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This is an archive article published on February 27, 2023
UPSC Essentials | Key terms of past week with MCQs: February 20 to 26
Japan-China dialogue, ALMA, Menstrual leaves, and more — here's a highlight of some of the important terms useful for UPSC CSE Prelims and Mains preparation. Don't miss solving the MCQs.
Japanese Foreign Ministry's senior official Shigeo Yamada, second right, speaks to Chinese counterpart Sun Weidong, second left, during the Japan-China security dialogue at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. (AP Photo)(The UPSC Essentials Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest updates.
Subscribe to The Indian Express UPSC Key and prepare for the Civil Services and other competitive examinations with cues on how to read and understand content from the most authoritative news source in India.
Note: Catch the UPSC Weekly Quiz every Saturday evening and brush up on your current affairs knowledge.)
Essential key terms from the last week’s news headlines or between the lines categorised as per the relevance to the UPSC-CSE syllabus along with the MCQs followed.
Japan-China security dialogue
Why in news?
— China, Japan square off at first security talks in four years.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
— China said it was troubled by Japan’s military build-up and Tokyo took aim at Beijing’s military ties to Russia and its suspected use of spy balloons in the Asian powers’ first formal security talks in four years on Wednesday.
— The talks, aimed at easing tensions between the world’s second and third-largest economies, came as Tokyo worries that Beijing will resort to force to take control of Taiwan in the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, sparking a conflict that could embroil Japan and disrupt global trade.
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— Japan in December said it would double defence spending over the next five years to 2% of gross domestic product – a total of $320 billion – to deter China from resorting to military action. Beijing, which increased defence spending by 7.1% last year, spends more than four times as much as Japan on its forces.
— Tokyo plans to acquire longer range missiles that could strike mainland China and to stock up on other munitions it would need to sustain a conflict alongside the large U.S. force it hosts.
“The international security situation has undergone vast changes and we are seeing the return of unilateralism, protectionism, and a Cold War mentality,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong said at the start of the meeting in Tokyo with Japanese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shigeo Yamada.
— In the face of a current complex and volatile international and regional situation, the importance of Sino-Japanese relations has not changed, and will not change, Sun said during the meeting, according to a China’s foreign ministry statement on Wednesday.
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— China and Japan should “deal with differences appropriately” to ensure that relations “do not stagnate, do not go off course, do not regress, and move steadily along the right track,” he told Yamada.
— Sun said that Taiwan is among important issues related to basic trust between both countries, and hopes Japan can “learn from history, be consistent, adhere to the path of peaceful development and the ‘one-China’ principle.”
— Leaving Japan’s foreign ministry after the meeting, Sun said that they had also discussed Japan’s release of waste water from the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific and about “unblocking” industrial supply chains. He didn’t provide details.
— China is Japan’s largest trading partner, accounting for around a fifth of its exports and almost a quarter of its imports. It’s also a major manufacturing base for Japanese companies.
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“While relations between Japan and China have a lot of possibilities, we are also facing many issues and concerns,” Yamada told Sun.
— He pointed to their territorial dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, Beijing’s recent joint military drills with Moscow and the suspected Chinese surveillance balloons spotted over Japan at least three times since 2019.
— Following the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon by the United States, Japan last week said it planned to clarify military engagement rules to allow its jet fighters to shoot down unmanned aircraft that violate its airspace.
— In a statement after the meeting, Japan’s foreign ministry said it had also stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
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— The two countries had agreed to try and establish a direct communication hotline “around spring”, and to strengthen dialogue between their senior security officials, it added.
(Source: China, Japan square off at first security talks in four years.)
Point to ponder: India, which has long backed Japan’s leadership role in Asia, has every reason to welcome Kishida’s new interest in the Global South. Explain.
1. MCQ:
Consider the following statements about the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation:
1. It is an intergovernmental organization to promote cooperation in trade, politics, and culture.
2. The Anti-Terrorist structure of SCO is located in Beijing.
Which of the above statement is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
ALMA telescope
Why in news?
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— The Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) — a radio telescope comprising 66 antennas located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile — is set to get software and hardware upgrades that will help it collect much more data and produce sharper images than ever before, the journal Science reported recently. It added that the upgrades would take around five years to finish and cost $37 million.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
— The most significant modernisation made to ALMA will be the replacement of its correlator, a supercomputer that combines the input from individual antennas and allows astronomers to produce highly detailed images of celestial objects.
“Today, ALMA’s correlators are among the world’s fastest supercomputers. Over the next 10 years, the upgrade will double and eventually quadruple their overall observing speed,” said the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), whose Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre will work along with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Haystack Observatory and a Canadian industry partner to upgrade the telescope’s “brain”.
— As ALMA is operated under a partnership among the United States, 16 countries in Europe, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Chile, the announcement came after all the partners cleared the funding required for the improvements.
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— Fully functional since 2013, the radio telescope was designed, planned and constructed by the US’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Over the years, it has helped astronomers make groundbreaking discoveries, including that of starburst galaxies and the dust formation inside supernova 1987A.
What is ALMA?
— ALMA is a state-of-the-art telescope that studies celestial objects at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths — they can penetrate through dust clouds and help astronomers examine dim and distant galaxies and stars out there. It also has extraordinary sensitivity, which allows it to detect even extremely faint radio signals.
As mentioned before, the telescope consists of 66 high-precision antennas, spread over a distance of up to 16 km.
“Each antenna is outfitted with a series of receivers, and each receiver is tuned to a specific range of wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum. The antennas can be moved closer together or farther apart for different perspectives – like the zoom lens of a camera. The result is magnificent, never-before-seen imagery of deepest, darkest space,” according to a report published by Science Node. Producing a single image from all the antennas is done by the correlator, it added.
Why is ALMA located in Chile’s Atacama Desert?
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— ALMA is situated at an altitude of 16,570 feet (5,050 metres) above sea level on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama Desert as the millimetre and submillimetre waves observed by it are very susceptible to atmospheric water vapour absorption on Earth. Moreover, the desert is the driest place in the world, meaning most of the nights here are clear of clouds and free of light-distorting moisture — making it a perfect location for examining the universe.
“For travelling from Japan, it takes 40 hours to get to the ALMA site in Chile including connection time. In spite of such a long distance, the selected site is still the ultimate observing site on Earth with ideal conditions for the ALMA telescope”, the telescope’s website said.
What are some of the notable discoveries made by ALMA?
— With ALMA’s capability of capturing high-resolution images of gas and dust from which stars and planets are formed and materials that could be building blocks of life, scientists are trying to find answers to age-old questions of our cosmic origins.
— One of the earliest findings came in 2013 when it discovered starburst galaxies earlier in the universe’s history than they were previously thought to have existed. “These newly discovered galaxies represent what today’s most massive galaxies looked like in their energetic, star-forming youth”, NRAO said in a statement.
— Next year, ALMA provided detailed images of the protoplanetary disc surrounding HL Tauri — a very young T Tauri star in the constellation Taurus, approximately 450 light years from Earth — and “transformed the previously accepted theories about the planetary formation”, ESO said.
— In 2015, the telescope helped scientists observe a phenomenon known as the Einstein ring, which occurs when light from a galaxy or star passes by a massive object en route to the Earth, in extraordinary detail.
— More recently, as part of the Event Horizon Telescope project, a large telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes, it provided the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. The image was unveiled by scientists in May 2022.
(Source: What is ALMA telescope, that will soon get a ‘new brain’? by Alind Chauhan)
Point to ponder: Which according to you were 4 important Indian space exploration milestones in 2022?
2. MCQ:
In the context of modern scientific research, consider the following statements about ‘IceCube’, a particle detector located at South Pole, which was recently in the news (2015) :
(1) It is the world’s largest neutrino detector, encompassing a cubic kilometre of ice.
(2) It is a powerful telescope to search for dark matter
(3) It is buried deep in the ice.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3 only
Menstrual leaves
Why in news?
— Spain has become the first European country to introduce paid menstrual or period leaves, with a law passed on February 16. The government would foot the bill for the monthly paid leaves of three to five days, after a doctor’s note is shown. Also included in the law are provisions for free menstrual hygiene products that would be made available in educational centres, prisons, and social centres.
— The Bill was supported by a “wide-ranging left-wing coalition”, while the conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox voted against, Politico reported. Paid menstrual leave has been slow to take hold as national policy in most countries. In India’s Supreme Court, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed seeking menstrual leave for female students and working women across India, LiveLaw reported.
Rishika Singh Explains:
What is the demand for paid menstrual leave?
— Allowing women (as well as transgender people and those of other gender identities who experience menstruation) to avail the option of taking a few days’ leaves in a month has been advocated as a step towards better working conditions. It also recognises the different needs of those making up the workforce, particularly as multiple barriers already exist to women’s employment – such as workplace safety, problems in commuting to a workplace, etc.
— While this is not a new idea, the concept has gained traction within the last decade. In 2017, a Bill was introduced by Ninong Ering, a Congress MP from Arunachal Pradesh, in the Lok Sabha for the purpose. It stated that women employed in a government-registered establishment and students of Class VIII and above would be entitled to paid leave or leave from the school, “as the case may be”, for four days during her menstruation.
— Further, it stated that if a woman employee undergoing menstruation opts to work instead of taking leave, she shall be paid overtime allowance. However, the Bill never became law.
Where does the demand come from?
— It has to do with recognising the biological changes experienced because of menstruation. Usually happening over four to seven days every month, menstruation can often be accompanied by pain, cramps, vomiting, nausea and irritability, etc. The intensity of these changes varies from person to person, though even that can change over months. Many women take pain medication, as a result.
— Multiple reports and surveys point to how this impacts the productivity of women. In a study published in the British Medical Association, it was found over 80.7 per cent of around 32,000 Netherlands-based respondents reported decreased productivity for an average of 23.2 days a year. In India, a lack of information and access to sanitary products has led to many girls dropping out of school at puberty.
— The study also pointed to little to no naming of the issue – when women called in sick due to their periods, only 20 per cent told their employer or school that their absence was due to menstrual complaints. The secrecy and myths associated with menstruation have been flagged as a concern, preventing solutions – or advice on hygiene or pain relief – from being discussed.
In which countries have period leaves been introduced?
— The measure for period leaves is not exactly new. Many Asian countries have them, the earliest being Japan. “When a woman for whom work during menstrual periods would be especially difficult has requested leave, the employer shall not have the said woman work on days of the menstrual period,” the law says.
— Zambia’s law states, “A female employee is entitled to one day’s absence from work each month without having to produce a medical certificate or give reason to the employer.”
— According to an article in Time Magazine, Russian workers in the 1920s first pioneered the concept. Since then it has made its way in some shape or form to countries like Taiwan and Indonesia. But the article added that one study in Japan showed very few takers of the leave, particularly at the level of high-paying positions.
— In India, states govern the subject of health and their experience has varied. The Kerala government said it would grant menstrual leave for female students studying in all state universities coming under the Department of Higher Education last month. Much earlier, Bihar under then Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav introduced the provision in 1992.
— But the measure, arguably, is yet to be normalised “The Patna University Teachers’ Association sought its implementation. However, most women professors, especially in co-educational colleges, found it awkward to ask for such a leave,” former Patna University history professor Bharati S Kumar earlier told The Indian Express.
— The PIL to be soon heard by the SC also cited a study on the impact of menstruation on women’s health, and how Article 14 of the Indian Constitution (right to equality) is violated since some states have such policies in place while others do not.
Why is the idea of menstrual leave still contentious?
— The experience of places where such laws are in place does not give a clear picture. One reason may be that the direct effects on employment and work satisfaction of women may be difficult to measure based on one policy.
— Where it has been in place, like in Japan, at times there have not been too many takers. This is because simply changing one policy does not lead to the removal of the taboos associated with menstruation and its discussion. Another argument says mandating paid leaves would discourage the hiring of women – who are already underrepresented in the workforce in most countries.
— Further, these protections would highlight differences among employees, something that many women have at times refrained from emphasising to avoid discrimination. But with greater acknowledgement of the obvious difficulties caused because of menstruation, attempts are being made for inclusive policies by even private organisations, such as Zomato and Nike.
— The flexibility offered to employees in taking these leaves is one example, another is an all-around approach towards normalising menstruation, and making available clean public toilets, sanitary products and water in the workplace and wider public spaces.
(Source: Menstrual leaves introduced in Spain: What’s the debate around period leaves? by Rishika Singh )
Point to ponder: There is no room for debate on menstrual leave. Discuss.
3. MCQ:
The measure for period leaves is not exactly new. Many Asian countries have them, the earliest being:
(a) Japan
(b) China
(c) India
(d) South Korea
Whale stranding
Why in news?
— Earlier in February, 14 pilot whales were stranded near the shore of Kalpitiya, a town located on Sri Lanka’s west coast. With the help of a navy team and local fishermen, 11 of them were rescued but three died, AFP reported.
— Speaking to the news agency, wildlife officer Eranda Gamage said, “They (the stranded pilot whales) had to be taken into the deeper seas so that they would not come back to the shore. The navy took them in their boats and dropped them.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
— Whale strandings aren’t uncommon in Sri Lanka. In 2020, the country witnessed one of the biggest whale strandings in recent history when more than 100 pilot whales beached on the western coast of Panadura. Three of them died during the rescue operations. In 2017, around 20 pilot whales were stranded on the eastern coast before being saved by the navy and local fishermen.
— Apart from Sri Lanka, Australia’s Tasmania has also seen mass beaching of whales. Last year in September, more than 230 pilot whales were stranded on the west coast of the region. Around 170 of them died even before the rescuers arrived at the spot.
What is whale stranding and why does it happen?
— Whale stranding is a phenomenon in which whales are stuck on land, usually on a beach. Other aquatic animals like dolphins and porpoises are also known to beach. Most of the stranding events involve single animals but sometimes, mass strandings, consisting of hundreds of marine animals at a time, can happen.
— Although mass strandings have been occurring since the times of Aristotle — back then, they were considered a gift from the gods as the stranded whales and dolphins were a rich source of food and oil — experts don’t know exactly why they take place.
— Speaking to The Indian Express, Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist specialising in marine mammals at Macquarie University (Australia), said, “Whale strandings are a mystery. We don’t know why they happen.” The reasons for mass strandings are several, including the topography of the region, illness, human activities and increasing noise pollution in the oceans.
— Among the major hotspots for the beaching of aquatic animals are Tasmania, New Zealand‘s Golden Bay and Massachusetts’s Cape Cod in the United States. Pirotta explained that these areas witness several instances of stranding possibly because the deep water here quickly becomes shallow due to tidal variations.
How might human activities be causing whale strandings?
— Experts believe that mass strandings could be becoming more common as the health of oceans continues to deteriorate due to human interference. One of the prime reasons for such incidents could be an increase in noise pollution in the oceans.
— According to a report published by Mongabay, the latest whale beaching event in Sri Lanka might have been caused due to the “recent seismic activity in the Indian Ocean”.
— Several studies have shown that noise from large commercial ships, military sonars or offshore drilling severely impacts whales’ and other marine animals’ ability to use sound to navigate, find food and protect themselves. This can drive them ashore by deafening, disorienting, or frightening them.
— Pirotta said, “For some, this (noise pollution) can reduce the available space to talk to each other. It becomes too loud. For others, it might be a sudden sound that spooks individuals, causing them to rise from the depths at speed.”
— Another factor could be the rising temperatures of the oceans that cause changes in prey and predator distribution, resulting in whales coming closer to shore.
— “Whales and dolphins often travel where there is food. Changes in prey movements due to environmental changes like sea temperature and currents may play a role in where whale and dolphin food is located,” Pirotta explained
Can we prevent mass strandings?
— It’s very difficult to prevent them. Also, as strandings happen due to several reasons, no one-size-fits-all solution would work. However, “taking more care of our actions in the ocean to try and minimise human activities which might impact marine life” might help reduce the chances of such incidents, Pirotta said.
(Source: 14 pilot whales stranded in Sri Lanka: What is whale stranding and why does it happen? by Alind Chauhan)
Point to ponder: Why beaching of whales still baffles science?
4. MCQ:
With reference to ‘dugong’, a mammal found in India, which of the following statements is/are correct? (2015)
1. It is a herbivorous marine animal
2. It is found along the entire coast of India
3. It is given legal protection under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
(a) 1 and 2
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3
(d) 3 only
‘Right to be Forgotten’
Why in news?
— The Delhi High Court, on March 15, is all set to hear a doctor’s plea for enforcement of his ‘Right to be Forgotten’, which includes the removal of news articles and other incriminating content related to his “wrongful arrest” in response to a “fabricated FIR against him” which he claims is causing detriment to his life and personal liberty.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Khadija Khan Explains:
What is this case?
— In “Dr. Ishwarprasad Gilda vs. Union of India & Others”, a practicing doctor who is a “world-renowned figure in the fight against HIV-AIDS” was accused of offenses under the Indian Penal Code, including causing death by negligence (Section 304A), cheating (Section 417) and personating a public servant (Section 170). The doctor was accused of illegally procuring medicines from abroad and administering them to HIV patients in India, who he was also accused of “mishandling”. When one of the patients, Girdhar Verma, passed away, the petitioner contends he was wrongfully arrested on April 23, 1999, and was subsequently given bail on May 11, 1999. Thereafter, relying on a trial court order from August 4, 2009, exonerating him, he reiterated that there was no evidence of him having engaged in any illegality.
— Thus, the doctor approached the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the respondents like Google, the Press Information Bureau, and the Press Council of India to remove all “irrelevant” news content causing “grave injury” to his reputation and dignity or to pass any other order or direction to safeguard his dignity, including availing his “Right to be Forgotten.”
What is the Right to be Forgotten?
— The “Right to be Forgotten” is the right to remove or erase content so that it’s not accessible to the public at large. It empowers an individual to have information in the form of news, video, or photographs deleted from internet records so it doesn’t show up through search engines, like Google in the present case.
What is the law on the Right to be Forgotten?
— Section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 says that organizations who possess sensitive personal data and fail to maintain appropriate security to safeguard such data, resulting in wrongful loss or wrongful gain to anyone, may be obligated to pay damages to the affected person.
— While, the IT Rules, 2021 do not include this right, they do however, lay down the procedure for filing complaints with the designated Grievance Officer so as to have content exposing personal information about a complainant removed from the internet.
— Moreover, on December 11, 2019, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill in the Lok Sabha. While this bill is yet to be passed by the parliament, owing to a parliamentary joint committee’s suggestion to amend 81 of the 99 sections of the same, Clause 20 under Chapter V of the draft bill titled, “Rights of Data Principal” mentions the “Right to be Forgotten” as the right to restrict or prevent the continuing disclosure of personal data by a “data fiduciary”.
What have the courts said so far?
— While the right is not recognized by a law or a statute in India expressly, the courts have repeatedly held it to be endemic to an individual’s Right to Privacy under Article 21 since the Apex Court’s 2017 ruling in “K.S.Puttaswamy vs Union of India”. In this case, a nine-judge bench, including CJI Chandrachud, referred to the European Union Regulation of 2016 which recognized “the right to be forgotten” an individual’s right to remove personal information from the system when “he is no longer desirous of his personal data to be processed or stored” or when “its no longer necessary, relevant, or is incorrect and serves no legitimate interest”.
— However, the court also recognized that such a right can be restricted by the right to freedom of expression and information or “for compliance with legal obligations”, or for the performance of tasks in the public interest or on “grounds of public interest in the area of public health” or “scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, or for the establishment” and “exercise or defense of legal claims”.
— In “Jorawer Singh Mundy vs Union of India”, an American citizen approached the Delhi High Court in 2021 seeking the removal of all publicly available records of a case registered against him under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. He argued that although the trial court acquitted him back in 2011, he was unable to find a job in the United States on account of a quick Google search showing the judgment in his case. Despite a good academic record, this prejudiced his chances of employment, he argued. Thus, the court directed respondents like ‘IndianKanoon’ to remove the same.
What are the origins of this Right?
— The Right to be Forgotten originates from the 2014 European Court of Justice ruling in the case of “Google Spain SL, Google Inc v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, Mario Costeja González”, where it was codified for the first time following a Spanish man’s quest to make the world forget a 1998 advertisement saying “his home was being repossessed to pay off debts.”
— Thereafter, it was included in the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in addition to the right to erasure. Article 17 of the GDPR provides for the right to erasure and lays down certain conditions when such a right can be restricted.
(Source: Plea in Delhi High Court: What is the ‘Right to be Forgotten’? by Khadija Khan)
Point to ponder: How Right to be Forgotten is a question of Privacy vs Freedom?
5. MCQ:
‘Right to Privacy’ is protected under which Article of the constitution of India? (2021)
(a) Article 15
(b) Article 19
(c) Article 21
(d) Article 29
ANSWERS TO MCQs: 1 (a), 2 (d), 3 (a), 4 (c), 5 (c)
Share your views, answers and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com
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