UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | November 25 to December 1, 2024

• Lancet Report

— According to a new study published in the Lancent Magazine, pollution caused by landscape fires could have claimed more than 1.2 lakh deaths in India every year on an average in the 20-year period between 2000 and 2019.

— Agricultural burning is just one type of landscape fires contributing to air pollution.

— China had the largest number of such casualties during this period, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Globally, more than 1.53 million deaths could be attributable to such landscape fire incidents, the study said.

— Lower socio-economic countries were more likely to have higher deaths from respiratory illness caused by fires than higher socio-economic countries. The global cardiovascular deaths due to fire pollution increased by an average 1.67 per cent per year.

 

Events

• International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

— The United Nations General Assembly designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in 1999 to raise awareness against Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG).

— This date was chosen to honour the Mirabal Sisters of the Dominican Republic, who became the symbol of resistance against tyranny and violence.

PM Modi observed that India believes cooperatives can provide new energy to global cooperation, particularly to the Global South. (PTI Photo)

•  Global Conference of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA)

—  the ICA Global Cooperative Conference 2024 was inaugurated in New Delhi, India. The conference will run from 25 to 30 November 2024. The theme of the conference is ‘Cooperatives Build Prosperity for All’.

— The ICA Global Cooperative Conference and ICA General Assembly are being organised in India for the first time in the 130-year history of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), the premier body for the global cooperative movement.

— On inauguration, PM Narendra Modi launched the UN International Year of Cooperatives 2025, saying that the conference will provide insights into India’s future cooperative journey.

— A commemorative postal stamp, symbolising India’s commitment to the cooperative movement was also launched.

— The stamp showcases a lotus. The five petals of the lotus represent the five elements of nature (panchatatva), highlighting cooperatives’ commitment to environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The design also incorporates sectors like agriculture, dairy, fisheries, consumer cooperatives, and housing, with a drone symbolising the role of modern technology in agriculture.

•  National Milk Day

— National Milk Day has been observed annually on November 26 since 2014 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Verghese Kurien.

— About Dr Verghese Kurien: He was born in Kozhikode, Kerala on November 26, 1921. Kurien and Tribhuvandas Patel, along with Dara Khurody – who had established the Aarey Milk Colony in Bombay, which provided pasteurising and distribution facilities for the milk from Anand – were awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1963.

 

Polity

• One Nation One Subscription

— The Union Cabinet has approved the ‘One Nation One Subscription’ (ONOS) scheme, under which all centrally-run and state-run higher education institutions will have access to reputed journals published by international publishers on a single platform.

— Access will be provided through a national subscription, coordinated by the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET), an autonomous inter-university center under the University Grants Commission (UGC).

— The scheme involves an outlay of ₹6,000 crore for three years, until 2027, and will provide subscriptions to around 13,000 journals published by 30 international publishers.

• Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)

— The Union Cabinet has approved the continuation of its flagship initiative, the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), and allocated a budget of Rs.2,750 crore for the period up to March 31, 2028.

— AIM which works under the aegis of NITI Aayog is the government’s flagship initiative, launched in 2016, aims to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.

— It has launched the Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs). ATLs aspires to instil in young minds the curiosity, creativity, and adaptive learning required to become entrepreneurs.

Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024

According to GII, released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), India has risen significantly from 81st in 2015 to 39th in 2024. With a score of 67.5, Switzerland ranks at the top.

The NMNF mission, with a budget outlay of Rs 2,481 crore, will cover 1 crore farmers across the country.

• National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF)

— The Union Cabinet on November 25 approved the launch of the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) as a standalone Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare with a budget outlay of Rs 2,481 crore.

— The Agriculture Ministry defines natural farming as a “chemical-free” farming system that only uses inputs produced using livestock and plant resources.

— The proposed NMNF is an improvement of the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhti (BPKP) launched by the NDA government in its second term (2019-24). The initiative was launched under an umbrella scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY).

— The NMNF mission aims to bring an additional 7.5 lakh hectares of area under natural farming. In the next two years, it will be implemented in 15,000 clusters in Gram Panchayats.

• Places of Worship Act, 1991

— A district court in Sambhal ordered a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid, the town in western Uttar Pradesh after a plea which claimed that Sambhal’s Jama Masjid was built on the site of a Hindu temple. At the heart of the matter is the interpretation of the Places of Worship Act, 1991.

— The Places of Worship Act states that the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, must be maintained.

—Section 3 of the Act bars the conversion, in full or part, of a place of worship of any religious denomination into a place of worship of a different religious denomination — or even a different segment of the same religious denomination.

A 10-digit alphanumeric number, PAN, enables the Income Tax Department to link all transactions of a person with the department. (File)

• PAN 2.0

— The Union Cabinet approved the PAN 2.0 Project to make PAN the “single source of truth and data consistency”.

— The upgrades will include– the enhancement of the QR code feature for new and old cards, a completely online application process, and a merger of all existing identification numbers to make PAN as the common identifier for businesses.

— A “PAN data vault system” will also be created for all entities using PAN data, for data protection and cybersecurity purposes.

— The existing PAN cards will continue to be valid under PAN 2.0. It will require an upgradation at free of cost.

— PAN enables the I-T Department to link transactions such as tax payments, Tax Deducted at Source (TDS)/Tax Collected at Source (TCS) credits and income returns with the department.

 

International Cooperation

• UNSC Resolution 1701

— Israel and Lebanon entered into a ceasefire on November 27 a day after Israel’s security cabinet approved a US-backed proposal to end the 13-month-long conflict that escalated in September.

— The ceasefire proposal draws on the provisions of Resolution 1701 passed by the UN Security Council (UNSC) in 2006. It aims at ending hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, and calls for the creation of a buffer zone as well as a permanent ceasefire.

— The resolution was meant to complete the withdrawal of Israeli forces in 2000 from southern Lebanon along the ‘Blue Line’, the de facto border separating Israel and Lebanon, and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

 

Environment

• Global Plastic Pollution Treaty

— The fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution including marine pollution began in Busan, Republic of Korea.

— The session took place from 25 November to 1 December however, they failed to reach any agreement. The talks will resume next year.

— The annual global production of plastic doubled from 234 million tonnes (mt) in 2000 to 460 mt in 2019. Nearly half of this was produced in Asia, followed by North America (19%) and Europe (15%).

— Plastic production is expected to touch 700 mt by 2040, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

India’s contribution to global plastic pollution

— India contributes to a fifth of global plastic pollution, according to a study published in the journal Nature in September.

— It accounts for 20% of the world’s global plastic pollution with emissions of 9.3 mt, which is significantly more than the countries next in the list — Nigeria (3.5 mt), Indonesia (3.4 mt) and China (2.8 mt), the study said.

— India has banned the use of single-use plastics covering 19 categories in 2022.

• Project Cheetah

— Two days after cheetah Nirva delivered cubs at Sheopur’s Kuno National Park, two newborns were found dead by wildlife officials. Nirva is one of the cheetahs that was relocated from South Africa in 2022 under Project Cheetah.

— Project Cheetah began with the intercontinental translocation of African cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. This translocation took place in two batches of eight and then 12 cheetahs.

— The aim behind the translocation is not only to restore India’s ‘historic evolutionary balance’, but also to develop a cheetah ‘metapopulation’ that will help in the global conservation of the animal.

— As it is a flagship species, the conservation of the cheetah will revive grassland-forests and its biome and habitat, much like Project Tiger has done for forests and all the species found in these forests.

— The cheetah is believed to have disappeared from the Indian landscape in 1947 when Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Koriya princely state hunted down and shot the last three recorded Asiatic cheetahs in India. The cheetah was officially declared extinct by the Indian government in 1952.

— India was home to Asiatic cheetahs, and not the African subspecies that were introduced in 2022. The Asiatic cheetah is classified as a “critically endangered” species by the IUCN Red List and is believed to survive only in Iran. While African Cheetah is listed as a vulnerable (VU) species on the IUCN Red List.

The geographic range of lions increased by 36 per cent between 2015 and 2020, and their population increased at 6 per cent per annum. (File Photo)

• Asiatic Lions

— According to new research, Asiatic Lions – whose entire population numbering 674 is in Gujarat – co-exist with humans through mutual adaptation, enforced legal protection, economic drivers, and government compensation for livestock, among others.

— The co-existence comes in the backdrop of the geographic range of lions rising by 36 per cent between 2015 and 2020 and population increasing at 6 per cent per annum.

— Gujarat is the only home of the Asiatic Lions.

— Asiatic lions are slightly smaller than African lions. Asiatic lions have longitudinal fold of skin running along its belly which is rarely seen in African lions.

— Conservation status: Listed in Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, in Appendix I of CITES and as Vulnerable on IUCN Red List.

• Golden tabby tiger

— A three-year-old golden tiger named Ava has captured hearts online, becoming a viral sensation and giving tough competition to Moo Deng, the baby pygmy hippo. Golden tiger are also known as ‘Tabby tiger’ or ‘Strawberry tiger’.

— Ava belongs to a rare Bengal tiger variant. They are named so because of the colour variant. They are even rare than white tigers with fewer than 30 golden tigers in captivity worldwide.

— In 2020, one such golden tiger was spotted in Kaziranga National Park, Assam.

A satellite image taken between 09:45 am and 10:12 am IST on Saturday shows the location of Cyclone Fengal near the Indian coast. (PTI Photo)

• Cyclone Fengal

— Cyclone Fengal made landfall over Puducherry on November 30. This tropical cyclone was named by Saudi Arabia.

— Landfall is the event of a tropical cyclone coming onto land after being over water. As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a tropical cyclone is said to have made landfall when the centre of the storm – or its eye – moves over the coast.

— A cyclone is a large-scale system of air that rotates around the centre of a low-pressure area. It is usually accompanied by violent storms and bad weather.

— Tropical cyclones are those which develop in the regions between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer. They are the most devastating storms on Earth.

— Tropical cyclones have different names depending on their location and strength. For instance, they are known as hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the North Atlantic Ocean and the eastern and central North Pacific Ocean. In the western North Pacific, they are called typhoons.

 

Defence

• K-4 nuclear-capable ballistic missile

— India has tested the K-4 missile from submarine INS Arighaat off the coast of Visakhapatnam.

—  It was the first test of the nuclear-capable submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from a submarine with a range of around 3,500 km.

— Hypersonic missiles, capable of carrying conventional explosives or nuclear warheads, can fly in the range of five times the speed of sound. However, some advanced versions of hypersonic missiles can even fly at the speed of over 15 Mach.

Senior officials from Indian & Cambodian Armies at inauguration of the exercise. (Photo: @adgpi/X)

• Exercise CINBAX

— The inaugural edition of the joint tabletop exercise CINBAX between the Indian Army and Cambodian Army commenced at a foreign training node in Pune.

— The exercise, being conducted from December 1 to 8, comprises 20 personnel each from an Infantry Brigade, from Cambodian Army contingent, and an Indian Army contingent.

 

Science and Technology

Depiction of how the Occulter Spacecraft will cast a precise shadow across the Coronagraph spacecraft. (Image source: ESA)

• Proba-3 Mission

— The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission, expected life of two years, will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its PSLV rocket.

— The mission aims to study the solar corona, the outermost and hottest part of the Sun’s atmosphere. It will also attempt the first-ever “precision formation flying”, where two satellites will fly together and maintain a fixed configuration in space.

— Its predecessors Proba-1 (also launched by ISRO) and Proba-2 were launched in 2001 and 2009, respectively.

— Proba-3 will have three instruments onboard:

* The Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS) or the coronagraph. Its field of view is between the Sun’s outer and inner corona, a circular belt normally observable during solar eclipse events.

* The Digital Absolute Radiometer (DARA) will maintain a continuous measurement of the Sun’s total energy output, known as the total solar irradiance.

* The 3D Energetic Electron Spectrometer (3DEES) will measure electron fluxes as it passes through Earth’s radiation belts, providing data for space weather studies.

— In Probe-3, the two satellites — Occulter Spacecraft (weighing 200 kg) and the Coronagraph Spacecraft (weighing 340 kg) — will mimic a natural solar eclipse. They will manoeuvre precisely in Earth’s orbit so that one satellite casts a shadow onto the other.

 

Places in News

(Just FYI: The location of the place is important, considering that UPSC has asked several questions about places that were in the news, such as Aleppo and Kirkuk, in the 2018 UPSC Prelims. The best way to remember them is to plot them on a world map.)

Notre-Dame Cathedral is seen in Paris, Friday Nov. 29 2024 ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron’s final visit to the construction site to see the restored interiors before the iconic monument’s reopening for worship on Dec. 8. (Sarah Meyssonnier, Pool via AP)

• Notre-Dame cathedral

— Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral is set to reopen on December 7 five and a half years after a devastating fire destroyed its roof and spire and caused major damage throughout.

— Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris), a medieval Gothic masterpiece, is one of the French capital’s most beloved and visited monuments.

— The first stone was laid in 1163, and construction continued for much of the next century, with major restoration and additions made in the 17th and 18th century.

 

Sports

(Just FYI: With the unpredictability of the UPSC examinations and questions like the ICC World Test Championship question 2021, you can’t be sure of anything. It is wise to know what it is and not go into too much detail.)

While PV Sindhu’s third Syed Modi title was a result of staying efficient in rallies, Lakshya’s first in Lucknow was a performance filled with jaw-dropping moments. (UPBA)

• Syed Modi International 2024 badminton tournament

—  PV Sindhu won the women’s singles final at the Syed Modi International 2024 badminton tournament after defeating Wu Luo Yu of the Republic of China.

— Lakshya Sen won the Men’s singles final after defeating Jia Heng Jason Teh of Singapore.

 

Awards

• 52nd International Emmy Awards

— Vir Das created history by becoming the first Indian to host the International Emmy Awards.

List of winners:

Best Drama Series: Drops of God (France/Japan)

Best Comedy Series: División Palermo (Argentina)

Best Performance by an Actor: Timothy Spall in The Sixth Commandment (United Kingdom)

Best Performance by an Actress: Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying in Hunger (Thailand)

Best Documentary: Otto Baxter – Not a F**ing Horror Story (United Kingdom)

 

Miscellaneous

Facsimile of Constitution and a radio that broadcasts narratives of historical events from 1940. (Express)

• First Constitution Museum

— The country’s first-ever Constitution Museum was inaugurated at O P Jindal Global University in Sonipat, Haryana.

— The museum was inaugurated by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal.

— The museum is curated by Anjchita B Nair. It offers audio-visual interactive experiences to the visitors, as well as digital quizzes and a robot gives the visitors a tour of the museum.

— Mini busts of 300 members of the Constituent Assembly are also neatly displayed in the museum. A bigger bust on display is that of B N Rau, a jurist who was instrumental in drafting the Constitution.

• Assisted Dying Bill

— The Members of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom have voted in favour of whether to legalise the practice of assisted dying in England and Wales.

— Euthanasia refers to the practice of an individual deliberately ending their life, oftentimes to get relief from an incurable condition, or intolerable pain and suffering. Euthanasia, which can be administered only by a physician, can be either ‘active’ or ‘passive’.

— Active euthanasia involves an active intervention to end a person’s life with substances or external force, such as administering a lethal injection. Passive euthanasia refers to withdrawing life support or treatment that is essential to keep a terminally ill person alive.

— In 2018, the Supreme Court recognised the legality of ‘passive euthanasia’ for terminally-ill patients, holding that the ‘right to die with dignity’ forms a part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

— Recently, the Union Health Ministry has released a draft of guidelines on withdrawing or withholding medical treatment in terminally ill patients, closing a regulatory gap that left medical professionals in a lurch.

 

Terms making buzz

— White Knight Corps: It is a corps of the Indian Army that was established in 1972 to oversee operations in the region south of Jammu and Kashmir’s Pir Panjal.

 

Test Your Knowledge

(Note: The best way to remember facts for UPSC and other competitive exams is to recall them through MCQs. Try to solve the following questions on your own.)

A. The Global Innovation Index is released by which of the following organisations?

(a) World Bank

(b) World Intellectual Property Organisation

(c) World Economic Forum

(d) International Telecommunication Union

B. Consider the following statements about ‘Project Cheetah’:

1. Project Cheetah began with the intercontinental translocation of African cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa to the Kuno National Park.

2. All the translocated Cheetah have survived in the Kuno National Park giving a positive output to the Project.

Which of the following statements is/are NOT correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

C. The ‘One Nation One Subscription’ (ONOS) scheme that was launched recently by the government is related to which of the following?

(a) One-time subscription for OTT

(b) Journals for educational institutions

(c) Fertlisers for farmers

(d) Loan scheme for MSMEs

Previous Current Affairs Pointers

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | November 18 to November 24, 2024

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | November 11 to November 17, 2024

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | November 4 to November 10, 2024

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | October 28 to November 3, 2024

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