Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 28-04-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 28-04-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. World Politics - China set to announce its first decline in population in 60 years - The Chinese government is expected to announce soon that the nation’s population has shrunk for the first time in nearly 60 years. The latest census numbers are expected to show a decline to less than 1.4 billion people, though it is unclear how much less. Chinese ministries have used the 1.4 billion figure since 2018. A drop in China’s population would be the first since since a two-year decline in 1960-61 due to the impact of the Great Famine. The population fell about 10 million in 1960 and another 3.4 million in in 1961 before rebounding 14.4 million in 1962. A declining population in China may have huge repercussions for the Chinese economy, and also how the country is perceived by other nations, including the US. Chinese experts say that many American economists believe that China will become the No 1 economy in the world, and will be in competition with America, but actually, China is not as strong as they expected. It is likely China would gradually begin raising the retirement age for Chinese workers – a sign that the country’s workforce is not large enough to allow older workers to retire at the mandatory retirement age at 60 for men and 55 for women, or 50 for blue-collar women. In 2015, the Chinese Communist Party announced the end of the so-called one-child policy – a population control policy since the late 1970s that forced most families in the country to have only one child or else face penalties – and permitted Chinese families to have two children. Meanwhile, the US Census Bureau began releasing its own numbers this week from its 2020 census and announced that the US population had grown by its slowest rate since the 1930s, with the biggest cause of the slowdown the country’s declining birth rate. The US population is now just shy of 331.5 million (33.15 crore).
2. World Economy - Japan approves RCEP finally - Japan’s parliament approved joining the world’s largest free-trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, as signatories aim for it to come into effect from the start of 2022. The approval comes after China called for the deal to be ratified to shore up the economy in the Asia-Pacific. The China-backed RCEP was signed in November 2020 and included the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. By eliminating tariffs on 91 per cent of goods, the RCEP will create a free-trade zone covering nearly one-third of the world’s economy, trade and population. It will also be the first deal of its kind involving China, Japan and South Korea, and comes as the three countries struggle to negotiate a trilateral free-trade agreement. Japan is the second-biggest regional economy outside Asean to give its formal support to the deal. China ratified the pact in March. Japan’s government said in March that it expected the trade accord to boost the country’s GDP by 2.7 per cent and create 570,000 jobs. Thailand and Singapore have also ratified the agreement. The deal will go into force 60 days after six of the Asean members and three non-Asean member states ratify it. China is interested in joining the Japan-led Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), that demands higher standards for trade, investment, competition and labour protection than the RCEP. India was one of the founding RCEP members but skipped all negotiations from November 2019 because of concern that its trade deficit with China would grow.
3. World Politics - Beijing takes foreign media to Xinjiang in bid to dispel suspicion - China organised a trip to Xinjiang for foreign media in April 2021 to defend its policies in the region following mounting international criticism of alleged human rights abuses. About 10 foreign media including Associated Press (AP) and TV Tokyo were invited to the region in the country’s far west, and Communist Party’s bosses met the media group in the city of Turpan, outside a location that had been identified previously by an unnamed Australian think tank as a re-education centre. TV Tokyo was the only Japanese outlet to join the media tour. Its reporter visited a textile company with 5,000 employees that was sanctioned by the United States over the alleged use of forced labour. The company claimed that there was no forced labour, saying that sanctions had affected transactions with American and Japanese firms. Many people who were asked about alleged human rights abuses did not respond, but some said that “Han Chinese and ethnic minorities are one family”. In January 2019, a group of foreign media outlets, including Reuters and Russian state-run news agency TASS, visited camps in Xinjiang. Foreign governments, the United Nations and researchers have said an estimated 1 million people or more have been confined in such camps, described by Beijing as “vocational training” centres.
4. Constitution and Law - Why not same rate for Covid-19 vaccine in India - A lawyer and three law students moved Bombay High Court seeking directions to COVID-19 vaccine makers to sell the doses at a uniform rate. They alleged that the pharmaceutical companies are engaged in "organised loot" and the court should intervene to protect the "national public health". They added, "Pharma giants are milking the fear psychosis of increased death rates." The differential pricing regime proposed for mass inoculation has already raised many other concerns pertaining to procurement and logistics also. SII Pune boss Poonawalla tweeted that "as a philanthropic gesture he will reduce the price a bit".
5. World Economy - Saudi not bringing new taxes - Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that the kingdom has no plans to introduce income tax and the decision to triple value-added tax to 15% last year was temporary. "Raising VAT was a painful measure and I hate to hurt any Saudi citizen," he said. He added that the kingdom aims to reduce unemployment to 11% this year. The kingdom had tripled VAT to offset the impact of lower oil revenue on state finances in a move that had shocked citizens and businesses expecting more support from the government during the coronavirus pandemic. The government has been pushing through economic reforms since 2016 to create millions of jobs and reduce unemployment to 7% by 2030. The plans were disrupted by the coronavirus crisis that sent oil prices plummeting in 2020.
6. World Economy - Google parent minted money - Google's parent company Alphabet reported record profit of $17.9 billion during the first quarter of 2021, topping its previous high of $15.2 billion in the December quarter. The company's first-quarter sales rose 34% from the previous year to $55.3 billion, fuelled by a surge in digital ad spending. Alphabet also announced that it'll purchase an additional $50 billion in shares. The results provided the first sign that Google services such as search and YouTube may hold on to gains made since lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions forced people to shop and communicate online over 2020. Google's ad business, the global market leader as measured in sales, accounted for 81% of Alphabet's first-quarter revenue.
7. People and Personalities - Huge inheritance tax to be paid by Samsung's controlling family - The family of late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee has said it'll pay $10.78 billion in inheritance taxes, the largest-ever in South Korea, over a five-year period for his estate. The family plans to donate 23,000 pieces from Lee's art collection to help pay the tax. Lee, who died in October 2020, had shareholdings in Samsung affiliates valued at $17 billion.
8. Indian Economy - India's business activity down to 76% of pre-COVID-19 level - India's business activity has fallen to 76% of the pre-COVID-19 level due to lockdowns imposed by several states, Japanese brokerage firm Nomura said. However, it said that falling activity levels will have a muted economic impact and maintained its growth estimates for the year. There should be a return of pent-up demand as vaccination's pace picks up, Nomura added. As of April 25, the Nomura India Business Resumption Index (NIBRI) registered its steepest weekly fall in over a year of 8.5 percentage points to 75.9, which is 24 percentage points below pre-pandemic normal.
9. World Politics - Covid update - Greece's prime minister has issued an appeal for elderly Greeks to get vaccinated, blaming hesitancy for persistently high rates of death and hospitalization. Globally, new COVID-19 cases increased for the ninth consecutive week, with nearly 5.7 million new cases reported in the last week – surpassing previous peaks (Figure 1). The number of new deaths increased for the sixth consecutive week, with over 87 000 new deaths reported. This week, all regions are reporting decreases in case incidence apart from the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions. For the third consecutive week, the South-East Asia region reported the highest relative increases in both case and death incidences. India accounts for the vast majority of cases from this regional trend and 38% of global cases reported in the past week. World's Covid-19 tally was - Total cases: 149,319,224; New cases: 830,867; Total deaths: 3,148,205; New deaths: 14,858; Total recovered: 127,458,063; Active cases: 18,712,956.
10. Indian Politics - Covid update - India broke records again as authorities reported 3,60,960 new COVID-19 cases on 27th April, a global record. India also recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic to date, with 3,293 new deaths bringing the official death toll to 2,01,187. As India’s crisis continues, a virus variant first identified in the country has now spread to at least 17 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued orders to provide Y category security on an all India basis to Serum Institute's Adar Poonawalla; CRPF to provide security to him. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said "People's money was given to vaccine companies to develop Covid vaccines. Now, GOI will make same people pay the highest price in the world for these vaccines. Once again, the failed ‘system’ fails our citizens for Modi-mitrs’ profit." PM Modi spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin, thanking him for Russia's help and support in India's fight against Covid-19. Highest single-day rise of 266 Covid fatalities takes Uttar Pradesh's death toll to 11,943 while 29,824 fresh cases push tally to 11,82,848. Posts in social media claim that UP's figures, much like other states', are a gross under-estimation. Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel has asked PM Narendra Modi with a five-point request regarding vaccination; demands allocation of vaccines to states in proportion to their active caseload and population, waiver of taxes on vaccines. MP said that all vaccination sessions will remain suspended in Madhya Pradesh on April 29 and April 30 so that planning, training and dry run can be conducted for the inoculation drive for people between 18 years and 44 years of age. Total cases: 17,988,637; New cases: 362,902; Total deaths: 201,165; New deaths: +3,285; Total recovered: 14,807,704; Active cases: 2,979,768.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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

US versus China: Joe Biden's first 100 days resembled Trump's in many ways

• What's changing: Chinese experts say that Joe Biden's style nearly 100 days into his tenure differs little from the administration of his predecessor, who erected multiple economic barriers and portrayed Beijing as a human rights pariah, amid bipartisan consensus that China was a threat.

• No decoupling: Trump had openly spoken of the need to decouple US economy from Chinese, but Biden is stopping short of it. On 30th April, Biden's presidency will pass the 100-day mark, a symbolic milestone against which administrations are often assessed. On China, the past three months have seen the Biden administration sanction Chinese officials over human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong; uphold a determination that the treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang constitutes “genocide”; roll out new guidelines for increased engagement with Taiwanese officials; and carry out naval drills in the South China Sea.

• Laws: On the legislative front, the administration has also thrown its support behind a bipartisan bill that would allocate US$112 billion for research in technology considered critical in the deepening competition between the US and China. When it came to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s blueprint to engage with China along three lines – confrontation, competition, and cooperation – the administration’s first 100 days had skewed toward confrontation with elements of competition.

1. Experts say there was little evidence of cooperation, the one exception being Xi Jinping’s participation in Biden’s virtual climate summit in April
2. Biden's officials said the government would “not shy away from hard topics and addressing them directly with China” including the 'genocide going on in Xinjiang province'

• Republicans attacking Biden: Despite Biden’s willingness to maintain or even escalate tensions with Beijing on a number of areas, his first 100 days in office have seen some congressional Republicans continue efforts dating back to the presidential campaign to paint him as too friendly with Beijing. Republicans are found saying that “Russia and China are already pushing the President around, so we are very worried.” Republican China hawks including senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida have sought to paint a number of administration moves as indicative of a weak approach to handling Beijing, including Washington’s rejoining of the Paris Agreement and Biden’s military budget request. Scott accused Biden of “weak defence spending” and suggested he sought to “appease Communist China.”

• The big issues: Looking at the administration’s enhanced engagement with Taiwan, its frosty first bilateral meeting in Alaska, and its decision to keep in place tariffs implemented during the trade war, Biden’s approach is viewed as largely a continuation of his predecessor’s, barring efforts to work more closely with allies.

1. The investment deal that the European Union and China agreed upon in the late stages of the Trump administration, “after four years in which our alliances were allowed to fray”, was a worry. But in a sign that EU leadership is warming to the prospect of a closer alliance with Washington under Biden, leaders of the bloc recently warned members that the EU and Beijing had “fundamental divergences” on matters including economic systems, human rights and relations with third countries.
2. In a letter, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said those differences “must not be brushed under the carpet” and argued that the bloc should “accept [the Biden administration’s] open hand and work together, whilst asserting our own stance, and our own interests, on the world stage”.

• National security: The Commerce Department’s first tranche of “military end user”, or MEU, companies include 58 Chinese companies – including the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the state-owned military aerospace contractor that is a key supplier for a commercial aircraft that Beijing is trying to bring to market – and 45 Russian ones.

1. Biden’s administration is undertaking several reviews dealing directly and indirectly with China, the results of which will guide the US leader’s strategy in terms of technology trade with the country.
2. This includes a 100-day review, announced in February, of the supply chains for semiconductors and advanced batteries used in electric vehicles, followed by a broader, long-term review of six sectors of the economy.

• The politics: In a sign of the polarisation, Biden’s approval rating at the 100-day mark stands at around 52 per cent, according to a Washington Post poll of more than 1,000 adults. While significantly higher than Trump’s 100-day rating at 42 per cent, the figure is less than that of any other president since Gerald Ford in 1974 (48 per cent).

Small firms seek relief on compliance

• The story: India's small enterprises are facing business loss and manpower shortage, and have asked the government to provide more compliance relief and said the economic downturn and the devastating second wave of the pandemic are bringing them to their knees.

• What are the demands: Small firms have asked for relaxation in monthly goods and services tax (GST) payments and various filing requirements for the just-concluded fiscal. Regional restrictions on movement and normal business activities make it hard to comply, they said.

1. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) recently amended the GST rules to allow filing of returns using a one time password instead of using an electronic signature, in what comes as a relief for small firms.
2.  In 2020, the government provided compliance relief on several requirements after the nation went into a complete lockdown in the last week of March. That included extension of various due dates, reduction in rate of taxes to be deducted or collected at source, and reduced penalty for late payment of advance tax, GST, securities transaction tax, and commodity transaction tax for specified periods.

• On the edge: The stress in the economy could drive a lot of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to shut between now and June 2021, and there is an urgent need for the government to come out with a package. Industry insiders say “We are going through a serious phase. In Maharashtra, many small firms remain closed and they do not have the systems to meet compliance requirements away from their office premises. I would appeal to the government to give compliance relief on everything, including income tax and GST, till December."

• Large versus small: India's large corporations are equipped to meet the compliance requirement, but small businesses do not have the digital and network capabilities to make the statutory filings. Small businesses account for about 30% of gross domestic product and most of them are in the informal sector. Many of them are at present facing labour shortage due to reverse migration.

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

Melting glaciers threaten China’s Tibet dam plans

• The story: The Yarlung Tsangpo is the longest river in Tibet. And the Yarlung Tsangpo valley in southern Tibet is the world’s deepest valley with a 7,000-metre (23,000-foot) drop from the highest mountain peak to the lowest basin. China plans to build a hydropower plant in the valley with electricity generation capacity reaching 70 gigawatts, about three times that of the Three Gorges Dam. The project was approved by the central government in 2020 and included in the 14th five-year plan with a deadline of 2035.

• An obstacle the communists cannot wish away: An icy obstacle could put a halt to much of the plan. In 2018, a landslide caused by a melting glacier blocked the Yarlung Tsangpo – the upper stream of the Brahmaputra River – at the Sedongpu Basin in Milin county. It formed a lake containing about 600 million cubic metres of water. With the river spilling over the top at present, the dam could collapse at any time.

1. The Sedongpu lake sits just a few dozen kilometres upstream from the planned construction site of the super hydropower plant. With so much water hanging overhead, no construction workers can move in to clear the ground. To build the big dam, they must get rid of the small dam formed by the landslide first.
2. Several teams of scientists and engineers have flown to Sedongpu in recent years, including some of the nation’s top experts in civil engineering, glacier study and landslide prevention. They collected a large amount of data on the site using drones and other advanced equipment and were asked by authorities to come up with a solution after finishing their assessment.
3. The experts could not find a way to strengthen the landslide dam or remove it safely. Worse still, they found similar disasters would likely happen again in the same area, thanks to climate change. The area is large and there are many glaciers. Even if there is a method, treating such a harsh natural landscape with engineering methods could be technically challenging and costly.

• Rapid degeneration: A quarter of the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau have disappeared since the 1970s, and two-thirds of the remaining will be gone by the end of the century, according to an estimate by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Studies found that increased meltwater and rising temperatures could make the “roof of the world” more habitable with greater crop yields and advancing tree lines, but the risk of natural disasters, including flooding and landslides, also increased.

1. And ice could turn a landslide into something more destructive. At Sedongpu, for instance, the icy debris travelled more than 10km (6.2 miles) with a top speed of 72km/h (45mph), according to an estimate by Tibet autonomous region’s geological environmental monitoring station.
2. The icy material also loosened the landslide dam and made it more prone to collapse. The sheer drop in elevation means even a relatively small amount of water could cause serious destruction downstream. Human activity in the Sedongpu area “should be avoided altogether”.

• Why super dam only: Some Chinese scientists have proposed that instead of building a super dam, a 16km-long tunnel could be dug through one of the high mountains in the Yarlung Tsangpo valley. The water could be directed into the tunnel to push electricity generating turbines. This scheme would reduce the power output to 50GW – or about twice that of the Three Gorges Dam – but reduce the risk of damage from landslides or other natural disasters.

• India's reaction: China’s plan to dam the Yarlung Tsangpo has drawn protests from India, which sits directly downstream. A large area in southern Tibet remained disputed by China and India and the latter worried China would use the dam to cut off India’s much-needed water supply. As a countermeasure, the Indian government plans to build a 10GW dam in its controlled area as well. Indian scientists have told local media the environmental cost of the “dam-for-dam” response in the region would be extremely high and the Indian government should wait until it became clearer what their Chinese counterparts would do before taking any action.

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

Using "Sanctions" as foreign policy tools

• Sanctions as policy: American policy experts often contemplate how their country had, over decades, “refined our capacity to apply sanctions effectively”. But there is a warning too: overuse can undermine US leadership position within the global economy, and the effectiveness of sanctions themselves.

• What Trump did: If the learning was “proceed with caution”, it was lost on Donald Trump, who became president in 2017. The screw was turned against China, Iran, Russia, Venezuela and others. The steady increase in sanctions “proved to be a rare constant” on Mr Trump’s watch. During Mr Trump’s four-year term, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which oversees American sanctions programmes, targeted roughly twice as many entities and individuals a year as it had during the two-term presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

• What about Biden: Those who thought Joe Biden would sound a retreat were quickly set straight. True, his administration, hoping to revive a nuclear deal with Iran struck by Mr Obama but abandoned by Mr Trump, is talking to the Islamic Republic about easing his predecessor’s “maximum pressure” sanctions. However, his first few months in office have also seen a host of new sanctions.

1. On April 15th 2021, America announced sweeping measures against Russia for election-meddling, cyber-attacks and more.
2. In March, America and Western allies had imposed asset freezes and travel bans on several Chinese officials for their role in human-rights abuses in Xinjiang. Since Mr Biden took office America has also sanctioned officials deemed to have undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy; announced curbs on China’s access to American technology for supercomputers; and targeted companies linked to the junta behind Myanmar’s coup.
3. Such measures show how sanctions have become a central tool of foreign policy. Governments increasingly see them as a way to try to change other states’ behaviour in situations where diplomacy alone is insufficient, but military intervention is seen as too risky or heavy-handed.

• Variety of sanctions: As the use of sanctions has grown, so has their variety. What was once a smattering of trade embargoes has become a global mesh of coercive tools, some covering countries or whole economic sectors, others single firms or individuals. Mr Trump’s targets included Huawei, a Chinese 5G-network provider, and TikTok, a video app; Mr Biden’s sanctions cover a Russian troll farm and a Pakistan-based firm that allegedly creates fake IDs used by trolls.

• Legal angle: Mr Biden is likely to make use of America’s Magnitsky Act (named after a lawyer who died in a Russian prison) to move against foreign officials accused of corruption or serious human-rights abuses. Western countries—including Britain as it looks to forge a post-EU sanctions policy—are increasingly adopting “thematic, values-based policies” that target such miscreants. This sophistication is partly a matter of necessity. Targets were once mostly economic small fry, such as Cuba and North Korea; now they include much bigger fish, such as China and Russia. As targets have grown, so has the potential for collateral damage. A blanket embargo on China for locking up Uyghurs, say, could produce intolerable economic blowback.

• Size of targets: Large targets, however, also feel more emboldened to hit back. China responded to the Xinjiang sanctions with counter-measures against European politicians, diplomats and a think-tank. Its growing economic clout means it can wound when it retaliates. It may also, over the longer term, have a corrosive effect on sanctions: the more the large targets respond by seeking to reduce their reliance on American finance and technology, the weaker America’s global economic leverage becomes—and the less potent sanctions’ impact.

• History: The first recorded use of sanctions was in 432BC, when the Athenian Empire banned traders from Megara from its marketplaces, thereby strangling the rival city-state’s economy. However, not until the 20th century did modern concepts of international sanctions—a collective denial of economic access designed to enforce global order—become prominent. The League of Nations led in forging multilateral sanctions in the early 20th century. The UN later did the same against obnoxious regimes from white-supremacist Rhodesia to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. America, for its part, stepped up its unilateral sanctions after the second world war. OFAC was created in 1950, a decade after a forerunner had been set up to freeze the US assets of the Danish and Norwegian governments, in order to stop the Nazis seizing them. During the cold war, Congress gave the president new powers to impose sanctions. Cuba was a favourite target. Use intensified in the 1990s, with America targeting Iran as it flirted with nuclear-bomb-making. But the most dramatic shift in America’s approach followed the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. The Patriot Act, passed soon after, targeted terrorist coffers. Thus began an era of more carefully tailored, or “smart”, sanctions that sought to hamstring terrorists, dictators and others by restricting their access to American-owned or influenced financial plumbing (an example of the latter being the SWIFT interbank network). This change of tack “made sanctions so much more powerful than they were before”.Double-edged swords
• Secondary sanctions: Another inflection point came around 2010, as America upped its use of “secondary sanctions”, which target not only the perceived bad guys but also threaten anyone doing business with them with financial excommunication. Their power was most apparent in Iran: European firms saw golden opportunities there after the 2015 nuclear deal but backed away in droves after Mr Trump reimposed sanctions, and added secondary ones, in 2018.
• Latest: American policy has undergone two further shifts over the past decade. The first, sparked by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, was to go after bigger fish. America and other Western powers unveiled sanctions against dozens of Russian agencies, companies and members of Mr Putin’s circle. In doing so they were taking on an economy more than twice the size of any other previously targeted with such comprehensive sanctions. The second shift was Mr Trump’s splattergun approach. So varied were his targets and so devoid of diplomacy his manner (he once threatened to “obliterate” the economy of Turkey, a NATO ally, during a spat over Syria) that sanctions wonks were left wondering if there was any method in the madness.
• Countering sanctions: Sanctions provoke counter-measures. The most direct way is for the target country to issue counter-sanctions. An alternative is to use legal mechanisms to negate sanctions. “Blocking statutes” aim to shield domestic companies by prohibiting them from complying with another country’s sanctions. The EU’s statute dates back to the 1990s, and was strengthened after Mr Trump pulled out of the Iran accord. It has sparked litigation in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, and several cases are before the European Court of Justice (ECJ). In Britain, Metro Bank is being sued by a group of Iranian clients who argue that the bank’s closure of their accounts without warning—after Metro found it had breached American sanctions—violated the blocking statute. The outcomes will have big implications for European firms operating in Iran, or wishing to, but caught between competing sanctions regimes. The biggest long-term threat to sanctions’ effectiveness involves efforts by targets to circumvent them. A time-honoured way to do this is to trade through sanctions-busters: black-marketeers using shell companies, fake trade paperwork and other dark arts. Turkey and Dubai—particularly the latter’s trading houses and free-trade zones—have been weak links in enforcing Western sanctions on Iran.
• Digital escape: Digitisation might help it do so. China’s central bank is a world leader in developing a digital currency, which is being tested in several cities. It could fundamentally change how Chinese companies do business by 2022 or 2023. China would also like to loosen America’s grip on the cross-border payments infrastructure. It has its own version of SWIFT, called CIPS, which simplifies cross-border payments in yuan. Europe, too, is seeking to strengthen its single currency’s role in global commerce. The euro is now used to settle some international oil shipments, for instance by commodities firms buying from Russia. (The oil trade has traditionally been denominated in dollars.)
• Summary: China will also continue to try to turn Western sanctions to its advantage. They have helped it advance its interests abroad, for instance by filling the economic void left by American sanctions on Iran and Venezuela. In March China reportedly signed a $400bn, 25-year deal to invest in Iran’s energy sector and upgrade its transport and manufacturing infrastructure. The world of sanctions surely is becoming less unipolar.

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

Assam quake tremor and vulnerability of North East India

• The shock: The North East was a highly fragile and earthquake-prone zone and needed to have an integrative disaster plan to tackle high-intensity earthquakes, according to scientists. But disaster mitigation policy makers in the region were yet to tap adequately into the scientific data available on earthquakes. There is a considerable knowledge and policy gap regarding earthquakes. Scientific research findings on the Kopili fault earthquake zone have hardly made it into disaster reduction policies. Bridging this gap is key to formulating any meaningful earthquake damage mitigation plans.

• Latest quake: The quake in April, measuring 6.4 on the Richter Scale, occurred near Dhekiajuli in the Sonitpur district of Assam at about 7:51 am April 28, 2021, 80 kilometres northeast of Guwahati.

1. Its epicentre was at 26.690 N and 92.360 E, according to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS). It had a depth of 17 km and lasted for nearly 30 seconds. Multiple aftershocks ranging from 4.7-3.6 on the Richter scale were also recorded within the next hour.
2. The jolts were the most severe among the ones many had witnessed in their entire lives. It kept jolting for a couple minutes and it felt like everything around me will crumble down.
3. Damages to buildings and structures have been reported within 100 km from the epicentre in the areas of Sonitpur, Nagaon, Guwahati and Udalguri, according to the Central Seismological Observatory, NCS, Shillong and Regional Meteorological Centre of the India Meteorological Department, Guwahati.

• The Kopili fault: The tremors have been attributed by the NCS to the Kopili fault zone closer to Himalayan Frontal Thrust. This is a seismically active area falling in the highest Seismic Hazard Zone V. It is associated with collisional tectonics because of the Indian Plate subducting beneath the Eurasian Plate. Subduction is a geological process in which one crustal plate is forced below the edge of another.

1. The Kopili fault zone is a 300 km long and 50 km wide lineament (linear feature) extending from the western part of Manipur up to the tri-junction of Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The fault itself is a transpressional fracture that generates lower crustal dextral strike-slip earthquakes.
2. The Kopili fault is currently the most active seismic zone in North East India. Squeezed between the subduction and collision zones of the Himalayan belt and Sumatran belt, the North East is highly prone to earthquake occurrences.
3. Geodesy is an earth science of accurately measuring and understanding the Earth's geometric shape, orientation in space and gravitational field.

• More details: A tectonic depression filled up by the alluvium of the Kopilli river and its tributaries, the Kopili fault zone has witnessed many seismic activities in the past including the 1869 earthquake (7.8  magnitude) and the 1943 earthquake (7.3 magnitude). A study attributed the January 4, 2016 earthquake in the Imphal Valley to the Kopili fracture although later research contradicted this conclusion.

1. There was a gap of 74 years between the two major earthquakes of 1869 and 1943. Multiple studies predicted a major earthquake event around 2017.
2. Recent seismicity discovered along the Kopili fault led to speculations that this fault is one of the most seismically active faults of the region and a major earthquake could be expected in the future, which has somehow been validated by recent event.
3. A considerable portion of the Kopili fault zone and its neighbouring areas are characterised by alluvial soils that have a higher potential of trapping seismic waves, making the region the most earthquake prone zone in North East India.

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

Covid battle - Indian security forces called in

• Finally: India has called in security forces to bolster its fight against Covid-19, deploying soldiers and building field hospitals as the country’s health system threatens to collapse under a deluge of infections. In the capital New Delhi, one of the hardest-hit cities, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police reopened an emergency treatment facility built during the first wave of coronavirus last year.
• Ready and good to go: The armed forces said they would add more sites, while recently retired military medics will be recalled to treat sick patients, according to General Bipin Rawat, chief of India’s defence staff. Rooms at a five-star hotel in central Delhi were also converted into Covid-19 treatment facilities for judiciary officials and their families at the Delhi High Court’s request. The refitting prompted bitter accusations that the powerful were enjoying special treatment while many of the city’s sick died because of a lack of hospital beds.
• The problem: India is facing critical shortages of beds, oxygen and other life-saving medical supplies as its second wave shatters global records. India is reporting more cases than any country since the pandemic began, adding another 320,000 on Tuesday along with 2,700 deaths. Yet the true toll of the outbreak is believed to be far higher, as many patients are unable to be tested or treated and many deaths went either unrecorded or misreported. In many parts of the country, the number of suspected Covid-19 victims arriving at cremation and burial grounds has far exceeded the official number of deaths.
• Global help: International partners including the US, UK and EU are providing emergency supplies including oxygen and vaccines amid mounting alarm about the little-understood B. 1.617 variant that has emerged in India. PM Modi has been accused of mismanaging — and even of exacerbating — the crisis by not doing enough to build up healthcare capacity and dismantling the emergency structures put in place in 2020. His party, which has sought to tamp down public anger and criticism of the government’s handling of the crisis, had as recently as February 2021 declared victory over the pandemic. Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi chief minister, said the reopened police facility would be expanded to 2,000 beds with oxygen in the coming days.
• Indians venting their frustration and despair on social media have been criticised by BJP supporters for stoking “negativity”, and the government has ordered companies including Twitter and Facebook to remove some critical posts. Yogi Adityanath, BJP chief minister of India’s largest state Uttar Pradesh, threatened to invoke draconian national security laws to seize the property of those “spreading rumours” about oxygen shortages and using social media to “spoil the atmosphere”. The influential Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s parent organisation, warned that “anti-India forces” could take advantage of the health emergency to fuel disaffection. Dattatreya Hosable, RSS general secretary, warned Indians to be alert to “the conspiracies of these destructive forces” and urged the public to “contribute in maintaining an atmosphere of positivity, hope and trust in the society”.
• Is a new variant driving it: Chances are that new variants, especially the so-called "Bengal variant" B.1.617 is driving a lot of this new, second wave of infections and deaths.
• Global reaction: The US, which has been criticised for stockpiling vaccines and imposing restrictions on exports of the raw materials used in their production, said it would send supplies to India to help boost its lagging inoculation campaign.

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

Oxygen concentrator and making of medical oxygen

• The story: Oxygen is proving vital in the fight against Covid-19, but some hospitals in India are experiencing a shortage in supply as coronavirus cases surge. Many deaths were reported due to sheer exhaustion and lack of pure oxygen in hospitals. How is oxygen made, how does it help those with Covid, why is supply so short and what are oxygen concentrators?

• Making oxygen: Oxygen can be produced using various methods, including air separation, chemical and electrolysis.

1. It can be made from hydrogen peroxide, which decomposes slowly to form water and oxygen. However, the rate of reaction can be increased using the catalyst manganese oxide. When manganese oxide is added to hydrogen peroxide, bubbles of oxygen are given off.
2. In order to make oxygen in a laboratory, hydrogen peroxide is poured into a conical flask which contains some manganese oxide. The gas produced from this reaction is then collected in an upside-down gas jar filled with water, and as the oxygen collects in the top of the gas jar, it pushes the water out. A gas syringe can also be used to collect the oxygen instead of the gas jar and water bath.
3. Oxygen can be stored in cylinders, a vacuum insulated evaporator or a manifold cylinder bank, with most oxygen storage cylinders being made of steel.

• Making oxygen on Mars: Scientists working on the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) recently witnessed the first mechanised creation of oxygen in the history of the planet, with the tool being used in order to find the sparse levels of oxygen within the planet’s masses of CO2. The mechanism takes in the planet’s atmosphere and heats it to extreme temperatures. Then, after all the air’s dust is filtered out, MOXIE strips the CO2 of its oxygen quantities and releases the remaining carbon monoxide through a vent, creating the preservation of small new stores of oxygen.

• What are oxygen concentrators: Oxygen concentrators dispense oxygen in almost exactly the same way that oxygen tanks or cylinders do, but they collect oxygen from the surrounding air instead. These devices then concentrate the air and deliver it to the patient - which removes the need for replacement or refilling - whereas oxygen tanks contain a fixed amount of pressurised oxygen.

• Why medical oxygen: Medical oxygen can be used for a variety of reasons, including providing a basis for all modern anaesthetic techniques, restoring tissue oxygen tension by improving oxygen availability in conditions such as COPD, carbon monoxide poisoning and cardiac arrest, as well as providing life support for artificially ventilated patients.

• How oxygen helps Covid patients: Those struggling to breathe due to Covid-19 impacting the respiratory system may be given oxygen in order to increase the amount of oxygen in the lungs and blood. The disease affects lung function, with a tell-tale symptoms being shortness of breath, which can be followed by pneumonia, as the lungs fill with fluid. If a person can’t get enough air into their lungs, this means oxygen can’t travel to the other organ systems, which can start to fail. But some countries are experiencing a huge surge in the number of positive Covid infections, with a shortage in the supply of oxygen in some places.

• Why India struggled with shortages: Cases of Covid in India have recently surged, with the country currently experiencing a critical shortage of oxygen.

• India reported 349,691 more cases in the 24 hours to Sunday morning (25 April), as well as another 2,767 deaths. Delhi has extended its lockdown restrictions as overcrowded hospitals continue to turn patients away, with the number of patients being admitted to hospital outweighing the supply of oxygen. International efforts are now underway to help India amid the critical oxygen shortages.

• Industrial versus Medical oxygen: The difference is that purity levels of industrial oxygen are not appropriate for human use. There can be impurities, which can make people ill. The term 'medical oxygen' means high-purity oxygen, which is used for medical treatments and developed for use in the human body. The medical oxygen cylinders actually contain highly pure oxygen gas. Medical oxygen cylinders should also be free of contaminants. The cylinders need to be thoroughly cleaned before use.

• Indian oxygen situation: The majority of factories that produce oxygen in India are located in the eastern part, more than a thousand miles from major cities like New Delhi and Mumbai. Inox Air Products ramped up its oxygen production from 1,800 tons to 2,300 tons a day over the past few weeks, which is more than a third of the 7,000 tons produced in India daily. The other two major global manufacturers—France-based Air Liquide and U.K.-based Linde—have also been working to increase medical oxygen supplies in India. A big obstacles is that oxygen is not so easy to transport. Tanks of compressed gases can only travel by roads or trains and cannot be flown on planes (unless giant transporters are used). But Oxygen concentrators, on the other hand, which suck oxygen out of the air to achieve a high concentration, can fly. These tanks have to travel farther than ever before to keep up with surging demand in the states in north and west India that don’t have any oxygen manufacturing. Another bottleneck is that cryogenic tanks that hold compressed oxygen cannot be manufactured quickly. Each tank takes about four to six months to produce. So the Indian Air Force is flying empty tanks to production sites to try and cut down on transportation time.

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

World awakens to India's Covid disaster

• What happened: India’s surging coronavirus cases should have been a loud wake-up call. The enormous spike in cases this April came as a surprise, because just months before, an earlier rise in daily cases had dropped mysteriously, and India, home to some of the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturers, seemed well primed for mass immunization.

• It's all gone: But that changed in mid-March, when cases ticked up but vaccinations did not. By April, daily cases had topped 1,00,000, higher than they had ever reached in 2020. Soon, they were more than triple that, setting a record for any nation on Earth and accounting for more than 39 percent of all new cases globally. India’s death toll has crossed 2,00,000, even with serious allegations of undercounting.

• Taken aback: The rapid rise of infections seems to have come from the perfect storm of fast-spreading variants, slow vaccination and relaxed restrictions that public health experts had warned about. And yet for what seemed like an agonizingly long time, it appeared that much of the world was sleeping on it.

• Gradual awakening: As countries like the United States began to see the positive results of mass vaccination programs, Indians took to social media to detail shortages of supplies needed to make vaccines and lifesaving supplies like oxygen. Alarming stories of a new, possibly more infectious virus strain called B.1.617 flooded global headlines.

1. In April third week, the world took serious action, with countries from Britain to the United Arab Emirates promising oxygen generators or ventilators.
2. Even China, in the midst of a border dispute with India, offered to send vaccine doses to its neighbour.
3. Most closely watched was the United States. President Biden told PM Modi that the US would provide “oxygen-related supplies, vaccine materials and therapeutics” and said that the U.S. supply of Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine doses would be shared with other nations.
4. Is this too little, too late?

• Slow response of US: The situation has renewed questions about U.S. vaccine policy, which has focused on domestic supply and largely neglected broader problems of global vaccine supply, apart from pledging up to $4 million for Covax, the WHO-backed vaccine distribution initiative. Critics, such as British lawmaker Claudia Webbe, have pointed out that the United States and other wealthy countries have not backed calls to waive intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines.

1. Then there is the complicated issue of U.S. export controls. Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of Indian vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute, has said that his own supply problems are due to the U.S. use of the Defense Production Act, which limits the exports of critical materials needed to make vaccine doses.
2. U.S. officials have pushed back against some of the framing, denying that invoking the Defense Production Act had restricted the export of U.S. materials. But they also refused to answer questions about intellectual property waivers and admitted that exports of an initial 10 million AstraZeneca doses could take “weeks” to reach countries in need.

• Victory declared too early: To many, it looks like Modi declared victory before the battle was over. In a column for the Financial Times, Gideon Rachman wrote that India and Modi had fallen prey to “Covid hubris.” While that malady is not unique, Modi made some “distinctive and disastrous errors,” including a failure “to use the decline in infection after the first wave to prepare properly for a second wave.” Part of it was pride. Writer Vidya Krishnan argues the pandemic has shown the failures of India’s health-care system, increasingly stratified since the economic liberalization of the 1990s.

• Diaspora: For a disaster the size of India’s surge, there is more than enough blame to go around. Alarm bells should have been ringing at least a month ago. Instead, they were ignored for far too long on both a national and international level. That alarms are now blaring is in large part the result of India’s important place on the world stage, including its enormous population and well-connected diaspora — as well as the sheer scale of its current outbreak. But other smaller nations, poorer and less connected, are facing their own worrying waves, too.

• Surges at other places: The world is now seeing a surge in other parts of the rest of the world — Nepal, Colombia, Malaysia could be next. Brazil is still surging. Experts see a worrying uptick in Namibia and Botswana. The world slept through the alarm in India and is now frantically dealing with the nightmare. The task now is to not miss the next wake-up call, if it hasn't done so already.

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

DNA robots

• The story: The human hair is about 17 to 170 micrometres in width. Now imagine a robot 1000 times smaller than that. These are DNA robots, made of tiny strands of DNA, that can be designed for producing programmable motion, much like robots in the macro world. These robots can produce the motions in response to temperature changes, exposure to light, or the presence of other molecules in a solution.
• Uses: DNA robots can be used as devices for drug delivery that can carry medicines to a target area. They can also be used as devices to detect disease, or for nanomanufacturing to help assemble other nanomaterials or nanoparticles.
• New advancement: Hai-Jun Su and Carlos Castro from the Ohio State University developed a new software that can help design these DNA robots. They started with designing simple parts like hinges and sliders and assembling them into machines or mechanical devices, much like the way mechanical engineers design and make machines in the macro world. Through this initial process, they realized that the design process is challenging, time-consuming, and error-prone. More importantly, designing DNA devices requires a lot of background knowledge with rigorous training in understanding molecular details of DNA. To lower this barrier, they developed a software tool that follows a more intuitive design process similar to the approach engineers use for designing macroscopic products.
• Can anyone use the new software: The software named MagicDNA is free for non-commercial use. It is available for download from the open-source repository Github.

Variants of interest B.1.617

• The Indian variant: Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants within Pango lineage B.1.617 were recently reported as a VOI from India and has recently been designated as VOIs by WHO. As of 27 April, over 1200 sequences have been uploaded to GISAID and assigned to lineage B.1.617 (collectively) from at least 17 countries; most sequences were uploaded from India, the United Kingdom, USA and Singapore.

• Not on linegae: This lineage comprises several sub-lineages, including B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3, which slightly differ by their characteristic mutations. Both B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 were first identified in India in December 2020, and have been detected at increasing prevalence concurrent to the major upsurge observed in the country.

1. The B.1.617.3 was first detected in India in October 2020, but relatively fewer viruses matching this sub-lineage have been reported to date.
2. B.1.617 includes several mutations present in other VOIs / VOCs that have been associated with phenotypic impacts.

• Which mutations: Three characteristic mutations of this variant include L452R, P681R, and E484Q (the latter observed in sub-lineages B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.3). L452R has been identified in another VOI, B.1.427/ B.1.429, which has been associated with increased transmissibility, a reduction in neutralization by some (but not all) monoclonal antibody treatments, and a moderate reduction in neutralization in post-vaccination sera in the USA.

1. P681R is adjacent to the furin cleavage site, and (together with other mutations) may enhance binding and subsequent cleavage of the spike protein and enhances systemic infection and membrane fusion; potentially resulting in enhanced transmission.
2. Laboratory studies suggest that convalescent samples from individuals who had natural infection may have reduced neutralization against variants with an E484Q mutation.
3. Lab studies of a small number of convalescent sera samples of COVID19 cases (n=17) and recipients of Novavax-Covaxin (n=28) were able to neutralize B.1.617.

• Who is spread where: In India, heterogeneity in B.1.617 geographic distribution is observed across regions, with co-circulation of other VOCs (including VOC 202012/01 and 501Y.V2) and other variants (e.g., B.1.618), which collectively may be playing a role in the current resurgence in this country. Indeed, studies have highlighted that the spread of the second wave has been much faster than the first.
• Reasons for spreading: Preliminary modelling by WHO based on sequences submitted to GISAID suggest that B.1.617 has a higher growth rate than other circulating variants in India, suggesting potential increased transmissibility, with other co-circulating variants also demonstrating increased transmissibility. Other drivers may include challenges around the implementation and adherence to public health and social measures (PHSM), and social gatherings (including mass gatherings during cultural and religious celebrations, and elections).

EU to sue AstraZeneca over vaccine supply shortfall

• Battle over vaccines: EU (Brussels) is suing AstraZeneca over an alleged breach of its deal to supply vaccines to the EU, setting up a bruising legal battle after months of bitter disputes over large delivery shortfalls. The company immediately responded that it regretted the move and would “strongly defend” itself against litigation that it considered “without merit”.
• Why the battle: The European Commission announced that it had launched the legal action on behalf of itself and the 27 EU member states. “Some terms of the contract have not been respected and the company has not been in a position to come up with a reliable strategy to ensure timely delivery of doses,” the commission said. “What matters to us in this case is that we want to make sure that there’s a speedy delivery of a sufficient number of doses that European citizens are entitled to and which have been promised on the basis of the contract,” it added.
• Company defends itself: AstraZeneca is likely to deliver no more than a third of the 300m doses originally targeted in the contract for supply to the EU by the end of June. The company insisted it had “fully complied” with the supply agreement, under which it had committed to making “best reasonable efforts” to meet the delivery goals. Vaccines are difficult to manufacture, as evidenced by the supply challenges several companies are facing in Europe and around the world. The production cycle of a vaccine is very long, which means these improvements take time to result in increased finished vaccine doses.
• Details: The contract was drawn up under Belgian law. The EU is taking a gamble by escalating the dispute to the courts. Lawyers have suggested the deal’s terms mean AstraZeneca should be able at least to construct an arguable case in its defence. Some are also concerned that the case will use up valuable time and resources without achieving the Commission’s stated aim of speeding the supply of AstraZeneca vaccines now. The EU and AstraZeneca have been locked in acrimony since the company revealed in late January 2021 that it would deliver only a quarter of the up to 120m doses it was originally scheduled to deliver by the end of March 2021. Brussels called on the company to fulfil its “contractual, societal and moral obligations”, as the EU’s inoculation drive lagged those in the US and UK. AstraZeneca later downgraded its second quarter supply estimates from 180m shots to 70m.

CoWin platform gets started with some teething troubles

• The grand start: Soon after registration for Covid-19 vaccination began for everyone 18 and above at 4 pm on 28 April, 2021, the CoWin portal crashed for a brief period due to the high volume of traffic. Later, the Centre said 80 lakh people registered themselves on the portal within three hours, from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
• First steps: Many users took to Twitter to complain that they either could not log in to the portal or were facing other registration issues. While some said they were seeing error messages while trying to register, a few others complained they were not receiving the OTP required to log in to CoWin on their phones. Following the initial trouble, the portal started working after some time. Aarogya Setu tweeted, “Cowin Portal is working. There was a minor glitch at 4 PM that was fixed. 18 plus can register.”
• Authority speaks: R S Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority on registration for vaccination, has said the vacancies available for vaccination at hospitals will be visible after some states and hospitals come on board on May 1, the day when vaccination for people who are 18 and above is slated to begin, the ANI reported. He tweeted - "There have been 79,65,720 registrations on Co-WIN today, most of these in the last three hours (16:00-19:00) and mostly of 18-44 age group. We have seen a traffic of 55,000 hits per second. System functioning as expected."
• The real challenge: As many crore enrolments will now happen, the challenge will be to actually vaccinate these people. Time will tell.

9.1 Today's best editorials to read

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

CLICK HERE TO OPEN AND READ!

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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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