Daily Current Affairs 16 July 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA)

• India and the European Union (European Union) committed to a framework for strategic cooperation until 2025 and vowed to cooperate on their response to the coronavirus pandemic and at the United Nations Security Council
• The assurances came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen via videoconference
• In a new initiative to revive talks on a free trade agreement that have been suspended since 2013, the two sides announced a “high­level dialogue” between Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan to try and take the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) forward

About BTIA:

• In June 2007, India and the EU began negotiations on a broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) in Brussels, Belgium.
• These negotiations are under the commitment made by political leaders at the 7th India-EU Summit held in Helsinki on 13th October 2006 to move towards negotiations for a broad-based trade and investment agreement based on the report of India-EU High-Level Technical Group.

Significance:

• India and the EU expect to promote bilateral trade by removing barriers to trade in goods and services and investment across all sectors of the economy.
• Both parties believe that a comprehensive and ambitious agreement that is consistent with WTO rules and principles would open new markets and would expand opportunities for Indian and EU businesses.

The negotiations cover:

• Trade-in Goods, Trade in Services, Investment, Sanitary, and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Remedies, Rules of Origin, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Competition, Trade Defence, Government Procurement, Dispute Settlement, Intellectual Property Rights & Geographical Indications, Sustainable Development.

What’s the issue now?

• Negotiations have been languishing since 2013 when the talks collapsed over certain demands from the EU such as greater market access for automobiles, wine and spirits, and further opening up of the financial services sector such as banking, insurance, and e-commerce.
• The EU also wanted labor, environment, and government procurement to be included in the talks.
• India’s demand for an easier work visa and study visa norms as well as data secure status, which would make it easier for European companies to outsource business to India, was also not received enthusiastically by the EU countries.

Challenges ahead:

• Negotiators are still “quite far apart” due to what Europe perceives as India’s “protectionist stance”.
• Besides, Make in India program has been accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis and recent pronouncements that India wants to go ‘Self-reliant’ have added to the situation.

India- EU trade:

• Trade with India formed under 3% of the E.U.’s global trade, which is “far below” what was expected of the relationship.
• Conversely, the E.U. is India’s largest trading partner and investor and accounts for 11% of India’s global trade.

Source: The Hindu

2) India Energy Modeling Forum

• Sustainable Growth Pillar is an important pillar of India–US Strategic Energy Partnership co-chaired by NITI Aayog and USAID. The SG pillar entails energy data management, energy modeling, and collaboration on low carbon technologies as three key activities.
• In the joint working group meeting of the Sustainable Growth Pillar on July 2, 2020, an India Energy Modeling Forum was launched.
• There exist energy modeling forums in different parts of the World. The Energy Modelling Forum (EMF) in the USA was established in 1976 at Stanford University to connect leading modeling experts and decision-makers from government, industry, universities, and other research organizations. The forum provides an unbiased platform to discuss the contemporary issues revolving around energy and the environment.
• In India, there was no formalized and systematic process of having a modeling forum. Even then, various think-tanks/research organizations like TERI, IRADe, CSTEP, CEEW, NCAER, etc., have been consistently developing scenarios and contributing through modeling studies and analyses to provide required inputs to MoEF&CC and other relevant ministries, including NITI Aayog.
• The India Energy Modelling Forum will accelerate this effort and aim to:
• Provide a platform to examine important energy and environmental-related issues;
• Inform decision-making process to the Indian government;
• Improve cooperation between modeling teams, government, and knowledge partners, funders;
• Facilitate the exchange of ideas, ensure production of high-quality studies;
• Identify knowledge gaps at different levels and across different areas;
• Build the capacity of Indian institutions.
•  NITI Aayog will initially coordinate the activities of the forum and finalizing its governing structure. The forum would include knowledge partners, data agencies, and concerned government ministries.
  

Source: PIB

3) India’s first trans-shipment hub - Vallarpadam Terminal of Cochin Port, Kerala

• Minister of State for Shipping (I/C) Shri Mansukh Mandaviya has reviewed the development activities of the Vallarpadam Terminal of Cochin Port. It is envisaged as the first trans-shipment port of India, managed by DP World.
• Trans-shipment Hub is the terminal at the port which handles containers, stores them temporarily, and transfers them to other ships for the onward destination. The Kochi International Container Trans-shipment Terminal (ICTT), locally known as the Vallarpadam Terminal is located strategically on the Indian coastline. It successfully fulfills all the criteria which are needed to develop it as trans-shipment hub which include:
• It is best positioned Indian port about proximity to International sea routes;
• It is located at least average nautical distance from all Indian feeder ports;
• It entails connectivity which has multiple weekly feeder connections to all ports on West & East Coast of India, From Mundra to Kolkata;
• It has proximity to key hinterland markets of India;
• It has the infrastructure to manage large ships and the capacity to scale it up as per requirement.
• Vallarpadam Terminal of Cochin Port is proposed to be developed as the most preferred gateway for South India and the leading transshipment hub of South Asia.   

Source: PIB

4) Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme

• Public sector banks (PSBs) have purchased bonds and commercial papers worth ₹14,667 crores issued by 67 NBFCs under the revamped Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme (PCGS)
• As part of the nearly ₹21 lakh crore special economic package amid the COVID­19 crisis, Ms. Sitharaman announced Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme (PCGS) 2.0 worth ₹45,000 crores for non­banking financial companies (NBFCs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs).
• The purchase of bonds/commercial papers of ₹6,125 crores, including ₹5,550 crores of bonds/commercial papers (CP) rated below AA, is currently under various stages of approval/at the negotiation stage
• The Union Cabinet had, on May 20, approved the sovereign portfolio guarantee of up to 20% of the first loss for purchase of Bonds or Commercial Papers with a rating of AA and below, including unrated paper with an original or initial maturity of up to one year issued by NBFCs/HFCs/MFIs by public sector banks through an extension of the PCGS

About Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 2.0

• This scheme is an extension of the Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 1.0 launched in Aug 2019.
• Under the Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 1.0, Public Sector Banks were allowed to purchase the loan papers (from secondary market) of NBFCs/HFCs/MFIs to provide liquidity to NBFCs and manage their asset-liability mismatch issue. Central govt. will provide partial credit guarantee on these assets i.e. if in future these loan papers turn NPA, then Govt. of India will pay to Public Sector Banks. But there are restrictions on what kind of loan papers of NBFCs can be purchased by PSU banks and only high rated loans are allowed up to Rs. 1 lakh crore with the amount of overall guarantee limited to the first loss of up to 10%.
• Under 2.0 (which the news has called revamped PCGS), the scheme will be extended to cover borrowings such as the primary issuance of bonds/ commercial papers of such entities. NBFCs/ HFCs/MFIs with a low credit rating will be covered so that they can lend to MSMEs and individuals. The first 20% loss will be borne by the government and the public sector banks can purchase a maximum of Rs. 45,000 crores of bonds/ commercial papers.
• The schemes will be valid until 31st March 2021.

Source: The Hindu

5) The woolly whitefly: Enemy of an Indian fruit farmer

• Two types of ladybird beetles are among the three indigenous bugs found to be the biological weapons against a Caribbean-­origin enemy of Indian fruit farmers — the woolly whitefly
• According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), pests damage 30-­35% of crops in the country annually. 
• Among the newest of 118 exotic pests troubling farmers in India, particularly fruit growers, is the woolly whitefly first described from Jamaica in 1896 and noticed in Florida, U.S. in 1909.
• This whitefly (Aleurothrixus floccosus) is invasive and polyphagous, meaning a creature that feeds on various kinds of food.
• ICAR’s National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources in Bengaluru had in 2019 reported the spread of the pest from the Caribbean island through transportation of infested seedlings.
• That year, the pest was recorded from guava plantations in Kozhikode district of Kerala, Ramanagara, Mandya, and Bengaluru Rural districts of Karnataka and Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu.
• In what could provide relief to fruit farmers, a team of entomologists from the Centre for Plant Protection Studies at the Coimbatore-based Tamil Nadu Agricultural University zeroed in on three indigenous bugs that can control the pest by devouring them
• Management of exotic pests is crucial for India’s farm economy, but it is important to employ economically viable and environmentally sound measures. So we focussed on native predators for natural control of the woolly whiteflies
• The entomologists found some indigenous bugs feeding on this whitefly in a guava orchard near Coimbatore. The bugs were collected and studied in the laboratory.
• Two of these indigenous predators were ladybird beetles of the Coccinellidae family and one was the green lacewing fly from the Neuroptera order
• These insects having four life stages — egg, grub, pupa, and adult — complete their life cycle in 30­-40 days. The bugs fed on the woolly whiteflies during the active grub stage for 10­12 days, devouring more of the flies as they grew

Source: The Hindu

6) Information frozen in magnetic minerals can forecast climatic changes faster & more accurately

• Clues to climate change in the past are found in fossils, micro-organisms, gases trapped in ice and isotopes, but the laboratory techniques are cumbersome, costly, and time-consuming. Indian scientists have now unraveled a technique using magnetic minerals that is rapid and efficient.
• Scientists from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, have tracked Climate change by following the Paleomonsoonal pattern of the subcontinent by harnessing magnetic mineralogy, a technique that is faster and more accurate than existing methods. Magnetic mineralogy is sensitive to changes in ambient chemical and physical processes that result in concentration, grain size, and mineralogy changes.
• In the study published in the Sage Journal, Mr. Praveen Gawali and his team of researchers collated and conducted climatic and environmental studies by collecting sediment samples from different environments and climatic domains of India to glean out the information frozen in magnetic minerals in the form of magnetic parameters like magnetic susceptibility, anhysteretic remnant magnetization, saturation induced remnant magnetization, hysteresis loops, and curie temperature.
• Climate-related studies are carried out with the help of several proxies like fossils, microorganisms, gases trapped in ice, isotopes, and many others. They, however, take inordinate time and efforts to segregate from the original material, and the laboratory techniques are cumbersome. Additionally, the material needed for carrying out different measurements is quite vast. The instruments are also very costly. Indian monsoon and its variability have been studied through different continental (tree rings, paleosols, speleothems, glaciolacustrine sediments, peat deposits, microfossils, magnetic minerals, etc.) and oceanic (foraminifers, isotopes, isotope ratios, the organic content of sediments, etc.) proxies. The IIG Scientists used changes in properties of magnetic minerals for their research in India’s Paleomonsoonal pattern, which is a comparatively new technique applied in our country.
• The study of these changes unravels physicochemical regime operative in the past, helping to gauge the then prevalent climate pattern. The magnetic minerals are sensitive to the physical and chemical environment that they are embedded in. These external changes bring about modifications in the innate structure of these magnetic minerals, transitioning them from one magnetic phase to another. In this process, the magnetic mineralogy also changes, for example, from magnetite to hematite and vice versa. Some intermediate phases draw the attention of the researchers to complex climatic conditions prevalent over some time strictly from these magnetic phases.
• Generally, the parent rocks from where the sediments are derived do not contain magnetic minerals that are more than 1% by total volume or weight of those rocks. The concentration of magnetic minerals is very low in sediments. However, this is sufficient to carry out climatic studies since these minerals reveal the true nature of climatic and environmental conditions prevalent at the time of their deposition. Once the instruments are installed in a lab (compared to other instruments, these are quite inexpensive), the overhead and maintenance charges are quite moderate, making the measurements, over the years, quite cheap. Additionally, the time taken is also very less. One of the magnetic parameters of a few hundred samples can be measured in a day. All these factors triggered interest at IIG to carry out climatic studies with the help of magnetic minerals.
• The mineral magnetic studies have unraveled 4 regional climatic features encompassing the entire Indian subcontinent and 1 localized climatic event. Higher monsoon precipitation in the western part of India between 25-60 ka (thousand years) was shown to be analogous with glacial melt in the Himalayas between 29 and 18 ka. Later, the weakening of monsoon was inferred in the Himalayas, and the hinterland of the Arabian sea between 20 and 15 ka, analogically cold, and dry conditions were prevalent at Dhakuri, which led to the formation of loess deposits starting from 20 ka. The monsoon intensification is deciphered in the western and eastern parts of India between 13 and 10 ka with major implications in the hinterlands of the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Between 4 and 2.5 ka, Holocene aridity and weakened monsoon were inferred to be prevalent across the subcontinent. The localized feature of Younger Dryas cooling seems to be confined to just the upper reaches of the Himalaya
• Climate is changing at a rapid pace, impacted by natural and anthropogenic activity. The research will help forecast climatic changes with more accuracy and speed.
• The forecast of this change has to be accurate and high levels of accuracy can be achieved if we go very far back in time. Thus the present study by IIG with the help of sediments and the accuracy with which the magnetic minerals freeze the environmental and climate conditions will help to screen many different domains at a much faster speed and with high levels of accuracy.

Source: PIB

7) The Green Revolution and a dark Punjab

• Punjab — known as the ‘Granary of India’ — produces 20 percent and nine percent of India’s wheat and rice respectively. At the international level, this represents three percent of the global production of these crops. The state is responsible for two percent of the world’s cotton and wheat production and one percent of the world’s rice production.
• This is possible because of the Green Revolution, a period when Indian agriculture was converted into an industrial system. Modern methods and technology — including high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, tractors, irrigation facilities, pesticides, and fertilizers — were adopted.
• The Green Revolution was an endeavor initiated by Norman Borlaug in 1970. It led to him winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in developing HYVs of wheat and is often credited with having transformed India from “a begging bowl to a breadbasket”.
• Punjab is frequently cited as the Green Revolution’s most celebrated success story. In the 1970s, a large dosage of pesticides revolutionized farming ways in India, with the results considered good at the time. 
• The picture, however, is no longer rosy. The consequences of the Green Revolution have come under constant global scrutiny.
• In due course, pests grew immune to pesticides, and farmers, in desperation, began pumping out more of these chemicals. Their excessive use not only contaminated the air, soil, and the water table but also exposed plants and humans to the threat of adulterated pesticides.
• While the Green Revolution provided a few solutions to the problem of food security, Punjab began to face a completely new range of problems: Decaying soil, pest-infested crops, and indebted farmers.
• The state — known as the torchbearer of the Green Revolution — also happens to be the first state that suffers from its adverse consequences.
• Proponents of the Green Revolution focus on maximizing yield in the fight against hunger, comparing pesticides with drugs used for the sick.
• People were generally unaware of the toxicity and harmful effects of pesticides, long after the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in the 1960s.
• They are, however, still considered the most effective and possible weapon against pests threatening crops. As a result, the domestic pesticide market has grown to an estimated Rs 20,000 crore. India developed 217,000 tonnes of pesticides in the fiscal year 2019.
• The Green Revolution resulted in large-scale use of pesticides and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, giving rise to improved irrigation projects and crop varieties.
• The main objective was to gain food security through scientific methods. There were, however, little or no efforts to educate farmers about the high risk associated with the intensive use of pesticides.
• The price Punjab has paid for food security comprises of cancer, renal failure, stillborn babies, and birth defects.
• Pesticides banned in Punjab include Phosphamidon, Methomyl, Phorate, Triazophos, and Monocrotophos. They are, however, still in use in India, along with several other Class I pesticides.
• Many of them are banned in several countries: Phosphamidon is banned in 49 countries, Phorate in 37, Triazophos in 40, and Monocrotophos in 60.
• There is a significant effect of using these pesticides on people’s health, as is evident in Punjab’s Malwa region.
• Pesticides are sprayed on crops usually by untrained farm laborers without following prescriptions, instructions, and precautions, using faulty nozzles and approximated higher dosages.
• This causes more harm than good to crops and also becomes a cause for environment and soil pollution, with productivity and ecosystem services also affected.
• It leads to indiscriminate use of pesticides, something that is rampant in our country.
• There are two alternatives available for getting out of the food production crisis in Punjab. One is to continue down the road of further intensification, while the other is to make food production economically and ecologically viable again by reducing input costs.
• Organic crops need to be grown, rather than bringing crops that are not suitable for the physiography of the region. Farming of local crops needs to be done as well.
• Sadly, the Government of India appears to have adopted the former strategy: Seeking to solve the problems of the first Green Revolution by launching a second.
• Strategy and rhetoric are the same. Farmers are encouraged to replace old technologies of the first revolution with the new bio-technologies of the second and to substitute wheat and rice grown for domestic consumption with fruit and vegetables for the export market.

Source: DTE

8) Hope: UAE Mars Mission

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mars Mission or ‘Hope’ is scheduled for launch on 16th July 2020.
• It is one of three missions launching to Mars this month. The USA and China, both have surface rovers in the late stages of preparation.

Key Points

• Hope Mission:
• It is the first interplanetary mission for the Arab World.
• The ‘Hope Orbiter’ will be lifted on an H-IIA rocket from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a machinery maker in Japan. It will be launched from Tanegashima Island in Japan.
• The UAE does not have its own rocket industry.
• Once launched, it is expected to arrive in orbit around Mars in February 2021 (the year of the 50th anniversary of UAE’s founding).
• It costs about USD 200 million and will carry three instruments: an infrared spectrometer, an ultraviolet spectrometer, and a camera.
• Expected Benefits:
• It will give planetary scientists their first global view of Martian weather at all times of the day.
• Over its two-year mission, it will investigate how dust storms and other weather phenomena near the Martian surface speed or slow the loss of the planet’s atmosphere into space.
• Significance: The country's primary aim is to inspire school children and spur its science and technology industries, which, in turn, will enable the Emirates to tackle critical issues like food, water, energy, and a post-petroleum economy.
• Previous UAE Space Missions:
• Has built and launched three earth-observing satellites in collaboration with a South Korean manufacturer.
• In 2019, the UAE bought a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket and sent its first astronaut for an eight-day stay at the International Space Station.
• Other Two Missions on Mars:
• NASA’s Mars rover, Perseverance, with instruments to search for chemical signs of past life, is scheduled to launch on 30th July 2020.
• China is also launching an ambitious mission to Mars, Tianwen-1.
• Reasons Behind Timing of Mars Missions:
• The timing is dictated by the opening of a one-month window in which Mars and Earth are in ideal alignment on the same side of the sun, which minimizes travel time and fuel use. Such a window opens only once every 26 months.
• Existing Missions on Mars:
• Only the USA has successfully put a spacecraft on Mars. Two NASA landers are operating on Mars i.e. InSight and Curiosity.
• Six spacecraft that are exploring Mars from orbit include three from the USA, two European and one from India (Mars Orbiter Mission).
• Objective Behind Mars Exploration:
• Despite being starkly different in many ways, the Red Planet has several Earth-like features– such as clouds, polar ice caps, volcanoes, and seasonal weather patterns.
• For ages, scientists have wondered whether Mars can support life. In the past few years, Mars missions have been able to discover the possible presence of liquid water on the planet, either in the subsurface today or at some point in its past.

Source: Indian Express

9) Covid-19 Specific Memory T Cells

Recent studies have shown that people unexposed to and not infected with Covid-19 (caused by SARS-CoV-2 or Novel Coronavirus) may still exhibit T cell responses specific to other coronaviruses.

Key Points

• A huge number of adults are exposed to four different coronaviruses that cause common cold and studies have shown that 20-50% of healthy people display SARS-CoV-2-specific memory T cells.
• The healthy people studied were those tested before the pandemic or have not been infected with the novel coronavirus.
• Memory T cells protect against previously encountered pathogens.
• It is thought that SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses seen in healthy people might arise from memory T cells derived from exposure to ‘common cold’ coronaviruses.
• However, it is not known that the presence of pre-existing immunity from memory T cells offers clinical relevance when exposed to SARS-CoV-2.
• Measuring pre-existing immunity and correlating it with infection and severity of the disease is the only way to find out its role in protection against SARS-CoV-2.
• However, the relationship between the infections by and immunity from common cold coronavirus and age is not well established. That is why it is unclear why children do not show severe symptoms, while older people do.
• These considerations underline how multiple variables may be involved in potential pre-existing partial immunity to Covid-19.
• Pros:
• It is believed that people with a high level of pre-existing memory T cells could mount a faster and stronger immune response upon exposure to the virus and thereby limit disease severity.
• T cells could potentially facilitate an increased and more rapid neutralizing antibody response against the virus.
• Cons:
• The pre-existing immunity can reduce the immune responses that the vaccine causes through a mechanism called the ‘original antigenic sin’.
• Original antigenic sin, also known as the Hoskins effect, refers to the propensity of the body's immune system to preferentially utilize immunological memory based on a previous infection when a second slightly different version of that foreign entity is encountered.
• It can also lead to antibody-mediated disease enhancement, where antibodies present at sub-neutralizing concentrations can actually augment virus infection and cause more severe disease.

T Cells

• T cells are so-called because they are predominantly produced in the thymus.
• They recognize foreign particles (antigen) by a surface-expressed, highly variable, T cell receptor (TCR).
• There are two major types of T cells: the helper T cell and the cytotoxic T cell.
• As the names suggest, helper T cells ‘help’ other cells of the immune system, whilst cytotoxic T cells kill virally infected cells and tumors.
• The severity of the disease can depend on the strength of these T cell responses.

Source: The Hindu

10) The decrease in Dolphin Number: Chambal River

• According to the latest census report prepared by the Madhya Pradesh forest department, the number of dolphins in the Chambal river has been reduced by 13% in 4 years.
• There are just 68 dolphins left in the 435-kilometer-long Chambal river sanctuary which passes through three states i.e. Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Gangetic Dolphins are the sanctuary’s main attraction.
• The decreasing trend is continuing from 2016 when there were 78 dolphins.

Key Points

• The maximum carrying capacity of dolphins in Chambal is 125.
• The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained in that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available.
• The dolphins were spotted for the first time in 1985 in the Chambal river (a tributary of Yamuna) near Etawah, Uttar Pradesh. At that time, the number was more than 110.
• Reasons:
• Unfavorable Habitat: It faces the threat of hunting and entanglement in fishing gear due to fragmented habitats.
• Poaching: Fragmented habitats lead to the problem of poaching for not only dolphins but also for gharials.
• Illegal Sand Mining: It is rampant in Bhind and Morena in MP and Dholpur in Rajasthan and putting the whole ecosystem of the river in danger.
• Further, the forest team never gets support from locals.
• In 2006, the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) ordered a ban on mining in the sanctuary area to save the flora and fauna of the river.
• Consumption of Water: Chambal is a lifeline for three states i.e. MP, UP, and Rajasthan and the locals are withdrawing water daily.
• It has led to a gradual decrease in the water levels and needs to be addressed properly to save the dolphins as well as gharial.
• Lack of Studies: Dolphins are a sensitive animal. There is a need to study a favorable environment and communication system.
• The Forest Department of MP has collaborated with the scientists of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to do research for safeguarding and increasing the population of dolphins in Chambal.

Source: Hindustan Times