Daily Current Affairs 1 September 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

 Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) CSIR-CMERI develops World’s Largest Solar Tree

• CSIR-CMERI have developed the World’s Largest Solar Tree, which is installed at CSIR-CMERI Residential Colony, Durgapur. The installed capacity of the Solar Tree is above 11.5 kWp. It has the annual capacity to generate 12,000-14,000 units of Clean and Green Power
• The Solar Tree has been designed in a manner to ensure maximum exposure of each Solar PV Panel to Sunlight and also the creation of the least amount of shadow area beneath. There are a total of 35 Solar PV Panels in each tree with a capacity of 330 wp each. The inclination of the arms holding the Solar PV Panels are flexible and can be adjusted as per requirement, this feature is not available in Roof-Mounted Solar facilities. The energy generation data can be monitored either in real-time or daily.
• The CSIR-CMERI developed Solar Tree besides being the World’s Largest Solar Tree also has certain customizable features for application at diverse sites. The Solar Trees were designed in a manner to ensure minimum Shadow Area, thus potentially making these Solar Trees available for widespread usage in Agricultural activities such as High Capacity Pumps, e-Tractors, and e-Power Tillers.
• TheseSolar Trees can be aligned with Agriculture for substituting price-volatile fossil fuels. Each Solar Tree has the potential to save 10-12 tons of CO2 emissions being released into the atmosphere as Greenhouse Gases when compared with fossil fuel-fired energy generation. Besides, the surplus generated power can be fed into an Energy Grid.
• This Agricultural Model can provide a consistent economic return and help the farmers counter the effects of the uncertain variations in Agriculture related activities, thus, making farming an Economic and Energy Sustainable practice.
• Each Solar Tree will cost Rs 7.5 lakhs and the interested MSMEs can align their Business Model with the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha even Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) Scheme for farmers, for developing a Renewable Energy based Energy Grid.
• The solar tree can incorporate IOT based features, i.e. round-the-clock CCTV surveillance in agricultural fields, real-time humidity, wind speed, rainfall prediction, and soil analytics sensors.  The CSIR-CMERI developed solar-powered e-Suvidha Kiosks may also be connected to the Solar Trees for real-time access to the vast majority of the agricultural databases as well as to the eNAM i.e. National Agricultural MarketPlace for instant and real-time access to a unified online market. This Solar Tree is a Quantum Leap towards making an Energy Reliant and Carbon Negative India.

Source: PIB

2) Landslide susceptibility mapping of Mussoorie and its surrounding areas in Uttarakhand Himalaya

Landslide susceptible map of the Mussoorie Township and its surrounding areas

• Like most hill townships, Mussoorie, the popular hill station in Uttarakhand, has witnessed several landslides, probably resulting from an increased spate of developmental activities. The increased disaster hazard has led scientists to map the landslide susceptibility of Mussoorie and surrounding areas, showing that 15 percent of the region is highly susceptible to landslides.
• Scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, carried out the study in Mussoorie township and its surroundings covering 84 square km in the Lesser Himalaya. They found that the dominant part of the area falling under very high and high landslide susceptible zone lies in the settlement area -. Bhataghat, George Everest, Kempty fall, Khattapani, Library road, Galogidhar, and Hathipaon and are covered by highly fractured Krol limestone exhibiting a slope more than 60 degrees.
• The Landslide Susceptibility Mapping (LSM) published in the Journal of Earth System Science also showed that about 29% of the area falls in the moderate landslide susceptible zone and 56% in low to very low landslide susceptible zone.
• The researchers from WIHG carried out the study using the bivariate statistical Yule Coefficient (YC) method utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) and high-resolution satellite imageries.
• According to their study, various possible causative factors of landslides in the study area include lithology, land use-landcover (LULC), slope, aspect, curvature, elevation, road-cut drainage, and lineament. The WIHG team obtained Landslide Occurrence Favourability Score (LOFS) for a particular class of the causal factor of landslide and subsequently calculated the weight of each factor of landslide to finally generate the Landslide Susceptible Index (LSI) in the GIS platform. This has been reclassified into five zones using natural break criteria.
• The accuracy of this map was verified by using the Success Rate Curve (SRC) and Predication Rate Curve (PRC) exhibiting the Area Under Curve (AUC) for SRC as 0.75 and for PRC as 0.70 indicating a good correlation between different landslide susceptible zones and the occurrence of landslides.
• The study could help initiate a large scale landslide hazard, risk, and vulnerability assessment (HRVA) of the hilly townships in different parts of India.

Source: PIB

3) ASEAN-India Economic Ministers’ Consultations

• Recently, the 17th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers Consultations was held virtually, co-chaired by India and Vietnam.
• The meeting was attended by the Trade Ministers of all the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries viz. Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Related to Covid-19

• The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to take collective actions in mitigating the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• They also resolved to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability and resilient supply chain connectivity, particularly the unimpeded flow of essential goods and medicines in the region, in compliance with the WTO rules.

AIBC’s Report

• The report of the ASEAN India Business Council (AIBC) was placed.
• It has been recommended that the ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) be reviewed for mutual benefit.
• The review will make the Agreement modern with contemporary trade facilitative practices, and streamline customs and regulatory procedures.
• ASEAN India-Business Council (AIBC) was set up in March 2003 as a forum to bring key private sector players from India and the ASEAN countries on a single platform for business networking and sharing of ideas.

AITIGA

• Discussions on the review of the ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) took place.
• The AITIGA is a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) among the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India which came into force in January 2010.
• India emphasized on review on AITIGA at the earliest and the need to strengthen the Rules of Origin provisions, work towards removal of non-tariff barriers and provide better market access.
• The Rules of Origins provisions of AITIGA specify that the preferential treatment under the agreement will apply only to goods that have wholly or partially originated in the exporting country.
• India wants strict rules of origin to prevent Chinese goods from flooding the country through ASEAN member countries that may have lower or no duty levels.
• A nontariff barrier is a way to restrict trade using trade barriers in a form other than a tariff. Nontariff barriers include quotas, embargoes, sanctions, and levies.
• India has concerns regarding the FTA, given that its FTA with ASEAN is leading to increased trade deficits with several ASEAN partners.
• India’s trade deficit with the ASEAN rose from around 5 billion USD in 2011 to 21.8 USD billion in 2019.

Background:

• In 2003, India and ASEAN signed a Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation to establish an ASEAN-India Regional Trade and Investment Area, which would provide a basis for subsequent FTAs covering goods, services, and investment.
• India dropped out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2019 at the ASEAN+3 summit, because of increasing trade deficits with partner nations and increasing China-India tensions.
• Recently, India participated in the 6th roundtable meeting of the ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks (AINTT).
• India highlighted the difficulties that were hindering a strong response to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: PIB

4) India Pulls Out of Kavkaz 2020

Recently, India has withdrawn its participation from Kavkaz 2020, a multinational tri-services exercise in Russia, citing Covid-19 as the official reason.

Other Possible Reasons for Withdrawal:

• Participation of Chinese, Turkish, and Pakistani troops.
• The standoff at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China has been ongoing since May 2020 and several rounds of talks for disengagement have failed to end the impasse.
• However, in June 2020, Indian and Chinese military contingents marched at the Victory Day Parade at Red Square in Moscow to mark the 75th anniversary of World War II.
• Turkey has been critical of India’s policies on Kashmir.
• Participation of Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the exercise which has been recognized only by Russia and few other countries.
• India does not recognize these breakaway regions.

Kavkaz-2020 Exercise:

• It is a strategic command-post exercise, and also known as Caucasus-2020.
• The tri-service exercise is part of a four-year exercise cycle of the Russian army. Previous editions of the exercise were held in 2012 and 2016.
• In 2020 it will be conducted in the Astrakhan province of Southern Russia.
• Member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Central Asian countries would be participating.

India-Russia Military Diplomacy:

• India’s military diplomacy with Russia started in 2003 with the first edition of Ex Indra, a bilateral naval exercise. India also participated in Exercise TSENTR 2019.
• Exercise TSENTR 2019 is a part of the Russian Armed Forces' annual training cycle.
• It aims at evolving drills of the participating armies and practicing them in the fight against the scourge of international terrorism thereby ensuring military security in the strategic Central Asian region.
• India’s withdrawal from Kavkaz assumes significance because the Kavkaz was essentially a Russian military exercise and not a Chinese one.
• India has always viewed its relations with Russia independent of China-Russia ties.
• Russia has also responded similarly. It maintained its commitment to supplying arms to India even during the standoff.

Source: The Hindu

5) One-step laser-based fabrication of self-cleaning metallic surfaces can help prevent rusting

• Ecofriendly self-cleaning surfaces that can protect biomedical and other applications from rusting and bacterial growth may soon be a reality with an ultrafast laser-based process that scientists have developed for the fabrication of surfaces without the use of coatings or additional surface treatment.
• Scientists from International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, at its Centre for Laser Processing of Materials, have brought out a single-step method to develop super-hydrophobic functional surfaces that can repel water. Such surfaces do not allow water to cling long enough to evaporate and leave behind residue.
• This indigenous laser processing, which has been published in the journal ‘Materials Performance and Characterization’, allows the fabrication of fast and flexible super-hydrophobic surfaces on a wide range of materials. By adjusting the laser processing parameters, in this method, it is possible to accurately control the structure pattern and precisely tailor the contact angle and the wetting properties of a variety of substrates. It is a robust, simple, fast, precise, and eco-friendly process and can be used to effectively fabricate robust super-hydrophobic surfaces and has a high potential for large-scale application.
• Currently, super-hydrophobic properties are achieved by developing rough surfaces and low surface free energy chemical coatings which are mostly two-step processes. The first step is to construct a rough surface by physical or chemical methods, and the second step involves chemical coatings of low surface free energy chemicals. However, these super-hydrophobic coating surfaces have many limitations, such as the use of fluorinated toxic reagent and poor mechanical stability.
• In contrast, the single-step process developed by ARCI scientists comprises surface modification using a femtosecond laser (lasers emitting light pulses with durations between a few femtoseconds and hundreds of femtoseconds, i.e. 10-15 of a second), non-thermal, and ecofriendly. The efficient and straightforward strategy will encourage the scalability of the process both in terms of reducing the cycle time and applying the developed hierarchical micro-scale and nano-scale structures over large areas for practical applications in the prevention of corrosion, bacterial growth, and avoidance of repeated cleaning.

3D Optical and SEM images of laser surface modified stainless steel surfaces showing microgrooves and microspikes with periodic nanostructure over it.

The schematic diagram shows the directional superhydrophobicity on different surface features. Profile of water droplet on laser modified stainless steel surface (contact angle ~ 170 degrees).

Source: PIB

6) UN Principles for People with Disabilities

• The United Nations (UN) has released its first-ever guidelines on access to social justice for People with Disabilities (PwD) to make it easier for them to access justice systems around the world.
• The guidelines outline a set of 10 principles and detail the steps for implementation.

10 Principles:

• Principle 1: PwD shall not be denied access to justice based on disability.
• Principle 2: Facilities and services must be universally accessible without discrimination of PwD.
• Principle 3: PwD, including children with disabilities, have the right to appropriate procedural accommodations.
• Principle 4: PwD has the right to access legal notices and information in a timely and accessible manner on an equal basis with others.
• Principle 5: PwD are entitled to all substantive and procedural safeguards recognized in international law on an equal basis with others, and States must provide the necessary accommodations to guarantee due process.
• Principle 6: PwD has the right to free or affordable legal assistance.
• Principle 7: PwD has the right to participate in the administration of justice on an equal basis with others.
• Principle 8: PwD has the right to report complaints and initiate legal proceedings concerning human rights violations and crimes.
• Principle 9: Effective and robust monitoring mechanisms play a critical role in supporting access to justice for PwD.
• Principle 10: All those working in the justice system must be provided with awareness-raising and training programs addressing the rights of PwD.

UN Definition of Person with Disability:

• The UN Convention on the Rights of PwD, which was adopted in 2006, defines persons with disabilities as those “who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”.
• India ratified the Convention in October 2007.
• The Parliament enacted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 to fulfill the obligations under the UNCRPD.

Statistics:

• As per statistics maintained by the UN:
• Around 15% of the world’s population, or an estimated 1 billion people, live with disabilities. They are the world’s largest minority.
• In India
• 2.4 % of males are disabled and
• 2% of females from all age groups are disabled.

Indian Efforts for Persons with Disability

• Constitutional Provisions:
• Article 41 of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) states that the State shall make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education, and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness, and disablement, within the limits of its economic capacity and development.
• The subject of ‘relief of the disabled and unemployable’ is specified in the state list of the Seventh Schedule of the constitution.
• Legislation for Disabled - Right of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016:
• The Right of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 replaces the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.
• "Person with a disability" means a person with long term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with barriers, hinders his full and effective participation in society equally with others.
• "Person with benchmark disability" means a person with not less than 40% of a specified disability where specified disability has not been defined in measurable terms and includes a person with a disability where specified disability has been defined in measurable terms, as certified by the certifying authority.
• The types of disabilities have been increased from 7 to 21. The Act added mental illness, autism, spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, chronic neurological conditions, speech and language disability, thalassemia, hemophilia, sickle cell disease, multiple disabilities including deaf-blindness, acid attack victims, and Parkinson’s disease which were largely ignored in earlier Act. Also, the Government has been authorized to notify any other category of specified disability.
• It increases the quantum of reservation for people suffering from disabilities from 3% to 4% in government jobs and from 3% to 5% in higher education institutes.
• Every child with a benchmark disability between the age group of 6 and 18 years shall have the right to free education.
• Accessible India Campaign (Creation of Accessible Environment for PwDs):
• A nation-wide flagship campaign for achieving universal accessibility that will enable persons with disabilities to gain access for equal opportunity and live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life in an inclusive society.
• The campaign targets enhancing the accessibility of the built environment, transport system, and Information & communication ecosystem.

Source: Indian Express

7) A Single Voters’ List

• The Prime Minister’s Office held a meeting with representatives of the Election Commission and the Law Ministry to discuss the possibility of having a common electoral roll for elections to the panchayat, municipality, state assembly, and the Lok Sabha.

Types of Electoral Rolls in India:

• Each State Election Commissions (SEC) is governed by a separate state Act.
• Some state laws allow the SEC to borrow and use the Election Commission of India’s voter’s rolls for the local body elections.
• In others, the state commission uses the EC’s voters list as the basis for the preparation and revision of rolls for municipality and panchayat elections.
• Few states have their own electoral rolls and do not adopt EC's role for local body polls like those of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The distinction stems from the fact that the supervision and conduct of elections in our country are entrusted with two constitutional authorities — the Election Commission (EC) of India and the State Election Commissions (SECs).
• Election Commission (EC) of India: It was set up in 1950, the EC is charged with the responsibility of conducting polls to:
• the offices of the President and Vice-President of India,
• to Parliament, the state assemblies, and the legislative councils.
• State Election Commissions (SECs): The SECs, on the other hand, supervise municipal and panchayat elections. They are free to prepare their own electoral rolls for local body elections, and this exercise does not have to be coordinated with the EC.

Reason for Demand for Common Electoral Roll:

• A common electoral roll and simultaneous elections as a way to save an enormous amount of effort and expenditure.
• It is argued that the preparation of a separate voters list causes duplication of the effort and the expenditure.
• Earlier Recommendations:
• The Law Commission recommended it in its 255th report in 2015 for a single electoral roll.
• The EC too adopted a similar stance in 1999 and 2004.
• The EC pointed out that it adds to the confusion among voters, since they may find their names present in one roll, but absent in another.

Implementation Process:

• A Constitutional Amendment to Articles 243K and 243ZA is required.
• Articles 243K and 243ZA deal with elections to panchayats and municipalities in the states. These give the power of superintendence, direction, and control of preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of these elections to the State Election Commission (SEC).
• The SECs are free to prepare their own electoral rolls for local body elections, and this exercise does not have to be coordinated with the EC.
• The amendment would make it mandatory to have a single electoral roll for all elections in the country.
• Persuading the state governments to tweak their respective laws and adopt the Election Commission’s (EC) voters list for municipal and panchayat polls.
• Challenges in implementation:
• The boundaries of the EC’s polling station may not necessarily match that of the wards.
• The change would require a massive consensus-building exercise.

Way Forward

• The mature approach calls for the option of states adopting EC’s voter list. This can be the guiding light. The change would require a massive consensus-building exercise between the states and the center.
• So the EC’s voters list has to be made in a way to fit the SEC’s wards which is a tedious task but can be done by the use of technology.

Source: Indian Express

8) RRI Scientists find a new way for quantum state estimation that can make crucial quantum operations simpler

• Scientists experimenting with new ways to manipulate quantum states so that they can be harnessed for computing, communication, and metrology, has found a novel way to characterise and estimate such states. This method of characterisation called Quantum State Interferography, can help make such manipulations simpler so that several crucial operations in quantum technologies become less cumbersome.
• Scientists from Raman Research Institute, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, have found a new way of inferring the state of a system (both two-dimensional qubits, the simplest quantum system as well as higher-dimensional “qubits”) from an interference pattern, which they term ‘Quantum State Interferography’. This work, partially supported by the QuEST network programme of the DST, has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters.
• The determination of an unknown quantum state is usually done by a method known as Quantum State Tomography (QST). This involves measuring projection of the quantum state on various directions in state space and reconstructing the quantum state from the information obtained. However, in particular, scenarios where the dimensions are large, the operations needed to perform tomography increase quadratically. The experimental settings often need to be changed many times, thus making the process very cumbersome.
• The RRI team showed that without changing any settings in the experimental setup, it is possible to infer the unknown quantum state of a higher dimensional system. The setup requires only two interferometers from which many interferograms can be obtained to reconstruct the state.  This provides a ‘black box’ approach to quantum state estimation -- between the incidence of the photon and extraction of state information, conditions within the set-up are not changed, thus providing a true single-shot estimation of the quantum state.
• A qubit is a 2-dimensional quantum system and requires usually 2 complex numbers to be determined towards state estimation. However, various constraints and physical assumptions leave only two real numbers, finally to be determined. Instead of finding these two real numbers from various projections, in this work, they were determined from the intensity and phase shift of the interference pattern. Also, when many such quantum states are incoherently mixed, the amount of mixedness can be determined from the visibility of the interference pattern. This can be used to characterize the state of a two-particle system, which in turn can be used to quantify entanglement, also in a single-shot method. This idea can be further extended to find parameters describing higher-dimensional quantum states from a set of interference patterns.
• This work gives a single-shot black-box approach to quantum state estimation as well as quantifying quantum entanglement.  Manipulation of quantum states is the most crucial operation in any quantum technology protocol, be it quantum computing, quantum communication, or quantum metrology. Similarly, quantum entanglement is a ubiquitous resource in quantum technology. The new technique for quantum state estimation developed and experimentally demonstrated by Urbasi Sinha and her group members at the Quantum Information and Computing Lab at RRI is a handy and effective tool in comparison to conventional techniques with a tremendous scaling gain involving the use of interferometry. Theoretical support for this development was provided by a collaborator from HRI. Moreover, the work also indicates how this technique could lead to miniaturised devices in the long run, which could be used for quantum state estimation at a commercial scale.

Quantum State Interferography can serve as a "black box" tool for quantum state estimation from the interference pattern without any need for change in experimental settings.

Source: PIB