About:
- Energy by nuclear fusion is one of mankind’s long standing quests as it promises to be low carbon, safer than how nuclear energy is now produced and, with an efficiency that can technically exceed a 100%.
- A team at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility near Oxford in central England generated 59 megajoules of sustained energy during an experiment in December, more than doubling a 1997 record, the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority said.
- A kilogram of fusion fuel contains about 10 million times as much energy as a kilogram of coal, oil or gas. The energy was produced in a machine called a tokamak, a doughnut-shaped apparatus. The JET site is the largest operational one of its kind in the world.
- Deuterium and tritium, which are isotopes of hydrogen, are heated to temperatures 10 times hotter than the centre of the sun to create plasma. This is held in place using superconductor electromagnets as it spins around, fuses and releases tremendous energy as heat.
- The record and scientific data from these crucial experiments are a major boost for the ITER, the larger and more advanced version of the JET.
- The ITER is a fusion research mega-project supported by seven members — China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the U.S. — and based in the south of France. It seeks to further demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy.
About:
- The move aims to promote made-in-India drones, a statement from the Ministry of Civil Aviation said.
- The Directorate General of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry notified the Indian Trade Classification (Harmonised System), 2022 effecting the prohibition of drones for import.
- The Ministry of Civil Aviation said that while exceptions were provided for R&D, defence and security, importing drones for these purposes will require “due clearances”. However, import of drone components will not need any approvals.
Past Initiatives
- Last year, the Ministry notified liberalised drone rules with the aim to encourage R&D and to make India a drone hub.
- The government also approved a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and their components with an allocation of ₹120 crore for three financial years.
About:
- The total number of beneficiaries enrolled during each of the last three financial years under the PMMVY is more than the indicative target. The reply did not provide the exact number of enrolments.
- The PMMVY scheme was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 31, 2016.
- It provides a benefit of ₹5,000 in three instalments to a woman for her first living child upon meeting certain conditions. This is meant as partial compensation for loss of wage during her pregnancy so that she can get proper nutrition.
- The scheme is only for those women who are not employed by the Central or State governments or a Public Sector Undertaking and don’t receive similar benefits under any law.
- It is clubbed with the Janani Suraksha Yojana scheme which provides nearly ₹1,000 for institutional births so that altogether mothers get ₹6,000 in maternity benefit.
- The scheme has been criticised for under-funding and failing to cater to all targeted beneficiaries. Activists also call the scheme illegal as it violates the National Food Security Act, 2013 under which all mothers, and not just mothers of the first living child, should get a maternity benefit of ₹6,000.
About:
- As many as 9,140 people ended their lives due to unemployment, the highest number of such cases — 3,548 were reported in 2020, the year a lockdown was imposed in the country due to COVID-19 and large-scale job losses and economic slowdown were reported in many sectors.
- Minister of State for Home said 5,213 people committed suicide due to bankruptcy or indebtedness in 2020, 5,908 in 2019 and 4,970 in 2018.
- A total of 3,548 people committed suicide due to unemployment in 2020, 2,851 in 2019 and 2,741 in 2018.
About:
- According to the data, while 6,511 teaching faculty are working in the IITs, 4,370 posts are vacant.
- The data once again highlighted the poor representation of faculty from reserved categories.
- Only 12% of the 6,511 teaching staff are from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
- Among the older and bigger IITs, IIT (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad had 57.2% of posts vacant, followed by 53.4% in IIT Kharagpur.
- IIT Delhi was the exception with just 9.4% of the posts vacant. However, it had one of the lowest representation of faculty from reserved groups (6.5%). IIT Bombay had the poorest representation with just 3.8% of its 693 faculty from reserved categories.
Flexible Cadre Structure
- The Ministry, in its reply, pointed to the ongoing special recruitment drive under “mission mode” from September 2021 to September 2022 to fill the vacancies under the reserved categories.
- However, the special recruitment drive has already come under criticism as the problems posed by the flexible cadre structure in IITs have not been addressed.
- As per the flexible cadre structure, the sanctioned faculty strength is not fixed at each category, viz. assistant professors, associate professors and professors but only at the overall level.
About:
- The mRNA vaccine being developed by Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals is currently in phase 2/3 trials to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine in healthy subjects. Around 4,000 volunteers have been recruited for the trial.
- India has so far approved at least six vaccines that can be manufactured locally but only two — Covishield and Covaxin — have been administered to over 99% Indians.
- Globally, mRNA vaccines have been at the vanguard of inoculation programmes in the U.S. and Europe because they exploit recent advances in molecular biotechnology and are said to be quicker to manufacture than older, well-established vaccine design principles.
- A limitation of the mRNA vaccines, or those made by Pfizer and Moderna, was that they were required to be stored in sub-zero conditions — a tough proposition in a country where such a degree of refrigeration is limited in availability.
- However, the prospective Gennova vaccine can be stored in ordinary refrigerators, the makers of Gennova have claimed earlier.
- The mRNA vaccine, can also purportedly be tweaked to be effective against newer variants, but so far, all the vaccines developed — including the prospective Gennova vaccine — have been customised to the original SARS-CoV-2.
About:
- Rai was responding to a question by Bharatiya Janta Party’s (BJP) Rakesh Sinha who said that “Maoism thriving due to extra parliamentary forces and urban naxals who are sitting in universities and under the garb of journalism are breaking the country”. He said that some mainstream political parties were supporting them.
- Rai’s statement on LWE having foreign roots was countered by Communist Party of India’s Binoy Viswam. “Unlike right-wing extremism, which has a foreign influence and emanates from Italy and Germany, the LWE has socio-economic roots, it is there due to social deprivation”.
Violence incidents
- Rai stated that the geographical spread of the violence had also been reduced and only 46 districts reported LWE-related violence in 2021 as compared to 96 districts in 2010.
- He said the the number of districts contributing approximately 90% of the LWE violence had come down to 25 districts in 2021. The reply stated that the incidents of LWE violence had reduced by 77% from an all-time high of 2,258 incidents in 2009 to 509 in 2021.
About:
- From this CVI, it can be delineated that Gujarat’s 124 coastal km is going to get affected or 5.36%, Maharashtra 11 km or 1.22% and then Karnataka & Goa 48 km or 9.54%, Kerala 15 km or 2.39%, Tamil Nadu 65 km or 6.38%, Andhra Pradesh 6 km or 0.55 %, Odisha 37 km or 7.51% West Bengal 49 km or 2.56%, Lakshadweep Islands 1 km or 0.81%, Andaman Islands 24 km or 0.96 km and Nicobar Islands 8 km or 0.97%.
- While the maps determine the coastal risks due to future sea-level rise based on the physical and geological parameters for the Indian coast, the CVI uses the relative risk that physical changes will occur as sea-level rises are quantified based on parameters like: tidal range; wave height; coastal slope; coastal elevation; shoreline change rate; geomorphology; and historical rate of relative sea-level change.
- Coastal vulnerability assessments can be useful information for coastal disaster management and building resilient coastal communities.
Multi-Hazard Vulnerability Mapping (MHVM)
- A coastal Multi-Hazard Vulnerability Mapping (MHVM) was also carried out using parameters like sea level change rate, shoreline change rate, high-resolution coastal elevation, extreme water level from tide gauges and their return periods.
- This MHVM mapping was carried for the entire mainland of India on a 1:25000 scale.
- These maps depict the coastal low-lying areas exposed to the coastal inundation.
About:
- Although envisaged as an apolitical head who must act on the advice of the council of ministers, the Governor enjoys certain powers granted under the Constitution, such as
- giving or withholding assent to a Bill passed by the state legislature, or
- determining the time needed for a party to prove its majority, or
- which party must be called first do so, generally after a hung verdict in an election.
- giving or withholding assent to a Bill passed by the state legislature, or
- There are, however, no provisions laid down for the manner in which the Governor and the state must engage publicly when there is a difference of opinion. The management of differences has traditionally been guided by respect for each other’s boundaries.
Why such friction happen?
- The Constituent Assembly envisaged governor to be apolitical. But politicians become Governors and then resign to fight elections.
- The CM is answerable to the people. But the Governor is answerable to no one except the Centre.
- There is no provision for impeaching the Governor, who is appointed by the President on the Centre’s advice. While the Governor has 5-year a tenure, he can remain in office only until the pleasure of the President.
- In the Constitution, there are no guidelines for exercise of the Governor’s powers, including for appointing a CM or dissolving the Assembly. There is no limit set for how long a Governor can withhold assent to a Bill.
What reforms have been suggested?
- From the Administrative Reforms Commission of 1968 to Sarkaria Commission of 1988, several panels have recommended reforms, such as selection of the Governor through a panel comprising the PM, Home Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker and the CM, apart from fixing his tenure for five years.
- Recommendations have also been made for a provision to impeach the Governor by the Assembly. No government has implemented any of these recommendations.
About:
- Solar storms are magnetic plasma ejected at great speed from the solar surface.
- They occur during the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots (‘dark’ regions on the Sun that are cooler than the surrounding photosphere), and can last for a few minutes or hours.
- The solar storm that deorbited the satellites occurred on February 1 and 2, and its powerful trails were observed on February 3.
Effect on Earth
- Not all solar flares reach Earth, but solar flares/storms, solar energetic particles (SEPs), high-speed solar winds, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that come close can impact space weather in near-Earth space and the upper atmosphere.
- Solar storms can hit operations of space-dependent services like global positioning systems (GPS), radio, and satellite communications.
- Geomagnetic storms interfere with high-frequency radio communications and GPS navigation systems. Aircraft flights, power grids, and space exploration programmes are vulnerable.
- CMEs, with ejectiles loaded with matter travelling at millions of miles an hour, can potentially create disturbances in the magnetosphere, the protective shield surrounding the Earth.