UPSC Exam: Comprehensive News Analysis - February 04

A. GS1 Related
B. GS2 Related
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS/BILATERAL RELATIONS
1. Travel Rules for Tibetans
C. GS3 Related
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. Project Apeiro
2. Extragalactic astronomy
3. IISc researchers overthrow cancer metastasis dogma
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
1. Satellite phone
D. GS4 Related
E. Prelims Fact
F. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
G. UPSC Mains Practice Questions 

A. GS1 Related

• To discourage Tibetans from applying for Indian Passports the travel rules have been eased. Travel regulations are also being simplified for relatives of Tibetans living in foreign countries to help them make visits.

Facts

• As per the latest Home Ministry data, more than one lakh Tibetan refugees are settled in India.
• Major concentrations of the Tibetan refugees are in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and J&K.

Tibetan refugees began pouring into India in the wake of the flight of the Dalai Lama from Tibet in 1959.

Delhi High Court relief

• The 2010 decision of the MHA had required persons of Tibetan descent to “confirm citizenship” through application to the ministry before they could be issued a passport.
• The Delhi high court quashed the order and said Persons of Tibetan descent born in India between 1950 and 1987 will now no longer need to approach the home ministry for “confirmation” of citizenship.
• It held that all such persons of Tibetan origin born in India would be considered citizens by birth as defined under Section 3 of the Indian Citizenship Act.

Present Status

• Tibetans who wish to travel abroad are issued an Identity Certificate (IC) in place of a passport and a Registration Certificate (RC) to allow their stay in India.
• Currently they have to secure an “exit permit” from the Home Ministry before applying for a visa with any foreign mission. The Centre wants to do away with the “redundant” procedure
• The present rules are such that a Tibetan refugee has to apply for an exit permit every time he or she has to travel abroad.
• Earlier if a Tibetan wished to travel abroad to study or for any other purpose, the Identity Certificate (IC) had to be accompanied with a “return permit” issued by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).

What is being done?

• The refugees would be provided with a no-objection certificate at the time of issuance of identity certificates and that would be enough for them to travel to any foreign country.
• Since identity certificates are issued after carrying out due diligence and background check, the exit permit is an unnecessary requirement,
• The Ministry of External Affairs will then issue a notification informing all foreign missions of the exit permit clause being removed.

As per the present norms, foreigners who intend to visit Tibetan settlements and camps should seek prior permission of the Home Ministry and procure Protected Area Permit (PAP) as per the provision of Section 3 of the Foreigners Act, 1946 (31 of 1946).

Policy Accommodation

• In 2015, the NDA government for the first time sanctioned a scheme of providing grant-in-aid of ₹40 crore to the Dalai Lama’s Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) for five years.
• The Centre has released ₹16 crore in the past two years to meet the administrative and social welfare activity expenses of 36 Tibetan settlement offices in different States.

• Project Apeiro aims to determine cosmic radiation flux in the lower stratospheric regions of the earth’s atmosphere over the Indian subcontinent.
• This study is important to understand the biologically harmful cosmic radiation incidence on earth from outer space.
  • It will also help to determine radiation exposure risks to aviation and space flight crews.
  • Extended exposure to this radiation leads to an increased risk in cancer and tissue damage.
• The experiment will be performed by deploying a cosmic radiation detector at an altitude of 22 kms above sea level using High Altitude Ballooning (HAB).

Details

• It is India’s first student-led micro-satellite launched from TIFR Balloon Facility near ECIL
• The experiment was led by undergraduate students from BITS Pilani K. Birla Goa Campus
• This method allows studies in the near-space environment with the help of a zero-pressure plastic balloon, which lifts the experimental payload to desired altitudes.
• The experimental payload consisted of a cosmic radiation detector made with a combination of scintilator and photomultiplier tubes. This detector system was supported by an on-board high and low voltage power supply system along with data acquisition systems. The development of the detector system was completed at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

What are cosmic Rays?

• Cosmic rays are atom fragments that rain down on the Earth from outside of the solar system.
• They blaze at the speed of light and have been blamed for electronics problems in satellites and other machinery.
• First discovered in 1912, they are composed primarily of high-energy protons and atomic nuclei but many things about cosmic rays remain a mystery more than a century later.

• It is the branch of astronomy concerned with objects outside the Milky Way galaxy. In other words, it is the study of all astronomical objects which are not covered by galactic astronomy.

Context

• A University of Oklahoma astrophysics team has discovered for the first time a population of planets beyond the Milky Way galaxy.
• Using microlensing — an astronomical phenomenon and the only known method capable of discovering planets at truly great distances from the Earth among other detection techniques — OU researchers were able to detect objects in extragalactic galaxies that range from the mass of the Moon to the mass of Jupiter.

• Researchers at Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have exposed a molecular mechanism by which cancer cells survive during the time they are in circulation after detaching from the primary cancer site and before they could attach to the extracellular matrix at a different site and restart cell division, thus causing cancer metastasis.
• Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics has identified two potential drug targets to prevent metastasis.
• Particular protein called the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) gets activated when cancer cells detach from the extracellular matrix.
• Now, the team is into exploring its connection with another protein kinase called Akt (protein kinase B) as other cancer researchers had all along emphasized how critical Akt was for cancer cells to survive.
• AMPK protein suppresses tumour growth while Akt behaves as a promoter.
• The AMPK that gets activated in circulating cancer cells keeps them alive at the cost of cell division.
• Once the circulating cancer cells reattach to the extracellular matrix at a distant site from the primary tumour, Akt gets reactivated and AMPK gets inhibited.
• The protein Akt is required for cell growth and proliferation while AMPK is needed for growth suppression.
• No link between Akt and AMPK proteins in cancer metastasis was known till now.
• The diabetic drug metformin has been repurposed as an anticancer agent.

• A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites.
• Satellite phones can be more useful in emergency situations because they do not rely on land-based towers and networks to operate.

Context

• Mobile phone has coverage up to 12 nautical miles (one nautical mile equals 2 km). So the solution at time of disaster is to use satellite phone which most fishermen prefer.

D. GS4 Related

E. Prelims Fact

F. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

Question 1. KUSUM Scheme recently in news is related to 

Question 2. Look at the following statements about Nifty

Question 3. J curve in the economics is related to

Question 4. With reference to the Baltic Dry Index, consider the following statements

Question 5. Great Firewall is a tool

G. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Also, check previous Daily News Analysis