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The Navy’s destroyer INS Visakhapatnam responded to a distress call by Marshall Islands-flagged merchant vessel MV Genco Picardy, following a drone attack in the Gulf of Aden.
This comes even as the U.S.-led coalition continued strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen to “degrade” their capabilities, in the wake of Houthi drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
INS Visakhapatnam intercepted the vessel on January 18 to provide assistance. MV Genco Picardy with 22 crew, nine Indians, reported nil casualties and fire (is) under control.
States
ISRO develops improvised Distress Alert Transmitter (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed an improvised distress alert transmitter (DAT) with advanced capabilities for fishermen at sea to send emergency messages from boats.
The first version of DAT is operational since 2010, using which messages were sent through a communication satellite and received at a central control station (Indian Mission Control Centre), where the alert signals are decoded for the identity and location of the fishing boat.
The information is then forwarded to maritime rescue coordination centres (MRCCs) under the Indian Coast Guard. The MRCC coordinates to undertake search and rescue operations to save the fishermen in distress.
Editorial
Beleaguered Indian media: Quo Vadis? (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Since liberalisation in 1991, the audiovisual media has transformed itself. Economic growth, the freeing of broadcast media from government control and the Internet have all prompted an explosion in the quantity, if not quality, of media offerings.
In the process, Indian journalism changed in style as well as substance. But this has not always been a “good thing”.
Media now is driven by the “breaking news” culture and the search for the villain of the day: the news must be broken and so, it seems, must the person.
Television news in India, with far too many channels competing 24/7 for the same sets of eyeballs and ratings points (“TRPs”), has long given up any pretence of providing a public service, with the “breaking news” story privileging sensation over substance. (Indian TV epitomises the old witticism about why television is called a ‘medium’: ‘Because it is neither rare nor well done.’)
The Fourth Estate today serves simultaneously as witness, prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner. In ancient times, India put its accused through agnipariksha, a trial by fire; today, we put them through a trial by media.
Text & Context
How satellites track the weather (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Large parts of North India, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, and Punjab, have been grappling with heavy fog since December 2023.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned of a high likelihood of “very dense fog” in Haryana, Chandigarh, and Delhi, where it said visibility would be lower than 50 metres in “night/morning hours”.
It issued similar alerts for Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh, where it said visibility could be limited to 50-200 metres. On the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the IMD has accompanied these alerts with maps from the INSAT 3D satellite, and sometimes from the INSAT 3DR satellite. The fog in these maps is both clearly visible and annotated by the IMD.
At the bottom right of a map from 2021 (map 1) is a clue — ‘Night Microphysics’. According to a paper published by IMD scientists in February 2019, the INSAT 3D satellite has a red-green-blue, or RGB, imager whose images’ colours are determined by two factors: solar reflectance and brightness temperature.
News
Sub-categorisation of SCs: panel to look into even distribution of benefits (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
The Union government has formed a five-member committee of Secretaries, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, to evaluate and work out a method for the equitable distribution of benefits, schemes and initiatives to the most backward communities amongst the over 1,200 Scheduled Castes (SCs) across the country, that have been crowded out by relatively forward and dominant ones.
This comes in the backdrop of PM Narendra Modi’s promise to look into the demand for sub-categorisation of SCs as raised by the Madiga community in the run-up to the Telangana Assembly election.
Further, this move comes just as a seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is set to start hearing the question of whether sub-categorisation among SCs and Scheduled Tribes (STs) is at all permissible.
While the court hearing will be on the constitutionality of sub-categorisation among SCs for the purpose of breaking up the reservation in jobs and education set aside for them, the government panel will be looking into “other ways to take care of their grievances.
World
U.S. hits Yemen after Houthis redesignated as ‘terrorists’ (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The United States conducted additional strikes early on Thursday against a couple of Houthi anti-ship missiles that were being prepared to fire into the Red Sea, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told presspersons.
American forces had targeted 14 missiles that were ready to launch in Yemen on Wednesday, after Washington re-designated the Iran-backed Houthi rebels as a “terrorist” entity for their attacks on merchant vessels.
The Houthis — who have already faced multiple rounds of air strikes in response to their targeting of international shipping — struck a U.S.-owned bulk cargo carrier in the wake of the designation announcement, and vowed to continue attacks they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
“These missiles on launch rails presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region and could have been fired at any time, prompting U.S. forces to exercise their inherent right and obligation to defend themselves,” CENTCOM said.
China, Philippines agree to ease tensions (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
China and the Philippines said they have agreed to work on lowering tensions after a year of public and tense confrontations in the South China Sea between their ships that have raised concerns about armed engagement in the region.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday that the two sides agreed to continue to improve communication and use friendly negotiations to manage their differences at sea, “especially to manage the situation at Ren’Ai Reef”.
Ren’Ai Reef is the Chinese name for what the Philippines call Ayungin Shoal and the U.S. calls the Second Thomas Shoal, the site of multiple confrontations between the two countries’ ships in recent months.
In November, Manila said that a Chinese coast guard ship conducted dangerous manoeuvres and blasted a Philippine supply ship with a water cannon in disputed waters. China disputed the account, saying it acted appropriately.
Science
The importance of periodic testing for human pappilomavirus (Page no. 22)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The New Year brings a whole host of resolutions. If wellness and self-care were on your list, this is the right time to equip yourself with knowledge about cervical cancer: January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month.
Cervical cancer, which develops in a woman’s cervix (the entrance to the uterus from the vagina) is the second-most common cancer among women in India.
It is caused by persistent infection by the human papillomavirus (HPV). Almost all sexually active people are infected by HPV at some point in their lives, but usually without symptoms, the World Health Organisation (WHO) states.
In most people, the immune system clears up the virus. In some cases, certain high-risk strains of the virus persist in the body and could lead to cancer. India accounts for nearly a quarter of all cervical cancer deaths in the world.
It is estimated that every year around 1.25 lakh women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and nearly 75,000 of them die.