29 Aug 2021: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

August 29th, 2021, CNA:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
C. GS 3 Related
ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. Why are hydropower projects in the Himalayas risky?
INTERNAL SECURITY
1. ‘Ransomware will dominate the cybercrime landscape’
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. ‘Plasmid DNA vaccine ZyCoV-D is safe and effective for adolescents’
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
ECONOMY
1. Why is there a push for asset monetisation?
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. What has the Supreme Court ruled on ‘creamy layer’?
POLITY
1. How was the backward classes policy restored?
F. Prelims Facts
1. Rajnath commissions ICGS Vigraha
2. Scientists find ‘northernmost’ landmass
3. BCG vaccine: 100 years and counting
G. Tidbits
1. ISKP has been trying to recruit Indian citizens for past few years
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Category: INTERNAL SECURITY

1. ‘Ransomware will dominate the cybercrime landscape’

Context:

• Ransomware Evil, REvil or Sodinokibi, a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation has emerged as one of the latest ransomware operators of concern

Background:

Ransomware:

• Ransomware is malware that employs encryption to hold a victim’s information at ransom. A user or organization’s critical data is encrypted so that they cannot access files, databases, or applications. A ransom is then demanded to provide access.
• Ransomware uses asymmetric encryption. This is cryptography that uses a pair of keys to encrypt and decrypt a file. The public-private pair of keys is uniquely generated by the attacker for the victim, with the private key to decrypt the files stored on the attacker’s server.

Details:

• The operators of the REvil platform provides adaptable encryptors and decryptors, infrastructure and services for negotiation communications, and a leak site for publishing stolen data when victims don’t pay the ransom demand.
• REvil and its affiliates have pulled in a payment of $2.25 million during the first six months of 2021 including from some high profile targets like JBS USA Holdings and Brazilian medical diagnostics firm, Grupo Fleury.

Challenges:

Increasing Ransomware attacks:

• Based on previous trends, cyber experts warn that ransomware is going to be the major cybercrime in the coming days.
  • At least 16 different ransomware variants are now exploiting victims by encrypting and stealing/threatening to expose data.
  • Ransomware has been generating billions of dollars in payments to cybercriminals and inflicting significant damage and expenses for businesses and governmental organizations.

Increased digitization and the challenges therein:

• The quantum of data created and replicated experienced very high growth in 2020 due to a dramatic increase in the number of people working, learning, and entertaining themselves from home. This data is vulnerable to ransomware attacks.

Vulnerability of critical sectors:

• Healthcare has been the most targeted and vulnerable sector in 2020 and the sector continues to be under further attacks by RaaS models.

Increasing sophistication:

• Cyberthreats are evolving rapidly and becoming more sophisticated and complex with the technology being used for ransomware attacks keeping pace with protection technology.
• Attackers are leveraging real-world events to deceive individual victims, enterprises and governments all over the globe.

For more information on this issue refer to the following article:

UPSC Comprehensive News Analysis of 14th June 2021

Recommendations:

Use of deep technology to counter cyber threats:

• An integrated platform using ML (machine learning) and AI (artificial intelligence) can provide the necessary impetus to cybersecurity against ransomware attacks.
• Using AI, the frequently observed threat data and multiple threat feeds can be automated and left to ML algorithms that can decipher attack patterns.
• Quantum computing can be employed to hasten the computing speed of the process to help increase the capacity of such platforms.

Category: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. ‘Plasmid DNA vaccine ZyCoV-D is safe and effective for adolescents’

Context:

• ZyCoV-D vaccine- the world’s first plasmid DNA vaccine for human use has received Emergency Use Authorization in India.

For more information refer to the following article:

PIB Summary and Analysis of 20th Aug 2021

Working of the vaccine:

• A piece of DNA encoding the antigen (part of the disease-causing pathogen that induces an immunity response from our bodies) is inserted into a bacterial plasmid and injected into humans.
  • A plasmid is a small, circular, double-stranded DNA molecule that is distinct from a cell’s chromosomal DNA. Plasmids naturally exist in bacterial cells, and they also occur in some eukaryotes
• When the vaccine is injected into the human body, the vaccine produces that particular part of the virus and stimulates the immune system to generate antibodies and T-cells immunity against the virus.

Significance of plasmid DNA vaccines:

• Plasmid DNA has huge potential as platform technologies that could be used for a variety of applications ranging from prophylaxis to therapy and from personalized medicine to global health solutions.
• The technology can be used to quickly develop vaccines with fairly generic manufacturing processes
• The specified DNA piece disintegrates after it has completed its action and thus is unable to interfere with the genetic composition of humans.
• Given that the vaccine does not use any part of the virus they are considered relatively safer given their relatively low reactogenicity.
• The plasmid vaccines have good genetic stability and are also easy to administer.

For more related information refer to the following article:

DNA vaccine

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. What has the Supreme Court ruled on ‘creamy layer’?

Context:

• The recent observation made by a Division Bench of the Supreme Court on the criteria for identifying creamy layer of backward classes in India.

Details:

• The Division has observed that economic criterion cannot be the sole basis for identifying the ‘creamy layer’ of a backward class, and that other factors like social advancement, education, employment also matter in the identification of creamy layer.

For more information on this development refer to the following article:

UPSC Comprehensive News Analysis of 25th Aug 2021

 Creamy layer concept:

• The ‘creamy layer’ concept was introduced in the Supreme Court’s Indra Sawhney judgment of 1992.
  • In the judgment, the Court although upheld the government’s decision to give 27% reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), it emphasized the need to identify sections of backward classes who were already highly advanced socially as well as economically and educationally to exclude them from receiving the benefits of reservation.

For detailed information on the Indra Swahney judgment of 1992 refer to the following article:

Indra Sawhney Case

• The Constitution allows for the provision of reservation though it may look like it goes against the provision of right to equality, based on the premise that reservation would contribute towards the upliftment of the poor and underprivileged.
  • Upon the failure of the states to clearly define creamy layer for backward classes, the SC itself laid down the criteria for determining the ‘creamy layer’ among backward classes. Persons from backward classes who occupied posts in higher services such as IAS, IPS and All India Services, people with sufficient income who were in a position to provide employment to others and persons with higher agricultural holdings or income from property were to be considered as creamy layer. They having reached a higher level of social advancement and economic status were not entitled to be treated as backward.

Conclusion:

• A clear understanding of the Indra Sawhney judgment shows that social advancement, including education and employment, and not just wealth, was key to identify the ‘creamy layer’.
• The income limit for limiting the creamy layer must be such as to mean and signify social advancement.

Category: POLITY

1. How was the backward classes policy restored?

The article discusses the provisions introduced under the recently notified 105th Constitution Amendment and the need for this amendment. For detailed information on this topic refer to the following article.

UPSC Comprehensive News Analysis of 11th Aug 2021

2. Scientists find ‘northernmost’ landmass

• Oodaaq or Oodap Qeqertaa is a bank of gravel and silt northeast of Greenland that has been considered by some to be the most northerly point of land on Earth, though a number of other places have also been given that title since its discovery.
• Scientists have recently discovered what is believed to be the world’s northernmost landmass — a yet-to-be-named island north of Greenland that could soon be swallowed up by seawaters. The new island is 780 m north of Oodaaq.

3. BCG vaccine: 100 years and counting

• BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) is a vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) in humans.
  • TB continues to be a major public health problem in the world. According to the WHO’s Global TB Report, 10 million people developed TB in 2019 with 1.4 million deaths. India accounts for 27% of these cases.
• Currently, BCG is the only licensed vaccine available for the prevention of TB. It is the world’s most widely used vaccine with about 120 million doses every year and has an excellent safety record.
• India is committed to eliminate TB as a public health problem by 2025 much ahead of the SDG goal of eliminating TB by 2030.

H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions

Q1. Which one of the following supercontinent existed during the late Neoproterozoic era?

1. Rodinia
2. Vaalbara
3. Panthalassa
4. Pangaea

CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: a

Explanation:

Schematic diagram of continental spreading from the Neoproterozoic era to the present time (cenozoic era)

• The coalesced Rodinia supercontinent (Neoproterozoic era) was followed bt the breakup of the Rodinia supercontinent (middle Paleozoic era), and the subsequent breakup of the Pangea supercontinent into Gondwana in the southern hemisphere and Laurasia in the Northern hemisphere during the late paleozoic era.

Q2. Consider the following statements:

1. BCG vaccine is currently the only licensed vaccine for TB
2. Farther a country is from the equator, the higher is the efficacy of BCG Vaccine

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both
4. None

CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: c

Explanation:

• BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) is a vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) in humans.
  • TB continues to be a major public health problem in the world. According to the WHO’s Global TB Report, 10 million people developed TB in 2019 with 1.4 million deaths. India accounts for 27% of these cases.
• Currently, BCG is the only licensed vaccine available for the prevention of TB. It is the world’s most widely used vaccine with about 120 million doses every year and has an excellent safety record.
• One intriguing fact about BCG is that it works well in some geographic locations and not so well in others. Recent studies into the efficacy of the BCG vaccine have noted that farther a country is from the equator, the higher is the efficacy of BCG Vaccine. BCG has a high efficacy in the UK, Norway, Sweden and Denmark; and little or no efficacy in countries on or near the equator like India, Kenya and Malawi, where the burden of TB is higher. These regions also have a higher prevalence of environmental mycobacteria. It is believed that these may interfere with the protective effect against TB.

Q3. Oodaaq Island recently seen in news is part of

1. Japan
2. Indonesia
3. Greenland
4. Antarctica

CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: c

Explanation:

• Oodaaq or Oodap Qeqertaa is a bank of gravel and silt northeast of Greenland that has been considered by some to be the most northerly point of land on Earth, though a number of other places have also been given that title since its discovery.
• Scientists have recently discovered what is believed to be the world’s northernmost landmass — a yet-to-be-named island north of Greenland that could soon be swallowed up by seawaters. The new island is 780 m north of Oodaaq.

Q4. With reference to Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which of the following 
statements is/are correct?

1. Under AFSPA the choice of declaring any area as ‘disturbed’ vests only with the Central Government.
2. The Act is not uniform in nature as it contains different sections as applicable to the situation in each state.
3. Second Administrative Reforms Commission recommended that AFSPA should be repealed

Options:

1. 1 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: b

Explanation:

• AFSPA, which was enacted in 1958 amid the nascent Naga insurgency, gives powers to the army and state and central police forces to shoot to kill, search houses and destroy any property that is “likely” to be used by insurgents in areas declared as “disturbed” by the home ministry.
• Security forces can “arrest without warrant” a person, who has committed or even “about to commit a cognizable offence” even on “reasonable suspicion”. It also protects them from legal processes for actions taken under the act.
• The choice of declaring any area as ‘disturbed’ under AFSPA vests both with state and central government.
• In recent years, prominent Indian bodies have recognized the brutality of the AFSPA and echoed demands for repeal or amendment. The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee set up by the Government of India to review the working of the AFSPA, has advocated its repeal. The Fifth Report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission seconded this recommendation.

Q5. Which of the following adds/add carbon dioxide to the carbon cycle on the planet Earth? 

1. Volcanic action
2. Respiration
3. Photosynthesis
4. Decay of organic matter

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

1. 1 and 3 only
2. 2 only
3. 1, 2 and 4 only
4. 1, 2, 3 and 4

CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: c

Explanation:

• Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create oxygen and energy in the form of sugar. Thus photosynthesis removes carbon di oxide from the atmosphere from the atmosphere.
• Volcanic action, respiration and decaying of organic matter adds carbon to the carbon cycle.

Read the previous CNA here.

August 29th, 2021, CNA:- Download PDF Here