Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
There’s been a lot of chatter online of late, about the vagus nerve: ways to stimulate it, and the possible benefits of this stimulation to help with health problems ranging from anxiety to obesity. V
ideos abound with suggestions for stimulation, including yoga and plunging your face into cold water, alongside sales of little devices that send electrical impulses travelling into your brain. Recent research has also indicated a link between vagus nerve dysfunction and long COVID.
They’re actually a pair of nerves, one on each side, that run from your brainstem, through the neck, to your chest and stomach.
They form a key part of the parasympathetic nervous system, the system that is responsible for relaxing and resting your body after a bout of activity, and for a number of vital functions including your heart rate, blood pressure and digestion; it also plays a role in the immune system.
Editorial
Disentangling the 2030 global renewable energy target (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The presidency of the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to be held in Dubai (November 30-December 12), has called for agreement on a global target of tripling renewable energy capacity from current levels by 2030.
This figure appears in the G-20 declaration too, though only as an aspirational goal to be encouraged.
There is an undoubted win-win appeal to the proposal of this easily understandable global target. However, any serious deconstruction of this target should significantly dampen such enthusiasm.
In 2021, the global installed capacity of renewable energy sources (RES) for electricity generation was 3026 Giga Watts (GW), or 39% of the total capacity from all sources.
In total electricity generation however, the contribution by RES was only 28%. More than half the RE generation was from hydropower, while solar (13%) and wind (23%) accounted for about 36% of RE generation, that is 10% of generation from all sources.
Tripling RE capacity by 2030 implies a target of about 9000 GW, which is more than the total installed capacity from all sources in 2021, adding about 6000 GW of RE capacity between 2022 and 2030.
Changing the way the postman knocks (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The new Post Office Bill (2023) introduced in the Rajya Sabha on the penultimate day of the monsoon session of Parliament, is to replace the Indian Post Office Act (1898) in the light of the changing role of post offices where its “network has become a vehicle for delivery of a variety of citizen centric services”.
While the 1898 Act had focused only on mail services, the new Bill authorises the Director General of Postal Services to make regulations related to activities necessary for providing various such other services as the central government may prescribe, and to fix charges of them.
This provision is important as parliamentary approval will not be a prerequisite for revision of charges for any service offered by post offices, including traditional mail services.
This aspect in the new Bill gives the postal department the requisite flexibility in deciding the prices of its services in a fiercely competitive industry and help in responding quickly to market demands.
Also, various initiatives of India Post to dispense citizen-centric services will now be based on a strong legal framework.
News
Govt. limits wheat stocks to control price rise, hoarding (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Sensing an upward movement in wheat prices and fearing hoarding ahead of the festive season, the Union government has decided to reduce the stock limits of wheat for traders, wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers and processors in all States and Union Territories.
The revised stock limit is 2,000 Metric Tonne (MT) which had been 3,000 MT so far. Briefing the media about the decision, Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra blamed “artificial scarcity” created by some people, behind the uptick in prices.
The government has asked all wheat-stocking entities to register on the wheat stock limit portal and update the stock position.
Any entity which is found to have not registered on the portal or violates the stock limits will be subject to suitable punitive action under Section 6 & 7 of Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
It added that in case the stocks are at present higher than the prescribed limit, the sellers should bring it down within next 30 days. “Officials of Central and State Governments will be closely monitoring enforcement of these stock limits to ensure that no artificial scarcity of wheat is created in the country,” the release said.
SC information a click away as it joins National Judicial Data Grid (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Real-time data on the filing and disposal of cases in the Supreme Court will now be available at the fingertips of the common man, just a click of a mouse away.
Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud announced the onboarding of the Supreme Court on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) in open court.
The NJDG portal is a national repository of data relating to cases instituted, pending and disposed of by the courts across the length and breadth of the country.
The onboarding of Supreme Court’s case data on the NJDG is based on the ‘open data policy’. Now, our data will be uploaded on the NJDG on a real-time and daily basis.
At the click of a button, you can get information about the institution, disposal and pendency of cases type-wise, year-wise, stage-wise and quorum-wise.
Besides, onboarding on the NJDG would mean for the judiciary increased coordination, informed decision making, optimum deployment of resources and manpower, single source of data and a huge potential for high-quality research work.
PMMSY: bridging gaps in the fisheries sector (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
In 2020, when the Indian fisheries sector was preparing for a big leap due to the reforms initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who understood the immense potential of the Blue Economy, and initiated systemic development of the sector, including carving out a Fisheries Ministry, the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to halt the progress.
However, the PM turned this crisis into an opportunity by announcing the Atmanirbhar Bharat package for the fisheries sector.
A significant sum of ₹20,050 crore was allocated for the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) in 2020, committing the biggest-ever investment in the history of Indian fisheries.
Thanks to this fresh chunk of investment and focused attention, the PMMSY began to address critical gaps in the fisheries value chain from fish production, productivity and quality to technology, post-harvest infrastructure and marketing.
It identified key strategic priority areas: marine fisheries, inland fisheries, fishermen’s welfare, infrastructure and post-harvest management, cold water fisheries, ornamental fisheries, aquatic health management, and sea weed cultivation, among others.
As it completes three years, the PMMSY has successfully pulled inland fisheries from traditional waters, and infused technology, inspiring many talented and enterprising youth to venture into fisheries.
Today, young woman entrepreneurs from the Kashmir Valley are efficiently rearing cold water rainbow trout using a recirculatory aquaculture system. Aquapreneurs in Nellore have become successful exporters, thanks to biofloc cultivated shrimps.
Business
Wholesale prices continue to fall (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s wholesale prices remained in deflationary mode for the fifth month in a row in August but the decline in prices narrowed to 0.52% from 1.36% in July, even as inflation in food and primary articles slowed to about 6% from more than 7.5% in the previous month.
The narrowing in the deflation rate was largely driven by fuel and power prices, whose year-over-year decline more than halved from -12.8% in July to -6% in August.
Sequentially, however, the Wholesale Price Index logged inflation for the second successive month, rising 0.33% in August compared with 2.01% in July.
Sequentially, fuel and power costs actually rose 3% after several months of declines, while manufactured products’ prices rose for the first time in four months, albeit at a marginal pace of 0.14%.
The Commerce and Industry Ministry attributed the negative rate of inflation “primarily to the fall in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, chemical & chemical products, textiles and food products”.
World
Global aid effort intensifies for flood-battered Libya (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
A global aid effort for Libya gathered pace after a tsunami-sized flash flood killed at least 4,000 people, with thousands more missing — a death toll the UN blamed in part on the legacy of years of war and chaos.
The enormous surge of storm water burst two upstream river dams late on Sunday and reduced the city of Derna to an apocalyptic wasteland where entire city blocks and untold numbers of people were washed into the Mediterranean.
The UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said most of the deaths could have been avoided if early warning and emergency management systems had functioned properly in the war-scarred country.
With better coordination, “they could have issued the warnings and the emergency management forces would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties,” said its chief Petteri Taalas.
Hundreds of body bags now line Derna’s mud-caked streets, awaiting mass burials, as traumatised and grieving residents search mangled buildings for missing loved ones and bulldozers clear streets of debris and mountains of sand.
Kim invites Putin to visit N. Korea during rare summit (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Kim Jong-un invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit North Korea during a rare summit, stoking U.S. concerns that a revived Moscow-Pyongyang axis could bolster Russia’s military in Ukraine and provide Mr. Kim sensitive missile technology.
Mr. Putin accepted the invitation, according to North Korean state news agency KCNA, though there was no immediate confirmation from the Kremlin. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Putin has rarely travelled abroad.
Calling each other “comrades”, the two leaders toasted to their friendship on Wednesday with Russian wine after the 70-year-old Putin showed Mr. Kim, 39, around Russia’s most modern space launch facility and they held talks alongside their Defence Ministers.
“At the end of the reception, Kim Jong Un courteously invited Mr. Putin to visit the DPRK at a convenient time,” KCNA said, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s formal name.
“Mr. Putin accepted the invitation with pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history and tradition of the Russia-DPRK friendship,” KCNA said.
For the United States and allies, the burgeoning friendship between Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin is a concern: Washington has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made.