Daily Prelims Notes 7 March 2021
Daily Prelims Notes
7 March 2021
By
Santosh Sir
All 6 Prelims qualified
4 CSE Mains qualified
If I can do it, you can too
Table Of Contents
- Temporary/Interim injunction
- Hybrid hearing
- APEDA
- THE GREAT INDIAN BUSTARD
- WiFi 6
- Wine country shift
- Vaccination and Immunity
- MALWARES
- Spectrum auction
1. Temporary/Interim injunction
Context:
A Bengaluru court Saturday granted a temporary media gag order in favor of six ministers of the government in Karnataka after they expressed apprehension of being defamed.
Concept:
Injunction is an authoritative warning or order issued by the court of equity.
The statutory meaning of Injunctions can be analyzed in various statutes such as under CrpC, CPC, and Specific Relief Act,1963 as follows:-
Under Code of Criminal Procedure under section 133,142 and 144.
Under Civil matters, the law relating to grant of Injunction is contained in Chapter VII of Part III of Specific Relief Act 1963 (sections 36-42).
Under Code of Civil Procedure 1908, Order 39 Rule 125 deals with Injunctions.
It has been termed as a preventive relief which is granted at the discretion of the court by Injunction which may be temporary or perpetual.
Section 37(1) of Specific Relief Act, deals with specific Injunctions which are such as are to continue until a specified time or until further orders of the court, they may be granted at any stage of the suit or proceedings and are regulated by Civil Procedure Code.
Types of Injunctions in the Indian Law:
Generally speaking, there are two types of injunctions as mentioned below:
- Temporary/interim Injunction
- Perpetual/Permanent Injunction
Temporary/interim Injunction
Temporary injunctions, as the name suggests, are the injunctions that are given for a specific period of time or until the court gives further order regarding the matter in concern. They can be obtained during any stage of the trial and are regulated by the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), 1908
Permanent Injunction
A permanent injunction can be granted by the court by passing a decree made at the hearing and upon the merits of the suit. Once such decree is passed, the defendant is permanently prohibited from the assertion of a right, or from the commission of an act, which would be contrary to the rights of the plaintiff.
Context:
The top court said that on a pilot basis, the final hearing/regular matters listed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, will be heard through hybrid mode.
Concept:
A hybrid hearing is a mixture of a court hearing, where the people involved (parties, lawyers, witnesses and the Judge) attend in person, and a remote hearing.
A remote hearing is a hearing whereby all those attending do so via a video link or telephone conference call.
At a hybrid hearing, the Judge will always be physically present in the court room. Any combination of the parties, their legal representatives or witnesses can then also be physically present in the court room too. Everyone else will attend the hearing remotely.
Context:
Non-basmati exports to countries in West Asia and some in the African continent have risen over the past few months as they have been building a reserve stock of the cereal, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, anticipating a global food scarcity.
Concept:
Basmati Rice:
- It is one of the best known varieties of rice all across the globe.
- It is long grain rice which has its origin from India and some parts of Pakistan.
- It has a unique position in the rice world due to its price, fragrance, grain morphology as well as quality.
- Basmati rice has a unique fragrance and flavour caused due to the presence of a chemical called 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline.
- This chemical is found in basmati rice at about 90 parts per million (ppm) which is 12 times more than non-basmati rice varieties.
- Basmati rice needs specific climatic conditions to grow which is why it is cultivated in selected regions of India.
- It is cultivated in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and kashmir and western Uttar Pradesh.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry expects a “major boost” in India’s rice exports potential, with APEDA’s promotion of these cereal grains through collaborations with various stakeholders in the value chain.
Non-basmati and basmati rice form a major portion of APEDA’s export basket, with non-basmati accounting for 22.52 per cent and basmati around 20.99 per cent of the authority’s total exports.
India recorded $2.62 billion in exports of the livestock product between April-January 2020-21, down 5.62 per cent from the $2.78 billion it had shipped during the same period in 2019-20.
The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA):
It was established by the Government of India under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act, passed by the Parliament in December, 1985.
It is a statutory body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and is the apex organization engaged in work related to the development of export of agricultural products and processed food from India.
It is responsible for putting in place a system for administration of GI and authentication of the product in India and abroad.
Concept:
The GIB is one of the most critically threatened species in India, with fewer than 150 birds left in the wild. It is listed as Critically Endangered in IUCN Red List.
A 2019 report by the Ministry pointed out that power lines, especially high-voltage transmission lines with multiple overhead wires, are the most important current threat for GIBs in the Thar region, and are causing unsustainably high mortality in about 15% of their population.
Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
This Act provides for the protection of the country’s wild animals, birds, and plant species, in order to ensure environmental and ecological security. Among other things, the Act lays down restrictions on hunting many animal species. The Act was last amended in the year 2006. An Amendment bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2013 and referred to a Standing Committee, but it was withdrawn in 2015.
Constitutional Provisions for the Wildlife Act
Article 48A of the Constitution of India directs the State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard wildlife and forests. This article was added to the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment in 1976.
Article 51A imposes certain fundamental duties for the people of India. One of them is to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures.
Schedules of the Wildlife Protection Act:
Schedule I
| Schedule II
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Schedule III & IV
| Schedule V
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Schedule VI
| |
Concept:
Wi-Fi 6 is the next-generation wireless standard that’s faster than 802.11ac. More than speed, it will provide better performance in congested areas, from stadiums to your own device-packed home. Wi-Fi 6 officially arrived in late 2019, and Wi-Fi 6-enabled hardware was released throughout 2020.
Wi-Fi 6 accomplishes this through more efficient data encoding, resulting in higher throughout. Mainly, more data is packed into the same radio waves. The chips that encode and decode these signals keep getting more powerful and can handle the extra work.
Context:
With climate change affecting produce at the finest vineyards, new wine-producing regions such as Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar could soon replace the world’s best vineyards.
Concept:
Mediterranean climate:
The warm temperate western margin climate or the Mediterranean climate is found between 30 degree and 45 degree North and South of the Equator. This climate is witnessed in relatively fewer parts of the world and is almost entirely confined to the western margins of the continental landmasses. The basic cause of this climate is the seasonal shift of the wind belts.
The region is important for fruit cultivation, cereal growing, wine-making and agricultural industries as well as engineering and mining. The region is a net exporter of citrus fruits and the net importer of dairy products.
Orchard farming:
- These regions are known as the world’s orchard lands.
- A wide range of citrus fruits grows in the region. Examples: Sunkist oranges of California, Jaffa oranges of Israel.
- The fruit trees have long roots to draw water from depths during the long summer months.
- The olive tree is probably the most typical of all Mediterranean cultivated vegetation.
- Besides these, many nut trees like chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds are grown.
- Other important fruits are peaches, apricots, pears, cherries, plums and figs.
Context:
As the vaccination drive gains momentum, questions have emerged about appropriate behavior after being vaccinated.
Concept:
To understand how COVID-19 vaccines work, it helps to first look at how our bodies fight illness. When germs, such as the virus that causes COVID-19, invade our bodies, they attack and multiply. This invasion, called an infection, is what causes illness. Our immune system uses several tools to fight infection. Blood contains red cells, which carry oxygen to tissues and organs, and white or immune cells, which fight infection. Different types of white blood cells fight infection in different ways:
Macrophages are white blood cells that swallow up and digest germs and dead or dying cells. The macrophages leave behind parts of the invading germs called antigens. The body identifies antigens as dangerous and stimulates antibodies to attack them.
B-lymphocytes are defensive white blood cells. They produce antibodies that attack the pieces of the virus left behind by the macrophages.
T-lymphocytes are another type of defensive white blood cell. They attack cells in the body that have already been infected.
How COVID 19 vaccines work?
COVID-19 vaccines help our bodies develop immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 without us having to get the illness. Different types of vaccines work in different ways to offer protection, but with all types of vaccines, the body is left with a supply of “memory” T-lymphocytes as well as B-lymphocytes that will remember how to fight that virus in the future.
It typically takes a few weeks for the body to produce T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes after vaccination. Therefore, it is possible that a person could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination and then get sick because the vaccine did not have enough time to provide protection.
Sometimes after vaccination, the process of building immunity can cause symptoms, such as fever. These symptoms are normal and are a sign that the body is building immunity.
Context:
On March 3, Maharashtra Power Minister Nitin Raut announced that a State Cyber Cell probe had found 14 Trojan horses in the servers of the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company.
The announcement came in the wake of a report from Recorded Future, a U.S.-based cyber security firm, stating that a group linked to the Chinese government, which it called ‘Red Echo’, had targeted 10 vital nodes in India’s power distribution system and two seaports.
Concept:
Malware is the shortened form of malicious software.
Malware is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software including Ransom wares, Computer Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, Spyware, Adware, Scareware etc.
This is any program or file that is harmful to a computer user. The term refers to software that is deployed with malicious intent.
Malware can be deployed even remotely, and tracking the source of malware is hard. It can take the form of executable code, scripts, active content, and other software.
These malicious programs can perform a variety of functions, including stealing, encrypting or deleting sensitive data, altering or hijacking core computing functions and monitoring users’ computer activity without their permission.
This combination has enabled commercial malware providers to supply sophisticated black markets for both malware and the information that it collects.
Shadow pad:
Shadow Pad is a backdoor Trojan malware, which means it opens a secret path from its target system to its command and control servers. Information can be extracted or more malicious code delivered via this path.
Shadow Pad is built to target supply-chain infrastructure in sectors like transportation, tele communication, energy and more.
It was first identified in 2017, when it was found hidden in a legitimate software produced by a company named Net Sarang. Trojanised softwares, or softwares that have dangers hidden in them, like the eponymous Trojan horse from Greek mythology, are the primary mode of delivery for Shadow Pad.
Context:
The auction saw the end of India’s first auction of telecommunications spectrum in five years, with the government generating a revenue of ₹77,815 crore from the exercise. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio accounted for close to 60% of the spectrum bought, followed by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
In the auction that was held on March 1 and 2, the government offered spectrum for 4G in the following bands: 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz and 2,500 MHz.
Concept:
‘Spectrum’, which, in this context, stands for the portion of the electromagnetic wave range that is suitable for communication purposes. As this is a huge economic resource, which also provides unimaginable benefits to any population, it is controlled by the government.
“Spectrum bands have different characteristics, and this makes them suitable for different purposes. In general, low-frequency transmissions can travel greater distances before losing their integrity, and they can pass through dense objects more easily.
Less data can be transmitted over these radio waves, however. Higher-frequency transmissions carry more data, but are poorer at penetrating obstacles.”
In this context, hertz is a measure of the number of cycles per second, and 1 megahertz stands for 1 million hertz. Telecom providers cover their bases by using both low and high-frequency bands.
Why spectrum is needed?
Devices such as cellphones and wireline telephones require signals to connect from one end to another. These signals are carried on airwaves (medium of radio waves), which must be sent at designated frequencies to avoid any kind of interference.
These airwaves are called spectrum, which is subdivided into bands which have varying frequencies.
All these airwaves are sold for a certain period of time, after which their validity lapses, which is generally set at 20 years.