Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
India announced the names of the four astronaut-designates for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission, planned for launch in 2025.
The names of the Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots — Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla — were revealed for the first time in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) here.
The final crew for the mission will be picked from among the four. Shortlisted through a rigorous selection process, they have been undergoing training in various aspects of space flight, initially in Russia, and later at the Astronaut Training Facility established by ISRO in Bengaluru.
‘10,000 genome’ project completed, says govt. (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) officially announced the completion of the ‘10,000 genome’ project — an attempt to create a reference database of whole-genome sequences out of India.
While India first sequenced a complete human genome in 2006, creating a database that is representative of India’s population diversity is seen as a key step to being able to learn about genetic variants that are unique to India’s population groups and use that to customise drugs and therapies.
About 20 institutions across India are involved in the project with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad being the lead institutions coordinating the project.
States
Similipal seeks more female tigers from other regions (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Concerned over the sizeable number of pseudo-melanistic tigers in its Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR), largely due to inbreeding, the Odisha government has written to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to consider introducing female tigers from other landscapes to the reserve.
According to the All Odisha Tiger Estimation (AOTE 2023-24) report, which was released on Monday, 30 tigers were found in the State’s forests.
With 24 adult tigers, the STR currently holds the largest share of the State’s tiger population. It also houses all adult female tigers in the State.
“A total of 13 adult tigers (seven females and six males) were found to be pseudo-melanistic in Similipal. No other wild habitat in the world has pseudo-melanistic tigers,” the report said.
Editorial
The global order, a fraying around many edges (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
António Guterres, the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), is sounding increasingly pessimistic about the future of the UN.
At the opening of the 55th regular session of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Guterres remarked that the ‘lack of unity’ amongst UNSC members had ‘perhaps fatally undermined its authority’. Reform is essential, but given the divisions, cosmetic changes may not be enough.
At stake is the post-World War order whose foundations were built even as the Second World War raged on, reflecting a structure that the Allied powers — eventually the victors of that conflict — felt would prevent another global conflagration.
This order is anchored in the United Nations Organisation, i.e., the UN itself, along with its specialised agencies, funds and programmes.
The main organisation came into being in January 1942 when the 26 Allied nations signed the Declaration of the United Nations and endorsed the Atlantic Charter of 1941, which in turn enshrined the war aims of the United States and the United Kingdom.
This is a system of international relations built to manage great power rivalry as it existed three quarters of a century ago. In the years since, power and prosperity have flowed and shifted between and from the original signatories and the international community of states has more than quadrupled.
Opinion
Towards emotionally unbiased judgments (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Judges are often perceived as beacons of justice; their role demands a profound journey from emotionality to impartiality.
In this context, judges must consciously cultivate an attitude of mindful detachment from intense emotions, especially anger, to anchor their decisions in the bedrock of rational analysis and impartial application of the law.
Empirical research reveals that anger markedly impairs decision-making.
The implications of this finding are particularly profound within the judiciary, where sound judgment is not just paramount but forms the very essence of the profession.
Judges, therefore, are tasked with the duty to maintain neutrality and objectivity and to be acutely aware of how anger can warp their reasoning and precipitate erroneous verdicts.
Text& Context
Why science needs sustainable funding (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The 2024 theme for National Science Day, which India celebrates every year on February 28, is “Science for Sustainable Development”.
Science and technological developments are key drivers of India’s journey towards becoming a developed country by 2047.
India is committed to making this progress through sustainable means, as evidenced by its commitments under the Paris Agreement, participation in global fora for sustainable development, and reinforced in this year’s theme for Science Day.
The role of science in driving sustainable development doesn’t need emphasis, but any conversation on science is incomplete without setting one key expectation — for science to transform India, it has to be sustainably and consistently funded.
Funding for fundamental research in India is amongst the world’s lowest, particularly for a country with high science and technology ambitions.
In the recent past, India’s research and development (R&D) expenditure has dropped to the current 0.64% of GDP from 0.8% in 2008-2009 and 0.7% in 2017-2018.
This reduced expenditure is worrying considering government agencies themselves have issued several calls to double this spending.
News
India to have own space station by 2035, says Modi (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
After the names of the astronauts for the Gaganyaan mission were announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India will have its own space station by 2035.
Addressing scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Mr. Modi said India would once again go to the moon and bring back samples from the lunar surface. The ISRO also has Venus on its radar, he added.
An Indian astronaut will land on the moon using an Indian spacecraft during “Amrit Kaal”, he said, referring to the plans for a crewed lunar mission by 2040.
The four astronaut-designates of the Gaganyaan programme whose names were revealed on Tuesday were not merely four names or four individuals, “they are four ‘shaktiyaan’ (powers) who carry the aspirations of 140 crore Indians into space”, Mr. Modi said.
Home Secretary gets power to destroy interception orders (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Amid intensifying surveillance on Opposition leaders, journalists, and activists, the Union government has authorised the Home Secretary to destroy interception orders, a power that was vested only with security agencies until now under the 2009 rules that were framed for regulating call intercepts.
In 2018, the Home Ministry, in a statutory order, authorised 10 agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate and the Intelligence Bureau, to snoop into communications.
These agencies were then required to destroy the intercept orders within six months, except when the orders were “required for functional requirements”.
The February 26 order expanded the destruction powers to the Home Secretary. It is unclear why the Electronics and Information Technology Ministry — which issued the amendment granting the Home Secretary this power — acted to centralise powers for destruction of surveillance paperwork.
Business
SBI reckons poverty levels between 4-5%; spending on food items drops (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s rural poverty level had declined to 7.2% in 2022-23 from 25.7% in 2011-12, while urban poverty eased to 4.6% from 13.7% over the same period, State Bank of India’s economic research team said in a report on the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES).
At a national level, the bank’s economists reckoned that the poverty rate in India could now be in 4-5% range, with a caveat that these numbers could undergo minor revisions once the Census to count the population that was due in 2021, was completed and the rural-urban population share was published.
The bank’s researchers also simulated the impact on retail inflation trends if the lower spends on food items reflected in the HCES were used to reduce the weightage of food in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The weights of major food items has revised from 47.8% in 2011-12 to 42.8% in 2022-23 at all-India level, with share of food declining more in rural areas.
World
Israel is ready to pause its war in Gaza during Ramzan: Biden (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
U.S. President Joe Biden signalled that a ceasefire in Gaza could be at hand, saying that Israel has agreed to pause its offensive during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramzan if a deal is reached to release some hostages held by Hamas.
However, both Israel and Hamas downplayed on Tuesday the idea that a breakthrough was imminent. Talks to pause the fighting have gained momentum recently and were underway on Tuesday.
Negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been working to broker a ceasefire. Ramzan’s coming up and there has been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramzan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out.
Science
Newfound ‘obelisks’ join viruses, viroids as third unusual life form (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
For nearly seven decades since their discovery in 1898, viruses were the only organisms at the boundary between the living and the non-living.
Their obligate host dependence, parasitism, and small genome sizes collectively made sure they weren’t classified as ‘life’ per se.
Each virion is composed of a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) core that serves as the genetic material, surrounded by a protein coat, and, in some cases, a lipid (fat) layer outside that coat.
Viruses’ life cycle is simple: they infect a host cell, use the cell’s machinery to make more copies of themselves, then infect a new cell to repeat the cycle.
Biologically, scientists couldn’t imagine anything simpler. That changed in 1971 when Theodor Diener, a plant pathologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Research Center in Maryland tried to isolate the pathogen that caused potato spindle tuber disease.
With his colleague William Raymer, Deiner realised the organism responsible — if he could call it that — didn’t contain the lipid layer or the protein coat found in viruses. It appeared to be just plain, naked RNA.