Civil Services Simplified: Decoding the Enigma of UPSC by Dr. CP. Kaushik

7. NGT: All Encroachments To Be Removed From Gujarat’s Banni Grasslands Within Six Months: ● The court said the Maldharis will continue to hold the right to conserve the community forests in Banni Grasslands area. These rights were granted to them as per provisions in Section 3 of Forest Rights Act, 2006. ● Situated near the Great Rann of Kutch, Banni Grassland is considered to be the largest Grassland in Asia (spread over 2618 sq km). ● Maldharis are a tribal herdsmen community in Gujarat. ● The Maldharis have lived in the Gir National Park, in the Banni Grasslands Reserve area, for the past thousand years. ● Maldhari community breeds Banni Buffaloes, a species endemic to the region. The buffaloes are adaptive to Kutch’s hot weather condition.

6. Cheetahs To Be Reintroduced In Kuno National Park: • Union Environment Ministry officials have confirmed that Cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa are likely to be reintroduced in Kuno National Park. • Just as the tiger is the flagship species of the forest, the cheetah is the flagship species of the grassland, scrubland and open forest. Therefore, with the reintroduce of the cheetah, these dryland ecosystems of India will have a chance to return to their natural state. • Asiatic cheetah, which is now found only Iran, is classified as a critically endangered species in the IUCN Red List. While the African cheetah is classified as a vulnerable in the IUCN red list. • African cheetah is bigger in size as compared to Asiatic cheetah. • In India, last spotted cheetah died in Chhattisgarh in 1947 and it was declared extinct in the country in 1952. Kuno National Park Located in Madhya Pradesh. • Kuno River, one of the major tributaries of Chambal River, flows through the entire length bisecting the National Park division.

5. Kunming Declaration On Biodiversity: • Kunming Declaration was adopted by over 100 countries at the first part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the Chinese city of Kunming, which was held virtually on 12th and 13th October 2021. • Kunming Declaration: Signed by all countries, it calls for “urgent and integrated action” to reflect biodiversity considerations in all sectors of the global economy. • Theme: “Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth”. • “30 by 30” Goal, is a proposed commitment to protect 30% of land and ocean by 2030. Kunming Biodiversity Fund: • China has pledged to inject USD 233 million into a new fund to protect biodiversity in developing countries. The fund is being referred to by China as Kunming Biodiversity Fund. • However, some countries have reservations regarding this fund. Some countries have called this fund as “a drop in the bucket” given that China is the world’s biggest polluter.

4. Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021: 1. The amendments propose to streamline wildlife management and monitoring by setting up standing committees of state wildlife boards. These committees will act like the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL). It will be able to make decisions on wildlife management and permissions granted for projects without having to refer most projects to the NBWL. 2. It also proposes to insert a new chapter VB in the parent Act for the regulation of international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora. 3. The Ministry has also rationalized Schedules for Wildlife under the Act, bringing it down from 6 to 4 major schedules. 4. A new section 42A has also been inserted. Any article or animal surrendered under this Section shall become the property of the State Government. 5. The Ministry has also mandated that Wildlife Management Plans which are developed for sanctuaries and national parks across the country will now become a part of the Wildlife Act and will have to be approved by the Chief Wildlife Warden of the state. Earlier, the plans were approved through executive orders. Need For The Amendment: • It seeks to ensure that the Wildlife Protection Act,1972 complies with the requirements of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). • India has been blacklisted by CITES once before, and if a second blacklisting were to happen, then India will no longer be able to trade in important plant specimens. This would affect the livelihood of a large section of Indian society that relies heavily on this trade.

3. Great Green Wall: Recently, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations said in a study that Africa’s Great Green Wall (GGW) programme is an important contribution towards combating climate change. About Great Green Wall: • The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement with an epic ambition to grow an 8,000-kilometre-long and 15- km-wide mosaic of trees, grasslands, vegetation and plants across the entire width of Africa. • It was launched in 2007 by African Union, this green wall snakes the Sahel region from Senegal in the West to Djibouti in the East of Africa. • The Great Green Wall is a symbol of hope in the face of one of the biggest challenges of our time that is desertification. • Once complete, the Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet, 3 times the size of Great Barrier Reef. Objectives • By 2030, the ambition of the initiative is to restore 100 million ha of currently degraded land, sequester 250 million tons of carbon and create 10 million green jobs. • So far between 2007 and 2019, the Great Green Wall initiative has restored only four million hectares of land.

2. Lake Tanganyika: As per a report by Save the Children (a humanitarian organisation), migration in East Africa’s Burundi in recent years has been seen mainly because of the rapid and significant rise of Lake Tanganyika. Key Points: • It is the second-largest lake in eastern Africa. • It is the longest freshwater lake in the world and 2nd deepest after Lake Baikal in Russia. • The lake is shared among four countries namely Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, and Zambia. • It is situated on the line dividing the floral regions of eastern and western Africa. Oil palms, which are characteristic of the flora of western Africa, grow along the lake’s shores. • Rice and subsistence crops are grown along the shores, and fishing is of some significance. Hippopotamuses and crocodiles abound, and the birdlife is varied.

Target Prelims 2022: Day 03 1. KASEZ Becomes ‘First Green Industrial City’ In India: Kandla Special Economic Zone (KASEZ), the oldest export zone in the country, has become the “first green industrial city” in India to receive a platinum rating under IGBC Green Cities Rating for existing cities in the industrial cities category. • In KASEZ, 1000-odd acres has 3.5 lakh trees. Most of these trees have been planted post 2019, using the Miyawaki forestation method. • The planting of trees halted the growth of salt pan beyond Kandla, helped reducing salinity and improved the quality of top soil. • To prevent salinity of land from coming into contact with the planted trees, torn clothes are placed in land as first layer before seeding of trees. • After seeding, that part of plantation is surrounded by torn clothes, which ensures maximum water retention. • KASEZ also used plastic waste to line the artificial water bodies created inside the area to prevent water seepage and mix with the saline water.

5. Artemis Programme: **Artemis Programme is an international human space flight programme funded by the US Government. **The main objective of the programme is to launch a manned mission to the south pole region of the moon by 2024. **The programme is predominantly carried out by NASA. The other international partners in the programme are JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Italian Space Agency, UK Space Agency, UAE space Agency, Brazilian Space Agency, Australian Space Agency, State Space Agency of Ukraine, Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency. The total cost of the programme is estimated to be 35 billion USD. **The programme is to be implemented in three parts. They are as follows: *Artemis I: To be launched in 2021 and is an uncrewed flight. It will test the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft. *Artemis II: It is the first crewed flight test and is targeted to be launched in 2023. *Artemis III: It will land astronauts on the south pole of moon in 2024.

4.What are Quasars? How do they help in understanding Universe? **Quasars are luminous cores of distant galaxies that are powered by black holes. The mass of Quasars is millions to billions of times the mass of the sun. **The most powerful quasars have luminosities thousand times greater than the Milky Way galaxy. **The nearest Quasar to the earth is Markarian 231. It is 600 million years away from the earth. Quasars are usually found in the centres of active galaxies. **The discovery of Quasars will help to solve the controversies around Hubble Constant. A Quasar based determination of Hubble constant will allow the astronomers to conclude which of the value is correct. *Hubble’s Constant describes how fast the universe is expanding. It is one of the keystones to understand the expansion of the universe. Thus, Quasars will help in understanding the Universe by solving the discrepancies around Hubble’s constant. **Hubble’s Constant: Recently, several discrepancies have emerged over the precise value of the expansion rate of the universe. The expansion rate of the universe is called Hubble’s constant. There are two primary means that can be used to determine Hubble’s constant. One is through measurement of distance and speed of objects in the local universe. The other method to find the Hubble’s constant is by extrapolating the rate from models based on distant radiation left over from the birth of the universe. The later is called the Cosmic Microwave background.

3. Arktika-M: **The Russian Space agency, Roscosmos, has successfully launched its first ever Arctic-monitoring satellite that will monitor the Arctic’s climate and environment. **This satellite is one among a series of planned Russian remote-sensing and emergency communications satellites. **The satellite is operating in the highly elliptical 12-hour orbit. Constellation of two Arktika-M satellites has also been designed to monitor the high-latitude areas of the Earth.

2. Uses of Drones in Agriculture: **Drones collect the raw data and translate it into useful information. Thus, they can be used to monitor following parameters in agriculture: 1. It can monitor the crop health such as damage made by pests and change in the colour of crops because of pest infection. 2. It can also look after vegetation indices such as anomaly detection, leaf area, yield, treatment efficacy and phenology. 3. It can monitor the plant height and density. 4. It can identify water-stressed parts of the field or the orchard that needs watering.

Target Prelims 2022: Day 02 1.Genetically Modified Crops: € Conventional plant breeding involves crossing of species of the same genus to provide the offspring with the desired traits of both parents. **Bt cotton is the only Genetically Modified (GM) crop that is allowed in India. It has alien genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that allows the crop to develop a protein toxic to the common pest pink bollworm. **Herbicide Tolerant Bt (Ht Bt) cotton, on the other hand is derived with the insertion of an additional gene, from another soil bacterium, which allows the plant to resist the common herbicide glyphosate. **In Bt brinjal, a gene allows the plant to resist attacks of fruit and shoot borers. In DMH-11 mustard (Hybrid Mustard), genetic modification allows cross-pollination in a crop that self-pollinates in nature. **In India, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is the apex body that allows for commercial release of GM crops. **Use of the unapproved GM variant can attract a jail term of 5 years and fine of Rs. 1 lakh under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

5. Difference between Meteor, Meteorite and Meteoroid: **When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors. **When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite. **Meteoroids are lumps of rock or iron that orbit the sun, just as planets, asteroids, and comets do. Meteoroids are found throughout the solar system, from the rocky inner planets to the remote reaches of the Kuiper belt.

4. Quantum Technology/Computing: € Quantum Technology is based on the principles of Quantum mechanics that was developed in the early 20th century to describe nature at the scale of atoms and elementary particles. € **The first phase of this revolutionary technology has provided the foundations of our understanding of the physical world, including the interaction of light and matter, and led to ubiquitous inventions such as lasers and semiconductor transistors. € **A second revolution is currently underway with the goal of putting properties of quantum mechanics in the realms of computing. **Conventional computers process information in ‘bits’ or 1s and 0s, following classical physics under which our computers can process a ‘1’ or a ‘0’ at a time. Quantum computers compute in ‘qubits’ (or quantum bits). They exploit the properties o f q u a n t u m mechanics, the science that governs how matter behaves on the atomic scale. **In this scheme o f t h i n g s , processors can be a 1 and a 0 simultaneously, a state called quantum superposition. **Because of quantum superposition, a quantum computer — if it works to plan — can mimic several classical computers working in parallel. **In 2018, the Department of Science & Technology unveiled a programme called Quantum-Enabled Science & Technology (QuEST) and committed to investing Rs. 80 crore over the next three years to accelerate research. The mission seeks to develop quantum computing linked technologies amidst the second quantum revolution and make India the world’s third-biggest nation in the sector after the US and China.

3. Mutation: A mutation means a change in the genetic sequence of an organism. **In the case of SARS-CoV-2, which is an Ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus, a mutation means a change in the sequence in which its molecules are arranged. € **SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes Covid-19. € RNA is an important biological macromolecule that is present in all biological cells. ** Principally involved in the synthesis of proteins, carrying the messenger instructions from Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA), which itself contains the genetic instructions required for the development and maintenance of life. € **DNA is an organic chemical that contains genetic information and instructions for protein synthesis. It is found in most cells of every organism. **A mutation in an RNA virus often happens when the virus makes a mistake while it is making copies of itself. € **Only if the mutation results in a significant change in the protein structure can the course of a disease be altered.

2. Trans Fatty Acids: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has capped the amount of trans fatty acids (TFA) in oils and fats to 3% for 2021 and 2% by 2022 from the current permissible limit of 5% through an amendment to the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations 2011. **The Regulations deal with the prohibitions and restriction on sales of various food products, ingredients and their admixtures. **Trans fatty acids (TFAs) or Trans fats are the most harmful type of fats which can have much more adverse effects on a human body than any other dietary constituent. **These fats are largely produced artificially but a small amount also occurs naturally. Thus in our diet, these may be present as Artificial TFAs and/ or Natural TFAs. Artificial TFAs are formed when hydrogen is made to react with the oil to produce fats resembling pure ghee/butter. **In our diet the major sources of artificial TFAs are the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (PHVO)/ vanaspati/ margarine while the natural TFAs are present in meats and dairy products, though in small amounts. **WHO launched a REPLACE campaign in 2018 for global-level elimination of trans-fats in industrially produced edible oils by 2023.

Target Prelims 2022: Day 01 1. Hygiene Hypothesis: **According to the Hygiene hypothesis’, people in countries with low sanitation standards get exposed to communicable diseases at an early age and develop stronger immunity, helping them to ward off diseases later in life, a phenomenon called ‘immune training’. **Conversely, people in richer countries have better access to healthcare and vaccines, and things like clean drinking water, due to which they remain safer from such infectious diseases. Paradoxically, this also means that their immune system remains unexposed to such dangers. **This hypothesis is also sometimes used to explain the prevalence of auto-immune diseases, in which the immune system sometimes ‘overreacts’ and starts attacking the body’s own cells, leading to disorders like type-1 diabetes mellitus or multiple sclerosis.

Hello everyone. Greetings after a long time... One imp information for all f u.. after 26th January, we will be starting updates on both S and T and Environment channels. Before Prelims 2022, We will try to cover Current updates and Core and Concepts of both S and T and Environment sections.. Updates will be covering imp developments of last 2 years approx. Stay updated.👍

What is Solar conjunction? *NASA recently decided to stop sending active commands to its missions on the MARS for the time “Mars solar conjunction” remains in effect. *As per NASA, during the Mars solar conjunction period, Earth and the MARS will be on opposite sides of the Sun. *This position of both the planets will affect any communication attempt made by NASA for connecting with its Mars missions because Sun radiates hot & ionized gas from its corona. *These gases can interfere with radio signals if the agency try to communicate with spacecraft at Mars. *These radiations will stand in the middle of both the planets and corrupt commands. It could also result in unexpected behaviour from NASA’s deep space explorers. *Thus, NASA has decided to stop sending signals.

What is Climate Resilience Information System and Planning Tool? **Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Giriraj Singh, launched the “Climate Resilience Information System and Planning (CRISP-M) tool” through a virtual event. Key Points: *The CRISP-M tool has been launched in order to integrate the climate information in the “Geographic Information System (GIS) based watershed planning” under the MGNREGA. *This tool will help in embedding climate information in GIS based planning as well as implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA (MGNREGA). *This tool was developed with the help of British Government and all the stakeholders. They supported the Rural Development Ministry in developing the tool. *This tool will open up new possibilities for rural communities in dealing with the climate change issue. *This tool will be used in seven states namely, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan, for developing climate resilience.