Daily Prelims Notes 7 March 2022
- March 7, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
7 March 2022
Table Of Contents
- Imported Inflation
- NET NEURALITY
- TIGER DENSITY IN INDIA
- HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS
- BELARUS IN RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR
- REFUGEE CRISIS
- SVEP
- Weaponry deployed in the Russia- Ukraine War
Subject: Economy
Section: Inflation and Unemployment
When the general price level rises (considerable and persistent over a longer period of time) in a country because of the rise in prices of imported commodities, inflation is termed as imported inflation. For example-Two key contributors to India’s imports are: Crude Oil and Gold. Rise in prices of these two products lead to rise in the import bill of the country thus a major cause of imported inflation in India.
Causes-
- Rise in price of Imported commodities-
- Demand pull cause- Mainly due to rise in Aggregate Demand of the good relative to its Aggregate Supply, For example- post pandemic demand recovery led to rise in demand of crude oil relative to its supply leading to rise in price.
- Cost push cause- mainly due to supply shortage of inputs. For example- the recent Ukraine War has led to blockage of Black sea and thus the supply of critical inputs- palladium, neon etc.. Used in production of semiconductor chips and catalytic converters used in vehicles.
- Supply chain disruption-
- Ukraine war- Russia and Ukraine being the major supplier of critical raw materials-coal, palladium, fertilizers; crude oil and natural gas; agri commodities like wheat, corn, sunflower oil, base metals- aluminum, steel etc.
- Economic sanction- like the Russian bank prohibited from SWIFT could lead to delay in supply of various consignments.
- Trade War- recent China- USA trade war
- Pandemic- and the induced lockdown caused disruption of transport services.
- Depreciation of domestic currency-inflation may also rise due to the depreciation of the domestic currency, which pushes up the rupee cost of imported items.
Impact-
- Reduces purchasing power of currency.
- Rise in import bill and current account deficit.
- Capital outflows as the real rate of interest falls.
- Currency depreciation.
- Reduces productive investment and shifts to unproductive investment- real estate, gold etc.
- Rise in unemployment in the long run due to reduced investment.
- Lowers cost of borrowing as real rate of interest decreases.
- Long run reduction in real GDP-singles end of easy monetary policy.
- Supply chain disruption hamper industrial growth.
Losers and winners
Losers | Winners |
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TOPIC: Science & Tech.
Section: Computer Related
Context- The net neutrality debate has resurfaced with telecom operators, including Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, backing a proposal to regulate content delivery networks (CDNs).
Concept-
About Content Delivery Networks:
- A CDN refers to a geographically distributed group of servers that work together.
- The goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially relative to end users.
- Internet companies employ CDN services to deliver services faster.
- In turn, CDN service providers have deals with telecom operators and internet service providers to host servers in their networks.
- CDNs are used by Internet companies including search engines (such as Google), OTT content providers (Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime), e-commerce companies, and banking and financial companies, among others.
- CDNs were kept out of TRAI’s 2017 recommendations on net neutrality, i.e. CDNs as exemption to non- neutral Practices.
About Net Neutrality:
- Net neutrality means that governments and internet service providers treat all data on the internet equally and does not differentially charge consumers for higher-quality delivery or giving preferential treatment to certain websites.
- Network neutrality requires all Internet service providers (ISPs) to provide the same level of data access and speed to all traffic, and that traffic to one service or website cannot be blocked or degraded.
Net Neutrality Regulation in India:
- Telecom and Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016.
- These regulations prohibit Telecom Service Providers from charging different tariffs from consumers for accessing different services online.
- CDNs are exempted from these rules.
TOPIC: Environment
Section: Biodiversity
Context- A study by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) suggest that the density of tigers in the Sunderbans may have reached the carrying capacity of the mangrove forests, leading to frequent dispersals and a surge in human-wildlife conflict.
Concept-
Tiger Density in India: The correlation between prey availability and tiger density is fairly established.
Terai and Shivalik hills habitat. eg. Corbett Tiger Reserve | 10-16 tigers can survive in 100 sq km. |
reserves of north-central Western Ghats such as Bandipur | 7-11 tigers per 100 sq km |
dry deciduous forests, such as Kanha, of central India. | 6-10 tigers per 100 sq km |
Sunderbans | around 4 tigers per 100 sq km. |
Conflict: cause or effect
- The consequence, as classical theories go, is frequent dispersal of tigers leading to higher levels of human-wildlife conflict in the reserve peripheries.
- Physical (space) and biological (forest productivity) factors have an obvious influence on a reserve’s carrying capacity of tigers.
- More so when different land uses overlap and a good number of people depend on forest resources for livelihood.
Why tiger corridors are not a solution?
- Not all dispersing tigers will chance upon corridors simply because many will find territories of other tigers between them and such openings.
- The corridors may not lead to viable forests in reserves such as Sunderbans, bounded by the sea and villages.
CARRYING CAPACITY and LIMITING FACTORS:
Organisms need resources to survive. They also require space to live. There are limited resources and only so much space in an ecosystem. These features are called limiting factors. Limiting factors regulate how many organisms live in an ecosystem. Space, food, oxygen, and water are limiting factors. Temperature and precipitation determine the climate of an ecosystem, which impacts the organisms that can live in an ecosystem.
An ecosystem can support only so large of a population. The maximum population size that an ecosystem can support is called carrying capacity. Limiting factors determine carrying capacity. The availability of abiotic factors (such as water, oxygen, and space) and biotic factors (such as food) dictates how many organisms can live in an ecosystem. Carrying capacity is also impacted by the availability of decomposers. Decomposers break down and recycle dead organisms and organic matter. They prevent dead matter from accumulating and taking up space in an ecosystem.
In an ecosystem, the population of a species will increase until reaches the carrying capacity. Then the population size remains relatively the same. If abiotic or biotic factors change, the carrying capacity changes as well. Natural disasters can destroy resources in an ecosystem. If resources are destroyed, the ecosystem will not be able to support a large population. This causes the carrying capacity to decrease. Humans can also alter carrying capacity. Our activities can decrease or increase carrying capacity. We alter carrying capacity when we manipulate resources in a natural environment.
If a population exceeds carrying capacity, the ecosystem may become unsuitable for the species to survive. If the population exceeds the carrying capacity for a long period of time, resources may be completely depleted. Populations may die off if all of the resources are exhausted.
Way ahead:
- Artificially boosting the prey base in a reserve is often an intuitive solution but it can be counter-productive.
- To harness the umbrella effect of tigers for biodiversity conservation, it is more beneficial to increase areas occupied by tigers.
- Create safe connectivity among forests and allow tigers to disperse safely to new areas.
TOPIC: IR
Section: International Events
Context-
Concept-
What are humanitarian corridors?
- The United Nations considers humanitarian corridors to be one of several possible forms of a temporary pause of armed conflict.
- They are demilitarized zones, in a specific area and for a specific time — and both sides of an armed conflict agree to them.
What are they for?
- Via these corridors, either food and medical aid can be brought to areas of conflict, or civilians can be evacuated.
- The corridors are necessary when cities are under siege and the population is cut off from basic food supplies, electricity and water.
- In cases where a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds because the international law of war is being violated — for example through large-scale bombing of civilian targets — humanitarian corridors can provide crucial relief.
Who sets them up?
- In most cases, humanitarian corridors are negotiated by the United Nations.
- Sometimes they’re also set up by local groups.
Who gets access?
- Access to humanitarian corridors is determined by the parties to the conflict.
- They also determine the length of time, the area and which means of transport — trucks, buses or planes — are allowed to use the corridor.
- In rare cases, humanitarian corridors are only organized by one of the parties to the conflict. This happened with the American airlift after the Berlin blockade by the Soviet Union in 1948-1949.
Where else have they been used?
- 1938 to 1939, Jewish children were evacuated to the United Kingdom from areas under Nazi control.
- Humanitarian corridors were also created during the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo, Bosnia and
- 2018 evacuation of Ghouta, Syria.
5. BELARUS IN RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR
TOPIC: Geography
Section: Map
Context- The Belarusian border serves as the site for dialogue between Russia and Ukraine to possibly end the war.
Concept-
- Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe.
- It is bordered by
- Russia to the east and northeast,
- Ukraine to the south,
- Poland to the west, and
- Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest.
- Belarus is the 13th-largest and the 20th-most populous country in Europe.
- Minsk is the capital and largest city.
- Major rivers are the west-flowing Western Dvina and Nyoman rivers, and the south-flowing Dnieper with its tributaries, the Berezina, Sozh, and Prypyat rivers.
- The Prypyat River has served as a bridge between the Dnieper, flowing to Ukraine, and the Vistula in Poland since the period of Kievan Russia.
- Nearly one-third of the country is covered with pustaz, large unpopulated tracts of forests.
TOPIC: IR
Section: International Organisation
Context- The number of people fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has topped 1.5 million, making it Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since the Second World War, the United Nations said on Sunday.
Concept-
About Ukrainian Refugee Crisis:
- The Ukrainian refugee crisis is the large ongoing movement of people in and out of Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- It began with the initial invasion of Russian troops on 24 February 2022.
- The invasion has caused Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II; in just the first week, more than one million people fled Ukraine.
- As of March 6, 2022, according to the UN, the number of Ukrainian refugees exceeded 1.5 million people, more than half of them fled to neighboring Poland.
- Hundreds of thousands fled in the first few days after the attack. Most have found refuge in neighboring countries west of Ukraine: Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia.
1951 Refugee Convention:
- The 1951 Refugee Convention is a UN treaty that defines who a refugee is and establishes the rights of such persons and also of those who are granted asylum.
- It is also called the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951.
- The Convention also defines those who are not eligible for asylum status, such as war criminals.
- The Convention defines a refugee as someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.
- The Convention is both a status and rights-based instrument and is underpinned by a number of fundamental principles, most notably non-discrimination, non-penalization and non-refoulement.
- Non-refoulement is a fundamental principle of international law that forbids a country receiving asylum seekers from returning them to a country in which they would be in likely danger of persecution based on “race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”.
- The Refugee Convention also prescribes some minimum standards for the treatment of refugees with respect to giving those rights of access to justice, education, travel, etc.
- India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention.
1967 Protocol:
- The protocol expands the definition of a refugee given in the 1951 Convention.
- It also removes the Euro-centricity of the Convention.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is an international organisation working to saving lives, safeguarding the rights and providing a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.
- The UNHCR was established in 1950 in the wake of the mass displacements caused due to the Second World War in Europe.
- The UNHCR is headed by the High Commissioner for Refugees.
- Its parent organisation is the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
- The UNHCR has also won the Nobel Prize for Peace twice (1954 and 1981).
- The chief legal document that governs the work of the UNHCR is the 1951 Refugee Convention.
- The organisation works in 135 countries and in India, has offices in New Delhi and Chennai.
- The UNHCR gives the Nansen Refugee Award annually to people who work in the field of refugee rights and protection.
Topic: Government Schemes
Section: Employment
Context: NIESBUD signed a MoU with the MoRD to develop a sustainable model for promoting entrepreneurship at the grass roots by initiating the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP).
Concept:
SVEP:
- It is a sub-component of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).
- Aim: To support entrepreneurs in rural areas by setting-up enterprises at the village-level in non-agricultural sectors.
- Benefits:
- enable the rural community set up their trades
- provide complete support till they are stabilized
- provide knowledge, advisory and financial support to the public and will help create village-level community cadre
- access banking systems for receiving financial support for starting their enterprises, including support from MUDRA bank
- Integrated ICT techniques and tools will also be provided for training and capacity building along with enterprise advisory services to augment the entrepreneurship ecosystem in India’s villages
- Beneficiaries:
- Self-Help Group (SHG) ecosystem of DAY-NRLM
- support existing enterprises and new enterprises as well
- Significance:
- Indians becoming job creators from job seekers
- create an innovative ecosystem, accelerating economic and social gains at the community level
- build an inclusive society by providing equal opportunities to all along with the required financial support
- increase the income of rural community and
- Pave the way for building Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
8. Weaponry deployed in the Russia- Ukraine War
Topic: Defence and Security
Context: The Russian military has pummelled wide areas in Ukraine with airstrikes and has conducted major rocket and artillery bombardments, resulting in large numbers of casualties.
Concept:
List of Weapons used in the conflict by Russia:
- Warplanes and Missiles:
- The Russian military has used warplanes and Kalibr (Caliber) cruise missiles.
- The Kalibr is a precision weapon and can be apparently launched from naval ships, submarines, containers, airplanes and TEL (Transporter Erector Launcher).
- Their warplanes (75 fixed-wing bomber planes) are capable of firing guided air-to-ground missiles or dropping cluster or fragmentation bombs.
- To hit key targets, the Russian military also has used Iskander missiles (a mobile short range hypersonic ballistic missile system) that have a range of up to 500 kilometres (around 300 miles) and carry a much more powerful warhead that can destroy big buildings and some fortified facilities.
- Rocket and Artillery:
- The Soviet-designed Grad (Hail), Smerch (Tornado) and Uragan (Hurricane) multiple rocket launchers are designed to fire a salvo of powerful rockets to destroy concentrations of troops or military equipment.
- Soviet-designed artillery units were bizarrely named after flowers, such as self-propelled 203-mm Peony and 152-mm Hyacinth and Acacia self-propelled howitzers.
- Cluster Munitions and Thermobaric Weapons (TOS 1):
- Cluster bombs, rockets and artillery shells open in the air, releasing submunitions, or “bomblets,” that are dispersed over a large area and simultaneously hit multiple targets. Beyond the initial impact, bomblets have a high rate of failure to explode, posing a long-time threat of killing and maiming people for a long time after they were fired.
- Attack and transport helicopters: including the Mi-8, have also been used. Thermobaric weapons(also known as aerosol or vacuum bombs) are one of the most brutal It consists of a fuel container and two separate explosive charges and chemical mix, with the first detonating to disperse the fuel particles and the second igniting the dispersed fuel and oxygen in the air, creating a blast wave of extreme pressure and heat that creates a partial vacuum in an enclosed space. That makes the weapon particularly deadly for people in an enclosed space.
List of Weapons used in the conflict by Ukraine:
- Soviet-era Tochka-U short-range ballistic missiles, which have a powerful warhead but poor precision.
- S. made Javelin anti-tank missiles and shoulder-launched Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
- Bayraktar drones supplied by Turkey.