31 Jan 2021: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

E. Editorials

Category: ENVIRONMENT

1. What does ‘green tax’ mean for vehicle owners?

Context:

• Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has approved the proposal to levy the tax and it will now go to the states for consultation before it is formally notified.

Details:

• According to the proposal, the transport vehicles which are older than eight years could be charged a Green Tax during the renewal of fitness certificate at the rate of 10 to 25 per cent of the road tax, and personal vehicles are to be charged Green Tax at the time of renewal of Registration Certification after 15 years.

Need for such a policy

• It is estimated that commercial vehicles constitute about 5 per cent of the total vehicle fleet and contribute about 65-70 per of total vehicular pollution.
• It is also an attempt to push for vehicles like strong hybrids, electric vehicles, and alternate fuels like CNG, ethanol, LPG that are environmentally-benign.
• Government department vehicles that are older than 15 years are to be deregistered and scrapped.
• Green tax funds are to be kept in a separate account to help States measure pollution and tackle it.

Does scrapping old vehicles carry big benefits?

• The scrappage policy has been on the anvil for several years, the policy could provide a much-needed boost to the automobile industry and related businesses by stimulating demand.
• A revival of the automobile industry will provide a ‘domino-effect’, it will automatically lead to a recovery of steel, aluminium, plastic and so on for recycling, on the other.
• The new fleet of vehicles adhere to stricter emissions and fuel efficiency standards, therefore they are considered to be more environment-friendly, and also possess modern safety features.
• India notified the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standard for passenger vehicles in 2016, the CAFÉ standards boost fuel efficiency.
  • They aim at lowering fuel consumption (or improving fuel efficiency) of vehicles by lowering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, thus serving the twin purposes of reducing dependence on oil for fuel and controlling pollution.
  • Corporate Average refers to sales-volume weighted average for every auto manufacturer. The norms are applicable for petrol, diesel, LPG and CNG passenger vehicles. CAFE regulations in India came into force from April 1, 2017. Under this, average corporate CO2 emission must be less than 130 gm per km till 2022 and below 113 gm per km thereafter.

• The average fuel consumption standard as provided by the Power Ministry’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) is less than 5.49 litres per 100 km.
• The second round of tighter efficiency norms is expected to be enforced from 2022 onwards, there exists separate standards for light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles.
• CAFE also regulates CO2 emissions, while other pollutants such as carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and sulphur are covered by Bharat Stage fuel standards.
  • As per BS-VI emission norms, petrol vehicles will have to effect a 25% reduction in their NOx, or nitrogen oxide emissions. Diesel engines will have to reduce their HC+NOx (hydrocarbon + nitrogen oxides) by 43%, their NOx levels by 68% and particulate matter levels by 82%.
• The benefits from vehicle replacements can be gauged from Transport Ministry data: commercial vehicles make up 5% of the vehicle fleet but contribute an estimated 65-70% of total vehicular pollution.

A different approach

• There have been efforts in the past by other countries to renew the vehicular fleet, case in point being the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS).
  • It was a $3 billion U.S. federal scrappage program intended to provide economic incentives to U.S. residents to purchase a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle when trading in a less fuel-efficient vehicle.
• The program was promoted as a post-recession stimulus program to boost auto sales while putting more fuel-efficient vehicles on the roadways.
• India’s scheme deviates from the above-mentioned attempt, wherein the proposed policy relies on penal taxation to nudge the owners to scrap their old vehicles, with no cash-for-trade-in arrangement.
• India’s attempt will require the additional tax proposed to exceed the resale value of the polluting motor, thus incentivizing its disposal, backed up with adequate safeguards to ensure that it is indeed scrapped and recycled under a monitored system.
• Equity features can possibly be made a part of the scheme, like offering a discount to operators such as autorickshaw drivers who belong to a lower-income segment, similar to the 2009 stimulus given under the JNNURM scheme for buses.
• The suggested policy shifts the focus on electric vehicles and can be a part of a green post-pandemic recovery plan.
• Some critics say the U.S. scheme was not carefully targeted to primarily help those who could not afford a replacement.
• The BEE estimates that higher efficiency norms could result in a fuel use reduction of 22.97 million tons by 2025 in India.

Is the proposed policy for scrappage workable?

• During the drafting of the scrappage policy in 2015, the idea of providing a discount of ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 for new passenger vehicles was mooted for those choosing to put their vehicles for scrapping.
• The commercial vehicles had benefits including taxes around an estimate of ₹1.5 lakh, however, this idea did not materialize.
• The NITI Aayog had raised concerns over the proposal, it cited that some sections may be deterred by the high capital costs to retire old vehicles.
• Other proposals in earlier drafts included tax discounts for those who exchanged old motors for new ones.
• The present initiative, however, has the limited objective of pushing the owners of older vehicles to sell the older vehicles rather than pay a green tax penalty.
• In the absence of adequate incentive or penalty, and careful targeting of vehicles with knowledge of their condition, a tax penalty would not be effective in nudging the commercial vehicle owners, since the tax would be far lower than its resale value and earnings potential; there would be no compulsion to retire it. Continued operation of the vehicles would defeat the clean air objective and bring no cheer to the automobile industry.
• The scrappage policy is expected to boost demand for new vehicles in a COVID-hit economy. It is considered as crucial for the revival of India’s auto sector, which was struggling since a year before the onset of the pandemic.
• Adequate care has to be taken to oversee that the sudden demand stimulus available to the auto industry must not place the consumers at a disadvantageous position.

What are the options available to tweak the policy?

• The automobile industry in general and commercial transport vehicles, in particular, are key planks to tackling air pollution, the metrics which will be focused will be fuel efficiency, emissions and safety.
• The Centre should work on financial options instruments such as loans and grants aimed at supporting the smaller operators to scrap their junk vehicles while escalating the green tax annually to achieve the nudge effect.
• A second stimulus to bus companies could help green the fleet and cut pollution.
• Small operators such as autorickshaws could be offered low-interest loans, particularly to move to electric vehicles.

Way Forward

• The vehicle registration database for all States requires updating to reflect true numbers of old vehicles on the road, eliminating those scrapped; a significant number, more than 15 years old, still runs. Such data will help target scrappage policy benefits better.
• There is a need to support small entrepreneurs who own and operate transport vehicles as they lack the resources to transition to newer ones, therefore, there is a need to provide loans and grants to enable a smooth transition.
• India’s policy to phase-out polluting fuel guzzlers has had a long gestation, and States should see the value of operationalising it as planned.
• The new fleet of vehicles and cleaner fuels will make the air pollution problem less severe in cities and also ensure road safety.

Category: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

1. Testing vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 variants

Context:

• There have been concerns over the impact of the already approved vaccines on the mutated virus.
• Doubts have arisen over the efficacy of the vaccines in being able to combat the spread of the virus.

Mutation of virus

• A mutation means an alteration in genetic material. A mutation is part of the life cycle of a virus. Once the virus enters a host, it begins to replicate and make copies of itself.
• In an RNA virus such as SARS-CoV-2, proteins are made of a sequence of amino acids. Such a virus contains some 30,000 ‘base pairs’, which can be likened to bricks placed next to each other to form a structure.
• An alteration in this base can be a mutation, effectively changing the shape and behaviour of the virus.

Details:

• Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has been reported to have been successful against the U.K. variant or a new variant of SARS-CoV-2.
• The report has been confirmed by Bharath Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
• Similarly, the vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna, have also undertaken studies to check if their vaccines are effective against new variants.

Why and how are such studies done?

• Covaxin by Bharath Biotech has been issued approval under Emergency Usage Authorization.
• The reason to push for approval with incomplete clinical trials data was the possible infection by mutant strains, like the U.K. variant.
• The United Kingdom witnessed huge fatalities and went into another lockdown during the Christmas and new year eve period due to the B.1.1.7 variant, with many mutations, some in the spike protein.
• The mutated virus was found in traces in other parts of the world, including in India, all of whom had a common travel history tracing back to the U.K.
• Another variant, B.1.351, first identified in South Africa, has been reported from several countries. With most vaccines targeting the spike protein, a variant with mutations that helps SARS-CoV-2 evade the immune system could defeat their purpose.
• The serological test called the Plaque Reduction Neutralisation Test (PRNT) is often used to test the efficacy of a specific antibody to neutralise a virus.
• The blood serum, which possesses antibodies, is collected from people who have been infected or have been vaccinated.
• This antibody liquid is diluted and mixed with the virus and evaluated in customised plates to see the extent to which neutralising antibodies were successful in containing the virus spread.
• To ascertain the antibodies’ capabilities against mutant variants, scientists at the National Institute of Virology, Pune, used antibodies obtained from people who had been vaccinated in the Covaxin trials and tested them against virus extracted from those infected with the U.K. strain and another un-named strain, hCoV27 19/India/2020Q111, reportedly a strain with provenance from Iran.

What did the study find?

• The objective of Plaque Reduction Neutralisation Test (PRNT) is to find the antibodies needed to reduce a given amount of virus by a fixed proportion.
  • The plaque reduction neutralization test is used to quantify the concentration of neutralizing antibody for a virus.
• The test revealed that irrespective of the SARS-CoV-2 strain tested, approximately the same number of antibodies were required to nullify the virus.
• The takeaway from the test is that Covaxin generated antibodies that were equally effective against the mutant U.K. variant and the virus used to make the vaccine.
• Tests by Pfizer and Moderna had found similar results, though there has been no such test reported on the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine.

What does it imply?

• The latest study is a shot in the arm for Covaxin to be tested in large trials. A laboratory study that quantifies the antibodies generated against a virus does not correlate with a vaccine’s efficacy or effectiveness in the field.
• That can only be done via a phase-3 trial that compares it in different sets of the population.
• A limitation of the Covaxin study is that it does not discuss other important aspects. For instance, an important mutation in the South African variant, called E484K, has been found to help the virus evade detection.

How long does antibody protection last?

• The duration of protection is not well established as of now, it is not conclusive to say if a mutant can evade lower concentrations of antibodies.
• The promoters of Covaxin and scientists at the ICMR are of the opinion that the strength of a vaccine lies in it being a whole-inactivated virus, implying a larger surface area of the virus is visible to the immune system and thereby a wider range of antibodies are produced.
• However, the evidence so far is that antibodies from all vaccines are largely targeted at the spike protein or the operative region where the virus binds to the cell; therefore, more does not necessarily mean better.

What remains to be tested?

• A common challenge across all vaccines is that it must induce a calibrated response from the immune system, just enough so that antibodies guard against a future, actual infection and not so much that too many weakly neutralising antibodies (aiding a condition called antibody-dependent enhancement) are produced.

F. Tidbits

1. Send ASI team to Study Ekamra Kshetra: Pradhan

Context:

• Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister urged the Centre to send an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) team to carry out a detailed study and excavation at the “Ekamra Kshetra”.

Details:

• The Ekamra Kshetra has the unique cultural heritage of having Buddhist sites at Dhauli, Jain sites at Khandagiri-Udayagiri and Hindu temples in and around the Old Bhubaneswar area.

Ekamra Kshetra

• Ekamra Kshetracomprises the area of the old city of Bhubaneswar that forms the centre of this temple architecture and is considered a Hindu holy city.
• As per Ekamra Purana, a 13th-century Sanskrit treatise, it is believed that this sacred kshetra was a Panchakrosa (10 miles) in circumference bordered by Khandagiri hills in the west, Kundalesvara temple in the east, Balhadevi Temple on the north and Bahirangesvara temple near Dhauli on the south, with Lingaraj Temple as its centre.

G. Prelims Facts

Nothing here for today!!!

Q1. Consider the following statements

Q2. Which of the following factors aid the formation of a tropical cyclone:

Q3. Damara is a town located in:

Q4. Consider the following statements: