Current Affairs Compilations for UPSC IAS Prelims 2022

Mains Oriented Articles

GS Paper 1

• Same-sex marriages: A matter for Parliament

GS Paper 2

• Going beyond customs: On full exemption from basic customs duty for drugs, food imported for treatment of rare diseases
• Lithium find in J&K: Chile, with most reserves, ready to share know-how

GS Paper 3

• India’s fossil fuel lessons for net zero
• The Bharat 6G vision document: how India plans to lead telecommunication tech
• Bot’s The Problem – On the issue of Artificial Intelligence
• Long on intent: On India’s Foreign Trade Policy

Prelims Oriented Articles (Factly)

• Chondrostereum Purpureum: Kolkata man catches potentially deadly plant disease; first such case in world
• 1930 helpline stands between online fraudsters and gullible customers; ₹306 crore saved since 2021
• In a first, Eravikulam National Park gets a fernarium
• Many medical students under stress: study
• A cosmic explosion in 2022 was the brightest ever — and may overturn decades-long theory on gamma ray bursts
• ISRO successfully conducts landing experiment of the Reusable Launch Vehicle
• One of the biggest known black holes discovered due to its light-bending gravity
• Centre issues security guidelines for VVIP road shows
• How ICCR plans to build its brand ambassador programme amongst foreign students in India

Mains Oriented Articles

GS Paper 1

Same-sex marriages: A matter for Parliament

News– The Supreme Court, in Supriyo v. Union of India, has referred the matter relating to legalisation of same­sex marriages to a Constitution Bench.

What is the position of the centre on same-sex marriage?

As per the arguments of center, the same ­sex marriage is not recognised by Indian traditions, ethos, culture and the societal conception of the institution of marriage. Marriage is a holy union between a biological male and a biological female to form to conceive Children.

If same­sex marriages should be legalised, Parliament is the right institution to debate and decide and not the Court.

What are the arguments in support of court intervention in the issue?

It is the duty of the Court to address the violations of fundamental rights, which are arising due to non ­recognition of same­sex marriages.

The question of same­sex marriages involves conflict between the rights of a society to conserve traditions and the right of an individual to enjoy his constitutional freedoms.

What are the arguments in support of the center’s position on this matter?

Marriage is predominantly a social institution. Therefore, it should be the domain of the government to legislate. This point is supported by the following 4 arguments:

First, the question of same­sex marriage has the potential to change the concept of a family which is the building block of society. Most of the conventional definitions of marriage adhere to the Centre’s conceptualization of the institution.

While same­sex marriages are not a threat to this understanding, they demand a nuanced alteration of it.

Second, the current legislative framework promotes the conventional understanding of marriage. Marriages in India are governed by the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955; the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936; the Christian Marriage and Divorce Act, 1957; and Muslim Personal Laws. All marriage laws recognize marriages between a man and a woman. Although the Special Marriage Act (SMA) of 1954, uses gender-neutral language, it cannot be presumed to faour same-sex marriage.

Third, religious and societal morality still conceptualises intercourse as a procreative activity. Various laws pertaining to marriage requires the consummation of marriage for its validation. Consummation for purposes other than procreation is not considered a moral thing.

In the legal concept of marriage, procreation is a basic requirement. Section 12 of the Hindu Marriage Act provides that where a marriage has not been consummated owing to the impotence of one of the parties, the said marriage is voidable.

Fourth, center’s concerns regarding alteration of family unit are not as regressive as they looks. It is iin line with the broader social acceptability. For example, Live-in relationships are judicially recognised, but they are not equated to marriage under the law. The social acceptability of such relationships remains debated.

What is the way forward for same sex marriages in India?

The issue of legal recognition of same­sex unions requires a broader debate in society and the legislature.

The rights issues related to same sex marriages are substantial and must be addressed immediately. The push to formalise the institution of same­sex unions must come from representative bodies such as Parliament.

GS Paper 2

Going beyond customs: On full exemption from basic customs duty for drugs, food imported for treatment of rare diseases

News– Centre has announced the full exemption from basic customs duty for all drugs and food imported for treatment of rare diseases listed under the National Policy for Rare Diseases.

To avail this exemption, the individual importer must produce a certificate from specified authorities.

Read more – Drugs for rare diseases get customs duty relief

What are arguments in support of the centre move to announce exemptions?

Rare diseases are a group of diseases that occur infrequently in the community. So due to lack of a large number of people with disease, there is no  incentives for pharma companies to produce life-saving medicines.

Some of these diseases do not have any described treatment methodologies. For existing treatments, the drugs have to be imported and costs are high. They are inaccessible to a large volume of patients.

The NPRD estimates that for a child weighing 10 kg, the annual cost of treatment for some rare diseases may vary from ₹10 lakh to more than ₹1 crore per year. Treatment is lifelong and drug dose and costs increase with age and weight. The duty exemption will lead to substantial savings for patients.

What is the way forward for proper management of rare diseases?

The sheer number of diseases is estimated between 7,000-8,000 conditions, and the number of people with some form of rare diseases in India is estimated at 100 million. It makes it a problem that cannot be ignored.

The government must ensure that its directions are followed in full. It must find innovative solutions for this category of patients.

Lithium find in J&K: Chile, with most reserves, ready to share know-how

News: The article discusses the ways through which Chile can help India in exploiting its lithium resources and other areas of cooperation between the two.

How can Chile help India in exploiting its lithium resources?

Chile is the country with the most lithium reserves (48% of the world’s total lithium deposits) and it is home to the company SQM, which is the second largest global lithium producer.

SQM has already invested in Australia where they have a Chilean-Australian joint venture called Covalent.

Therefore, SQM can extend technical expertise in exploiting inferred lithium resources of 5.9 million tonnes in Salal-Haimana area of Reasi district in Jammu and Kashmir.

Must Read: Lithium Reserves in India: Strategic Significance and Concerns – Explained

What are the different areas of cooperation between India and Chile?

Currently, there is an agreement on trade of goods between the two nations.

The discussions were also made in 2019 by India for procurement of lithium from Chile. However, the initiative came to a halt due to the Covid.

Further, during the visit of the President of India to Chile in 2019, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Chile on cooperation in geology and minerals was renewed for five years.

Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) has also taken efforts last year to source strategic minerals lithium and cobalt from countries like Australia, Argentina and Chile.

There were also discussions going on in wide ranging areas including trade, technology, renewables, space, mining and education between the two nations.

GS Paper 3

India’s fossil fuel lessons for net zero

News– India has faced many challenges in creating self-sufficiency. The same practices should not be repeated in the case of renewable energy.

What are the challenges India faced in the case of hydrocarbon and how can they be used as lessons for renewable energy?

1) Challenges in accessing indegenous resources– Although, India had the raw material of oil and gas. But the hydrocarbon resources are located in harsh terrain and complex geology. Which were difficult to locate and even if located, they were difficult to produce on a commercial basis. The reason is the high cost of drilling and development.

Similarly, it is difficult to create a world class hub for the manufacture of batteries, solar cells, wafers and modules, on the basis of availability of technical talent and capital. Process cost, due to land acquisition, erratic supplies of water and power and legal redress, needs to be minimised.

2) Issue with use of technology– The recovery rate of oil and gas from India’s producing fields has averaged between 25-30%, compared to world average of 40-60 per cent. it is not due to access to Enhanced oil recovery technologies. The reason is the utilisation of these technologies, which is not efficiently implemented.

Therefore, clean energy sector should not take the availability of tech as manufacturing competitiveness. China’s dominance in PV solar cell manufacturing is because, its engineers have been successful in implementation of the several technological steps, required to convert raw material into an end product, efficiently.

3) Incentive model– The exploration sector was leiberalised in the expectation of more foreign investment. But, international companies shown lack of interest, stating our geology as high risk. India fiscal and commercial terms were not internationally competitive for them.

A similar disappointment is possible in case of the PLI scheme for clean energy sector. This is because the incentives offered are small compared to the benefits provided by the US through the “inflation reduction act” and Europe through its “net zero industry act”.

The US offers, for instance, subsidies up to $10 billion or single factories. It is equivalent to total subsidy under PLI. Therefore, India cannot compete on the size of the incentive package with advanced economies. The focus should instead be to lower entry barriers, ease business conditions.

4) External dependence– Finally, India remains dependent on the external market for supplies of petroleum. There is no easy solution to reverse this imbalance and address its vulnerability to unexpected supply disruptions. However, The government has successfully diversified its supplies without involving in domestic or regional politics and conflicts.

Simlarly, clean energy minerals and components are internationally available. Instead of creating high-cost, domestic, clean energy hub dependent upon subsidies, government should stregthen the trading relationship with exporting countries.

The Bharat 6G vision document: how India plans to lead telecommunication tech

News: The Prime Minister of India has recently unveiled the Bharat 6G Vision Document.

Why did the government put out a 6G vision document?

Assuming Leadership: The government wants to increase India’s dominance in wireless data usage and take the lead in establishing 6G standards globally.

It will be done through encouraging local manufacturing of telecom, supporting Indian companies and engineers in international discussions around standardization.

Avoiding Delays: The government doesn’t want to delay or stay behind the other countries in rolling out 6G as it did in 5G. For instance, 5G came in India years after countries like South Korea and the United States started using it.

Addressing the Demand: Frequencies increase in newer generations of networks. Hence, with the advent of 5G and 6G technologies, lower frequencies in 4G networks may not be able to match the demand for traffic.

Therefore, the government is focusing on 6G to address the demand and make people have access to better frequencies.

Developing R&D: The government wants to support research in the field of 6G technologies. It will be done through leveraging talent in academia and companies. An apex body will be set up to guide these groups through roadblocks.

Achieve connectivity goals: 6G technology will help the government in achieving connectivity goals.

For instance, ensuring that every person has access to a minimum of 100 Mbps of broadband, giving every gram panchayat access to half a terabit per second of connectivity, and installing over 50 million internet devices across the nation—13 per square kilometer.

Must Read: Telecom secretary asks C-DoT to work on 6G, launches Quantum Communication Lab

How are other countries approaching 6G?

Click Here to Read

Japan and Germany are working together from fundamental technologies to demonstrations on 6G technology.

What will be the benefit of 6G and what are the associated concerns?

6G will make websites load faster, videos to look better, and files to download faster than the 5G technology. However, businesses and governments are still figuring out how to best use 5G technology.

Further, the vision document states that satellite constellations will connect to base stations and telecom towers, thereby integrating networks and expanding them into rural areas.

However, solutions to provide connectivity to rural areas already exist in other forms. For instance, satellite internet in remote areas can be provided by instantly granting administrative clearance to firms like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Bharti Airtel-backed OneWeb.

Hence, with the advent of satellite technologies, providing internet connectivity to rural areas is no longer a constraint.

Bot’s The Problem – On the issue of Artificial Intelligence

News– Italy has temporarily suspended ChatGPT for data breach. It will further investigate Open AI, the maker of ChatGPT, on its data collection practices as per the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018.

Why is there a need to regulate the applications of AI?

An AI-focused ethics group in the US demanded to investigate OpenAI for violating consumer protection rules.

Microsoft has integrated ChatGPT in its search to find popular applications worldwide. It has raised multiple ethical and legal concerns and  has shown the ChatGPT’s ability to produce mass misinformation.

There is a need to protect fundamental rights in relation to biometric applications such as emotion recognition where machines recognise human emotions, and AI polygraphs where machines detect deception by individuals.

The advanced tech has seamlessly integrated into our lives without our recognition of their impacts. A few companies control our use of the internet, which still holds the promise of being a democratic space.

Long on intent: On India’s Foreign Trade Policy

News: Recently, India’s commerce minister unveiled a new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).

What are the salient features of India’s new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP)?

How this new FTP is different from previous ones?

No expiry date: India’s previous FTP was meant for a five-year span and it has ended in March 2020.  But, the new FTP has no expiry date and is open to change.

No new schemes, except the amnesty scheme: While earlier FTPs launched new schemes and incentives, this FTP is a deviation. This is because a number of India’s export-linked subsidies were challenged by the US as prohibited subsidies under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

India lost the case at the WTO in 2019 and had to withdraw these subsidies or replace them with WTO-compliant supports like the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) Scheme, which replaced the previous Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS).

Shift in approach: The new FTP tries to move away from an incentive-based regime towards creating an enabling ecosystem for Indian exporters. There has been a focus on the ease of doing business and facilitating the integration of Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with global value chains.

What are the significant advantages of the new FTP?

Renewed push for a competitive edge overseas: The policy aims to align Indian exports with a big global e-commerce opportunity within World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

Ensured many micro-reforms: This includes online approvals for various schemes, automation of some processes, removal of export obligations for items that go into climate action, etc. Most of these schemes including the RoDTEP , RoSCTL (Rebate on State and Central Taxes and Levies), AA (Advance Authorisation) and EPCG (Export Promotion Capital Goods) have just been tweaked. All this will ease exports and support major sectors like dairy, textiles and apparel, etc.

Export push to the e-commerce sector: This sector received substantial attention in FTP 2023 because of the sector’s potential to help India to attain its export targets of $1 trillion for goods and services by 2030.

What are the challenges India needs to address?

Export promotion does not work well with import restrictions: India’s ‘Make in India’ aims to help local players exploit wider opportunities. In view of protecting the home base from global rivalry India still imposes many import tariffs. But, being pro-trade by trying to push exports and deter imports can pose great challenges as well.

The issue with the non-expiry policy: The non-expiry policy will grant flexibility to the government. But the Centre may term this as ‘policy instability’ in long run due to non-updation, especially to the changing needs of the China-plus value chains strategy.

Issues with E-commerce value limit: The policy proposes to increase the value limit for exports from ₹5 lahks to ₹10 lahks per consignment. This is a deterrent for exporters to use the e-commerce mode for exports of high-value consignments in sectors like gems and jewellery, handicrafts, handmade carpets and electronics.

Fails to provide roadmap: The FTP falls short in offering more substantive and sectorally targeted measures as well as a well-defined roadmap to meet the 2030 export target.

What needs to be done?

Remove value limit for e-commerce: To reach the e-commerce export target of $200-300 billion, there should not be any value limit, as has been the practice in most of India’s competing countries.

Interlink infotech systems across government departments: The new FTP did not specify the need to link the IT system of customs with that of partner government agencies like the Drug Controller General of India or FSSAI for import clearances of express/courier consignments. This is a necessity to a) facilitate the fast-track mobility of consignments, b) create a robust risk management system for end-to-end clearances.

Need data to promote district-level exports: It is important to have data/information on what kinds of goods and services are being produced in the districts and which of these have export potential. Hence, there is a need for an institutional mechanism to collect data to map food and other products from different districts.

India’s isolation from the world economy has long proven a failure. As a major economy, India still punches far below its weight in world trade. Hence, the success of the new FTP is vital to improve India’s stake in the world economy.

Prelims-Oriented Articles (Factly)

Chondrostereum Purpureum: Kolkata man catches potentially deadly plant disease; first such case in world

Source: The post is based on the article “Kolkata man catches potentially deadly plant disease; first such case in world” published in The Economic Times on 1st April 2023.

What is the News?

A 61-year-old man from Kolkata has been recently diagnosed with an infection from Chondrostereum Purpureum, a deadly plant fungus. This is said to be the first such known case in the world.

What is Chondrostereum Purpureum?

Chondrostereum purpureum is a plant fungus that causes silver leaf disease in plants, particularly those in the rose family.

Distribution: It is commonly found in temperate regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. It is often found on old stumps and dead wood, but can also be a serious parasite of living trees.

It attacks most species of the rose family Rosaceae, particularly the genus Prunus. The disease is progressive and often fatal. It is spread by airborne spores landing on freshly exposed sapwood.

How Chondrostereum Purpureum can infect humans?

Repeated exposure to decaying material could be behind this rare type of infection in humans.

Symptoms in humans: Recurring cough, hoarseness of voice, difficulty swallowing, a sore throat and fatigue. The patient also has a paratracheal abscess (a painful collection of pus) in the neck. Such abscesses can block airways and can be deadly if not detected and treated on priority.

This Chondrostereum Purpureum infection among humans highlights a) The potential of environmental plant fungi to cause disease in humans and b) Stresses the importance of molecular techniques to identify the causative fungal species.

1930 helpline stands between online fraudsters and gullible customers; ₹306 crore saved since 2021

Source: The post is based on the article “1930 helpline stands between online fraudsters and gullible customers; ₹306 crore saved since 2021” published in The Hindu on 3rd April 2023

What is the News?

Around 1.33 lakh people across the country were able to get stolen money back after reporting the fraud on the toll-free helpline number 1930. 

What is the 1930 Helpline Number?

1930 was launched in 2021 by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

It is a toll-free helpline number to get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints.

It is one of the key components of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre(I4C).

What are the other steps taken by the Central Government against Cyber Crimes?

‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. States/UTs are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes including cybercrime through their Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs).

The Central Government has taken various measures to supplement the efforts of States/UTs which include the following:

– The Ministry of Home Affairs has provided financial assistance under the ‘Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)’ Scheme, to the States/UTs. The scheme aims to improve their capacity building such as setting up cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, hiring junior cyber consultants and training LEAs’ personnel, public prosecutors and judicial officers.

– Ministry of Home Affairs operationalized the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal www.cybercrime.gov.in to provide a centralized mechanism to the citizens for online reporting of all types of cybercrime incidents, with a special focus on cyber crimes against women and children.

– The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform under the I4C called ‘CyTrain’ portal has been developed. CyTrain portal helps in the capacity building of Police Officers/Judicial Officers through online courses on critical aspects of cybercrime investigation, forensics, prosecution etc. along with certification.

In a first, Eravikulam National Park gets a fernarium

Source: The post is based on the article “In a first, Eravikulam National Park gets a fernarium” published in The Hindu on 3rd April 2023

What is the News?

A Fernarium has been set up inside the Eravikulam National Park(ENP). This is the first time such a fern collection has been established in the hill station.

What is Eravikulam National Park(ENP)?

Located in: Kerala

It is the first National Park in Kerala. It was declared as a National Park in 1978.

It is situated in the Kannan Devan Hills of the southern Western Ghats.

The highest peak in South India– The Anamudi (2695 meters) is situated in this park.

This is also the land of “Neelakurinji”, the flower that blooms once in twelve years.

The park is a natural habitat of Nilgiri tahr.

What are Ferns?

Ferns are part of the Epiphytic family. They grow naturally in a soilless condition. The plants obtain water and nutrients through leaching from trees. 

Note: Epiphyte also called air plant is any plant that grows upon another plant or object merely for physical support. Epiphytes have no attachment to the ground or other obvious nutrient sources and are not parasitic on the supporting plants.

Many medical students under stress: study

Source: The post is based on the article “Many medical students under stress: study” published in The Hindu on 3rd April 2023

What is the News?

A Right to Information(RTI) response from National Medical Commission(NMC) said that 64 MBBS and 55 postgraduate medicos died by suicide in the last five years.

What is the data on suicides among medical students?

The risk of suicide among doctors is almost 2.5 times more than the general population. 

According to a study, 358 suicide deaths among medical students (125), residents (105) and physicians (128) were reported between 2010 and 2019. Around seven out of 10 suicides took place before the age of 30.

Female residents and physicians were younger than their male counterparts at the time of suicide. 

Reasons: Academic stress among medical students (45.2%) and residents (23.1%), and marital discord among physicians (26.7%) were the most noticeable reasons for suicide. 

– Mental ill-health was the next most common reason among medical students(24%) and physicians (20%), while harassment (20.5%) was a cause for residents.

What are the steps taken to address suicides among medical students?

In 2022, the National Medical Commission(NMC) formed an anti-ragging committee to resolve complaints forwarded by anti-ragging committees of different medical colleges. The members were instructed to meet once every month to take up the ragging complaints and undertake an independent enquiry.

A cosmic explosion in 2022 was the brightest ever — and may overturn decades-long theory on gamma ray bursts

Source: The post is based on the article “A cosmic explosion in 2022 was the brightest ever — and may overturn decades-long theory on gamma ray bursts” published in Down To Earth on 3rd April 2023

What is the News?

In 2022, Astronomers recorded the brightest gamma-ray radiation (named GRB 221009A) of all time, which could overturn a long-standing theory of GRB jets.

What are Gamma-ray bursts(GRB)?

Gamma-ray bursts are the strongest and brightest explosions in the universe, thought to be generated during the formation of black holes. 

Though they last mere seconds, gamma-ray bursts produce as much energy as the sun will emit during its entire 10-billion-year existence. 

GRBs were first seen in 1967 by the U.S. Air Force satellite called Vela. 

Types of GRBs: 

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs): LGRBs last for more than two seconds and are thought to be caused by the collapse of massive stars, known as supernovae.

– These explosions release a tremendous amount of energy and create a black hole at their center.

– LGRBs are the most common type of GRB and can be observed from distant galaxies.

Short-duration gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs): SGRBs last for less than two seconds and are thought to be caused by the collision of two compact objects, such as neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole.

– SGRBs are much rarer than LGRBs, are more difficult to observe and typically located closer to our galaxy.

What is GRB 221009A?

GRB 221009A was a bright and long-lasting gamma-ray burst (GRB) jointly discovered by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

GRB 221009A is only expected to happen once in many thousands of years. It may even be the brightest gamma-ray burst since human civilization began. Astronomers therefore dubbed it BOAT – the brightest of all time.

The burst was so bright it effectively blinded most gamma-ray instruments in space, which means they could not directly record the real intensity of the emission.

GRB 221009A is also the only seventh gamma-ray burst to display X-ray rings, and it triples the number previously seen around one.

ISRO successfully conducts landing experiment of the Reusable Launch Vehicle

Source: The post is based on the article “ISRO successfully conducts landing experiment of the Reusable Launch Vehicle” published in The Hindu on 3rd April 2023

What is the News?

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully carried out the landing experiment of the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD).

What is a Reusable Launch Vehicle(RLV)?

Reusable launch vehicle (RLV) means a launch vehicle that is designed to return to Earth substantially intact and therefore may be launched more than one time.

An RLV may also contain stages that may be recovered by a launch operator for future use in the operation of a substantially similar launch vehicle.

Advantages: With the costs acting as a major deterrent to space exploration, a reusable launch vehicle is considered a low-cost, reliable, and on-demand mode of accessing space.

What is the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD)?

RLV-TD is part of the efforts of ISRO at developing essential technologies for a fully reusable launch vehicle to enable low-cost access to space.

The RLV-TD will be used to develop technologies like hypersonic flight (HEX), autonomous landing (LEX), return flight experiment (REX), powered cruise flight, and Scramjet Propulsion Experiment (SPEX).

In the future, this vehicle will be scaled up to become the first stage of India’s reusable two-stage orbital (TSTO) launch vehicle.

How many RLV experiments have been carried out by India?

The first RLV experiment was done in 2016. ISRO officials described it as a “baby step” in the development of an RLV. 

The second RLV test conducted recently involved a Chinook Helicopter of the Indian Air Force lifting the RLV LEX to a height of 4.5 km and releasing the RLV, based on a command from the Mission Management Computer.

After midair release, the RLV carried out an autonomous landing “under the exact conditions of a Space Re-entry vehicle’s landing — high speed, unmanned, precise landing from the same return path — as if the vehicle arrived from space.

What was the difference between the two tests?

According to ISRO, the first test with RLV-TD (HEX1) involved the vehicle landing on a hypothetical runway over the Bay of Bengal while the RLV-LEX experiment involved a precise landing on a runway.

What is the significance of this RLV Test?

This is the first time in the world that a launch vehicle has been carried to an altitude of 4.5 km by helicopter and released for carrying out an autonomous landing on a runway.

With the successful landing of RLV LEX, the dream of an Indian Reusable Launch Vehicle arrives one step closer to reality.

One of the biggest known black holes discovered due to its light-bending gravity

Source: The post is based on the article “One of the biggest known black holes discovered due to its light-bending gravity” published in Indian Express on 3rd April 2023

What is the News?

Astronomers have discovered an ultramassive black hole using gravitational lensing.

Which is the technique used by researchers to discover black holes?

Researchers used a technique known as gravitational lensing. This technique enabled them to closely examine how light is bent by a black hole inside a galaxy hundreds of millions of light-years from Earth.

Supercomputer simulations and images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope were also used to confirm the size of the black hole.

Significance of the discovery: The black hole discovered is roughly 30 billion times the mass of our Sun and is one of the biggest ever detected and on the upper limit of how large we believe black holes can theoretically become.

– Moreover, this new approach of gravitational lensing taken by the researchers could make it possible to study inactive black holes in distant galaxies, which is not currently possible with other existing techniques.

What is Gravitational lensing?

Gravitational lensing is the name given to the phenomenon where a foreground object—a galaxy or a black hole—bends the light from a more distant object behind it, magnifying it in the process.

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What is a black hole?

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Centre issues security guidelines for VVIP road shows

Source: The post is based on the article “Centre issues security guidelines for VVIP road shows” published in The Hindu on 3rd April 2023

What is the News?

The Union government has issued an elaborate security advisory to States on the protection of highly threatened dignitaries such as VVIPs.

What are the security threats faced by VVIPs during road shows?

Prolonged exposure of the VVIPs during roadshows to large crowds and continuous travel through congested routes makes them vulnerable to attack by hostile elements.

For instance, in case of road shows running for several weeks or months, such hostile elements could conduct a dry run and then target the protected at an opportune time.

What are the guidelines issued by the Central Government for the protection of VVIPs during road shows?

State law-enforcing agencies should work closely with organizers of VVIP political events.

Routes for road shows should be chosen with abundant caution considering local intelligence inputs, evacuation options, access to safe houses and other contingency decisions.

Local police should conduct a thorough security audit of the route proposed for the VVIP programme.

Security components should include the deployment of adequate security personnel, use of bomb detectors, anti-sabotage checks at vulnerable places such as high-rise buildings, traffic management and crowd control measures.

In case of travel of VVIPs in open or on top of vehicles, arrangements should be made in such a manner that the visibility of the dignitary was ensured but at the same time with no compromise on the security protocol.

The focus of the proximity security personnel should be to protect the VVIPs in the event of any untoward incident and their positioning should be arranged so that it would facilitate easy evacuation.

How ICCR plans to build its brand ambassador programme amongst foreign students in India

Source: The post is based on the article “How ICCR plans to build its brand ambassador programme amongst foreign students in India” published in The Hindu on 3rd April 2023

What is the News?

Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR) is planning to start E-3 or Exit Engagement Evenings with foreign students.

What is E-3 or Exit Engagement Evenings with foreign students?

Aim: To expand India’s artistic and creative footprint globally, by tapping into the experiences of foreign students studying here.

Features of the programme: The programme will begin three or four months before the foreign students finish their courses in various Central and State universities of the country.

– The engagements would include visits to places of national importance. At present, the ICCR has zeroed in on the Khadi Commission, the Indian Tourism Development Corporation and the Department of AYUSH to hold these evenings with the students.

Significance: This “soft diplomacy” is meant to spread the India story when students go back to their home countries.

About Foreign Students in India

According to the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) brought out by the Ministry of Education, the number of foreign students enrolled in Indian higher education institutions were 48,035 in 2020-21, a marginal dip from 49,348 in 2019-20.

People from more than 160 countries visit India to study. Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the U.S., the UAE, Bhutan, Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Yemen were the countries from which the majority of the students came.

What is the India Alumni Portal?

Launched by: Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR)

Purpose: It is a platform to connect with foreign students around the world who have studied in India. 

– The portal is envisaged to be a single platform for all past and present foreign scholars to register, interact, and maintain their Indian links.

– The portal is aimed at helping past students reconnect with each other. ICCR itself offers scholarships to over 6,000 students every year, and there are now 30,000+ ICCR alumni.