Current Affairs Reverse Engineering – CARE (22-05-2024)
| News at a Glance |
| Environment: Centre greenlights Karnataka Climate Action Plan |
| Science and Technology: Malaria vaccine ‘R21/Matrix-M’ shipments to Africa |
| Govt mulls new rules for radar speed guns |
| Economy: RBI’s proposed framework to administer project financing |
| International Relations: FATF, Interpol and UNODC call for urgent steps to target the profits of transnational organised crime |
Centre greenlights Karnataka Climate Action Plan
Source: Down to Earth
UPSC Syllabus Relevance: GS 3 (Climate Change, Ecology and Environment)
Context: Karnataka has been caught between two extreme conditions for the last decade of floods in the southern districts and droughts in the north and eastern districts
Why in News
- Karnataka State Action Plan for Climate Change (KSAPCC) was recently approved by the central government.
Karnataka State Action Plan for Climate Change (KSAPCC)
- The Karnataka State Action Plan for Climate Change (KSAPCC) was initially prepared in 2021.
- The Environment Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI) drafted the plan.
- It indicated that the state requires Rs 52,827 crore between 2025 and 2030 to implement measures in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, rural development and 10 other sectors.
- The Karnataka State Action Plan on Climate Change – Version 2, submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) in April 2021,
- The renewable energy department is keenly looking to begin the implementation immediately after the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is lifted after election results on June 4, 2024.
Need of the KSAPCC Plan
- Karnataka has been caught between two extreme conditions for the last decade of floods in the southern districts and droughts in the north and eastern districts.
- As Karnataka faces escalating climate challenges, including severe droughts and erratic monsoon patterns, the state government is poised to roll out a comprehensive climate action plan.
- The KSAPCC plan must be properly implemented to ensure the climate crisis that the state is going through is contained.
- Under central government directions, all major states have formed their own scientific working groups to draft the state action plan for climate change and Karnataka was one of the first states that got the green signal from the MOEF&CC.
Significance of the Plan
- The KSAPCC plan advocates a multi-sectoral approach.
- From afforestation to the use of renewable energy, the plan suggested a slew of measures for every department.
- It outlines critical strategies and measures to combat climate change across various sectors.
Challenges
- There must be all-round development towards achieving the goals in this realm.
- The Karnataka government had argued that by not approving the plan submitted in 2021, the central government had done injustice to the state in combating climate change.
- The first sign of climate change is always felt on water availability and crop failure, which is why the government of Karnataka had demanded a drought relief of Rs 18,000 crore for the financial year 2023-24.
- Some of the bureaucrats who were in the loop from the municipal administration side felt that the flooding in the city areas was basically due to faulty civic planning and top-down models imported from other places.
National Action Plan on Climate change(NAPCC)
- The National Action Plan on Climate change was formally launched on June 30th, 2008.
- The NAPCC identifies measures that promote development objectives while also yielding co-benefits for addressing climate change effectively.
- As part of the Climate Change Action program. the scheme has been extended upto 2025-26.
- It consists of eight broad sub-components including the National
- Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) coordination, State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC), National Institute on Climate Change Studies & Actions, National Carbonaceous Aerosols Programme (NCAP), Long Term Ecological Observations (LTEO), International negotiations and capacity building.
- There are eight “National Missions” which form the core of the NAPCC.
- The eight missions are:
- National Solar Mission
- National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
- National Mission on Sustainable Habitat
- National Water Mission
- National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem
- National Mission for a Green India
- National Mission fro Sustainable Agriculture
- National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change
Way Forward
- The all-round approach must include
- protection and promotion of waterbodies, which must aim at recharging the subterranean water veins,
- afforestation on a war footing,
- finding ways and methods to grow water-intensive crops with less water, greening the banks of the rivers in the state,
- improving forest cover in cities under a modified social forestry programme and conserving and rejuvenating the open wells, bogs, creeks, tanks and lakes.
- The experts who participated in the drafting of the action plan from the financial world were of the opinion that corporations must be enthused to use a major chunk of their Corporate Social Responsibility funds for the cause of climate change.
- The central government should have influenced the Election Commission to relax MCC on deliberations and funding for such a large issue.
| CARE MCQ | UPSC PYQ |
Q1. Which of the following missions are part of National Action Plan on Climate change (NAPCC)?
Select the correct answer using the code given below: A. Only one B. Only two C. Only three D. All four |
Q. “Climate Action Tracker” which monitors the emission reduction pledges of different countries is a: (2022)
Ans: (A)
|
| Answer 1- D
Explanation:
|
Malaria vaccine ‘R21/Matrix-M’ shipments to Africa
Source: The Hindu
UPSC Relevance: GS 3- Science and Technology, Vaccine, Diseases
Context: SII commences shipments of malaria vaccine ‘R21/Matrix-M’ to Africa
Why in News
- Vaccines manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII) said it has started exports of ‘R21/Matrix-M’ malaria vaccine to Africa as part of the global fight against the disease.
‘R21/Matrix-M’ malaria vaccine
- ‘R21/Matrix-M’ malaria vaccine was developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford and Novavax’s Matrix-M adjuvant.
- The R21/Matrix-M vaccine is the second malaria vaccine to be authorised for use in children in malaria-endemic regions.
- The R21/Matrix-M vaccine is a vital new tool to help stop the devastating health and economic impact of malaria on nearly half of the world’s population, including the tragic loss of 1,300 children every single day.
- SII said the R21/Matrix-M vaccine received WHO recommendation for use in children last year in October.
Significance of vaccine
- The development of the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine represents a great step forward in our battle against this deadly parasite.
- The quality, affordable vaccines that will be produced through this partnership between Novavax and SII will prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths every year across the globe.
- The start of the distribution at large scale of this high efficacy, very cost-effective vaccine should mark a turning point in the battle against malaria.
- The vaccine is easily deployable, cost-effective and affordable.
Why aren’t vaccines for whole parasites effective against malaria?
- Natural immunity doesn’t work until you’ve had a lot of different infections and that’s why adults are generally protected against malaria and don’t become very unwell.
- The people who die of malaria in an endemic area are the young children who may never have been infected before and die with their first infection when they’re one year old, or they might have had one or two episodes, but that wasn’t enough to give them sterilising immunity.
- Malaria has been around for tens of millions of years. Not just in humans, but in the species that we were before we became humans.
- It’s a very wily parasite and has developed immune escape mechanisms of all sorts.
About Malaria
- Malaria is a life-threatening mosquito borne blood disease caused by plasmodium parasites.
- There are 5 Plasmodium parasite species that cause malaria in humans and 2 of these species – P. falciparum and P. vivax – pose the greatest threat.
- Malaria is predominantly found in the tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, South America as well as Asia.
| CARE MCQ | UPSC PYQ |
Q2. Consider the following statements:
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
|
Q. Widespread resistance of malarial parasite to drugs like chloroquine has prompted attempts to develop a malarial vaccine to combat malaria. Why is it difficult to develop an effective malaria vaccine? (2010)
Ans: (B) |
| Answer 2– D
Explanation –
|
RBI’s proposed framework to administer project financing
Source: The Hindu
UPSC Relevance: GS 3- Banking sector, Economy
Context: RBI has proposed a harmonised prudential framework for the financing of infrastructure, non-infrastructure and commercial real estate sector projects.
Why in News
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued draft regulations for consultation to strengthen the existing regulatory framework for long gestation period financing for projects such as infrastructure, non-infrastructure and commercial real estate sectors.
Key Highlights
- The regulations endeavour to provide a “harmonised prudential framework” for financing projects.
- It also proposes to revise the criteria for changing the date of commencement of commercial operations (DCCO) of such projects.
- As per the banking regulator, this is in light of a review of the extant instructions and analysis of the risks inherent in such financing.
What is the purpose of the project financing framework?
- Infrastructure projects usually have a long gestation period, with a higher probability of not being financially viable.
- It may not always be possible to meet investment requirements of the projects fully from the budgetary resources of the government.
- This opens up two financing avenues: public private partnerships and project financing from domestic financial institutions.
- The latter is particularly crucial for certain projects with longer payback periods. Depending on scale and technology, these projects may also require a loan with a longer tenure.
- Such projects may face multiple obstacles leading to delays or cost-overruns.
Concerns
- The review attributed the delay to land acquisition, obtaining forest/environment clearances, changes in scope (and size), and delays in tendering, ordering and obtaining equipment, among other things.
- Cost overruns were primarily due to under-estimation of original cost, high cost of environmental safeguards and rehabilitation measures for those displaced and spiralling land acquisition costs.
- These factors are dampeners for banks, which would have priced the risks associated with the project in a certain way on their books.
- Concerns have emerged about the impact on the cost of debt.
Significant revisions
- RBI’s focus is on mitigating a ‘credit event,’ that is, a default or a need to extend the original DCCO or infuse additional debt, and/or diminution in the net present value (NPV) of the project.
- One of the more important revisions concerns ‘provisioning,’ that is, setting aside some money ahead of time to compensate for a potential loss.
- The proposed framework recommends that, at the construction stage a general provision of 5% is to be maintained on all existing and fresh exposures.
- This is a revision from the erstwhile 0.4%.
- The framework stipulates that the provisioning can be reduced to 2.5% and 1% at the operational phase (that is, commencement of commercial operations). For the latter, the project must have a positive net operating cash flow to cover all repayment obligations and total long-term debt must have declined by at least 20% from the outstanding when the DCCO is achieved.
Prudential conditions for financing projects
- The framework seeks that all mandatory pre-requisites must be in place before the financial year’s closure.
- The indicative list must provide environmental, regulatory and legal clearances relevant to the project.
- It is only for PPP projects that the framework proposes to accept half of the stipulated land availability for financial closure.
- The DCCO must be clearly spelt out. Financial disbursals would be made and the progress in equity infusion agreed to based on the stages of completion.
- For PPP projects, the disbursal should begin only after the de facto handing over of a contract letter to the developer.
- The onus is on the bank to deploy an independent engineer or architect who would be responsible for certifying the project’s progress.
- RBI proposes to mandate that a positive Net Present Value (NPV) be a prerequisite to obtain project finance.
- It also seeks that lenders get the project NPV independently re-evaluated every year.
- This is to help them avert the possibility of any build-up of stress and have an action plan in place.
Scope to revise repayment norms
- The framework proposes that the original or revised repayment tenure, inclusive of the moratorium period, must not exceed 85% of the economic life of the project.
- RBI’s proposed framework also recommends certain criteria for evaluating a change in repayment schedule due to an increase in the project outlay if there’s an increase in scope and size of the project.
- This revision will have to take place before commencement of commercial operations, after lenders offer a satisfactory re-assessment about the viability of the project.
- Cost overruns happen when expenditures exceed the budgeted project outlay, whereas increase in costs refers to the difference between the original budget and the final cost at completion.
- Significantly, the framework also introduces guidelines to trigger a standby credit facility.
- This is to be sanctioned at the time of financial closure to fund overruns arising due to delays.
- The framework stipulates an incremental funding of 10% of the original project cost.
About RBI
- The Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is India’s central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system.
- Owned by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, it is responsible for the control, issue and maintaining supply of the Indian rupee.
- It also manages the country’s main payment systems and works to promote its economic development.
- Until the Monetary Policy Committee was established in 2016, it also had full control over monetary policy in the country.
- It commenced its operations on 1 April 1935 in accordance with the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
| CARE MCQ | UPSC PYQ |
Q3. Consider the following statements:
Which of the above statements are correct?
|
Q. If the RBI decides to adopt an expansionist monetary policy, which of the following would it not do? (2020)
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Ans: (B) |
| Answer 3 C
Explanation
|
Govt mulls new rules for radar speed guns
Source: The Hindu
UPSC Syllabus Relevance: GS 3- Defence Technology, Science and Technology
Context: The draft rules stipulate that radar equipment installed after the final rules are notified must be verified and stamped within one year.
Why in News
- The Consumer Affairs Ministry has invited public comments by June 11 on draft rules for microwave doppler radar equipment used to measure vehicle speeds on roads, according to a circular issued by the ministry.
Key Highlights
- The draft rules stipulate that radar equipment installed after the final rules are notified must be verified and stamped within one year.
- Existing installed equipment should also be verified and stamped whenever their re-verification becomes due.
- Radar equipment already installed, whose re-verification is due or becomes due within the next year, should be verified and stamped within one year of the new rules coming into force.
- The rules prescribe conditions that the radar equipment must satisfy if the speed measurement results are to be used in legal proceedings.
Radar speed gun
- A radar speed gun is also known as a radar gun.
- This speed gun, or speed trap gun, is a device used to measure the speed of moving objects.
- It is commonly used by police to check the speed of moving vehicles while conducting traffic enforcement, and in professional sports to measure speeds such as those of baseball pitches, tennis serves, and cricket bowls.
- A radar speed gun is a Doppler radar unit that may be handheld, vehicle-mounted, or static.
- It measures the speed of the objects at which it is pointed by detecting a change in frequency of the returned radar signal caused by the Doppler effect, whereby the frequency of the returned signal is increased in proportion to the object’s speed of approach if the object is approaching, and lowered if the object is receding.
- Such devices are frequently used for speed limit enforcement, although more modern LIDAR speed gun instruments, which use pulsed laser light instead of radar, began to replace radar guns during the first decade of the twenty-first century, because of limitations associated with small radar systems.
What is the Doppler Effect?
- The Doppler effect is observed whenever the source of waves is moving with respect to an observer.
- The Doppler effect can be described as the effect produced by a moving source of waves in which there is an apparent upward shift in frequency for observers towards whom the source is approaching and an apparent downward shift in frequency for observers from whom the source is receding.
- It is important to note that the effect does not result because of an actual change in the frequency of the source.
- The Doppler effect can be observed for any type of wave – water wave, sound wave, light wave, etc.
- As the car approached with its siren blasting, the pitch of the siren sound (a measure of the siren’s frequency) was high; and then suddenly after the car passed by, the pitch of the siren sound was low.
- That was the Doppler effect – an apparent shift in frequency for a sound wave produced by a moving source.
| CARE MCQ | UPSC PYQ |
Q4. The radar used by police to check over-speeding vehicle works on the principle of
|
Q. Consider the following statements: (2018)
Which of the above is/are the prediction/predictions of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, often discussed in media?
Ans (D) |
| Answer 4 C
Explanation
|
FATF, Interpol and UNODC call for urgent steps to target the profits of transnational organised crime
Source: The Hindu
UPSC Syllabus Relevance: GS 2- International Relations
Context: ‘Safeguarding financial integrity is vital to promoting peace and security, driving sustainable development, and shielding the most vulnerable.
Why in news
- The heads of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Interpol, and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have called for the need to urgently step-up efforts to target the huge illicit profits generated by transnational organised crime that facilitate conflicts, fund terrorism, and negatively impact vulnerable populations.
Background
- The issue was raised at a side event of the 33rd Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna a few days ago.
- Heads of the three international organisations were of the view that disincentivising criminal activity through targeting illicit profits would also positively impact across all goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, including financial stability, inclusive economic growth, and strengthened institutions and governance.
Need for Urgent Steps
- Money laundering, terrorism financing, and their predicate offences are fuelling instability, violence, and exploitation worldwide.
- Safeguarding financial integrity is vital to promoting peace and security, driving sustainable development, and shielding the most vulnerable.
- The FATF was committed to playing its part and stepping up its work on the cross-cutting activities which enabled all serious crime, especially the laundering of the proceeds of crime.
- Choking off illegal revenue streams was essential in promoting rule of law and protecting vulnerable communities.
Significance of the Move
- Highlighting the recent enhancements to the FATF’s international standards on anti-money laundering and terrorism financing, the three leaders also stressed on accelerated policy reforms and capacity building ahead of the UN 2026 Crime Congress, to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates.
- They also appreciated the positive impact of member countries increasingly working with the private sector and civil society to implement joint approaches to fighting financial crime.
- Issues ranging from capacity building, effective implementation of a risk-based approach, and multi-sectoral partnerships to technology as the key accelerators to boost effectiveness in the global fight against financial crime.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
- The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.
- It sets international standards that aim to prevent these illegal activities and the harm they cause to society.
- It is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering and to maintain certain interest.
- In 2001, its mandate was expanded to include terrorism financing.
- The FATF Secretariat is administratively hosted at the OECD in Paris, but the two organisations are separate.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is a United Nations office that was established in 1997.
- It was established as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the United Nations International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Division in the United Nations Office at Vienna, adopting the current name in 2002.
- The agency’s focus is the trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs, crime prevention and criminal justice, international terrorism, and political corruption.
- It is a member of the United Nations Development Group.
| CARE MCQ | UPSC PYQ |
| Q5. Consider the following statements:
Statement I: Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is is the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. Statement II: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) focuses on the trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs, crime prevention and criminal justice. Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
|
Q. With reference to the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea, consider the following statements: (2022)
1. A coastal state has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured from baseline determined in accordance with the convention. 2. Ships of all states, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea. 3. The Exclusive Economic Zone shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea in measure. Which of the statements given above are correct?
Ans: (D) |
| Answer 5 D
Explanation
|