest area by far, followed by Kazakhstan and China.
Europe and Eurasia accounted for 70 per cent of the soil in the total cropland, while North America, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia had 10 per cent each.

Global status of black soils report-

Published by FAO on World soil day (5 December).
Threats include- Land-use change, unsustainable management practices and excessive use of agrochemicals, moderate to severe erosion processes, nutrient imbalances, acidification and biodiversity loss.
The ability of the soils to remove carbon from the atmosphere and lock it up in soil organic matter (called carbon sequestration) has been proposed as an important solution to mitigate human-induced climate change.

What are the consequences-

They have lost 20 to 50 per cent of their original Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock, with the carbon being released into the atmosphere mostly as carbon dioxide, exacerbating global warming.

4. Amazonian biodiversity: Indigenous convoy to bring focus to threats during Montreal summit

Subject : Environment

Context-

A delegation of Indigenous Amazonians will be a part of the upcoming 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) for the United Nations Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD).

About the CoP15 of the CBD-

Held in Montreal, Canada.
COP15 CBD is an international meeting bringing together governments from around the world. Participants will set out new goals to guide global action to preserve biodiversity through 2030 to halt and reverse nature loss.
Focus would be on extractive industries, especially mining and fossil fuels, threatening biodiversity loss in the Amazon rainforest and threatening human rights across the biome.

Amazon rainforest-

The Amazon rainforest is home to 30 per cent of the world’s species, comprising 40,000 plant species, 16,000 tree species, 1,300 birds and more than 430 species of mammals.
As the largest tropical rainforest in the world, it is the source of 20% of the oxygen used by the planet.
Fishes and birds make up one in five of all species and are found in the Amazon.
The rainforest of the Amazon is home to 400–500 indigenous Amerindian tribes.
The amount of sunlight that reaches the forest floor is also extremely low, leaving it completely dark.
Indigenous lands make up around 20 per cent of the Earth’s territory, containing 80 per cent of the world’s remaining biodiversity.

Threats to amazon rainforest-

Natural threats	Anthropogenic threats
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)	Biopiracy and smuggling
Deforestation	Commercial fishing
Global temperature rise	Cattle ranching
Forest fires and droughts	Mining and extraction
Unsuitable for sustainable agriculture	Damming and logging
Reaching to its tipping point	poaching

5. Loss, decay and bleaching: Why sponges may be the ‘canary in the coal mine’ for impacts of marine heatwaves

Subject :Environment

Context-

Marine sponges were thought to be more resilient to ocean warming than other organisms. But earlier this year, New Zealand recorded the largest-ever sponge bleaching event off its southern coastline.

About sponges-

Like corals, sponges contain symbiotic organisms.
Cymbastella lamellata is unusual in that it hosts dense populations of diatoms, small single-celled photosynthetic plants that give the sponge its brown colour.
These diatoms live within the sponge tissue, exchanging food for protection.
When the sponge bleaches, it expels the diatoms, leaving the sponge skeleton exposed.
Tissue loss occurs when sponges are stressed and either have to invest more energy into cell repair or when their food source is depleted and they reabsorb their own tissue to reduce the body volume and reallocate resources.
Tissue decay or necrosis is generally associated with changes in the microbial communities living within sponges and the growth of pathogenic bacteria.

Significance of sponges-

Sponges are among the most ancient and abundant animals on rocky reefs across the world.
They filter large quantities of water, capturing small food particles and moving carbon from the water column to the seafloor where it can be eaten by bottom-dwelling invertebrates.
These invertebrates are consumed by organisms further up the food chain.
Provides habitat for a range of other species such as crabs, shrimps and starfish.

Recent event of Sponge bleaching-

Observed on the southern coastline of the Newzealand, while the bleaching is not being observed in central areas of New Zealand’s coastline.
One species viz the cup sponge Cymbastella lamellata was affected due to a prolonged marine heatwave.
A marine heatwave is defined as an event when seawater temperatures exceed a seasonally-varying threshold (usually the 90th percentile) for at least 5 consecutive days. Successive heatwaves with gaps of 2 days or less are considered part of the same event.

6. What does Elon Musk’s brain chip company Neuralink do?

Subject : Science and Technology

Context-

WHAT IS NEURALINK DEVELOPING?

Founded in 2016 by Musk and a group of engineers, Neuralink is building a brain chip interface that can be implanted within the skull, which it says could eventually help disabled patients to move and communicate again, and also restore vision.
Neuralink’s device has a chip that processes and transmits neural signals that could be transmitted to devices like a computer or a phone.
Neuralink believes its device will be able to restore neural activity inside the body, allowing those with spinal cord injuries to move limbs and aspires to cure neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.

WHAT PROGRESS HAS NEURALINK MADE?

In 2021 it showed a macaque playing a simple videogame after being implanted with a brain chip.
Neuralink has yet to secure U.S. regulatory approval to move to human trials.

7. What is OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, why it has become a viral sensation

Subject : Science and Technology

What is ChatGPT-

OpenAI has created ChatGPT, a start-up focused on artificial intelligence and its potential use cases.
OpenAI’s notable investors include Microsoft, Khosla Ventures and Reid Hoffman’s charitable foundation.
It is based on the company’s GPT 3.5 series of language learning models (LLM).
GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 and this is a kind of computer language model that relies on deep learning techniques to produce human-like text based on inputs.
ChatGPT can answer follow-up questions, and can also admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.
Currently, it is open in beta to all users.
ChatGPT has been trained to decline ‘inappropriate’ requests, presumably those which are ‘illegal’ in nature.
ChatGPT is capable of writing fiction but not at the level of humans.
Other chatbots include Google-led LaMDA.

Will ChatGPT replace humans when it comes to writing?

The chatbot gives answers which are grammatically correct and read well– though sometimes it lack context and substance, which is largely true.

8. TRAI proposal to identify spammers

Subject : Governance

Context : The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently released a consultation paper for comments with respect to the introduction of a Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) feature.

Concept :

The Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) feature would help individuals by providing information about the calling party similar to the applications such as “Truecaller” and “Bharat Caller ID & Anti-Spam”.
The main objective of introducing the CNAP feature is to ensure that telephone subscribers would be able to make informed choices about incoming calls and put a check on harassment by spam callers.

Need for CNAP

As the subscribers are not provided with the name and identity of the caller, individuals sometimes might not answer such calls believing that it could be commercial calls from unregistered telemarketers.
This can lead to various instances where even genuine calls are left unanswered.
Further, concerns have been raised about robocalls (automatic calls made using IT-enabled systems), spam calls and fraudulent calls.
As per Truecaller’s “2021 Global Spam and Scam Report”, the average number of spam calls per user per month was about 16.8 in India and the total spam volumes received by its users were more than 3.8 billion calls in October alone.
As of now, users currently rely on in-built features or third-party applications that present the number of the calling entity to identify spam calls.

About TRAI

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was established in 1997 by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.
The head office of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is located at New Delhi.
The TRAI consists of a Chairperson, two whole-time members and two part-time members, all of which are appointed by the Government of India.

Functions of TRAI:

The function of the TRAI is to make recommendations to the central government on matters related to service providers, Revocation of license for non-compliance , Measures to facilitate competition and promote efficiency in the operation of telecommunication services to facilitate their growth etc.
Laying down the standards of quality of service to be provided by the service providers.
Timely and officially notifying the rates at which the telecommunication services within India and outside India shall be provided under the TRAI Act, 1997.
The recommendations of the TRAI are not binding upon the Central Government.

Powers of TRAI

It can call upon any service provider to furnish in writing the information or explanation relating to its affairs as the Authority may require.
The Authority may appoint one or more persons to make an inquiry in relation to the affairs of any service provider.
It is empowered to direct any of its officers or employees to inspect the books of accounts or other documents of any service provider.
The Authority shall have the power to issue such directions to service providers as it may consider necessary for proper functioning by service providers.

9. National Gati Sakthi Portal

Subject: Governance

Context :To protect strategic information on the National Gati Sakthi Master Plan Portal, the government has decided to limit access, and not allow private players and the individuals on the platform for now.

Concept :

About National Gati Sakthi Portal for Multi Modal Connectivity

The aim is to ensure integrated planning and implementation of infrastructure projects in the next four years, with focus on expediting works on the ground, saving costs and creating jobs.
It was launched in October 2021.
The Gati Shakti scheme will subsume the Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline that was launched in 2019.
Besides cutting logistics costs, the scheme is also aimed at increasing cargo handling capacity and reducing the turnaround time at ports to boost trade.
It also aims to have 11 industrial corridors and two new defense corridors – one in Tamil Nadu and other in Uttar Pradesh. Extending 4G connectivity to all villages is another aim. Adding 17,000 kms to the gas pipeline network is being planned.
It will help in fulfilling the ambitious targets set by the government for 2024-25, including expanding the length of the national highway network to 2 lakh kms, creation of more than 200 new airports, heliports and water aerodromes

Integrated approach

It intends to bring together 16 infrastructure related Ministries.
This will help in removing long-standing issues such as disjointed planning, lack of standardisation, problems with clearances, and timely creation and utilisation of infrastructure capacities.
Economic Zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, agri zones will be covered to improve connectivity & make Indian businesses more competitive.
It will also leverage technology extensively including spatial planning tools with ISRO imagery developed by BiSAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics).

Gati Shakti Digital Platform:

It involves the creation of a common umbrella platform through which infrastructure projects can be planned and implemented in an efficacious manner by way of coordination between various ministries/departments on a real-time basis.

Services Provided by Gati Sakthi Portal

Planning and obtaining clearances: The portal will offer 200 layers of geospatial data, including on existing infrastructure such as roads, highways, railways, and toll plazas, as well as geographic information about forests, rivers and district boundaries to aid in planning and obtaining clearances.
Centralised tracking of projects: The portal will also allow various government departments to track, in real-time and at one centralised place, the progress of various projects, especially those with multi-sectoral and multi-regional impact.
Prioritize projects: Through Gati Shakti, different departments will be able to prioritise their projects through cross-sectoral interactions”.
Project clearances: The portal will also highlight all the clearances that any new project would need, based on its location — and allow stakeholders to apply for these clearances from the relevant authority directly on the portal. The objective is to streamline the process and shorten the period required for clearances.

10. Hyderabad Bansilalpet Stepwell gets restored

Subject : Art and Culture

Context: The Bansilalpet stepwell, which had turned into a dumpyard over the decades, was unearthed after removing over 2,000 tonnes of debris and relocating families that lived on the site.

Concept :

The seventeenth-century stepwell, which had turned into a dumpyard over the last four decades, was unearthed after removing over 2,000 tonnes of debris and relocating families that lived on the site.
Over the last year, it was restored to its original glory.
The well has been completely restored and now holds nearly 20 lakh litres of water and has regained its antique looks with magnificent galleries on the corridors of sixstage stepwell.
The renovated well is expected to serve as a new cultural space for the city , say officials.
Plans are on the anvil to restore and develop 43 more stepwells in the city as part of the efforts to achieve World Heritage City recognition from UNESCO.

World Heritage Site

UNESCO World Heritage Sites are designated specific locations such as forest areas, mountains, lakes, deserts, monuments, buildings, or cities, etc. These are selected by the World Heritage Sites Committee. This committee oversees these sites with the help of UNESCO.
The objective of this program is to select and preserve such places of the world which are important for humanity in terms of world culture. UNESCO provides financial assistance to such sites under certain circumstances.
The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 UNESCO member states which are elected by the General Assembly.
Each World Heritage Site remains part of the legal territory of the state wherein the site is located and UNESCO considers it in the interest of the international community to preserve each site.
UNESCO believes that the entire world community is responsible for its protection. According to the official website of UNESCO, there are six cultural and four natural criteria for the selection of a world heritage site.

11. Yoginder K Alagh

Subject :Economy

Who was Yoginder K Alagh:

He was an Indian economist and Union Minister of State with independent charge of Power, Science & Technology and Planning & Programme Implementation during the United Front government in 1996-98.
He was the Chairman of Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) from 2006 to 2012 and was the Chancellor of the Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar.
He headed the Agricultural Prices Commission (APC) as well the Bureau of Industrial Costs & Prices (BICP).
As chairman of APC (now called the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Price), he set up its econometrics cell, which recommends minimum support prices for different crops and also published its reports with a view to encourage debate.
At BICP, he initiated the first round of economic reforms that involved price decontrol in steel, cement and aluminium.
He also chaired a Planning Commission Task Force in 1979, which for the first time constructed separate poverty lines for rural and urban areas based on nutritional requirements i.e consuming less than 2,400 calories and 2,100 calories, respectively.
Alagh was executive vice-chairman of the Gujarat government’s Narmada Planning Group for the Sardar Sarovar multipurpose dam project in 1980-82,.
He had also served as a member of the Planning Commission between 1987 and 1990.

What is Alagh Committee on poverty estimation:

A task force was constituted by the Planning Commission under the chairmanship of YK Alagh, to construct a poverty line for rural and urban areas on the basis of nutritional requirements and related consumption expenditure.
Poverty estimates for subsequent years were to be calculated by adjusting the price level for inflation.
This approach was first of all adopted by the YK Alagh Committee’s recommendation in 1979 whereby, the people consuming less than 2100 calories in the urban areas or less than 2400 calories in the rural areas are poor.
The logic behind the discrimination between rural and urban areas was that the rural people do more physical work.
Moreover, an implicit assumption was that the states would take care of the health and education of the people.

12. The Karnataka-Maharashtra border dispute

Context:

The Maharashtra-Karnataka border row escalated into violence after vehicles from both states were attacked and defaced in Belagavi and Pune, respectively.

What is the issue:

The Maharashtra and Karnataka boundary dispute has its origins in the reorganization of states along linguistic lines via the State Reorganisation Act, 1956.
This Act, which took effect from 1 November, 1956, divided states on linguistic lines.
Since its creation on May 1, 1960, Maharashtra has claimed that 865 villages, including Belagavi (then Belgaum), Carvar and Nipani, should be merged into Maharashtra.
Karnataka has asserted rights over 260 Kannada-speaking villages along the Maharashtra border.

What are the Steps Taken to Resolve the Issue

In 1960, both States agreed to set up a four-man committee with two representatives from each State. Except on the issue of contiguity, the committee could not arrive at a unanimous decision.
The central government constituted the Mahajan Committee under the Supreme Court Chief Justice Meher Chand Mahajan, in 1966 to assess the situation. Representatives from both sides, Maharashtra and the then Mysore state were part of the committee.

What were the recommendations of Mahajan Committee:

The Committee rejected Maharashtra’s claim over Belagavi (then Belgaum).
The commission recommended 247 villages including Jatt, Akkalkote and Solapur, to be made part of Karnataka.
It also declared 264 villages including Nippani, Khanapur and Nandagad, to be made part of Maharashtra.

What is the present status of the dispute:

Both Karnataka and Maharashtra reckon that the complex issue will not be resolved politically, and requires a legal solution.
In 2004, the Maharashtra government filed a petition in the Supreme Court, staking claim over Marathi-speaking villages in Karnataka, which contested the claim.
Meanwhile, Karnataka changed the name of Belgaum to Belagavi and made it the second capital of the state.
The issue has been pending before the Supreme Court since 2004.

13. FSSAI warns officials against arbitrary action

Subject : Governance

Context: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has asked State food safety commissioners to ensure proper due diligence while seizing food products.

Concept :

The food safety authority also asked State food safety commissioners to deal with “arbitrary or unreasonable seizures” in a stringent and effective manner.
Also, to ensure food safety officers are properly trained on procedural aspects of sampling and legal proceedings as stipulated in the the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
As per Section 38 of the Act, food safety officers are empowered to take samples of any food products intended for human consumption or seize any food products that appear to be contravention of the regulations.

About FSSAI

It is an autonomous statutory body that maintains the food safety and standards in India.
FSSAI is administered by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
The Body is functional as per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
The FSSAI has its headquarters at New Delh
The authority also has 6 regional offices located in Delhi, Guwahati, Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin, and Chennai.
The FSSAI comprises of a Chairperson and twenty two members out of which one – third are to be women.
The Chairperson of FSSAI is appointed by the Central Government.
Food Safety and Standards Rule, 2011 provides for:
The Food Safety Appellate Tribunal and the Registrar of the Appellate Tribunal, for adjudication of food safety cases.
It covers Licensing and Registration, Packaging and Labelling of Food Businesses, Food Product Standards and Food Additives Regulation.
It prohibits and restricts on sales or approval for Non-Specified Food and Food Ingredients, such ingredients may cause harm to human health.
It provides for Food Safety and Standards on Organic Food and regulates Food Advertising.

Important Initiatives by FSSAI

Eat Right India – It is a Pan-India cycle movement called as ‘Swasth Bharat Yatra’ aimed to create consumer awareness about eating safe and nutritious food.

Clean Street Food –This involves training the street food vendors and making them aware of the violations as per the FSS Act 2006.

Diet4Life –This is another initiative taken by FSSAI, to spread awareness about metabolic disorders.

Save Food, Share Food, Share Joy –Encouraging people to avoid food wastage and promote food donation. Through this, FSSAI intends to connect food-collecting agencies with the food-producing companies and share the food with the ones in need.

Heart Attack Rewind – It is the first mass media campaign of FSSAI. It is aimed to support FSSAI’s target of eliminating trans fat in India by the year 2022.

FSSAI-CHIFSS – It is collaboration between FSSAI and CII-HUL Initiative on Food Safety Sciences to promote collaborations between Industry, Scientific Community, Academia for food safety.