26 Dec 2021: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

CNA 26 Dec 2021:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Poverty key factor in determining institutional delivery: study
C. GS 3 Related
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. ‘Biometric fraud’ hits Tihar
2. Study of distant magnetar reveals facets of the exotic star
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
ECONOMY
1. What are the head and tailwinds in the economy?
HEALTH
1. How has India responded to SARS-CoV-2 variants?
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. On the brink
F. Prelims Facts
1. Telangana tops in Rurban Mission
2. Marriage age at 21: Lado Panchayat puts U.P. parties on notice
3. Call to give Tai Khamti resistance its due
4. ‘Every third informal worker is now registered on e-Shram’
5. A telescope on million-mile voyage
G. Tidbits
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

2. Study of distant magnetar reveals facets of the exotic star

Topic: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Mains: What is Magnetar? How are they formed?

Context: –

An international group of researchers has succeeded in measuring for the first time the characteristics of a flare on a distant magnetar.

1. What is magnetar?

• A magnetar is a rare compact type of neutron star teeming with energy and magnetism.
• Magnetars are relatively rare objects, with only about thirty having been spotted within the Milky Way so far.

2. How do magnetars form?

• Massive stars, which have masses between 10 and 25 times that of the Sun, eventually collapse and shrink to produce neutron stars, which are very compact objects.
• Magnetars, a type of neutron star with a strong magnetic field, are a subgroup of these neutron stars.

3. What are the Features of magnetar?

• Magnetars contain extremely strong magnetic fields, ranging from 1015 gauss to 1015 gauss.
• Furthermore, these magnetars produce powerful flares.
• Instabilities in a magnetar’s magnetosphere, or “starquakes,” are thought to cause eruptions in the crust, a stiff, elastic material roughly one kilometre deep.
• In the magnetosphere, this creates waves, and the interaction between these waves causes energy dissipation.
• When magnetars remain quiet, they are extremely difficult to notice.
• They can only be seen during a flare, and these flares are so short-lived that they pose a significant threat.

Category: HEALTH

1. How has India responded to SARS-CoV-2 variants?

Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Mains: India’s response to Covid-19 and the set of challenges 

Context:-

This article examines India’s response to Covid-19 and the set of challenges brought by the Omicron variant.

What is the vaccine strategy?

• The necessity to inoculate India’s frontline physicians and nurses, followed by the remainder of the adult population, prompted the rush for vaccinations.
• With Covishield, developed by the Serum Institute of India in Pune, Bharat Biotech received an “emergency use permission” from India’s Drugs Controller General.
• Covishield was based on the Oxford University-developed ChAdOx1 vaccine, which has been authorized in the United Kingdom following phase-3 clinical trial findings.
• Phase 3 studies for Covaxin were still ongoing, and authorities authorised it based on data from phase 1 and phase 2 trials that indicated it was safe and generated an immunogenic response.

What brought the second wave?

• The World Health Organization had highlighted three prominent variants of concern —the ‘UK’ variant, South Africa variant and the Brazil variant now known as the Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants.
• India acknowledged and classified a variant, B.1.617, that came to be known as ‘Delta’, after a new naming convention adopted by the WHO.
• The genome consortium body, INSACOG, later revealed that the variant had actually been first known in India.

How did the second wave devastate India?

• The Delta infection was characterized by pronounced respiratory illness and a need for oxygen supplementation which meant that India’s hospitals were overwhelmed.
• Oxygen tanks had to be imported and airlifted.

What about the pace of vaccination?

• India chose to ship vaccinations to a few countries as part of the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ effort earlier this year, not anticipating that a destructive wave would result in a higher demand for vaccines.
• In addition, India had not secured vaccine supplies beyond Covishield and Covaxin, and the latter was ill-equipped to ramp up supply quickly.
• The Center first refused to extend immunizations to all adults, but as public outrage rose, it agreed and attempted to delegate procurement to states.
• While numerous countries provided free vaccinations to their populations, Covishied and Covaxin were among the most costly vaccines available in the retail market. Stocks were restricted at public hospitals, where they were offered for free.
• The immunization programme only became stable once the Center stepped in as a single buyer once more.

How is India facing up to Omicron?

• Though findings from South Africa imply that Omicron is not as dangerous as Delta, the outbreak of illnesses, particularly among the vaccinated in Europe and the United States, has alarmed India.
• If the number of cases and hospitalizations rises, states will create containment zones and enforce mobility restrictions.
• Despite the fact that India has multiple indigenous producers in advanced phases of vaccine testing, Covaxin’s experience implies that delivering at scale is a hurdle.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. On the brink

Topic: India and its neighbourhood- relations.

Mains: humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan

Context: – After the U.S. pulled back its troops from Afghanistan, which led to the return of the Taliban to power. While the Taliban now has the whole country under their control, the country is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.

Background: –

• According to the United Nations World Food Programme, the situation has the potential to become the world’s greatest humanitarian disaster.
• According to UN estimates, around 23 million of Afghanistan’s almost 40 million people are suffering from severe food shortages.
• Humanitarian aid has been supplied from other countries, notably the United States, European nations, and India, to help alleviate the situation.
• A resolution facilitating humanitarian relief to Afghanistan was unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Security Council.

How are the Taliban ruling?

• The Haqqanis, who have deep links to al-Qaeda and the Pakistani intelligence services, control the Taliban rule.
• The hardliners appear to have the upper hand in decision-making, as seen by the appointment of a Pashtun-only Cabinet and actions such as keeping girls out of elementary school.
• Extrajudicial executions occurred despite the Taliban’s announcement of a nationwide amnesty after seizing control.

What are the Concerns with the Humanitarian Crisis?

• No Aid: – Almost 80% of the fallen Afghan Government’s budget came from international development assistance. After the Taliban took over Kabul most of the donors suspended government aid.
• Sanctions from US: – The U.S. has also frozen nearly $9.5 billion of Afghan central bank assets, d and American financial institutions. The Taliban remain on the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions list.
• No road for Aid: – As most commercial flights to Kabul are still suspended, aid is being sent by road to the landlocked country, mainly through Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia.

Does the Taliban regime have international recognition?

• No country has publicly recognised the Taliban rule.
• Pakistan, China, Russia, and Central Asian republics, for example, have maintained their diplomatic posts in Kabul open.
• Qatar, which sponsored the Taliban-US discussions that resulted in the US pullout from Afghanistan, portrays itself as a link between the West and the Taliban.
• The UAE just opened an embassy in Kabul to reach out to the Taliban.
• The UAE told the Taliban that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who has sought asylum in the UAE, would not be allowed to engage in political activities.
• All of this suggests that a bigger collection of countries is prepared to confront the Taliban this time.

Conclusion: –

• The Taliban now dominate practically the whole nation, including the Panjshir Valley in the north, which had previously resisted both the Soviets and the Taliban.
• The Panjshir militants, on the other hand, were not beaten and fled to the mountains. The Taliban, on the other hand, are currently facing a security threat from the Islamic State-Khorasan, the IS’s Afghan branch. Since the Taliban’s takeover, the IS-K has carried out a number of bombs.

2. Marriage age at 21: Lado Panchayat puts U.P. parties on notice

Context: –

A “Lado Panchayat” of girls in Meerut decided that women would not vote for candidates in the coming Assembly election who are opposed to the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

What is ‘Lado Panchayat’?

• Sunil Jaglan created the country’s first Lado Panchayat, in which hundreds of girls and women took part.
• Participants came from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, and Chandigarh, in addition to Haryana’s Mewat area.
• Hundreds of girls from various villages attended the ‘Lado Panchayat,’ which finished with debates and speeches in which the girls recounted their experiences.

3. Call to give Tai Khamti resistance its due

Context: –

Arunachal Pradesh’s Deputy Chief Minister said that India’s first war of independence took place in 1839 between the Tai Khamti people and the British.

Tai Khamtis

• The Tai-Khampti are one of Arunachal Pradesh’s most populous tribes. The term ‘Khampti’ literally means ‘golden land.’
• The Tai Khamti people, who dwell in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, practise Theravada Buddhism.
• The Khampti’s Buddhist practices may be classified as a progressive kind of Buddhism.
• The Tai-Khamti have their own language script, known as ‘Lik Tai,’ which is derived from Myanmar’s Shan (Tai) script.

4. ‘Every third informal worker is now registered on e-Shram’

Context: –

Every third informal sector worker in India is now registered on the e-Shram portal.

e-Shram

5. A telescope on million-mile voyage

Context: –

The James Webb telescope has left Earth on its mission to show the first stars to light up the Universe.

The James Webb Space Telescope

• The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is NASA’s flagship infrared observatory.
• NASA’s main infrared observatory is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
• It’s a NASA-built space telescope that also includes contributions from the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
• Webb is the successor of the Hubble telescope, named after one of the architects of the Apollo Moon landings.
• It will offer scientists the opportunity to observe galaxy evolution, the formation of stars and planets, exoplanetary systems, and our own solar system, in ways never before possible.

Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to Chilika Lake:

Q2. Chillai-Kalan, a weather phenomenon, is related to

Q3. With respect to financial powers of the Governor, which of the following statements is/are
 correct: 

Q4. Which of the following statements about the Right to Information Act is/are incorrect?

Q5. The terms ‘Event Horizon’, ‘Singularity’, `String Theory’ and ‘Standard Model’ are 
sometimes seen in the news in the context of

Read the previous CNA here.

CNA 26 Dec 2021:- Download PDF Here