Current Affairs – July 13, 2024

{GS1 – IS – Population} UN World Population Prospects Report

Context (DTE): The UN Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) has released the World Population Prospects Report every two years since 1951.

Key Findings

The UN report projects a peak in the world population by the mid-2080s, followed by a decline by 2100 due to decreasing fertility rates.
India’s population will continue to grow until the mid-2060s due to population momentum despite crossing the replacement fertility rate.
Global population likely to peak within this century with 80% probability, up from 30% a decade ago.
63 countries (28% of the global populace) peaked before 2024; 48 countries (10%) to peak between 2025 and 2054; the remaining 126 countries, including India, will continue growing mid-century or beyond.
Current population at 8.2 billion is expected to reach 10.3 billion by mid-2080s, then decline to 10.2 billion by century’s end.
Average birth rate decreased from 3.3 in 1990 to 2.3 currently.

Increasing Indian Population

Benefits of Increasing Indian Population	Shortcomings of Increasing Indian Population
India’s population growth, with more than 60% in the working-age group until the 2050s, presents a demographic dividend. A growing population can contribute to a larger labour force and market size. Thus stimulating economic growth.	Despite a decline in adolescent fertility rate, about one in five girls is still married before 18, leading to early pregnancies. This affects young women’s health and limits their educational and workforce participation. Rapid population growth can strain resources.

Steps to Address Population Challenges in India

Investing in education delays marriage and childbirth and improves workforce participation.
Strengthening healthcare reduces child and maternal mortality.
Implementing economic reforms for job creation by utilising the large working-age population.
Developing physical and digital infrastructure that supports economic growth and quality of life.
Addressing societal norms by challenging norms on family size and gender roles.

{GS2 – Governance – Initiatives} eOffice initiative

Context (PIB): e-Office will be implemented in all attached subordinate offices and autonomous bodies of the Government of India as part of DARPG’s 100-day agenda of Government.

eOffice is an integral part of the Digital India Programme to achieve a Simplified, Responsive, Effective, Accountable and Transparent working in Government offices.
It is a digital workplace solution built on open architecture, making it a standard reusable product amenable to replication across Governments.

Key components

File Management System (eFile): It involves all work stages in a file from receiving to disposal.
Knowledge Management System: To construct the organisation’s central repository of documents.
Work from Anywhere (WAW) Portal: It is a one-stop portal for office functions and securely connects officials to their offices from anywhere.
Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW): This is a web-based application for processing APAR (Annual Performance Appraisal Report).

{GS2 – MoA&FW – Initiatives} AgriSURE *

Context (PIB): On its 43^rd foundation day, NABARD announced the ‘Agri Fund for Start-Ups & Rural Enterprises’ (AgriSURE) fund.

This initiative aims to establish a Rs 750 crore Category-II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF).
Funding: NABARD and Agriculture Ministry 250 Cr each. The rest will come from other institutions.
Fund manager: NABVENTURES, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NABARD.
Duration: The fund is designed to operate for ten years, extendable by two or more years.
It is structured to support approximately 85 start-ups with investment sizes of up to Rs 25 crore each.
It will offer equity and debt support to explicitly target high-risk, high-impact activities in the agriculture value chain.

AgriSURE Greenathon 2024

The hackathon by NABARD aims to address the high cost of advanced agriculture technologies under “Smart Agriculture on a Budget“.
It also focuses on “Turning Agri-Waste into Profitable Business Opportunities” and “Tech Solutions Making Regenerative Agriculture Remunerative“.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)

NABARD was established in 1982 under an Act of Parliament as a wholly owned entity of the government of India on the recommendation of the B. Sivaraman committee.
RBI’s agricultural credit functions and the refinance functions of the then-Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation (ARDC) were transferred to NABARD.
Its mission is to promote sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural development through participative financial and non-financial interventions, innovations, technology and institutional development.

{GS3 – Envi – Conservation} Use of Ionic Liquids (ILs) in Silk protein extraction

Context (PIB): Researchers have identified Ionic Liquids (ILs) that can be promising sustainable alternatives to the toxic chemicals currently in use for the silk protein extraction process.

Ionic Liquids (ILs) are salts that remain in a liquid state at relatively low temperatures and are known for their low toxicity and ability to dissolve a wide range of materials.
ILBs showing greatest promise included 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMIM.Cl), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMIM.BF4), and Tetraethylammonium bromide (TEAB).

Credits: PIB

Traditionally, toxic chemicals like sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, and lithium bromide have been used to extract silk proteins, fibroin, and sericin from various types of raw silk fibres.
These chemicals are health hazardous for those involved in the process and contribute to carbon emissions and environmental pollution as the chemicals are released into the water.

Significance: Extraction of sericin from non-mulberry silks using ILs opens new possibilities for utilising these unique fibres in various applications, including textiles, cosmetics, and biomedical products.

About Ionic Liquids (ILs)

Ionic liquids are a unique class of organic compounds that are entirely composed of ions.
Unlike typical liquids, which consist of neutral molecules, ionic liquids are entirely made up of positive (cations) and negative (anions) ions.

Properties

Zero or no vapour pressure, i.e. they do not evaporate easily.
Non-flammable, High thermal stability, Low melting point
Easily recyclable and Good conductors (electrolytes)

Potential applications

Credits: Science Direct

ILs are utilised in green energy storage and conversion devices like fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, and solar cells due to their eco-friendly nature and high ionic conductivity.
They are used in drug formulation and delivery to address challenges like drug solubility, permeability, and formulation instability, offering potential solutions for enhancing drug delivery systems.
In the oil industry, it is used for pollutant removal, demulsification, and oil recovery.

{GS3 – Envi – Issues} Hanle Valley and irresponsible tourism **

Context (TH): As the summer rush peaks, rash development and irresponsible tourism threaten Ladakh’s unique animals and environment.

Hanle valley

It is located in Eastern Ladakh near the Indo-China border at an average altitude of 4,500 m above sea level and is part of the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary.
It is inhabited by Changpa nomadic herders, who rear sheep, pashmina goats, horses and yaks.
Notable animals: Pallas’s cat, Tibetan sand fox, snow leopard, and black-necked crane.
Sighting of the Tibetan sand fox, Pallas’s cat (nicknamed the world’s grumpiest cat) and the black-necked cranes popularised the valley.
The construction of Hanle Dark Sky Reserve and Umling La motorable road has led to increased tourism.
Several military outposts have been established after the recent Indo-China skirmishes.

Impacts of Irresponsible Tourism

Proliferation of stray dogs: Dogs preying on leftovers have risen, leading to a decline in the prey population of Snow leopards, including Pallas’s cats, Tibetan sand foxes, and bar-headed geese.
- They even hybridise with the Tibetan wolf, diluting the latter’s gene pool.
Rangeland degradation: Irresponsible tourists ride roughshod over pasturelands, destroying the topsoil. Added to global warming, it compromises the rangeland’s health, impacting the nomadic locals.
Irresponsible driving: SUVs chasing animals, blaring music and glaring headlights, rash driving impacts animals even to the extent of death.
- Pallas’s cat is especially vulnerable because the roads run along cliff bases, bisecting the cats’ habitat.
Water availability: Indus River is burdened by consumption, irresponsible use, and retreating glaciers.
Water contamination: A flawed policy mandating flush toilets leads to water flowing into the water sources, exposing the villagers to waterborne disease.
Water oxygen depletion: Dumping of waste leads to an explosion of invertebrates, which, in turn, depletes dissolved oxygen.

Way forward

Organic waste to organic manure: Organic manure can be produced from organic waste, especially when Ladakh aspires to be an organic UT.
Limiting the tourists: To limit the burden of tourism, a system similar to the Inner Line Permit (in the 2000s) can be implemented.

{GS3 – IE – RBI} Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS)

Context (TH): RBI allowed resident individuals to open Foreign Currency Account in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) at GIFT City in Gujarat under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme.

Authorised Persons may facilitate remittances for availing financial services or financial products as per the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019, within IFSCs.

Authorised persons are those authorised by the RBI to provide forex services such as banks and specific FX dealers as such transactions will be routed through the banking system.

It will allow resident Indians to open a fixed deposit in dollars in a bank account at GIFT IFSC.

What is Liberalised Remittance Scheme?

The Liberalised Remittance Scheme is an RBI measure that allows Indian residents, including minors, to send up to USD250,000 per financial year (April to March) outside India.
- In case of the remitter being a minor, the LRS declaration form must be countersigned by the minor’s natural guardian.
There are no restrictions on the frequency of remittances under LRS. However, the total amount through all sources in India during a financial year should be within the cumulative limit of USD 2,50,000.
The remittances can be made in any freely convertible foreign currency.

Eligibility

The LRS is for people who are residents of India as defined by Foreign Exchange Management Act.
The eligible citizens must have an Indian bank account, a valid Permanent Account Number (PAN), and a passport.
Non-residential Indians are not supposed to have any savings accounts in Indian banks. Thus, they cannot remit funds from India, but they are permitted to transfer funds from NRO, NRE, and FCNR accounts abroad.
It cannot be used by corporations, partnership firms, Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), trusts, etc.

Permissible transactions

The remitted funds can be used for any permissible current or capital account transaction or a combination of both.

Permissible current account transactions

Private visits to any country (except Nepal and Bhutan)
Gift or donation
Going abroad for employment
Emigration and studies abroad
Maintenance of close relatives abroad
Travel for business, attending a conference or specialised training or for meeting expenses for meeting medical expenses, or check-ups abroad
Expenses in connection with medical treatment abroad
Any other current account transaction which is not covered under the definition of current account in FEMA 1999.

Permissible capital account transactions

Opening a foreign currency account abroad with a bank outside India
Purchase of foreign property
Investments in overseas shares, securities, mutual funds, etc
Setting up wholly owned subsidiaries (WOS) or joint ventures (JV) abroad (subject to stipulated terms and conditions)
Extending INR loans to NRIs who are relatives as defined in the Companies Act

Prohibited transactions

Remittance for any purpose specifically prohibited under Schedule-I (like purchase of lottery tickets/sweep stakes, proscribed magazines, etc.) or any item restricted under Schedule II of Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000.
To buy Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds issued by Indian Companies in overseas secondary market.
To trade in foreign exchange abroad.
To directly or indirectly to those individuals and entities identified as posing a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism as advised separately by the RBI to the banks.
Capital account remittances, directly or indirectly, to countries identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as “non-cooperative countries and territories”, from time to time.

{GS3 – S&T – AI} COPIED draft bill

Context (IE): To combat the rise of AI-generated deepfakes, the US introduced the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked (COPIED) Media Bill.

Online platforms would require users to tag such synthetic content with information about its origin.
The COPIED bill will also allow creators, including local journalists, artists, and musicians, to regain control of their content through a provenance and watermark process.
The bill tasks various US government agencies, such as the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the US Copyright Office, to develop detection and watermarking standards.

Scope of the draft bill

Defines ‘deepfake’ as synthetic or synthetically modified content that appears authentic to a reasonable person and creates a false understanding or impression.
This would include images, videos, audio clips, and text that have either been wholly generated or significantly modified using AI tools.
Applicable to any online app or platform with US-based customers, with an annual revenue of $50,000,000 or over 25,000,000 monthly active users for three months.

Provisions for platforms

Platforms need to give users the option to attach content provenance information to synthetic content.
Tampering with the attached information would be illegal except for research purposes.
It also prohibits platforms from using copyrighted material with content provenance information to train AI models or generate content.

{GS3 – S&T – Space} Black Holes

Context (DTE): Hubble space telescope uncovers an intermediate-mass black hole hiding within the Milkyway galaxy’s Omega Centauri star cluster.

Omega Centauri (NGC 5139 or Caldwell 80)

Omega Centauri is the largest and most luminous globular cluster in the Milky Way, containing millions of stars within a roughly 150 light-year diameter.
The cluster is visible to the naked eye as it is approximately 17,000 light-years away from Earth.

Black holes are immense gravitational wells with immense amounts of matter packed into a tiny space.
They don’t emit or reflect light, making it invisible to telescopes. So, they are studied based on how they affect their surroundings.
They are characterised by extreme density and powerful gravitational pull and are capable of bending the fabric of space and time.

Source: NASA

More > Blackholes | Formation of Black Holes.

Hubble Space Telescope

It is an astronomical observatory launched by NASA in 1990 alongwith European Space Agency (ESA).
It was named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble, whose research in the 1920s provided the first evidence of the universe’s expansion.
The telescope orbits approximately 547 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.
It is equipped with a 2.4-meter primary mirror and advanced scientific instruments that allow it to capture high-resolution images and spectroscopic data across the electromagnetic spectrum.
The primary objectives of the Hubble Space Telescope are to explore the universe and to study its composition, formation, and evolution.

Also, read > James Webb Telescope

{Prelims – Bio – Diseases} Plague behind Neolithic decline

Context (IE): A new study, “Repeated plague infections across six generations of Neolithic Farmers”, suggests that plague may have been the primary driver behind the ‘Neolithic decline’.

Around 5,000 years ago, the population in northern Europe collapsed, decimating Stone Age farming communities across the region.
Researchers determined that the last strains of the plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis may have been more virulent to cause the epidemic.
A later form of this same pathogen caused the Justinian Plague of the 6th century AD and the 14th-century Black Death, ravaging Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Also refer to the Bubonic Plague (Black Death).

{Prelims – Envi – Species} Squalus hima

Context (TH): Scientists have discovered a new species of deep-water dogfish shark Squalus hima from Sakthikulangara fishing harbour in Kerala along the Arabian Sea.

Credits: TH

Squalus is a genus of dogfish sharks in the family Squalidae, commonly known as spurdogs. They are characterised by smooth dorsal fin spines.
The newly discovered species differs from others by the number of teeth counts, trunk and head heights, fin structure and fin colour.
The species are characterised by an angular short snout, a small mouth almost as wide as the snout, first dorsal fin origin behind the pectoral fins, and a body without any spots.
They are exploited for their liver oil, which contains high levels of squalene (or squalane when it is processed for products).
It is in high demand in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in the production of high-end cosmetic products and anti-cancerous products.
On the Indian coast two species of Squalus are found on the southwest coast of India. The new species, Squalus hima n.sp., is very similar to Squalus lalannei but differs in many characteristics.

{Prelims – In News} Solar and Wind energy

Context (TH): China is building two-thirds of new wind and solar capacity globally.

Solar energy

India ranks 5th globally in installed power capacity and is the third-largest producer of solar power.
Countries with the highest installed solar energy capacity: China> USA > Japan> Germany > India
Indian states with highest solar energy capacity: Rajasthan> Gujarat> Karnataka

Wind energy

India ranks 4th globally in installed wind power capacity.
Countries with the highest installed wind energy capacity: China > USA > Germany > India
Indian states with highest wind energy capacity: Tamil Nadu > Karnataka> Maharashtra

As of May 2024, Renewable energy sources, including large hydropower, have a combined installed capacity of 193.57 GW.
Installed capacity for Renewables: Solar Power > Large Hydro > Wind power > Biomass/Co-generation > Small Hydro Power > Waste to Energy

For a detailed analysis of solar and wind energy, refer to PMF IAS Environment > Energy Resources.

{Prelims – Sci – Physics} Time Crystals

Context (Phys): Scientists successfully created a time crystal made of giant atoms.

A crystal is an arrangement of atoms repeating itself in space in regular intervals: At every point, the crystal looks the same.

About Time Crystal

Time crystals represent a new phase of matter, first theorised in 2012 by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek.
Regular crystals have a repeating pattern in space, while time crystals have a repeating pattern in time.
This means that regular crystals have a fixed structure that does not change over time, while time crystals have a structure that changes and repeats itself over time.
They defy the traditional laws of thermodynamics that govern equilibrium in most systems.
They oscillate between states without using energy. They exhibit ‘time-translation symmetry breaking‘ property, which means they oscillate between different states in a time-periodic manner.
Time crystals are created by using a process called “driving”. This involves applying a periodic force to a system of particles, causing them to move in a specific pattern.
This pattern then repeats itself over time, creating a time crystal.

Credits: Princeton University

Potential applications

Time crystals could be used to create more stable qubits. The stability could pave the way for more reliable quantum computers, capable of solving complex problems.
The intrinsic temporal regularity of time crystals makes them ideal candidates for enhancing the precision of timekeeping devices. They may improve data storage and encryption techniques.