08 Nov 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

8 Nov 2020 CNA:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
GEOGRAPHY
1. Lessons from Ladakh’s glacial lake outburst
B. GS 2 Related
C. GS 3 Related
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. India successfully launches earth observation satellite EOS-01
2. Delivery of COVID-19 vaccines poses a huge challenge
ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. Four more biodiversity heritage sites for Karnataka
2. A race against the clock to keep the planet cool
ECONOMY
1. Dumping by Vietnam hits Indian pepper
D. GS 4 Related
ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
1. Constable runs to make way for ambulance
E. Editorials
SOCIAL ISSUES
1. Inter-faith marriages, conversion and the law
EDUCATION
1. NEET quota in T.N.
F. Tidbits
1. Soak in the Sun, sleep early and tight to avoid myopia
2. Yashvardhan Sinha sworn in as CIC
G. Prelims Facts
1. Warli Art
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

A. GS 1 Related

Category: GEOGRAPHY

1. Lessons from Ladakh’s glacial lake outburst

Context:

• Study of the Gya glacial lake outburst.

Background:

Glacial lake outburst:

• A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood that occurs when the dam containing a glacial lake fails. The dam can consist of glacier ice or a terminal moraine.
• Failure can happen due to erosion, a buildup of water pressure, an avalanche of rock or heavy snow, an earthquake or massive displacement of water in a glacial lake when a large portion of an adjacent glacier collapses into it.

Click here to get UPSC Notes on Glaciers.

Gya Incident:

• In August 2014, a glacial lake outburst flood hit the village of Gya in Ladakh, destroying houses, fields and bridges.

Details:

• Study of the Gya glacial lake incident has thrown light on the causes of the flood.
• The glacial lake outburst induced flood was not due to the spillovers due to an avalanche or landslide but rather due to tunnelling drainage process induced by the thawing of the ice cores in the moraine. The water had drained out through the subsurface tunnels.
  • A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock) that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sheet.

Concerns:

Global warming:

• Given that the thawing of ice cores is expected to accelerate in the future due to global climate change, it is almost certain that other glacial lake outburst floods will happen all over the Indian Himalaya.

Unsustainable development process:

• It is important to note that not all glacial lake outbursts have catastrophic outcomes. It largely depends on urban planning, the size of the lake, the distance between the lake and affected villages, the valley section etc.
• The unsustainable development process in these areas will only increase the hazard potential of glacial lake outbursts.

Way forward:

Early warning system:

• There is an urgent need to use multiple methods for better risk assessment and early warning. It is important to regularly monitor lake development and dynamics.
• This approach could help limit the damages caused by the glacial lake outburst events.

Better land planning:

• Further development processes in these ecologically fragile areas should be guided by better land-use planning.

B. GS 2 Related

Nothing here for today!!!

C. GS 3 Related

Category: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. India successfully launches earth observation satellite EOS-01

Context:

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched the earth observation satellite EOS-01.

Details:

• India’s latest earth observation satellite EOS-01 was launched onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C49).
  • The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is a four-stage expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Though the main objective is to launch low earth orbit satellites, PSLV can also launch small size satellites into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).
  • Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the third generation launch vehicle of India. It is the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages. Stage 2 (Vikas Engine) and stage 4 of the satellite use liquid fuels while the first and third stage use solid fuels.
• The earth observation satellite EOS-01 has been placed in the 575 km orbit.
• The EOS-01 is intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support.
• The mission also included the placing in orbit of nine other spacecrafts. The nine customer satellites were from the United States, Lithuania and Luxembourg.

Significance:

Mission amidst the pandemic:

• This is ISRO’s first mission in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic induced lockdown disturbed 10 missions planned by the agency. The success of the mission is an indication of the resilience of the organization to succeed in the mission even in the face of restrictions on the movement of goods and people.

Increasing commercial reach of ISRO:

• The launch of other smaller customer satellites with India’s own satellites has become a recurrent feature in ISRO’s operation. ISRO has gained credence as a leading provider of rideshare services for small satellites, due to its numerous multi-satellite deployment campaigns with auxiliary payloads usually ride sharing along an Indian primary payload.
  • As of December 2019, PSLV has launched around 300 plus foreign satellites from 33 countries.
  • This points to the growing trust in ISRO and also opens up enormous opportunities in the commercial space sector for India.
  • Additionally, this approach also helps reduce the cost of launch for Indian satellites as a proportion of the launch cost is shared by the customer satellite owners.

2. Delivery of COVID-19 vaccines poses a huge challenge

Context:

• As the COVID-19 vaccine development efforts are progressing the attention is shifting towards the effective delivery of COVID vaccines to all. The article analyzes the challenges and concerns in this regard.

Challenges:

Scale:

• Studies indicate the need to vaccinate at least 60-70% of the population to end the pandemic. This would amount to around 80-90 crore people in India.
• Unlike the national immunisation programme which is limited to vaccinating children, COVID-19 vaccination will be across age groups, including older people.

Financial challenge:

• Given the number of doses of the vaccine required in India, the financial resources required to purchase vaccines would be substantial. Given the already bleak economic condition and low government revenues, the need for the financial resources to buy these vaccines would only challenge the finances further.

Infrastructure challenge:

• Most of the COVID-19 vaccines, the RNA vaccines in particular, require ultralow storage and distribution temperatures in the range of –70 degrees C to –80 degree C.
• Though such temperatures could be obtained, the scale of cold storage required to store hundreds of millions of such vaccine doses poses a critical challenge.
• Building new ultra-cold storage infrastructure would require considerable resources and also the uninterrupted power supply. This could pose challenges in rural areas where ensuring uninterrupted power supply is a challenge.

Logistics challenge:

• Given the large geographical area of India and the fact that it includes some difficult terrain necessitates the need to take into consideration the logistics needed to distribute and deliver vaccines to everyone.
• Given that most vaccines under development use two doses of the vaccine to achieve best results, the vaccine delivery would also face the herculean challenge of the need to vaccinate people with two doses four weeks apart.
• Most of the vaccines under development include injectable vaccines. This would require trained professionals in very large numbers.

Ethical challenges:

• Given that the vaccines would be in short supply in the initial phases until mass production of the vaccines pick up the pace, there would be the scramble to get access to the vaccines. The richer countries and individuals might have greater access to such vaccines.
• The access to potential vaccines involves some ethically contentious questions like deciding whom to vaccinate when there is an insufficient supply of vaccines to all.

Way forward:

Newer approaches:

• Given the non uniform availability of cold storage in the country, it may make sense to consider bringing people to the vaccine, instead of taking the vaccine to people in some settings.

Developing suitable vaccines:

• There are ongoing attempts to modify the vaccines and increase their stability to suit the storage conditions that already exist Though such vaccines are unlikely to become available in the first-generation vaccines, the efforts should continue.
• The Oxford vaccine does not require ultracold temperatures, and hence, the existing system used in the routine immunisation programme may be able to handle the vaccines.

Learning from past experience:

• India’s experience with polio and measles-rubella campaigns could help guide India in its COVID-19 vaccine delivery programme.
• The lessons learnt from the national immunisation programme for children can be replicated.
• India’s eVIN Project could provide some valuable lessons for the maintenance of the vaccine cold chains.
  • eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network) is an indigenously developed technology system in India that digitizes vaccine stocks and monitors the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone application. The innovative eVIN is presently being implemented across twelve states in India. eVIN aims to support the Government of India’s Universal Immunization Programme by providing real-time information on vaccine stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points in these states.

Prioritizing:

• The vaccines should be prioritised for vulnerable groups as identified by the government.
  • The government recently said it will procure the vaccine and distribute it under a special COVID-19 immunisation programme to four categories of people, free-of-charge. The priority groups named are healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses and ASHA workers, a second category that includes frontline workers including police and armed forces, the third category of those aged above 50 and finally those below 50 years of age with co-morbidities.

Ensuring accessibility:

• To ensure equitable access to all, the vaccines may be made available only in the public sector, at least when supplies are limited. There is a need to ensure that the vaccines are available for free.
• However, it does not make sense to rule out the possibility of letting companies sell vaccines to people who can afford as and when such vaccines become available in plenty. This approach could help reduce the burden on the government and also help the companies to maintain business continuity.

Category: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Four more biodiversity heritage sites for Karnataka

Context:

• The Karnataka Biodiversity Board has decided to declare four more areas in the State as biodiversity heritage sites.

Background:

Biodiversity Heritage Sites:

• Biodiversity Heritage Sites (BHS) are well defined areas that are unique, ecologically fragile ecosystems – terrestrial, coastal and inland waters or marine having rich biodiversity.
• It is characterized by one or more of the following components: richness of wild as well as domesticated species or intra-specific categories, high endemism, presence of rare and threatened species, keystone species, species of evolutionary significance, wild ancestors of domestic/cultivated species or their varieties, past pre-eminence of biological components represented by fossil beds and having significant cultural, ethical or aesthetic values and are important for the maintenance of cultural diversity, with or without a long history of human association with them.

Legal provisions:

• The State Governments can notify the Biodiversity Heritage Sites (BHS) in consultation with local governing bodies under Section 37 of Biological Diversity Act of 2002.
• Under sub-section (2) of Section 37, the State Government in consultation with the Central Government may frame rules for the management and conservation of BHS.

Significance:

• Notifying an area as a biodiversity heritage site will help protect the rich and unique ecosystem in a particular area from further destruction.
• This would help not only help conserve the biodiversity of the region but also ensure ecological security and sustainable development for human beings as well given that such areas also often represent interfaces between nature, culture and society.
• Given that BHS also emphasize a participatory approach to conservation efforts, the notification would help instil and nurture conservation ethics in all sections of the society.

Details:

• The proposed biodiversity heritage sites include the following:
  • Antaragange Betta in Kolar– This area has a unique and perennial water source flowing all through the year.
  • Aadi Narayana Swamy Betta in Chickballapur– It serves as a habitat to many dry-belt species protected by locals.
  • Mahima Ranga Betta in Nelamangala, Bengaluru– It is a prominent lung space surviving in Bengaluru.
  • Urumbi area on the Kumaradhara river basin in Dakshina Kannada– This area has a fragile environmental system and there were proposals to set a small scale hydro plant in this region.

2. A race against the clock to keep the planet cool

Context:

• Victory for Joe Biden in the 2020 US presidential election.

Background:

Paris Accord:

• The Paris Agreement seeks to keep global temperature rise well within the goal of 2⁰C from pre-industrial levels, and to try and limit it to 1.5⁰C.
• It works on the principle of voluntary national contributions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under the Agreement, developed countries are required to help raise funds for developing countries, aid in efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and help transfer clean technologies.
• So far, 188 out of the 197 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have ratified the Paris climate deal, but the U.S. is no longer a party to it.
• The U.S., under Mr. Trump had formally exited the UN’s Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Details:

• Joe Biden could help make the U.S. play a leadership role in the fight against climate change.
  • The president-designate would most likely make a return to global cooperation and reverse President Donald Trump’s isolationist rejection of efforts to cut carbon emissions. The U.S. under Mr. Biden could return back to the Paris Agreement.
  • The Biden Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution and Environmental Justice, which he articulated during the presidential election campaign, vows to steer the U.S. back to its leadership position with respect to climate action.
  • Biden has also promised to host a world summit on climate at which the leaders of the nations with the highest emissions [which would include China, the European Union and India] would be engaged, to collaborate and raise ambition on cutting greenhouse gases.
  • Biden’s position on climate change would also lead to the U.S.’s return to the UN system’s scientific consensus on climate change. This places emphasis on multilateralism, which underpins the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.
  • Biden has also previously advocated the vision of a Green New Deal, which emphasizes sustainable economic growth without environmental degradation. This could involve focus on renewable energy and other sustainable sectors.

Significance:

• The U.S.’s return to Climate action holds immense significance for the world quest to avert dangerous climate change as the U.S. is the second-largest emitter of CO2, and a superpower with a wide body of research on climate issues.

Category: ECONOMY

1. Dumping by Vietnam hits Indian pepper

Context:

• Dumping of Vietnamese pepper in India.

Details:

• The dumping of Vietnamese pepper in India is happening via Nepal and Sri Lanka.
  • In the case of dumping a country or company exports a product at a price that is lower in the foreign importing market than the price in the exporter’s domestic market.
  • Dumping leads to price-suppression in destination countries and could lead to long term ill effects on the domestic producers.
• Vietnam pepper exporters are making use of bilateral trade concessions between India and Sri Lanka and Nepal to dump the pepper into the Indian market. Sri Lanka and Nepal have lower custom duties on their pepper exports to India.
  • Under the FTA, Sri Lanka can export up to 2,500 tonnes per year at zero duty to India, while the duty is 8% under the SAARC Agreement and 50% under the ASEAN Pact.

Concerns:

• Indian pepper has suffered a sharp erosion in domestic prices due to the glut in supply.

Way forward:

 Rein in misuse of available provisions:

• The Centre must take quick measures to curb misuse of imports. The recently introduced Customs Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements Rules, 2020 (CAROTAR, 2020), will help rein in misuse of import provisions.

For more information on this topic refer to: CNA 19^th Sept 2020

• Also the governments must prohibit EOUs and units in SEZs from selling black pepper in the domestic market as these units enjoy special import provisions.

D. GS 4 Related

Category: ETHICS AND INTEGRITY

1. Constable runs to make way for an ambulance

Context:

• Abids traffic constable G. Babji recently went the extra mile to save the life of a cardiac patient being transported in an ambulance.
• Observing that the Ambulance’s siren was not being heeded by the chock-a-block traffic, the traffic constable started running in front of the ambulance for almost 2 Km, waving and gesticulating to other vehicles to give way for the emergency vehicle.

Quality exhibited:

• Dedication to Public Service or commitment to work.
  • Dedication to public service is the quality to fully apply one’s time, energy and self for the cause of public welfare and public service. For a civil servant, dedication is a foundational value as it ensures that a civil servant remains motivated in case of hardships, threat or temptation and always takes the extra mile to ensure public welfare.

Q1.Which of the following are potential areas of application of earth observation satellites?

Q2. Which of the following pairs is incorrectly matched?

Q3. Which of the following statement/s is/are correct?

Q4. Which of the following is/are biodiversity heritage site/s in India?

Read the previous CNA here.

8 Nov 2020 CNA:- Download PDF Here