Daily Prelims Notes 8 March 2021

March 8, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

No Comments

Daily Prelims Notes

8 March 2021

By

Santosh Sir

All 6 CSE Prelims Qualified

4 CSE Mains Qualified

If I can do it, you can too

Table Of Contents

1. COMMON WEALTH

Subject: International Organisations

Context: Queen Elizabeth calls for unity ahead of Meghan Markle, Prince Harry interview in Commonwealth Day speech.

Concept:

Composition: Intergovernmental organization of 53 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire.
It operates by intergovernmental consensus of the member states.
Established in 1949 by the London Declaration.
Structure: Head of the Commonwealth — Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth. The position is symbolic.

About Commonwealth of Nations:

The Commonwealth of Nations, at one time known as British Commonwealth, is an organization of fifty three states that were principally below the colonial rule of British Government.
They came into existence with the proclamation of sovereignty of the state from the colonial rule of British Empire and were later given self-governance.
It proclaims that the Commonwealth nations are “free and equal.” The insignia of this Commonwealth Association is Queen Elizabeth II who is considered the Supreme of the Commonwealth nations.
The member states of the commonwealth are not legally liable or bound to each other. They are rather united by language, history, culture, likeness of the democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
Their values are listed down within the Commonwealth Charter and the hands of harmony towards the member states are extended by the Commonwealth Games held every four years.
Former British mandates that did not become members of the Commonwealth are Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, British Palestine, Sudan, British Somaliland, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

2. JANAUSHADHI SCHEME

Subject: Government Schemes

Context: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday dedicated the 7500th Janaushadhi Kendra at North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) in Shillong via video conferencing.

Concept:

‘Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya JanaushadhiPariyojana’ is a campaign launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Govt. Of India, to provide quality medicines at affordable prices to the masses through special kendra’s known as Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendra.
Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendra (PMBJK) have been set up to provide generic drugs, which are available at lesser prices but are equivalent in quality and efficacy as expensive branded drugs.
Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI) is the implementing agency of PMBJP. BPPI (Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings of India) has been established under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Govt. of India, with the support of all the CPSUs.

Significance of the Scheme

Ensure access to quality medicines.
Extend coverage of quality generic medicines so as to reduce the out of pocket expenditure on medicines and thereby redefine the unit cost of treatment per person.
Create awareness about generic medicines through education and publicity so that quality is not synonymous with only high price.
A public programme involving Government, PSUs, Private Sector, NGO, Societies, Co-operative Bodies and other Institutions.
Create demand for generic medicines by improving access to better healthcare through low treatment cost and easy availability wherever needed in all therapeutic categories.

Generic Medicine

Generic medicines are unbranded medicines which are equally safe and having the same efficacy as that of branded medicines in terms of their therapeutic value. The prices of generic medicines are much cheaper than their branded equivalent.

3. I4C

Subject: Governance

Context : This year, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), launched the Cyber Crime Volunteers Program with the aim to allow citizens to register themselves as “Cyber Crime Volunteers’’ in the role of “Unlawful Content Flaggers”.

Concept:

The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) was inaugurated by the government to deal with all types of cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
It will be set up under the newly created Cyber and Information Security (CIS) division of the MHA.

It has seven components:

National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit
National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
National Cyber Crime Training Centre
Cyber Crime Ecosystem Management Unit
National Cyber Crime Research and Innovation Centre
National Cyber Crime Forensic Laboratory Ecosystem
Platform for Joint Cyber Crime Investigation Team.

Functions:

The I4C will assist in centralising cyber security investigations, prioritise the development of response tools and bring together private companies to contain the menace.

Objectives:

To act as a nodal point in the fight against cybercrime
Identify the research problems/needs of LEAs and take up R&D activities in developing new technologies and forensic tools in collaboration with academia / research institutes within India and abroad
To prevent misuse of cyber space for furthering the cause of extremist and terrorist groups
Suggest amendments, if required, in cyber laws to keep pace with fast changing technologies and International cooperation
To coordinate all activities related to implementation of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLAT) with other countries related to cybercrimes in consultation with the concerned nodal authority in MHA.

4. SAVITRIBHAI PHULE

Subject: History

Concept:

Savitri Bai Phule was the social reformer of the 19th century who worked in the field of women education.
At the age of 9, she was married to 13-year-old JyotiraoPhule.
JyotiraoPhule, better known as Jyotiba, was also a social reformer who worked in the field of women education. Jyotirao educated Savitribai at home after their marriage.

Contributions

In the 19th century, public education was limited and there were only a few missionary schools which were “open to all”. In this period, Jyotiba, at the age of 21, and Savitri, 17, opened a school for women in 1848.
It was the country’s first school for women started by Indians.
She also took teacher’s training course at an institute run by an American missionary in Ahmednagar and in Pune’s Normal School.
She then started teaching girls in Pune’s Maharwada.
Fatima Sheikh along with Savitribai went to the Normal School and they both graduated together. She was the first Muslim woman teacher of India.
In the 1850s, the Phule couple initiated two educational trusts—the Native Female School, Pune and The Society for Promoting the Education of Mahars, Mangs and Etceteras—which came to have many schools under them.
She published KavyaPhule in 1854 and Bavan Kashi SubodhRatnakar in 1892. In her poem, Go, Get Education, she urges the oppressed communities to get an education and break free from the chains of oppression.
In 1852, Savitribai started the MahilaSeva Mandal to raise awareness about women’s rights. Savitribai called for a women’s gathering where members from all castes were welcome and everybody was expected to sit on the same mattress.
She simultaneously campaigned against child marriage, while supporting widow remarriage.
In 1863, they started a home for the prevention of infanticide in their own house, for the safety of pregnant, exploited Brahman widows and to nurture their children.
In 1890, Jyotirao passed away. Defying all social norms, she lit his funeral pyre.
After Jyotiba’s death in 1890, Savitribai carried forward the work of the organization Satya ShodhakSamaj and also chaired the annual session held at Saswad in 1893.
She initiated the first Satyashodhak marriage—a marriage without a dowry, Brahmin priests or Brahminical rituals in 1873. Her adopted son, Yashwant, too, had a Satyashodhak inter-caste marriage.
Her achievements were diverse and numerous, but they had a singular effect—posing a brave and pioneering challenge to the caste system and patriarchy.

5. BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER

Subject: Geography

Context: A draft of China’s new Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), which is set to be formally approved, has given the green light for the first dams to be built on the lower reaches of Yarlung Zangboriver, as the Brahmaputra is known in Tibet before it flows into India.

Concept:

Brahmaputra river system is one of the largest rivers in the world. In the Tibet region, it is known by the name of YarlungTsangpo.
It enters by the names of Siang and Dihang in India. And after it is joined by its two main tributaries, the Dibang and theLohit, it is known by the name of Brahmaputra. It flows in Bangladesh by the name of Jumna. Finally, it merges with the Ganga river.
The world’s largest riverine island, Majuli Island is on the Brahmaputra river in the state of Assam. Important cities along Brahmaputra are Dibrugarh, Pasighat, Neamati, Tezpur and Guwahati.
Source of origin: The Brahmaputra river rises from Chemayundung glacier of the Kailash range near the Mansarovar Lake to the north of the Himalayas in the southwest Tibet region.
Confluence of Mouth: The Brahmaputra drains into the Bay of Bengal before forming a huge delta along with the Ganga.

Course of the Brahmaputra river

In Tibet, it runs parallel to the Himalayas for about 1,200 km. It turns into the south and creates a deep gorge through the Himalayas near NamchaBarwa and enters India under the name of the Dihang.
Near Sadia, it receives the Dibang coming from the north and the Lohit coming from the east and enters the Assam valley where it is called the Brahmaputra. It flows in the west direction up to Dhubri and further below, it runs to the south and enters Bangladesh.
The Brahmaputra receives numerous tributaries in the Assam valley. The number of streams joining the Brahmaputra on its right-bank is greater than that of those joining it on the left-bank. Most of the tributaries are large streams and they pour great quantities of water in the Brahmaputra.
During the rainy season, it is 8 km broad, slow-moving and heavily laden with silt. Its channel is braided. It is notorious for floods and erosion of its banks. Recurrent floods not only hampers the navigation through the river but also the establishment of large towns on its banks.

6. CALM 2 MUTATIONS

Subject: Science & tech

Context : Folbigg, 53, was arrested in 2003 following a seven-week trial in which she was convicted of smothering her four children — Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Elizabeth — over a ten-year period during moments of frustration.

The group of scientists and medical experts pushing for Folbigg to be pardoned have argued that her children died due to a rare genetic defect.

Concept:

CALM 2 GENETIC DEFECT

This gene is a member of the calmodulin gene family. There are three distinct calmodulin genes dispersed throughout the genome that encode the identical protein, but differ at the nucleotide level.
Calmodulin is a calcium binding protein that plays a role in signaling pathways, cell cycle progression and proliferation.
Several infants with severe forms of long-QT syndrome (LQTS) who displayed life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias together with delayed neurodevelopment and epilepsy were found to have mutations in either this gene or another member of the calmodulin gene family.
Mutations in this gene have also been identified in patients with less severe forms of LQTS, while mutations in another calmodulin gene family member have been associated with catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), a rare disorder thought to be the cause of a significant fraction of sudden cardiac deaths in young individuals.