14 Jun 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Nepal passes amendment on new map
2. India-China: the line of actual contest
C. GS 3 Related
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. Hydroxychloroquine does not reduce mortality, RECOVERY trial finds
2. Persistent global transmission of chikungunya from India
ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. NGT gives Kerala 1 month to report on forest fire prevention steps
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. Can a COVID-19 vaccine be developed soon?
HEALTH
1. WHO, on the virus
F. Tidbits
1. Vital volcanoes
2. Protecting the Earth
G. Prelims Facts
1. Stimulus package can be fine-tuned, says EAC-PM’s Goyal
2. Returning labourers may be deployed for Jal Jeevan Mission
3. Scientists find ancient mammal ‘stepping stone’
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

E. Editorials

Category: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Can a COVID-19 vaccine be developed soon?

Context:

• Vaccine development for COVID-19.

Background:

Vaccines:

• A vaccine could be a weakened biological or synthetic agent administered to humans that will protect them from contracting infectious diseases by supplying specific antibodies to neutralise the disease-causing pathogen, while not making a person actually sick from it.
• Vaccines have played an important role in the reduction of communicable diseases from the second half of the 20th century.

Process of vaccine development:

• The general stages of the development cycle of a vaccine are: exploratory stage, pre-clinical stage, clinical development, regulatory review and approval, manufacturing and quality control.
• Two important steps that are typically needed before bringing a vaccine into clinical trials, involve the testing of the vaccine in appropriate animal models to see whether it is protective and testing the vaccines for toxicity in animals, e.g., in rabbits.
• Clinical development is a three-phase process.
  • During Phase I, small groups of people receive the trial vaccine.
  • In Phase II, the clinical study is expanded and the vaccine is given to people who have characteristics (such as age and physical health) similar to those for whom the new vaccine is intended.
  • In Phase III, the vaccine is given to thousands of people and tested for efficacy and safety.
• If a vaccine is approved by a licensing agency, then it can move into the manufacturing stage, but constant monitoring of the process and quality control measures must be put in place.

Vaccine development:

• With new infectious diseases emerging, particularly post the H1N1 influenza, global vaccine development activity has been happening at a comparatively fast pace.
• Vaccine technology has significantly evolved in the last decade, including the development of several RNA (ribonucleic acid) and DNA vaccine candidates, licensed vectored vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines and cell-culture-based vaccines.

Details:

• Current projections indicate that the Coronavirus is likely to become endemic and cause recurrent seasonal epidemics. In such a scenario, a vaccine will be the most effective tool to battle a virus the world is yet to fully understand.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has seen renewed efforts at a rapid vaccine development, and multiple candidates are at various levels of processing and in the trial stages.
  • Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) site lists 10 vaccine candidates in clinical evaluation and 126 candidate vaccines in pre-clinical evaluation.
  • The 10 candidates in clinical evaluation, as per WHO’s list, are based on five platforms — non-replicating coral vector, RNA, inactivated, protein sub-unit, and DNA.

Challenges:

Time consuming process:

• Despite the advances, including using artificial intelligence to determine potential vaccine candidates, the core principles of ensuring safety and efficacy of the vaccine for use in humans remain unchanged.
• While technology might have quickened some of the processes, the trials for the vaccine are time consuming.
• The development of vaccines for human use takes years normally. Many additional steps are needed before these vaccine candidates that have shown promise can be used in the population, and this process might take months, if not years.

Novel virus:

• The “SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines: Status Report” article notes the concerns in the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus. There are no existing vaccines or production processes for coronavirus vaccines.
• Because no coronavirus vaccines are on the market and no large-scale manufacturing capacity for these vaccines exists as yet, there is the need to build these processes and capacities. Doing this for the first time can be tedious and time-consuming.

Mutation:

• One of the major concerns for the development of an effective vaccine is the prospect of the virus mutating. This would render the vaccine under development ineffective against the mutated coronavirus.

Efficacy of vaccines:

• Infection with human coronaviruses does not always produce long-lived antibody responses, and re-infection, likely to be mild [symptoms] in a fraction of individuals, is possible after an extended period of time.

Category: HEALTH

1. WHO, on the virus

Context:

• World Health Organization’s controversial statements on the role of asymptomatics in spreading SARS-CoV-2.

Details:

World Health Organization’s (WHO) statement:

• The technical lead on the COVID-19 pandemic, had stated that the current evidence seemed to suggest that many countries monitoring asymptomatic cases and their contacts were not finding enough evidence to suggest that they were actually transmitting the disease.
  • Asymptomatics are those people who never show symptoms of the disease but test positive for the virus. WHO and infectious disease specialists assert that asymptomatic patients exist but it is not known how many there are and in what proportion.

Concerns:

• The comments from the WHO provoked opposition from infectious disease experts and doctors arguing that this statement from the WHO may have downplayed the significance of the asymptomatic mode of transmission.
• A recommendation to “focus on symptomatic” would mean ignoring infections by a category called “presymptomatic”. These are people who carry the virus and are asymptomatic, but over time show few or mild symptoms.
• The current understanding of the disease is that people are most infectious when symptoms start to manifest or are “presymptomatic”. It is not clear if asymptomatics are much less likely than presymptomatics and symptomatics to transmit the disease.
• WHO’s emphasis on symptomatics could imply that asymptomatics are “safe” and this undermines the widespread adoption of face masks and social distancing.

Additional Information:

Role of genetic factors:

• Researchers across the world are comparing the genes of those with the disease and trying to find correlations with the severity of illness.
• Being a novel coronavirus, by definition, a large population is susceptible and no natural immunity prevails anywhere.
• Genetic factors are known to play a role in some diseases.
  • A recent study links severe respiratory failure to genes that determine blood type. Blood type A was found to be more susceptible to respiratory disease than O.
  • There are also other genes that influence how the immune system responded to the virus. The role of certain genes in the Human Leukocyte Antigen complex, which is an important part of the immune system needs to be investigated.

F. Tidbits

1. Vital volcanoes

• A recent study notes the importance of volcanic activity as a key factor behind the increased concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere through the degassing process.
  • Degassing is the liberation of gases from within a planet, and it may occur directly during volcanism or indirectly by the weathering of igneous rocks on a planetary surface. For the Earth, volcanism appears to be most important both in terms of current degassing rates and calculated past rates.
• The study claims that the mantle’s evolution could have possibly controlled the evolution of life with its contribution to the oxygen concentration in the atmosphere.
• This observation is based on the fact that despite the existence of bacteria, the levels of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere rose to a high only 2.4 billion years ago, known as the Great Oxidation Event.

2. Protecting the Earth

• A recent study notes that approximately half the Earth’s ice-free land is without significant human influence, including the boreal forests, tundra and vast deserts.
• The study advocates that protecting these ecosystems would be beneficial in climate change mitigation.

G. Prelims Facts

1. Stimulus package can be fine-tuned, says EAC-PM’s Goyal

• The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdowns have severely disrupted economic activities.
  • S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings have said India’s economy will shrink by 5% in the current fiscal, while Moody’s has projected a contraction of 4%.
• The government announced a ₹20.97 lakh crore rescue package for the economy
  • The package was announced in five tranches, which included Rs. 3.7 lakh crore support for MSMEs, Rs. 75,000 crore for NBFCs and Rs. 90,000 crore for power distribution companies, free foodgrains to migrant workers, increased allocation for MGNREGS, tax relief to certain sections and Rs. 15,000 crore allocated to the healthcare sector.
• Much of the stimulus package pertains to the financial sector and relieving the liquidity crisis and addresses the supply constraints. There is a need for demand side measures as well to stimulate the economy.
• The PM’s economic advisory council (EAC-PM) member Ashima Goyal has stated that the stimulus package is not cast in iron and there is scope to fine-tune it further. There is a need to kick-start demand to stimulate the economy.
  • Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister is a non-constitutional, non-permanent and independent body constituted to give economic advice to the Government of India, specifically the Prime Minister.

2. Returning labourers may be deployed for Jal Jeevan Mission

• The Jal Jeevan Mission envisages providing piped drinking water to all rural households by 2024.
  • As of now out of 19.04 crore rural households in the country, 3.23 crore households had tap connections and 15.81 crore households had to be provided functional tap connections.
• The Jal Shakti Ministry, the nodal ministry for the implementation of the scheme, has written to various States that returning labour, especially those working in the construction sector (skilled, unskilled and semi-skilled), may be deployed to expedite the completion of works under the scheme, as an arrangement that could provide employment to the currently unemployed workers.

3. Scientists find ancient mammal ‘stepping stone’

• Chilean and Argentine researchers have unearthed teeth belonging to a species called Magallanodon baikashkenke.
  • This small sized mammal is believed to have lived in southern Patagonia during the late Cretaceous era, alongside dinosaurs, crocodiles, turtles and birds.
• It is the southernmost record of Gondwanatheria, a group of long-extinct early mammals that co-existed with dinosaurs.
• This was found near Torres del Paine National Park, a remote area of Patagonia famous for its glacier-capped Andean spires and frigid ocean waters.
• The mammal has been described as an evolutionary stepping stone between egg-laying mammals, like the platypus and marsupial mammals.

H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions

Q1. Which of the following statement/s is/are correct about Sant Dnyaneshwar?

1. He was a 13th-century saint philosopher from the Matura region.
2. He authored Dnyaneshwari which is a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita.
3. He is regarded as one of the founders of the Varkari Bhakthi movement.

Options:

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

See

Q2. Which of the following statement/s is/are correct with respect to the Attorney General?

1. He/she is appointed by the President of India on the advice of Union Cabinet and holds office during the pleasure of the President.
2. He/she must be a person qualified to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court.
3. The Attorney General has the right of audience in all Courts in India as well as the right to participate in the proceedings of the Parliament, though not to vote

Options:

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

See

Q3. The RECOVERY trial is associated with which of the following?

1. It is the experiment conducted by ISRO to test the efficacy of its pad abort system.
2. It is the experiment involving the study of novel bacteria in absorbing oil spill in the Russian Arctic region.
3. It is a large randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy of potential drugs for treating COVID-19 patients.
4. It is a mock drill conducted by the NDRF to check its preparedness to the landfall of severe cyclones

See

Q4. Which of the following correctly describes the goal of the Jal Jeevan Mission?

1. It envisages providing piped drinking water to all rural households by 2024.
2. The scheme aims to provide piped water to every household within the next 5 years
3. It is envisaged as a demand-driven and community centred program to provide sustainable access to drinking water to people in rural areas.
4. It envisages providing piped drinking water to all BPL households by 2022.

See

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen renewed efforts at rapid vaccine development. In this light discuss the major challenges in the development of the vaccine and its usage. (10 marks, 150 words)
2. Analyze the threat of forest fires in the Indian context. Discuss the major provisions of the National action plan on forest fire. (10 marks, 150 words)