Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 20-07-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 20-07-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

• Science and Technology - Mercury’s iron heart - Researchers have questioned the prevailing theory on why Mercury has a big-sized core relative to its mantle (the layer between its core and crust). Scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions with other bodies during the formation of our solar system resulted in much of Mercury’s rocky mantle being removed, leaving behind the big, dense, metal core inside. New research reveals that Sun’s magnetism is the reason for this and not the collisions. Researchers developed a model showing that the density, mass and iron content of a rocky planet’s core are influenced by its distance from the Sun’s magnetic field. There is a gradient in which the metal content in the core drops off as the four inner planets of our solar system get further from the Sun. The current work explains this by showing that the distribution of raw materials in the early forming solar system was controlled by the Sun’s magnetic field. During the early formation of our solar system, when the young Sun was surrounded by a swirling cloud of dust and gas, grains of iron were drawn toward the centre by the Sun’s magnetic field. When the planets began to form from clumps of that dust and gas, planets closer to the sun incorporated more iron into their cores than those further away.
• Governance and Institutions - Anti-Trafficking Bill, 2021 - The Ministry of Women and Child Development placed the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021, in the public domain to get stakeholders' comments. The Bill empowers the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to carry out investigation and prosecution in cases of trafficking, including child-trafficking. The Bill does away with the provision that a victim necessarily needs to be transported from one place to another to be defined as a victim. It extends beyond the protection of women and children as victims to now include transgenders as well as any person who may be a victim of trafficking. It defines ‘Exploitation’ as prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, any act of physical exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or forced removal of organs, illegal clinical drug trials or illegal bio-medical research. Offenders will also include defence personnel and government servants, doctors and paramedical staff or anyone in a position of authority. The trafficking carrying a maximum punishment of 10 years in jail and fine of Rs.1 lakh and the aggravated forms of trafficking carrying death penalty and fine of upto Rs.30 lakh. The Bill equates sex work with sexual exploitation, and it renders the consent of a sex worker immaterial in the determination of whether she was trafficked or practising sex work of her own volition. The Bill says that there is no need for the consent while rescuing, rehabilitating or repatriating a person.
• Science and Technology - Moon's wobble and floods on earth - Researchers suspect the wobble phenomenon of the Moon is expected to lead to more flooding on Earth in the middle of the next decade. "Moon Wobble" is a regular oscillation that humans have known about for centuries. It is one of many factors that can either exacerbate rising sea levels or counteract them, alongside other variables like weather and geography. There’s nothing new or dangerous about the wobble; it was first reported in 1728. Rising temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions, along with the push and pull at ocean levels are the causes of higher flood risks. The study warned that the moon wobble is expected to heighten high tides in the middle of the 2030s, but it also showed that this prediction does not apply uniformly to every coastline everywhere. Other variables aside, the effect of the wobble could cause high tide levels at a beach to oscillate by 1 or 2 inches over the course of its long cycle (raises the baseline). The more a baseline is raised, the smaller weather event one needs to cause a flooding event.
• Healthcare and Medicine - China's Monkey B Virus (BV) - China reported the first human infection case with Monkey B virus (BV) after a Beijing-based veterinarian was confirmed with the same a month after he dissected two dead monkeys in early March. Only one case was documented till date of an infected person spreading B virus to another person. The virus, initially isolated in 1932, is an alphaherpesvirus enzootic in macaques of the genus Macaca. B virus is the only identified old-world-monkey herpesvirus that displays severe pathogenicity in humans. The infection can be transmitted via direct contact and exchange of bodily secretions of monkeys and has a fatality rate of 70 per cent to 80 per cent. Macaque monkeys commonly have this virus, and it can be found in their saliva, feces (poop), urine (pee), or brain or spinal cord tissue. The virus may also be found in cells coming from an infected monkey in a lab. Humans can get infected if they are bitten or scratched by an infected monkey; get an infected monkey’s tissue or fluid on broken skin or in eyes, nose, or mouth; scratch or cut oneself on a contaminated cage or other sharp-edged surface or get exposed to the brain (especially), spinal cord, or skull of an infected monkey. There are no vaccines that can protect against B virus infection.
• Science and Technology - NEA Scout by NASA Moon programme - NASA announced that its new spacecraft, named NEA Scout, completed all tests and was safely tucked inside the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. NEA Scout is one of several payloads that will hitch a ride on Artemis I, which is expected to be launched in November. Artemis I will be an uncrewed testflight of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket. Under the Artemis programme, NASA has aimed to land the first woman on the Moon in 2024 and also establish sustainable lunar exploration programs by 2030. Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, or NEA Scout, is a small spacecraft, about the size of a big shoebox. Its main mission is to fly by and collect data from a near-Earth asteroid. It will also be America’s first interplanetary mission using a special solar sail propulsion.
• Indian Politics - We are not snooping on any one - There's no substance in the "sensational" reports of Pegasus spyware being used to snoop on journalists, ministers and activists in India, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. He said, "The reports appeared a day before monsoon session of Parliament. This can't be a coincidence." The reports were an attempt to "malign Indian democracy and its well-established institutions", he added. Any form of illegal surveillance is "not possible" in India due to "checks, balances in our laws and robust institutions"! He said this on reports of alleged use of Pegasus spyware on journalists, activists etc. "There's a well-established process through which lawful interception of electronic communication is [done] for...national security".
• Science and Technology - Pegasus and Zero Click attacks - A dangerously worrying aspects of the Pegasus spyware (made by NSO Group, Israel) is how it has evolved from its earlier spear-phishing methods using text links or messages to ‘zero-click’ attacks which do not require any action from the phone’s user. A zero-click attack helps spyware like Pegasus gain control over a device without human interaction or human error. So all awareness about how to avoid a phishing attack or which links not to click are pointless if the target is the system itself. Most of these attacks exploit software which receive data even before it can determine whether what is coming in is trustworthy or not, like an email client.
• World Politics - Who did it - China responded with outrage after America and its closest allies—the European Union, NATO, Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan and New Zealand—accused its security agencies of hacking on a grand scale. “A malicious smear”, said China. The Biden administration is reported to be weighing punitive sanctions, having expressed “high confidence” that China’s ministry of state security exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Exchange Server, first disclosed in March, to infiltrate systems worldwide.
• Governance and Institutions - Adani under scanner - The SEBI is investigating some Adani Group companies with regard to compliance with regulations, Pankaj Chaudhary, the MoS for Finance, said. "Further, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is investigating certain entities belonging to the Adani Group," he added. Adani Group said they're yet to receive any communication from SEBI. The six listed companies of billionaire Gautam Adani-led Adani Group lost over Rs.19,000 crore in market capitalisation after the shares ended in the red on 19th July. The stocks plunged after MoS for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Parliament in a written reply that market regulator SEBI and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence are probing some Adani Group companies.
• Infrastructure - China's fastest train ever - China unveiled its new high-speed maglev train capable of a top speed of 600 kmph and said that it's the fastest ground vehicle available globally. At 600 kmph, it'd only take 2.5 hours to cover over 1,000-km distance from Beijing to Shanghai. The train uses electromagnetic force to "levitate" above the track with no contact between body and rail.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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

India's rush for tech IPOs, 2021

• The story: Indian investors want to be a part of any success story they can lay their hands upon. The mad rush for food delivery firm Zomato Ltd’s initial public offering (IPO), whose valuation was expensive at around 12 times estimated FY23 revenue, proved it. The loss-making firm’s IPO was subscribed about 38 times, with investors banking on a listing at a $10 billion valuation.
• Many more waiting: This is not the end, as many more are about to launch their IPOs - Paytm, PolicyBazaar, Nykaa and MobiKwik. There are some clear reasons why market is giving a good response.
• The factors: Of all major factors driving the excitement, a critical one is global liquidity remaining high, with central banks continuing to stay accommodative with their monetary policies. Higher liquidity is allowing more leverage and risk-taking. Interest rates are low too, and there is enough appetite in the market for IPOs of tech-plays.

1. No one wants to miss out on the next big story. Who knows who'll be the next Google, or Facebook or Netflix.
2. The Chinese government is quite upset with its own Big Tech firms, and is tightening the screws there. So a lot of liquidity is now moving towards countries such as India and Indonesia. If that continues, then it'll be a trend.

• Interest in interest: But the moment US Federal Reserve starts raising policy interest rates, valuations of tech companies may correct sharply. Any investor thinking of these new firms as potential Googles, should remember that Google owns its entire space and, hence, the economics are different.
• It's all hope: Since 2015, there was hope in many stocks that eventually disappointed. But with internet firms, the beauty is that no one even talks about losses or cash burn (in the near term)! The great potential in the long term is all everyone looks at. A comparison with China is often done, but it is misleading as at the same level of per capita income, China pulled ahead very fast.
• Sell more: A hope that investors have is that once crores of users log onto an App, they can then be sold other products too. Global companies such as Meituan did it, which used deliveries and payments as a hook to cross-sell/upsell other use cases/services. Zomato isn’t worth $10 billion in the eyes of some investors simply because of the prospects of its food delivery business. These investors are also betting that it will offer its millions of users other ‘adjacent’ services such as grocery.
• What is valuation: It is a function of discounting future cash flows, and for tech startups, the visibility on this is too far into the future. From a cash-flow valuation perspective, one can justify anything. What may look overvalued can look undervalued if one assumes entire future growth to materialize in, say, 10 years instead of 20 years. While there is a general exuberance about tech IPOs, companies with better profitability are the biggest beneficiaries. They always get better valuations.
• Summary: Many tech firms fail eventually. But it is the salivating prospect of a potential Facebook, Google or Alibaba, that keeps investors going.

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

‘Global green deal’ needed to tackle climate crisis

• The story: A group of politicians from the UK, EU and developing world said that people around the world need a “global green deal” that would tackle the climate crisis and restore the natural world as we recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
• A new alliance: The "Global Alliance for a Green New Deal" is inviting politicians from legislatures in all countries to work together on policies that would deliver a just transition to a green economy ahead of Cop26 UN climate talks in Glasgow in November 2021. The alliance includes Caroline Lucas, the UK Green party’s only MP, and UK Labour’s Clive Lewis, as well as MEPs, representatives in Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia and the US among other countries.
• What American lawmakers say: Ms. Ilhan Omar, a US congresswoman for Minnesota, said the recent extreme weather in the US and around the world should serve as a warning. “Climate change is here and it is an existential threat to humanity. We have already seen the horrifying repercussions of failing to act – wildfires raging across the west coast [of the US], extreme hurricanes, heatwaves in Australia, massive flooding around the world. Natural disasters like these will only get worse unless we act as a global community to counteract this devastation.”
• Data and knowledge: The alliance wants governments to put measures in place that would boost the green economy as well as collaborating on global vaccine access for Covid and debt restructuring for the world’s poorest nations. They will seek to share knowledge around the world of successful initiatives, such as the decarbonisation plan recently put forward in Costa Rica. Many government leaders have promised to “build back better” from the pandemic but few countries are investing in the new infrastructure needed. Research found that only about a tenth of the $17tn being spent globally on rescuing stricken economies was going on projects that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions or restore nature. More than $3tn was being poured into measures and industries that actively harmed the environment, such as coal and other fossil fuels.
• Equity and justice: Governments must focus on social justice and the climate. As the consequences of the climate crisis become more and more alarming, inequalities are growing and the poorest are hit hardest by the impacts of a changing climate. If the world wants fair, systematic and effective climate policies, it needs a radical shift away from free trade and free-market ideology.
• Present status: The alliance now has 21 members from 19 countries. Joenia Wapichana, the first indigenous woman ever to be elected federal representative in Brazil, said that she understood how important it was that everyone took responsibility for a green new deal. It was crucial to strengthen the legislative process in defence of collective rights, the environment and in defence of indigenous peoples.

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

Naval war between Israel and Iran - blowing hot, blowing cold

• The story: In June 2021, one Iranian and one Israeli tweet created a storm in the already troubled waters of the Mediterranean Sea. When the Iranian Embassy in Lebanon wrote a vaguely worded tweet with a picture of an Iranian ship and said that Iran did not need America’s approval to send fuel to Lebanon, it implied the ship carried fuel and was headed to Lebanon. Fearful of U.S. sanctions, Lebanon’s energy ministry quickly denied ever requesting to import Iranian fuel, but not before speculation was rife that an Iranian tanker was on its way to the port of Beirut.
• Israel responds: Then, in July, Israeli interests tweeted that Iran had dispatched Arman 114, an Iranian-flagged ship carrying Iranian crude, to Lebanon. It said that Hezbollah was conducting a logistical operation to smuggle Iranian fuel into Lebanon. Earlier, Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah had pledged to import fuel from its patron Iran to emerge as the savior of a country reeling under a devastating shortage of the essential commodity. So this suggests an expansion of a war between Israel and Iran that had until now mostly taken place in the shadows.
• Story so far: For many years, Iran and Israel have engaged in tit-for-tat attacks on each other’s ships in, and beyond, the Mediterranean. The conflict has mostly concentrated on Iranian oil tankers bound for oil-starved Syria. Now it seems the fight is spreading to involve a Lebanon that increasingly seems on the verge of economic collapse.

1. The Arman 114 finally anchored at the Baniyas port in Syria on June 13. Beirut was not the final destination.
2. Immediate worries of an escalation between Israel and Iran were warded off but Israel’s strategy to target Iranian oil tankers is still very much active. Iran’s determination to respond in kind and attack Israel’s commercial vessels or those of America’s allies in the Gulf, has not weakened either.

• Defying the US: Arman 114’s smooth journey illustrated the ease with which Iran has been defying U.S. sanctions. It also displayed that despite U.S. and Israeli awareness of the movement of specific Iranian oil tankers violating sanctions, neither country can stop all such transactions. The United States is constrained by international law and, like Israel, must fear Iranian retaliation. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, a 21-mile-wide strategic waterway through which 20 percent of the global oil supply passes.
• The law: Technically a ship in international waters cannot be stopped unless it violates international maritime law or unless the flag state allows it. If it is known to carry contraband such as drugs, or weapons of mass destruction, there are U.S. laws that allow stopping and searching in the high seas, or under some circumstances such action can even be justified under universal jurisdiction. The U.S. Congress can also pass a law, or the president may issue an executive order sanctioning individual tankers and ask other countries to stop them as soon as they enter their territorial waters, or face sanctions themselves.

1. Iran has one of the largest tanker fleets and a lot of experience in how to conceal the movement of its oil cargoes.
2. Iran regularly changes the flags on its ships, renames tankers, and turns off their automatic identification systems to avoid being tracked. It also deployed a range of front companies with help from Hezbollah to be able to sell its oil despite the sanctions.
3. Iran has proved it can do some nasty things, as the attacks on Saudi, Emirati, and other vessels showed. Iran even seized a British-flagged tanker, the Stena Impero, in July 2019, in retaliation for Gibraltar seizing a Syria-bound Iranian oil tanker, the Grace 1, earlier.

• Iran crude for cash: Experts say that while U.S. sanctions have succeeded in blocking the movement of money through banking channels, they achieved little success in stopping Iran from selling crude at reduced prices for cash. Energy analysts have seen a steady rise in Iran’s oil exports since late last year. Syria received the second-most oil barrels from Iran since December 2020; many times more were exported to China.
• Israel's new PM: Israel’s new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has held even more hawkish views than his predecessor and has reportedly suggested that Israel must attack Iran whenever its proxies—Hezbollah or Hamas—blow up anything inside Israel. Less than a month after he came to power, Iran accused Israel of targeting a nuclear facility in Karaj reportedly producing centrifuges to replace those damaged in Israel’s previous covert attacks at the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran.

1. Many believe that Israel’s covert hits inside Iran and overt airstrikes in Syria on Iran’s arms depots serve Israel’s strategic interests better than naval attacks.
2. It seems Bennett must take only calculated risks in the maritime arena while continuing with land, air, and cybersecurity sabotage of Iran’s nuclear apparatus. They are unsure, however, whether Bennett, who is eager to come across as even more unforgiving of Iran than Netanyahu, would listen.

• Summary: Most feel Israel must avoid getting dragged into a dangerous naval conflict. Attacking Iranian tankers neither discourages Iran from enriching uranium nor from bankrolling Hezbollah and other proxies. A naval conflict comes at a high cost to others too, especially in areas in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea which are outside the range of the Israeli Navy and its ability to protect Israeli-owned vessels sailing in this region. The people of Lebanon continue to struggle with fuel scarcity. If the naval war between Israel and Iran expands, that struggle will last a while longer yet.

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

Air Quality Management gets a new commission

• The story: India's Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) will bring a new Bill - the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021 - in the monsoon session of Parliament. The goal is to tackle the air pollution problem in NCR with a firm hand.
• Points to note: The 'Commission for Air Quality Management ordinance' was first promulgated by the President in October, 2020 but the bill to replace the ordinance was not passed in the budget session of Parliament, and the commission ceased to operate in March, 2021.

1. Then, the MoEFCC brought a second ordinance in April 2021, with modifications due to the farmers’ protest. Farmers had raised concerns of stiff penalties and possible jail terms for stubble burning (as stated in the first ordinance).
2. The government has decriminalised the act of stubble burning and withdrawn the clause for possible jail time. But environmental compensation fees are levied on those who are found to be engaged in stubble burning, including farmers.

• The Bill: This bill provides for the constitution of a Commission for better coordination, research, identification, and resolution of problems related to air quality in the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjoining areas. The entire region has suffered from horrible pollution problem for many years now, due to a complex mix of reasons.

1. 'Adjoining areas' are defined as areas in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh adjoining the NCR where any source of pollution may cause adverse impact on air quality in the NCR.
2. It also dissolves the Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority established in the NCR in 1998.
3. The Commission will be headed by a full-time chairperson who has been a Secretary to the Government of India, or a Chief Secretary to a State government. The chairperson will hold the post for three years or until s/he attains the age of 70 years. It will have members from several Ministries as well as representatives from the stakeholder States. It will have experts from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Civil Society.

• Functions: The commission's duties will include

Coordinating actions taken by concerned state governments (Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh).
Planning and executing plans to prevent and control air pollution in the NCR.
Providing a framework for identification of air pollutants.
Conducting research and development through networking with technical institutions.
Training and creating a special workforce to deal with issues related to air pollution.
Preparing various action plans such as increasing plantation and addressing stubble burning.

• Powers: The commission will enjoy powers like

To issue directions and entertain complaints as it deems necessary for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the air in the NCR and adjoining areas.
Laying down parameters for control of air pollution (such as permissible levels of emissions and discharge of pollutants).
Be in charge of identifying violators, monitoring factories and industries and any other polluting unit in the region, and will have the powers to shut down such units.
Have the powers to overrule directives issued by the state governments in the region, that may be in violation of pollution norms.

• Summary: It is quite clear that India needs changes to tackle public issues like air pollution, need a democratic conceptualisation. There is a need for the massive augmentation of intra-city public transport, and to move industries, power plants and other users away from polluting fuels like coal to natural gas, electricity and renewable energy to ensure clean combustion. The government should undertake a thorough review of the various laws and institutions in order to look at their efficacy and utility; it must have detailed consultation with all relevant stakeholders, especially those outside Delhi, which includes farmers’ groups and small scale industries and the public at large.

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

Analysis of Uttar Pradesh's politics - Elections 2022

• Wrong analyses: While analysing UP elections, most got it wrong in 2007, 2012 and 2017, and predicted close fights. Each time, a single party swept the polls!
• Why wrong always: Analysts have tended to focus on caste arithmetic, old categories used since 1990s, etc. It is now clear that UP has moved on from a rigid identity politics of pure caste and religion to identity politics plus governance. The floating population clearly votes keeping in mind its own interest.
• Big change in UP: Voters have thrown out every incumbent government since 1989 in UP, impatient with poor governance.

1. This time, the BJP may buck the trend, as its 40% vote share in 2017 is a big cushion, and the average constituency-level winning margin was 15%; so in 2022, it can win despite losing many votes
2. The SP and BSP earned majority with 30% and 29% of votes

• BJP's 2017 mandate: Two ways to look at it -

1. It was a historic restructuring of the caste-community voting pattern of UP due to BJP's ideological victory
2. It was due to a large floating voter population unhappy with the incumbent (if this was true, then 2017 was not a permanent trend, and 2022 may see a change)
3. The common element in all 3 majority winning elections was the social engineering messages (Bahujan politics, Lohiaite socialism or Hindu unity) that the electorate rallied behind solidly
4. In 2017, public rallied behind Modi's call, upset with crime, corruption, Yadav favouritism, more Muslims in power elite and so on
5. But the BJP's rise in UP from 1991-98 and its fall from 1998-2017 means nothing is permanent in UP

• Contextual or absolute: So the key question is: was the 2017 victory contextual or absolute? If it was contextual, then BJP can be beaten in 2022 if (i) strong anti-incumbency is being felt, and (ii) one clear alternative emerges turning it from being a multi-polar to bi-polar contest
• Anti-incumbency: Why was Mr. Adityanath chosen as CM in 2017, when he was a lightweight outside Gorakhpur? Two logics used by Modi-Shah -

1. Only hardline Hindutva can ever contain all the caste contradictions between the upper castes, upwardly mobile castes (Jats, Gujjars) and OBCs (Kurmis, Lodhis), all assembled during the Ram Jamnabhoomi movement  [as seen earlier, 1999 expulsion of Kalyan Singh broke that Hindutva coalition due to caste contradictions]
2. Only an authoritative leader could maintain both Hindu unity and build a governance constituency (In 1990s and 2000s BJP tried three CMs and finally failed before SP and BSP)
3. But these two logics have not worked well for the BJP at all

• Why not: Adityanath was an outsider in Lucknow, and immediately started building his Thakur base, filling institutions with own caste men (Zilla parishads, SHOs, civil servants). That led to "thakurvaad" allegations. Then came the "tough on crime image", which has worked well, but there's no social development angle so far at all. An finally, the Covid crisis undid most of his governance credentials. The dead bodies floating in rivers will be glue for various anxieties on unemployment, poor growth and farmer distress to come together.
• Where is the alternative: The only party to challenge the BJP will be the SP. The BSP's decline from 2012 was steady, and its political activism roots are now dead. Congress is not reviving, as the Panchayat elections proved clearly. The SP may well be able to make it a bipolar contest. The local elites and disgruntled electorates may get consolidated quickly. But SP never crossed 30% vote share, so it's not easy.
• The formula: SP needs to move beyond the regular caste consolidation and minority insecurity issues, and appeal to the floating voters with the message of development - that's what Akhilesh Yadav did in 2012 with "employment, education and electricity".
• Summary: If the BJP loses UP in 2022, it would mean it over-read its social engineering or ideological triumph vastly.

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• 6. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3)

Microbes that live on and on and on and on

• South Pacific Gyre: In 2010, scientists were drilling into this gyre as part of the IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme), and it was a totally barren place. At the gyre's centre is the "Oceaning Pole of inaccessibility" and the "South Pacific garbage patch" (full of microplastics).
• Life in the gyre: Despite swirling ocean current around, gyre waters are still. Nutrients are missing, and one metre of "marine snow" take 10,00,000 years to build (marine snow - dead bodies, excrement, dust from the top to bottom). Through this, the IODP started drilling and went 75 m deep into pelagic clay and calcareous nannofossil ooze.
• Why do it: When the sediments were dug out, they represented 10 crore years of Earth history, and the goal was to find the microbes trapped in this. Were they alive?

1. Around 100 to 3000 bacterial cells per cubic cm were found which was 10 to 10 million times less than in other waters
2. But when taken to labs, and fed, those cells started coming alive.
3. Up to 99% woke up, ate and started working! They doubled every five days. Their next generations had specifically labeled isotopes of carbon and nitrogen (in the food offered, hence the proof).

• Meaning of all this: 70% of Earth's surface is covered by marine sediment, and microbes there are half of all microbes on Earth. These particular microbes woke up after four geologic periods had gone by, and they didn't die but were ready to come alive again.
• Life in the dark sediment: In that deep, dark oceanic sediments, the pore size is barely 0.02 microns. The bacteria are a few microns in size, to they cannot truly migrate for food. Many are anaerobic, and form endospores, fortified, and metabolically inactive. Some scientists suggest these spores help them surive so long. But in the latest experiment, most bacteria didn't have spores, and breathed oxygen!
• Take me to Mars: One species 'Chroococcidiopsis' is a cyanobacterium not only lived under the horrible conditions, but can also use red light. It is being considered for terraforming Mars. (it is a photosynthetic bacteria)
• Idling time away: Scientists think that individual bacterium have the ability to just survive without reproducing, for millions of years. But science yet doesn't have techniques to date bacteria directly. Perhaps bacteria may be effectively immortal. So these are fossils that are alive!
• Summary: These microbes are the dinosaurs that refuse to die!

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

Pegasus spyware breaks society's most fundamental currency - Trust

• Project Pegasus: The Israeli spyware, revealed to have been used to target hundreds of phones in India, has grown less reliant on clicks. Pegasus can infect a device without the target’s engagement or knowledge. In November 2019, a tech reporter from New York City photographed an interception device displayed at Milipol, a trade show on homeland security in Paris. The exhibitor, NSO Group, placed the hardware at the back of a van, perhaps suggesting convenience of portability, and said it would not work on US phone numbers, possibly due to a self-imposed restriction by the firm.
• Evolution: Since the Israeli cyber giant was founded in 2010, that was probably the first time an NSO-made portable Base Transceiver Station (BTS) was featured in a media report. A BTS — or ‘rogue cell tower’ or ‘IMSI Catcher’ or ‘stingray’ — impersonates legitimate cellular towers and forces mobile phones within a radius to connect to it, so that the intercepted traffic can be manipulated by an attacker. The BTS photographed in 2019 was composed of horizontally-stacked cards, likely to allow interception over multiple frequency bands.

1. The other option is to leverage access to the target’s mobile operator itself. In that scenario, an attacker would not need any rogue cell tower but would rely on the regular network infrastructure for manipulation.
2. Either way, the capability of launching ‘network injection’ attacks — performed remotely without the target’s engagement (hence, also called zero-click) or knowledge —gave Pegasus, NSO Group’s flagship product, an unique edge over its competitors in the global spyware market.

• Global investigation: Pegasus is now at the centre of a global collaborative investigative project that has found that the spyware was used to target, among others, hundreds of mobile phones in India.
• How is Pegasus unique: Pegasus a.k.a. Q Suite, marketed by the NSO Group aka Q Cyber Technologies as “a world-leading cyber intelligence solution that enables law enforcement and intelligence agencies to remotely and covertly extract” data “from virtually any mobile devices”, was developed by veterans of Israeli intelligence agencies. Until early 2018, NSO Group clients primarily relied on SMS and WhatsApp messages to trick targets into opening a malicious link, which would lead to infection of their mobile devices. A Pegasus brochure described this as Enhanced Social Engineering Message (ESEM). When a malicious link packaged as ESEM is clicked, the phone is directed to a server that checks the operating system and delivers the suitable remote exploit.

1. In its October 2019 report, Amnesty International first documented use of ‘network injections’ which enabled attackers to install the spyware “without requiring any interaction by the target”. Pegasus can achieve such zero-click installations in various ways. One over-the-air (OTA) option is to send a push message covertly that makes the target device load the spyware, with the target unaware of the installation over which she anyway has no control.
2. This, a Pegasus brochure brags, is “NSO uniqueness, which significantly differentiates the Pegasus solution” from any other spyware available in the market.

• Vulnerable devices: All devices are open to hacking! iPhones have been widely targeted with Pegasus through Apple’s default iMessage app and the Push Notification Service (APNs) protocol upon which it is based. The spyware can impersonate an application downloaded to an iPhone and transmit itself as push notifications via Apple’s servers. In August 2016, the Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the University of Toronto, reported the existence of Pegasus to cyber security firm Lookout, and the two flagged the threat to Apple. In April 2017, Lookout and Google released details on an Android version of Pegasus. In October 2019, WhatsApp blamed the NSO Group for exploiting a vulnerability in its video-calling feature. “A user would receive what appeared to be a video call, but this was not a normal call. After the phone rang, the attacker secretly transmitted malicious code in an effort to infect the victim’s phone with spyware. The person did not even have to answer the call,” WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart said.
• Total control: Once infected, a phone becomes a digital spy under the attacker’s complete control. Upon installation, Pegasus contacts the attacker’s command and control (C&C) servers to receive and execute instructions and send back the target’s private data, including passwords, contact lists, calendar events, text messages, and live voice calls (even those via end-to-end-encrypted messaging apps). The attacker can control the phone’s camera and microphone, and use the GPS function to track a target.  To avoid extensive bandwidth consumption that may alert a target, Pegasus sends only scheduled updates to a C&C server. The spyware is designed to evade forensic analysis, avoid detection by anti-virus software, and can be deactivated and removed by the attacker, when and if necessary.
• How to save yourself: Smart cyber hygiene can safeguard against ESEM baits. But when Pegasus exploits a vulnerability in one’s phone’s operating system, there is nothing one can do to stop a network injection. Worse, one will not even be aware of it unless the device is scanned at a digital security lab. Switching to an archaic handset that allows only basic calls and messages will certainly limit data exposure, but may not significantly cut down infection risk. Any alternative devices used for emails and apps will remain vulnerable unless one forgoes using those essential services altogether. The best one can do is to stay up to date with every operating system update and security patch released by device manufacturers, and hope that zero-day attacks become rarer.
• Summary: Since the spyware resides in the hardware, the attacker will have to successfully infect the new device every time one changes. That may pose both logistical (cost) and technical (security upgrade) challenges. Unless one is up against unlimited resources, usually associated with state power.

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

Urban unemployment rate at 20.8% in Q1 2020-21

• The story: India's labour minister informed that urban India saw an unemployment rate of 20.8% in the quarter of April-June 2020. This period witnessed stringent nationwide lockdown to arrest the spread of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Points to note: Urban joblessness in the country had hit a high of 20.8% in the April-June 2020 quarter, especially since the country was under two months of hardcore lockdown. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Quarterly bulletin April-June 2020, quarterly unemployment rate for the quarters ending July-Sep 2019, Oct-Dec 2019, Jan-March 2020 and April-June 2020 were 8.3%, 7.8%, 9.1% and 20.8% respectively.

1. The ministry mentioned that the complete employment or unemployment situation of the country can only be assessed only from the survey data for the full year covering both the urban and rural areas.
2. The annual PLFS data is available up to the year 2018-19. As per that result, the unemployment rate in the country during 2017-18 and 2018-19 was 6.0% and 5.8%, respectively.
3. The ministry said the government took initiatives to boost jobs in India through the implementation of schemes like the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana.

• Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana: This is being implemented by the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). For the companies having up to 1000 employees the government will pay both the employees’ contribution (12%) and the employers’ contribution (12%) i.e. 24% of the wages towards Employee Provident Fund. For the companies having more than 1000 employees, the government will pay only the employees’ share of EPF contribution which is 12% towards Employee Provident Fund. This will be done for a period of 2 years.

Oxfam Report: India’s Unequal Healthcare Story

• The story: The Oxfam report titled ‘Inequality Report 2021: India’s Unequal Healthcare Story’ was released. It talks about how India’s focus on supporting private healthcare while low spending on public healthcare systems has led to dangerous inequalities in accessing healthcare, especially during the ongoing pandemic. Oxfam was founded in the year in the year 1942 and it’s headquarter is located in Nairobi, Kenya. It is a confederate of several charitable organizations that works on global poverty.
• Points to note: States attempting to reduce the existing healthcare inequalities with higher expenditure on health had lower confirmed cases of Covid-19 compared to the other states. States like Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, that for the past few years have been reducing inequalities, especially healthcare inequalities between the general category and SC and ST populations, have less COVID-19 confirmed cases. States like Assam, Bihar and Goa that have had higher GDP expenditure on health have higher Covid recovery rates.
• Kerala success: The report marked the state of Kerala as a success story in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. It stated that the people in the higher income brackets and those with access to health infrastructure had less visits to hospitals and Covid centres than those who belongs to the lower income groups (LIG). People in the LIG faced more discrimination regarding the access of COVID-19 related medicines and healthcare.
• Digital divide: It points out the country’s digital divide which has been ignored while administering the vaccine which is causing a vaccine inequality between the income groups as well as general and SC, ST categories.

1. There have also been inequalities on the basis of gender. Men are better off than women.
2. Also the urban population fared better than the rural population which has been measured on various health indicators.

• Hitting the poor: Between 2004 and 2017 the per hospitalisation case medical expenditure has tripled making it very difficult for the poorer and rural households. The urban households depended on their savings while the rural households depended mostly on loans and borrowings. Less than one third of the country’s household is covered by an insurance scheme of the Government. The out-of-pocket health expenditure of 64.2% in India is higher than the world average which stands at 18.2%. Exorbitant healthcare prices have forced many to incur debts and to their assets.

1. Literacy rates among the different social categories also affect their healthcare access. Though there has been improvement in child immunisation still the rate of immunisation of girls continues to be below that of the male child.
2. Children residing in urban areas have better access to immunization than those in rural areas. There is also disparity in child immunization between the income groups in the country.

Launch of National Logistics Excellence Awards

• The story: On July 19, 2021, the Government of launched a new category of awards named the National Logistics Excellence Awards. This will provide due recognition to the various players involved in the logistics supply chain in the country.
• Points to note: The awards are divided in two categories. The first category includes service providers and logistics infrastructure and second category will be awarded for the various user industries. The Awards will highlight best practices which include process standardisation, consolidation, digital transformations, technological upgrade and sustainable practices in the logistics sector. The government aims to turn the spotlight on logistics service providers who have attained adopted digitisation and technology, operational excellence, pursued sustainable practices and improved customer service among the many other achievements.
• For the user industries, these awards will showcase efforts towards supplier ecosystem development, supply chain transformation, automation, skill development and other similar endeavours.

More firms can sell automobile fuels now

• The story: India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has granted authorisations to seven companies for selling of auto fuels in the country.
• Points to note: These new approvals come under the relaxed guidelines for authorization to market transportation fuels which were revised in the year 2019. Under these norms Reliance Industries (RIL), RBML Solutions India, Chennai-based IMC (specializes in oil terminals), Government of Assam undertaking 'Assam Gas Company', Onsite Energy (incorporated in 2020), Manas Agro Industries and Infrastructure and M K Agrotech received the permission to sell automobile fuels.
• Procedure: Firms with a minimum net worth of Rs 250 crore at the time of making application were granted authorisation by the petroleum ministry. The minimum net worth requirement was Rs 500 crore in case if authorization is required for retail and bulk sales.
• 2019 rules: They state that for receiving retail authorisation, an entity has to set up minimum of 100 retail outlets. Out of these outlets, 5% should be set up in the notified remote areas of the country that too within 5 years of receiving the authorisation.

9.1 Today's best editorials to read

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

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