Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 20-04-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 20-04-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Indian Economy - Sensex crashes over rising COVID-19 cases - Indian equity benchmark Sensex fell by more than 1,200 points to around 47,590 and the Nifty slipped below the 14,300-mark in early trade, amid the rising COVID-19 cases. Counters like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Reliance Industries (RIL) were top contributors to Sensex’s fall. Experts said the health crisis India is going through and localised lockdowns and restrictions on economic activity warranted a market correction. The targets of around 11% GDP growth and above 30% earnings growth for FY 22, that the market had assumed pre-second wave are now likely to fall short. The steady rise in COVID positive cases and the steady decline in recovery rates are areas of serious concern. Active COVID-19 cases in India stood at 19,29,329, up from 18,01,316 cases registered on 19-04-2021, according to Union Health Ministry data. This negativity in stocks need not reflect fully in the market since the global clues are positive. The sharp recovery in global growth led by the U.S. and China augur well for markets globally.
2. Governance and Institutions - COVID-19 vaccination opens for all adults from May 1 - The PM Narendra Modi on 19-04-2021 allowed vaccination to everyone above the age of 18 from May 1, 2021. The title is "liberalised & accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination". The second dose of all existing priority groups, wherever it has become due, would be given priority. The government launched Phase-I of vaccination on January 16 and Phase-II was initiated from March 1, 2021. The Govt of India, from its share, will allocate vaccines to States/UTs based on criteria of extent of infection (number of active COVID cases) & performance (speed of administration). Wastage of vaccine will also be considered in this criteria & will affect criteria negatively. The division of vaccine supply, ie, 50 per cent to the Centre and 50 per cent to state government or private buyers, is only mandatory for the vaccines manufactured in India. The sale of all imported vaccines will be allowed in the open market without restrictions, the Centre said.
3. Science and Technology - Aditya-L1 Support Centre (ASC) - The Indian programme to study the Sun and the region between the Sun and the Earth from space – Aditya-L1 – is due to be launched in 2022. It will carry seven payloads which have been developed by various institutions across the country. Once the mission is launched, there will be a need for a ground support centre to monitor and coordinate the work on its various payloads. This role will be played by the ARIES facility (short for Aryabhata Research Institute for observational Sciences), situated near Nainital. The Aditya-L1 Support Centre (ASC) will provide training through regular workshops for the guest users. Apart from this, it will provide ready-to-use Python and Java apps for the satellite data and demos and handouts to facilitate the guest users. The "L" stands for Lagrange point, which is a location in space where the combined gravitational forces of two large bodies, such as Earth and the sun or Earth and the moon, equal the centrifugal force felt by a much smaller third body.
4. Environment and Ecology - Meghalaya yields India’s first bamboo-dwelling bat - Meghalaya has yielded India’s first bamboo-dwelling bat with sticky discs. The count of the bats in India has reached 130. The disc-footed bat (Eudiscopus denticulus) was recorded near the Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary. The extent of adaptation for bamboo habitat in this species is not seen in the others. The flattened skull and sticky pads enabled the bats to roost inside cramped spaces, clinging to smooth surfaces such as bamboo internodes. The disc-footed bat was also found to be genetically very different from all other known bats bearing disc-like pads. Scientists analysed the very high frequency echolocation calls of the disc-footed bat, which was suitable for orientation in a cluttered environment such as inside bamboo groves. It has raised Meghalaya’s bat count to 66, the most for any State in India. It has also helped add a genus and species to the bat fauna of India.
5. Arts, Culture and Literature - International Day for Monument and Sites - Every year, the United Nations marks April 18 as the International Day for Monuments and Sites, which in some countries is celebrated also as "World Heritage Day". The theme for 2021 is “Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures”. Globally, the day is promoted by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). ICOMOS in 1982 decided to celebrate April 18 as the International Day for Monuments and Sites or World Heritage Day. Approved by UNESCO in 1983 during its 22nd General Conference, the day is dedicated to recognising sites of historical importance, raising awareness regarding them, and stressing the need to restore and preserve them.
6. Energy - Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant - China has asked Japan to take back its decision to release more than 1 million tonnes of treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean. The Plant is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a 3.5-square-kilometre site in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, and suffered major damage from the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The chain of events caused radiation leaks and permanently damaged several reactors, making them impossible to restart. By political decision, the remaining reactors were not restarted. In April 2021, the Japanese government approved the dumping of radioactive water of this power plant into the Pacific Ocean over the course of 30 years. This is a first of its kind situation.
7. Healthcare and Medicine - Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Oxygen Plants - The Health Ministry said that 162 Pressure Swing Adsorption, PSA oxygen plants have been sanctioned by Government of India for installation in public health facilities in all States and these will augment medical oxygen capacity by over 154 Metric Tonnes. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a technology used to separate some gas species from a mixture of gases under pressure according to the species' molecular characteristics and affinity for an adsorbent material. It operates at near-ambient temperatures and differs significantly from cryogenic distillation techniques of gas separation. Specific adsorbent materials (e.g., zeolites, activated carbon, molecular sieves, etc.) are used as a trap, preferentially adsorbing the target gas species at high pressure. The process then swings to low pressure to desorb the adsorbed material.
8. Science and Technology - Man's first flight on another planet, ever - NASA has done it - its Ingenuity Mars helicopter has completed the first ever controlled flight on another planet (Mars). For its first flight, the helicopter took off from the ground and hovered in the air before descending and touching back down on the Martian surface. This marked what Nasa describes as a "major milestone" - the very first powered flight in another world. After its first flight, Ingenuity will attempt additional experimental flights which will involve travelling further distances and increasing altitudes. One of Ingenuity's key objectives is to survive the "bone-chilling temperatures" of the red planet, with "nights as cold as minus 90C", NASA says. All together the helicopter will aim for up to five test flights within a 30 Martian-day (31 Earth-day) demonstration window. The Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, is a technology demonstration to test powered flight on another world for the first time. It hitched a ride to Mars on the Perseverance rover. Once the rover reached a suitable "helipad" location, it released Ingenuity to the surface so it could perform a series of test flights over a 30-Martian-day experimental window. The first flight was successfully performed on April 19, 2021.
9. Agriculture - Supreme Court upset with farm leaders - A bench, headed by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, took a grim view of the continuing road blockades by thousands of farmers who have camped at Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh since November 2020 in protest against the central laws, adding to commuters’ travel times in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). The judge said that just because they were not in sync with a particular policy it didn't mean that the others should suffer. The bench included justice Hemant Gupta. The top court was hearing a petition by a single mother, complaining that it has been taking her almost two hours, instead of 20 minutes, to travel from Noida to Delhi due to frequent blockades and protests. The court on March 26, 2021, issued notices to the Centre and Delhi Police “to ensure that the road area is kept clear so that the passage from one place to the other is not affected”. Meanwhile, addressing a monthly mahapanchayat at the Delhi-Ghazipur border on Saturday, Bharatiya Kisan Union national president Naresh Tikait declared that farmers will not end the protest until the farm laws are not repealed.
10. People and Personalities - Putin's rival Navalny in hospital - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in jail, was transferred to a prison hospital on 19-04-2021, twenty days into a hunger strike that has led the US to warn Moscow of serious repercussions if he should die in jail. Navalny's lawyer Alexei Liptser said after visiting him in the hospital of penal colony No. 3 in the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow, that his health was deteriorating and he had again been denied access to his own doctors. Russia's prison service said Navalny, 44, was in a "satisfactory" state and he was being given "vitamin therapy". Navalny was earlier poisoned by Kremlin agents (as per Western media) and barely escaped death in 2020.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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• 1. ECONOMY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

Covid cases resurgence and Indian economic recovery

• The story: The fiscal year FY 2020-21 was a roller coaster ride for India’s economy, witnessing Indiawide partial and complete lockdowns, curfews and increase in unemployment with no projections of the economy returning to the 2019-20 levels of GDP even in FY 2021-22. With the easing of lockdown restrictions, these projections were revised favourably in late 2020.

• Twist in fate: Right when there was growing optimism over India’s economic rebound, when the IMF upgraded India’s GDP forecast for FY 21-22 to 12.5%, the second Covid-19 wave has come as a rude shock to businesses and consumers alike. No one expected the mutant Covid viruses to hit all over India so hard, and take down the entire health infrastructure in many major states of India.

1. India’s daily new cases started hitting higher peaks every day starting late March 2021, with India contributing almost 20% to the global tally of fresh daily cases.
2. The situation is far worse than 2020's peak situation where the only sigh of relief is India now has access to vaccines. Even that is now riddled with a complex policy regime, leading to friction between centre and states.

• Recovery: The good news was that the gross tax collections (GTR) is estimated to have touched ₹20.16 lakh crore (₹20.16 Trillion), up ₹1.2 lakh crore from the revised estimates (RE) detailed in the Union Budget on 01-02-2021. The Centre’s indirect tax collections have touched ₹10.71 lakh crore in 2020-21, even higher than the collections in 2019-20. Indicators like the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), tractor & two-wheeler sales, Goods and Services Tax collection, E-way bills, and rail freight traffic showed sustained growth in 2021. The exports figures saw a jump in March 2021, although full year figures were quite muted, and much lower than even $300 b.

• Impacts of resurging Covid cases:

1. Highest Week-on-Week Decline as per NIBRI: The Nomura India Business Resumption Index (NIBRI), is a weekly tracker of the pace of normalisation of economic activity. It reached 99 points in February, 2021 but slipped down to 90.5 in the month of April, registering its biggest week-on-week fall. The reason for this downfall is mainly the second wave of Covid-19.
2. City-wise impact: States like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Chhattisgarh, which are witnessing the highest surge in COVID-19 cases, account for over 30% of India’s GDP. Even partial lockdowns and curbs in these states will impact economic activity majorly and if the lockdowns are extended further due to uncontrolled infections, the damage will be even more extensive.
3. Contraction in industrial output: The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has witnessed the sharpest contraction in the month of February 2021 (since August 2020), at the rate of 3.6%. The imposition of harsher restrictions on activities is creating a fear, but night curfews or weekend lockdowns are economically less painful. However, if the situation worsens, harsher measures will arrive.
4. Manufacturing and other sectors: While manufacturing may not be directly hit due to partial lockdowns, the impact on the contact services sectors like hospitality, travel, and tourism will have a multiplier effect, as these sectors have strong backward linkages with other sectors of the economy.

• What to do next: There will be a multi-pronged approach that India needs to adopt.

1. Vaccines: The only effective way to safeguard the economy from another massive disruption is to relax both demand and supply for vaccines, and ensure that most Indians get vaccinated. If the poor are left out, it'd be useless (newer mutants will arrive through them, into others, eventually)
2. Scale: More than 11 crore shots were administered by April 15, 2021, but only 8% of the country’s population received at least one shot; the US and the UK, in contrast, had vaccinated close to 50% of their total population. A shortage of vaccines could slow the progress of vaccine rollout. The government has to now increase the reach of the vaccines and make the eligibility criteria for vaccination more expansive.
3. Reducing tax levies: The RBI, which has been stridently seeking a reduction in the tax levies, foresees inflation averaging 5.2% in the April-June quarter. The price pressures are unlikely to ease significantly in the near term, unless the Centre and the States bite the bullet by agreeing to forego some near-term revenue from petroproducts and reduce fuel taxes.
4. Policy: More efforts and better policies are needed on the part of Policymakers, to nurse back demand and this must be done without letting quickening inflation undermine purchasing power and overall economic stability. Do not lose sight of the fact that India is better equipped to fight the virus compared to 2020.
5. Expenditures in the Union Budget: The support from the rebound in global growth and implementation of the Union Budget’s proposed capital expenditures will reinforce India’s economic revival. The agricultural growth and rural demand have been quite robust until now, which is also expected to support growth.

• Summary: If the choice between flattening the Covid-19 curve and economic hardship was difficult in 2020, it will be even more difficult in 2021, as businesses and workers are still nursing the wounds of the first lockdown. The second wave has coincided with the beginning of the new fiscal year which means that even the conservative revenue targets in the Budget are now suspect. But, the silver lining is that India has the vaccines and the ongoing Vaccination Drive. 

 

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• 2. ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper

Water we use, and 'rapid water diagnostic' tests

1. The water we drink: When water is safe, there is nothing better to drink. It’s good for teeth, skin, weight control and even the ability to think straight. But drinking water contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, heavy metals or other harmful substances can cause diarrhea, brain damage, infertility and cancer. Global water quality has been jeopardized by a range of catastrophes both invisible and unmissable: failing infrastructure, massive fires, sewage overflows, agricultural runoff and forever chemicals sprayed in unexpected places.
2. Bottled or not: Bottled water actually is no guarantee of water safety. Not only is it not always safe; bottled water is thousands of times more expensive than tap water, and the plastic packaging and transport carries heavy environmental costs. Despite the need for safe water and the myriad pollutants that can contaminate it, there is no widely accessible method for everyone to quickly, cheaply, and accurately test their water’s safety.
3. Water safety tests: The current water safety tests are still cumbersome to use for most people, and the goal is to make them as easy to use as a pregnancy test so that they can be easily deployed in homes, day care centers and schools. So democratizing water testing by developing a new kind of test for drinking water that is rapid, cheap and accurate is now needed. Also needed is quantifying the water insecurity globally.
4. New research: The intention of new research is to implement new water test into a format that nonscientists can easily use; one that is affordable and gives results within an hour for those who need them most. These new tests are different because they harness the power of naturally occurring sensors from biology. Using tools from the nascent field of synthetic biology, the sensors can be programmed to change color when a target chemical is present in water. Because these sensors work outside of cells, they can be freeze-dried into tiny white clumps that are shelf-stable. These sensors are ready to indicate water contamination with only a drop of water, so there is no need for any complicated laboratory equipment to use them. These tests can be used to quickly detect lead, copper, arsenic and fluoride in water, with more analytes on the horizon. Northwestern and a spinoff company one of us co-founded are partnering to detect COVID-19 in sewage.
5. Where to use: Potential uses include lead testing for the millions of Americans who live in areas with a lead service line piping water from the city into their homes. This is important as many children are unknowingly exposed to the lifelong harms of lead toxicity. Arsenic tests will be valuable for the millions worldwide who face naturally occurring arsenic in their groundwater. Tests for E. coli would be useful in emergency situations, such as the millions in Texas living with boil water notices in February or those in Mississippi recently facing daily water crises.
6. Summary: Most drinking water in the United States is safe. Municipal water treatment plants mostly do a great job testing for and treating standard contaminants, like E. coli, but sometimes this isn’t enough. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency has identified more than 100 “contaminants of emerging concern” that are potentially harmful pollutants, most of which are not screened for at all. Contaminants can also be introduced after the water leaves the treatment plant, such as when there are lead service lines leading from the city supply into homes, as is the case for many residences in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Additionally, 42 million Americans rely on well water, which is often not tested. For these reasons, it is important to understand the quality of water before drinking it to know if filtration is needed, and if so, the type of filter to use. The field of rapid water diagnostics is in its early stages, but holds much promise for democratizing knowledge about the safety of a substance integral to health and well-being in the U.S. and globally. 

Collapse of various Antarctic Ice Shelves

• The story: Antarctic ice shelves are at risk of collapsing into the ocean if the current rate of global warming continues, warns a research paper. The study said that nearly one third (34%) of Antarctica’s ice shelves could collapse by the end of the 21st century if the world warms by 4 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial level. This will put at risk about 1,90,000 square miles of Antarctic ice. The absence of ice shelves would accelerate the collapse of huge glaciers into the ocean, which could result in a catastrophic rise of sea water level.

• Good news: If humans can manage to keep the warming at 2-degree Celsius rise than the pre-industrial level, then half of the 34% ice shelves at risk could be saved. Containing the rise under 1.5 degree Celsius would result in an even smaller impacted region in the Antarctica. Till date, the world has already warmed by around 1 degree Celsius from the pre-industrial period.

• What are ice shelves: These are large floating platforms of ice that are in contact with ocean water and these shelves are formed where a glacier ends. Ice shelves act like a barrier between ocean water and the glaciers. Collapsing of the ice shelves into the ocean would not immediately result in sea water level rise. But their removal would accelerate the collapse of huge glaciers into the ocean, which could result in a catastrophic rise of sea water level.

1. Ice shelves are important buffers preventing glaciers on land from flowing freely into the ocean and contributing to sea-level rise. When they collapse, it's like a giant cork being removed from a bottle, allowing unimaginable amounts of water from glaciers to pour into the sea.
2. Under normal conditions, the ice shelves usually melt during summer. The water from this melting of ice trickles down through the cracks in the ice and later get frozen again. But, when the melting rate goes higher, then water pools on the surface of the shelves.
3. The melted ice accumulates over the surface of the ice shelves and fractures them and the shelves can ‘collapse spectacularly’.

• Learnings: In past studies, scientists and researchers have modelled the future behaviour of the ice shelves at a larger scale—the whole of Antarctica. This missed finer and minute details of individual ice shelves, at least the way they are behaving in the warming world. The new study concentrates on modelling ice melting in different scenarios with more minute details and precisions that were not known previously.

• Data: Researchers have identified that Larsen C, the largest remaining ice shelf in Antarctica, along with other three, would be particularly threatened by the warming climate. The other three ice shelves incorporated in the study are Wilkins, Pine Island and Shackleton. Larsen C already split in 2017 and formed the enormous iceberg, A68. The world is presently on track for something between 3 to 3.5 C (5.4 to 6.3 F). That's not to say that 4 C (7.2 F) is out of the question. The indication is that the world, where climate change is proceeding to a point where one third of Antarctic ice shelves would be put at risk of collapsing, would involve major failures of containing greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities.  

 

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• 3. FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

Covid-19 vaccine ingredients needed from US

• Why Adar Poonawala said what he did: The CEO of Serum Institute of India urged US President Joe Biden to lift the US embargo on export of vaccine raw materials. He wants to urgently ramp up production of Covishield and Covovax, the Covid-19 vaccines it is making in India. So there's an embargo, and materials are blocked.

• The US embargo: Exports of critical raw materials used in the production of some Covid-19 vaccines was blocked, to invoke the US Defense Production Act earlier in 2021.

1. The 1950 Act was originally passed to help ensure supplies and equipment during the Korean War. Today, its scope extends beyond America’s military to cover natural hazards, terrorist attacks and other national emergencies.
2. The Act empowers its President to order domestic businesses and corporations to prioritise federal contracts in such events.

• What Trump did: Early on in the Covid-19 pandemic, then President Donald Trump had invoked the Act for purposes like increasing production of ventilators and limiting exports of medical supplies. But in 2021, President Biden invoked the powers of the Act on January 21 to ensure the availability of “critical” materials, treatments and supplies needed to combat the pandemic, including the resources necessary to “effectively” produce and distribute vaccines “at scale”. Biden said the Act was being invoked to ensure 24×7 manufacturing of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

• Blocked: So this decision to ensure that companies on American soil divert their resources to meet the demands of the US population effectively blocks them from meeting export commitments. As an example, Biological E, which is making the J&J vaccine in India as well as a protein subunit vaccine with Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, had said US suppliers have told global clients that they may not be able to fulfil their orders because of the Act.

• Speficic raw materials blocked: There is no comprehensive list of companies that have been called in to focus on vaccine production in the US, nor is there a list of all the raw materials that cannot be exported from the country as a result of invoking the Act. A typical vaccine manufacturing plant will use around 9,000 different materials, as per WTO. These are sourced from some 300 suppliers across some 30 countries. The US restrictions are expected to hit the output of major suppliers for the world. The continued restrictions may not only cause a fight for limited resources, but also delay regulatory clearances of some products. Plastic bags, filters and cell culture media, especially, are relevant to most vaccines being made to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes vaccines like Covishield and Covovax, of which SII was expected to supply over a billion doses each this year.

• Hit hard: The US Act seems to be impacting the ability of other Indian companies to make their Covid-19 vaccines in India. For instance, Dr Krishna Ella, the boss of Bharat Biotech that makes Covaxin, said that the restrictions by the US “on some of the materials” have impacted supply logistics for vaccine makers. The US restrictions would not only make the scale-up for Covid vaccines “extremely difficult”, but would also hit the manufacturing of routine vaccines. Biological E is expected to make around a billion doses of the J&J vaccine as well as scale up its production of its recombinant protein vaccine with Baylor College to a billion doses over an unspecified time period. It is not clear how much of its production will be impacted at this stage, as the company is currently still testing the recombinant protein vaccine in India. A meeting among leaders of Quad nations US, India, Japan and Australia last month had also culminated in an agreement to support the company’s scale-up of production of the J&J vaccine.

• Other suppliers: Some capacity for specific input materials exists in other countries as well, but the US does have the major contribution.

1. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is an adenovirus vectored vaccine, and it (the company) has been told to work 24×7 to increase supply.
2. So there will be a cutting off of supplies of materials used for cell cultures, which are important for other viral vector vaccines, inactivated vaccines and vaccines that are protein expression systems-based.
3. Most of the equipment manufacturing is done in regions like Europe, but for plastics and the bulk of the reagents used in any laboratory, US companies are major suppliers.
4. The sterile filters used for purification of the protein are majorly supplied by companies like New York-headquartered Pall Life Sciences and Merck Millipore, owned by Germany’s Merck but headquartered in Massachusetts. Major suppliers for the single-use bioreactor systems, which use disposable bags for cell culture and fermentation, include American multinational company Baxter Healthcare, Massachusetts-headquartered ThermoFisher and Cytiva. The US does not have a stronghold on all crucial raw materials. At least 50% of the required buffers and enzymes are imported “largely” from Western European countries like France, Germany, Switzerland and, to some extent, even Italy.

• Import from other countries: Finding alternatives is difficult. Many components flagged by SII, Biological E and Bharat Biotech have also been reported as areas of concern by several other manufacturers around the world. WTO trade statistics suggest that global exports of some particularly critical raw materials (including nucleic acids, amino acid phenols, acyclic amides, lecithins and sterols) grew by 49% in the first six months of 2020 to reach some US$ 15.5 billion in value. Another problem is the complex regulatory processes that vaccine makers have to undergo for seeking approvals in different regions.
• Vaccine makers have increasingly relied on third parties for the timely supply of goods like raw materials, equipment, formulated drugs and packaging, critical product components and services. 

 

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• 4. GOVERNMENT SCHEMES (Prelims, GS Paper 2, Essay paper)

Formative Assessment for students - Covid times

• The story: Faced with a massive surge in COVID-19 cases, the Central government cancelled the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) Class X examination and postponed the Class XII examination scheduled to be held from May 4, 2021. The decision was followed by the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE or Class X) and Indian School Certificate (ISC or Class XII) examinations also being postponed.

• The problems now: First is the direct implications on entrance into High Education. Aligning examinations of various Boards is a practical necessity since admission to higher education courses must be done uniformly and entrance examinations have to be conducted for professional courses. Then comes the challenge with traditional method of assessment. How to take up formative assessments where pen-and-pencil annual examinations cannot be held? Students will be left wondering about the nature of formative academic assessment that will be applied to their Class X performance during the year gone by, which was marked by a shift to online classes and TV-based instruction.

• Formative assessment: The annual public school examination in India is referred to as a summative assessment. It had to be cancelled or deferred this year due to the pandemic. The academic system had to fall back on continuous evaluation techniques or other metrics. This is known as formative assessment.

1. According to UNESCO, the key aspects of this pattern are use of observation, quizzes, assignments and feedback.
2. While summative assessment is described as a ‘testing of learning’, formative assessment is ‘testing for learning,’ which helps teachers assess the strengths and weaknesses of individual students and suggest remedial measures.

• Strange times: During the pandemic, many teachers in India have used video-calling tools to deliver instructional material and to coach and assess students. The Boards must now come up with a formative assessment framework that fixes clear metrics.

1. After the recent decision, prominent CBSE schools say they will not face disruption because they conducted periodic internal examinations, practicals, as well as “pre-Board” testing for Class X. This will be useful to evaluate students.
2. The CBSE introduced a formative assessment system through a Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) framework in 2009-10, but abandoned it in favour of a compulsory public examination for Class X, eight years later.
3. The decision to reintroduce a public examination for Class X in CBSE was defended by the government as the removal of discrimination against 1.93 crore secondary students of State and other Boards who continued to take an exit examination.

• Capability of schools to assess fairly: The question of schools’ capabilities to conduct sound formative assessments has become important because not all have similar facilities. While CBSE schools may be more urbanised, the picture for other Boards is mixed. The Unified District Information System for Education data show that in 2017-18, there were 1,88,742 rural schools and 83,207 urban schools under all managements. Data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) for the same year indicate that only 4% of rural households and 23% of urban households had a computer.  Internet access was restricted to 15% of rural and 42% of urban households.

• Summary: Even the National Policy on Education, 1986, had de-emphasised rote learning and recommended a CCE-like framework. The NEP 2020 emphasises (formative) assessment for learning and critiques existing Board examinations as forcing students “to learn a very narrow band of content/material in a single stream”. Future reforms would, therefore, have to work on two fronts — to ensure access to learning for every student, in classrooms or remotely, and make formative assessment possible through a scientifically designed set of metrics.

 

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• 5. POLITY AND CONSTITUTION (Prelims, GS Paper 2, GS Paper 3)

The crucial role of Election Commission of India (ECI)

• The background: The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a creation of the Constitution. Article 324 says the superintendence, direction, and control of all elections to Parliament, the State legislatures, and the offices of the President and Vice-President shall be vested in the ECI. It has been interpreted by courts and by orders of the ECI from time to time to mean that the power vested in it is plenary in nature. It is seen as unlimited and unconditional in the matter of holding elections.

• Where does power come from: The ECI is an extremely powerful body, that gets power from multiple sources.

1. Constitution of India - The ECI derives its power and functions from Article 324 of the Constitution.
2. Supreme Court judgements - The Supreme Court held in 'Mohinder Singh Gill vs Chief Election Commissioner 1978' that Article 324 contains plenary powers to ensure free and fair elections and these are vested in the ECI which can take all necessary steps to achieve this constitutional object.
3. Model Code of Conduct - The MCC conduct issued by the ECI is a set of guidelines meant for political parties, candidates, and governments to adhere to during an election. It is based on consensus among political parties. Its origin can be traced to a code of conduct for political parties prepared by the Kerala government in 1960 for the Assembly elections. It was adopted and refined and enlarged by the ECI in later years and was enforced strictly from 1991 onwards.
4. Independence - The independence of the ECI is preserved by clauses in the Constitution that say the Chief Election Commissioner cannot be removed from office except in the manner provided for the removal of a Supreme Court judge. The conditions of his service cannot be varied to the incumbent’s disadvantage after appointment.

• Associated issues: Many are hanging fire.

1. Undefined scope of powers - Besides the MCC, the ECI issues from time to time directions, instructions, and clarifications on a host of issues that crop up in the course of an election. The code does not say what the ECI can do; it contains only guidelines for the candidates, political parties, and the governments. There exists a considerable amount of confusion about the extent and nature of the powers which are available to the ECI in enforcing the code as well as its other decisions in relation to an election.
2. No legal backing of MCC - The MCC is framed on the basis of a consensus among political parties, it has not been given any legal backing. But it does not have statutory value, and it is enforced only by the moral and constitutional authority of the EC. The Paragraph 16A of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 says that the commission may suspend or withdraw recognition of a recognized political party if it refuses to observe the model code of conduct. The issue is when the code is legally not enforceable, how can the ECI resort to a punitive action such as withdrawal of recognition.
3. Transfer of Officials - Abrupt transfer of senior officials working under State governments by an order of the commission happens. In Mohinder Singh Gill’s case, the Court had made it clear that the ECI can draw power from Article 324 only when no law exists which governs a particular matter. The transfer of officials, etc. is governed by rules made under Article 309 of the Constitution which cannot be bypassed by the ECI under the purported exercise of the power conferred by Article 324.
4. Lack of enforceability - The EC does not have the power to disqualify candidates who commit electoral malpractices. At best, it may direct the registration of a case. That is why, in the 2019 general election, ECI admitted to the Supreme Court that it was “toothless”, and did not have enough powers to deal with inflammatory or divisive speeches in the election campaign.

• Summary: The ECI's role in Indian democracy is truly pivotal, and has bestowed a very high level of confidence in the minds of Indian citizens in ensuring the purity of the elected legislative bodies in the country. But the grey areas in the legal sphere must be rectified, so that ECI can ensure the proper functioning of the democracy via free and fair election. And if elections are compromised, the entire democracy stands corroded and hollowed out.

 

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• 6. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

NASA’s Martian helicopter flies on Mars

• History has been made: On April 19th, at 7.34am Universal Time, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter proved that man can indeed fly on another planet. Following an intricately planned flight sequence that was six years in the making, the 1.8 kg craft spun its contra-rotating twin rotor-blades at 2,400rpm, to ascend from the surface of Mars. It climbed to an altitude of three metres, hovered for 30 seconds and then touched back down on the ground. In logging just 39.1 seconds of flight, Ingenuity opened a new chapter in aviation history.

• Extraterrestrial aviation begins: The helicopter had arrived on Mars on February 18th, 2021, attached to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover—which had had its own, far more violent and hair-raising ride through the Martian atmosphere as it made its way from space to a gentle landing on the planet’s surface, at Jezero Crater. Ingenuity was detached and dropped onto the surface on April 3rd and, in the intervening days, charged up its solar-powered batteries while NASA’s engineers at mission control in California tested and initialised the aircraft’s systems.

• A differentr environment: Flying conditions on Mars are very different from those on Earth. Though Mars has only a third of Earth’s gravity at its surface, making the task of flying there easier, its atmosphere has a mere hundredth of the density of Earth’s (making the task of gaining lift tougher).

1. That means there is a lot less air to push against when attempting to fly. To compensate, Ingenuity’s blades generate the lift they need by spinning five times faster than those of a typical helicopter on Earth.
2. To keep its flight stable with such fast-moving blades requires hundreds of adjustments every second, based on a continuous stream of information from sensors aboard the aircraft. The aerodynamics are thus far too difficult for a human being to control in real time, so Ingenuity is built to fly autonomously.
3. These complexities also explain the delay in the test flight. The demonstration was supposed to happen a week ago but, during a high-speed spin test of the rotors, a software problem prevented Ingenuity’s command sequence from working properly.
4. That glitch was patched and Ingenuity’s successful flight brings space scientists closer to a new way to explore other worlds.

• The march of technology: Over several decades, NASA’s rovers have become ever-more sophisticated mobile laboratories. But they still move slowly and cautiously, and can operate only over reasonably flat ground. Future flying machines on Mars could carry large payloads or quickly survey wide areas of terrain, regardless of its roughness, to pinpoint places for further analysis by rovers. They could perhaps even go where no rover could ever venture—flying close-up to cliff faces that have interesting-looking rock formations, for example, or deep into cave systems.

• The future: Despite the daunting engineering challenges required, NASA already has ambitious plans to use flying machines in future exploration. In 2026 a mission called Dragonfly will, if all goes well, be launched towards Titan, a moon of Saturn. Using eight rotors, this drone-like aircraft will carry its suite of scientific instruments to dozens of places, to examine the habitability of the local environment and perhaps look for signs of life.

• Finally: Ingenuity does not carry any scientific instruments, since it is just a technology demonstrator, though it will send back pictures of its travels over Mars. Despite its diminutive size and capabilities, however, the aircraft has now been given the official designation “IGY” by the International Civil Aviation Organisation—the United Nations’ civil aviation agency. In homage to the builders of Flyer, Ingenuity carried a small piece of cloth from Flyer’s wing; its Martian aerodrome will henceforth be known as Wright Brothers Field.

 

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• 7. SOCIAL ISSUES (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

Global Diabetes Compact: WHO

• What it is: The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a "Global Diabetes Compact" to better fight the disease while marking the centenary of the discovery of insulin. Diabetes is a disease that modern lifestyles breed, unannounced.

• Points to note: The programme was launched at the Global Diabetes Summit co-hosted by the Government of Canada.

1. Global Diabetes Compact - It has the vision of reducing the risk of diabetes, and ensuring that all people who are diagnosed with diabetes have access to equitable, comprehensive, affordable and quality treatment and care. It will support the prevention of type 2 diabetes from obesity, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, and will set standards for tackling the diseases in the form of ‘global coverage targets’ for ensuring a wider reach of diabetes care.
2. Goal - A key aim of the program is to unite key stakeholders from the public and private sectors, and, critically, people who live with diabetes, around a common agenda, to generate new momentum and co-create solutions.
3. Diabetes - It is a Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin (a hormone that regulates blood sugar, or glucose), or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

• Two types of diabetes: It is classified into two types -

1. Type 1 Diabetes: It occurs when the pancreas fails to produce sufficient insulin.
2. Type 2 Diabetes: Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes. In this condition the body does not use insulin properly. This is called insulin resistance.The main reason for the occurrence of type 2 diabetes is due to obesity and lack of exercise.
3. Insulin - It is a peptide hormone secreted by Pancreas which helps in maintaining normal blood glucose levels by facilitating cellular glucose uptake, regulating carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism and promoting cell division and growth through its mitogenic effects. It was discovered in 1921 by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Frederick Banting and medical student Charles Best, from the University of Toronto. Dr. Banting later won the Nobel Prize for this discovery in 1923 along with Professor McLeod who was a Professor of Carbohydrate Metabolism.

• Global Burden of Diabetes: Today, approximately 6% of the world’s population – more than 420 million people – live with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
• It is the only major non-communicable disease for which the risk of dying early is going up, rather than down, and has emerged as one of the major comorbid conditions linked to severe Covid-19 infections. The International Diabetes Foundation Diabetes Atlas, in 2019, placed India among the top 10 countries for people with diabetes.

• Government of India: India’s National Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Target is to prevent the rise in obesity and diabetes prevalence. National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancers, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) in 2010, to provide support for diagnosis and cost-effective treatment at various levels of health care.

• Knowledge centre:

1. Pancreas - The pancreas is an organ located in the abdomen, part of the digestive system. It plays an essential role in converting the food we eat into fuel for the body's cells. It does two things - an exocrine function that helps in digestion and an endocrine function that regulates blood sugar. The most important hormone that the pancreas produces is insulin, released by the 'beta cells' in the islets of Langerhans in response to food. Its role is to lower glucose levels in the bloodstream and promote the storage of glucose in fat, muscle, liver and other body tissues. Without insulin, the cells cannot get enough energy from food. This form of diabetes results from the body's immune system attacking the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The beta cells become damaged and, over time, the pancreas stops producing enough insulin to meet the body's needs.
2. Sugar imbalance - Hypoglycemia is a condition in which your blood sugar (glucose) level is lower than normal. Glucose is your body's main energy source. Hypoglycemia is often related to diabetes treatment. But other drugs and a variety of conditions — many rare — can cause low blood sugar in people who don't have diabetes. Hyperglycemia is the technical term for high blood glucose (blood sugar). High blood sugar happens when the body has too little insulin or when the body can't use insulin properly.

 

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• 8. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, GS Paper 1, GS Paper 2)

Earth's Carbon - Source and origin

• The story: Human bodies are made up of about 18% carbon and the planet we live in contains 1.85 billion billion tonnes of carbon. Where did all this carbon come from?
• Recent studies: A study published in Science Advances notes that most of the carbon came from the interstellar medium (the material in space between stars). A second study, published in PNAS, says that during a key step in the origin of our planet much of the carbon must have been lost as gas. The planet needs carbon to regulate its climate and allow life to exist, but it’s a very delicate thing.
• Dust within our Solar System: One of the models, named the condensation model, suggests that all elements were initially presented in nebular gas (gas and dust orbiting the Sun) and became available for Earth’s formation when the gas cooled and condensed. This model does not apply for carbon because it exists in the nebular gas as carbon monoxide (CO), which does not condense until 41 Kelvin (-232.15 degree Celsius), well below the Earth’s temperature today (300 Kelvin or 26 degree Celsius). Earth was probably much hotter when it formed.
• Why important to know: Knowing the carbon source is important for us to understand the origin of life on Earth, and will help us look for a habitable world elsewhere.

 

Report: One in two Indian adults experienced cybercrime recently

1. What happened: The NortonLifeLock recently released a report titled “2021 Norton cyber–Safety Insights Report”.
2. Findings: Nearly 59% of Indians, that is, more than one in two adults in the country have experienced cyber crime in the last twelve months. The report says that seven in ten Indian adults believe that remote work atmosphere created by COVID-19 has made it easier for the hackers and cybercriminals. Around 52% of the adults in India do not know how to protect themselves from cybercrime. More than 27 million Indian adults experienced identity thefts, and 90% of the consumers using online transactions are taking proactive steps to safeguard their data. 42% believe that it is impossible to protect their privacy. 66% are worried that they are more vulnerable to cybercrimes due to COVID-19 and how it is making the world to become more reliable on digital platforms. 52% of cybercrime victims turned to their friends for help and 47% contacted the company for resolving the issues. Of the total cybercrimes that occurred in India, 14% occurred in 2020. More than twenty-seven million adults have faced identity thefts in 2020-21.
3. Steps taken to spread awareness about Cyber crimes: The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) was launched to handle issues related to cybercrimes in the country. Online Cybercrime reporting portal was launched to report complaints related to child sexual abuse material or child pornography. The Cyber Swachhta Kendra was established. These are Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centres. It provides detection of malicious programmes and free tools to remove such programmes. The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre was launched to protect critical information infrastructure.

 

Israel: National plan to reduce 80% GHG emissions by 2050

1. The story: The Ministry of Energy of Israel recently announced a National Plan to reduce 80% of Greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as compared to that of 2015.
2. What will be done: The plan aims to shut down all coal-fired power plants by 2025, and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector by 75% to 85% by 2050. It will increase the production of renewable energy in the country. The plan is to be implemented through development of innovative technologies, transition to electric vehicles, changes in energy usage in households and also through improvements in power grid.
3. Details: The plan will aim to make 25% of buses and vehicles in the country to be zero-emission by 2030 as compared to that of the current level. Also, it will work in reducing 10% of the heavy trucks, especially those trucks weighing less than 3.5 tonnes to be zero emission by 2030. It will direct homes and businesses to adopt public transportation hubs and will create sustainable and walkable communities. The downtown areas are to be closed for cars. Only those vehicles that do not pollute are to be allowed in these regions. The country is to move towards solar and hydrogen energy to achieve the targets.
4. Results: The plan is expected to decrease the distances travelled in cars and heavy trucks. Also, the sustainable methods of travel are to increase to 50% in 2030 and 70% in 2050 as compared to 37% in 2018. Around 25% of new apartment buildings are expected to become green energy buildings. The plan will reduce 47% of methane emissions from landfill by 2030 and 92% by 2050. It will reduce the waste reaching landfill to 20% in 2030 and 5% in 2050 as compared to 78% in 2018.

 

India, Germany MoU on Cities combating plastic entering the marine environment

• Coming together: India and Germany have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on “Cities Combating Plastic Entering the Marine Environment”. It is in line with the objective of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban.

• About the MoU: The project to be implemented mainly focuses on sustainable solid waste management. It will help India achieve the goal of phasing out single use plastics by 2022. The project is being launched under the Joint Declaration made by the countries regarding cooperation in the field of Prevention of Marine Litter. The declaration was signed by India and Germany in 2019. The project is to be implemented mainly in the states of Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It will mainly support cities such as Port Blair, Kochi and Kanpur.

• Features: The project will help the cities in improving their system of garbage collection, segregation, and will also work towards enhancing marketing of plastic wastes.

• Why needed: Around 15% to 20% of the plastics entering the oceans are through the riverine system. Of this, 90% are contributed by the ten most polluted rivers in the world. Two of these rivers are located in India. They are the Ganges and Brahmaputra.

1. India lags in data of exact plastics being dumped in the oceans. With COVID-19 outbreak, the use of Personal Protective Equipment has increased that is often discarded in unscientific ways.
2. India is the twelfth largest source of marine litter in the world. By 2025, it is expected to become the fifth largest source of marine litter. India consumes 16.5 million tonnes of plastics annually. Of this, 43% are single use plastic material.

 

9.1 Today's best editorials to read

• We offer you 7 excellent editorials from across 10 newspapers we have scanned. 

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

Solve the online quiz given, right now. Check scores, and relative performance!

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