UPSC Essentials: Key terms of the past week with MCQs

Why in news?

— India’s largest floating solar plant is now fully operational at NTPC-Ramagundam in Telangana’s Peddapalli district.

— It is a project endowed with advanced technology and environment-friendly features.

What is ‘floating’ solar plant?

— Solar plants or solar farms can be either ground-mounted or set up on the surface of water bodies.

— Though these floating farms are a bit more expensive than the traditional ones mounted on land surfaces, there are advantages as well.

— At a time when large tracts of land are unavailable, floating farms do not require land to be acquired for the installation of photovoltaic panels.

— They are more efficient as the presence of water underneath helps them keep cool.

— They also reduce water evaporation, thereby saving more water for hydropower generation.

— At Ramagundam, the solar modules are placed across 500 acres on floaters manufactured with high-density polyethene material that keeps floating irrespective of water-level fluctuations.

— This project is unique because all the electrical equipment from the inverter, transformer, high-tension panel to supervisory control and data acquisition are also set up on floating ferro-cement platforms.

— According to the NTPC, the entire floating system is anchored through special high-modulus polyethylene ropes to the dead weights (concrete blocks) placed in the balancing reservoir bed.

— The solar panels floating on the water surface will reduce the evaporation rate and thereby help water conservation.

— Also, with a minimum land requirement, mostly for associated evacuation arrangements, available land can be put to better use unlike in the case of ground-mounted solar farms, which require large land surface areas.

— At Ramagundam, approximately 32.5 lakh cubic metres per year of water evaporation can be avoided.

— The waterbody underneath the solar modules helps in maintaining their ambient temperature, thereby improving their efficiency and generation.

— Similarly, coal consumption of 1,65,000 tons can be avoided per year; carbon dioxide emissions of 2,10,000 tons per year can be avoided, according to the NTPC.

Point to ponder: What is a floating solar plant? What is its unique feature?

Varroa mite

Why in news?

— In the last two weeks, Australian authorities have exterminated millions of honeybees in a bid to prevent a potentially devastating parasitic plague affecting the southeast region of the country.

— The recent outbreak of the deadly varroa mite, a sesame seed-sized parasite that was first spotted at a port near Sydney last week, poses a massive threat to the country’s multimillion-dollar honey industry.

What is Varroa mite?

— The Varroa mite, or Varroa destructor, is a parasitic insect that attacks and feeds on honeybees. Reddish-brown in colour, the tiny pests are known to kill entire colonies of honeybees, officials have warned.

— They often travel from bee to bee and also via beekeeping equipment, such as combs that have been extracted.

— The spread of the mite is largely blamed for a sharp decline in the number of honey bee colonies worldwide. It has plundered bee colonies across the globe.

— According to Australian beekeeping website Bee Aware, “Although Varroa mites can feed and live on adult honey bees, they mainly feed and reproduce on larvae and pupae in the developing brood, causing malformation and weakening of honey bees as well as transmitting numerous viruses.”

— Over time, as the mite population increases in bee colonies, the symptoms grow more severe. Generally, heavy infestations lead to crippled bees, impaired flight performance, lower rate of return to the colony after foraging and reduced lifespan, Bee Aware states.

—It should be noted that until recently, Australia was one of the few countries that was able to successfully clamp down on the spread of Varroa mite-induced plagues, known to be the biggest threat to bees worldwide. But this time, officials say that the tiny insect is here to stay.

Point to ponder: Why are bees important for agriculture?

ECOWAS

Why in news?

— West African leaders attended a summit as their regional bloc pursues its efforts to resolve the political impasse in the coup-hit nations of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

— A summit last month of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) put off imposing further economic and financial sanctions on the three nations.

What is ECOWAS?

— It is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa.

— It was established in 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos.

— The goal of ECOWAS is to achieve “collective self-sufficiency” for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union.

— It also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region.

— ECOWAS is considered as one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC).

Point to ponder: Look for the ‘Treaty of Pelindaba’. Also, what is the reason for unrest in West Africa?

Large Hadron Collider

Why in news?

— The world’s most powerful particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will begin smashing protons into each other at unprecedented levels of energy beginning July 5.

— Scientists will record and analyse the data, which are expected to throw up evidence of “new physics”, or physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, which explains how the basic building blocks of matter interact, governed by four fundamental forces.

What is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)?

— The Large Hadron Collider is a giant, complex machine built to study particles that are the smallest known building blocks of all things.

— Structurally, it is a 27-km-long track-loop buried 100 meters underground on the Swiss-French border. In its operational state, it fires two beams of protons almost at the speed of light in opposite directions inside a ring of superconducting electromagnets.

— The magnetic field created by the superconducting electromagnets keeps the protons in a tight beam and guides them along the way as they travel through beam pipes and finally collide.

— Since the LHC’s powerful electromagnets carry almost as much current as a bolt of lightning, they must be kept chilled.

— The LHC uses a distribution system of liquid helium to keep its critical components ultracold at minus 271.3 degrees Celsius, which is colder than interstellar space. Given these requirements, it is not easy to warm up or cool down the gigantic machine.

Point to ponder: What is ATLAS?

Alluri Sitharama Raju

Why in news?

— Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 30-foot-tall bronze statue of Alluri Sitharama Raju at Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh as the year-long celebrations of the freedom fighter’s 125th birth anniversary began on Monday.

Who was Alluri Sitharama Raju?

— Raju is believed to have been born in present-day Andhra Pradesh in 1897 or 1898.

— At a very young age, Raju channelled the discontent of the hill people in Ganjam, Visakhapatnam, and Godavari into a highly effective guerrilla resistance against the British.

— Colonial rule threatened the tribals’ traditional podu (shifting) cultivation, as the government sought to secure forest lands. The Forest Act of 1882 banned the collection of minor forest produce such as roots and leaves, and tribal people were forced into labour for the colonial government.

— While the tribals were subjected to exploitation by muttadars, village headmen commissioned by the colonial government to extract rent, the new laws and systems threatened their way of life itself.

— Strong anti-government sentiment, shared by the muttadars who were aggrieved by the curtailment of their powers by the British, exploded into armed resistance in August 1922.

— Several hundred tribals led by Raju attacked the Chintapalle, Krishnadevipeta and Rajavommangi police stations in the Godavari agency.

— The Rampa or Manyam Rebellion continued in the form of a guerrilla war until May 1924, when Raju, the charismatic ‘Manyam Veerudu’ or Hero of Jungle, was finally captured and executed.

— The Rampa Rebellion coincided with Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement.

— He is said to have become a sanyasi at the age of 18, and gained a mystical aura among the hill and tribal peoples with his austerity, knowledge of astrology and medicine, and his ability to tame wild animals.

— S S Rajamouli’s 2022 Telugu blockbuster RRR is a fictional account of the friendship between Raju and tribal leader Komaram Bheem, with actor Ram Charan portraying Raju’s role.

Point to ponder: The history of the freedom struggle went beyond just a few years, a few areas, or a few people. Discuss.

CCPA

Why in news?

— The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Monday issued guidelines to prevent unfair trade practices, and to protect the interest of consumers with regard to the levy of service charges in hotels and restaurants.

— Under the guidelines, consumers can lodge complaints against hotels and restaurants by calling the number 1915.

What is CCPA?

— The authority is being constituted under Section 10(1) of The Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

— It protects the rights of the consumer by cracking down on unfair trade practices, and false and misleading advertisements that are detrimental to the interests of the public and consumers.

— It will be headquartered in the National Capital Region of Delhi but the central government may set up regional offices in other parts of the country.

Its important functions are:

— Inquire or investigate into matters relating to violations of consumer rights or unfair trade practices suo motu, or on a complaint received, or on a direction from the central government.

— Recall goods or withdrawal of services that are “dangerous, hazardous or unsafe.

— Pass an order for a refund the prices of goods or services so recalled to purchasers of such goods or services; discontinuation of practices which are unfair and prejudicial to consumer’s interest”.

— Impose a penalty up to Rs 10 lakh, with imprisonment up to two years, on the manufacturer or endorser of false and misleading advertisements. The penalty may go up to Rs 50 lakh, with imprisonment up to five years, for every subsequent offense committed by the same manufacturer or endorser.

— Ban the endorser of a false or misleading advertisement from making endorsement of any products or services in the future, for a period that may extend to one year. The ban may extend up to three years in every subsequent violation of the Act.

— File complaints of violation of consumer rights or unfair trade practices before the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

Point to ponder: What is the composition of CCPA? What is a ‘service charge’?

Quarks

Why in news?

— The Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment — which is investigating the slight differences between matter and antimatter by studying a type of particle called the “beauty quark”, or “b quark” — has observed three never-before-seen particles, CERN announced on July 5.

What are quarks?

— Quarks are elementary particles that come in six “flavours”: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. They usually combine together in groups of twos and threes to form hadrons such as the protons and neutrons that make up atomic nuclei.

— They can also combine into four-quark and five-quark particles, called tetraquarks and pentaquarks.

—T hese exotic hadrons were predicted by theorists about six decades ago — around the same time as conventional hadrons — but they have been observed by LHCb and other experiments only in the past 20 years.

— According to the CERN release, most exotic hadrons discovered in the past two decades are tetraquarks or pentaquarks containing a charm quark and a charm antiquark — with the remaining two or three quarks being an up, down or strange quark or their antiquarks.

— Two years ago, however, the LHCb experiment discovered an exotic tetraquark made up of two charm quarks and two charm antiquarks, and two “open-charm” tetraquarks consisting of a charm antiquark, an up quark, a down quark and a strange antiquark.

— Last year, it found the first-ever instance of a “double open-charm” tetraquark with two charm quarks and an up and a down antiquark, CERN said.

— Open charm means that the particle contains a charm quark without an equivalent antiquark.

— CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) is the original name of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, which runs the particle accelerator complex that houses the LHC, the world’s largest and most complex collider.

Point to ponder: What are the new exotic hadrons announced by the LHCb collaboration?

EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy

Why in news?

— EU has recently agreed to label investments in some gas and nuclear power plants as environment-friendly.

— Supporters say it is the world’s most ambitious green investment rulebook and could direct huge sums of money into fighting climate change.

— Critics say it’s a “greenwashing” exercise that puts the European Union’s climate change targets at risk.

What is EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy?

— The EU taxonomy is a complex system to classify which parts of the economy may be marketed as sustainable investments.

— It includes economic activities, as well as detailed environmental criteria that each economic activity must meet to earn a green label. Rules for most sectors came into effect this year, covering investments including steel plants, electric cars and building renovations.

— The rules for gas and nuclear energy, however, have been long delayed amid intense lobbying from governments who disagree on whether the fuels help fight climate change.

— The taxonomy does not ban investments in activities not labelled “green”, but it limits which ones companies and investors can claim are climate-friendly.

— The EU’s goal to eliminate its net emissions by 2050 will require huge investments, much of it private funding.

— The taxonomy aims to make truly green activities more visible and attractive to investors.

— The rules also aim to stamp out greenwashing, where organisations exaggerate their environmental credentials, among so-called eco-friendly investment products.

— The rules classify three types of green investments. First, those that substantially contribute to green goals, for example, wind power farms.

— Second, those that enable other green activities, for example, facilities that can store renewable electricity or hydrogen.

— Third, transitional activities that cannot be made fully sustainable, but which have emissions below industry average and do not lock in polluting assets or crowd out greener alternatives. Gas and nuclear power plants are classed as transitional activities.

Point to ponder: Discuss energy and its impact on the environment.

CAATSA

Why in news?

— US Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said the US government must not impose sanctions on India under the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for its purchase of S-400 missile weapons system from Russia.

What is CAATSA?

— CAATSA is a law that came into effect in the US in 2017, meant to punish countries having deep engagements with Russia, North Korea, and Iran using economic sanctions.

— It said countries having a “significant transaction” with Russian intelligence and military agents will be subject to at least five kinds of sanctions.

— Ordinary transactions will not invite sanctions, and the decision of who has sanctions imposed on them comes down to the interpretation of “significant transaction”.

— This is one of the various waivers or exemptions mentioned, such as the transaction not affecting US strategic interests, not endangering the alliances it is a part of, etc.

— India has purchased the S-400 Triumf missile systems, which have advanced capabilities to judge the distance from a target and launch a surface-to-air missile attack.

— Five such systems were bought by India in 2018 for US$ 5.5 billion and in November last year, their delivery began. They were deployed in Punjab.

— However, the application of CAATSA is not limited to the S-400, and may include other joint ventures for manufacturing or developing weapons in the future, or any other kinds of major deals with Russia.

Point to ponder: Why has India not faced CAATSA sanctions yet?

Derecho

Why in news?

— States of Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois in the US were hit by a storm system called a derecho on Tuesday.

— As the storm rolled in, winds gusting at around 140 km per hour, snapped power lines and knocked down trees.

— As the storm hit, it turned the skies green, with even many experienced storm chasers claiming to have never witnessed such atmospheric optics, according to the Washington Post.

What is Derecho?

— A derecho, according to the US’s National Weather Service is “a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm” that is associated with a “band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms”.

— The name comes from the Spanish word ‘la derecha’ which means ‘straight’. Straight-line storms are those in which thunderstorm winds have no rotation unlike a tornado. These storms travel hundreds of miles and cover a vast area.

— Being a warm-weather phenomenon, a derecho generally – not always – occurs during summertime beginning May, with most hitting in June and July.

— However, they are a rare occurrence as compared to other storm systems like tornadoes or hurricanes.

— For a storm to be classified as a derecho it must have wind gusts of at least 93 km per hour; wind damage swath extending more than 400 km.

— According to University of Oklahama’s School of Meteorology, the time gap between successive wind damage events should not be more than three hours.

— Severe thunderstorms result in a ‘green sky’ due to light interacting with the huge amount of water they hold.

— A report in the Washington Post said that it is believed that the big raindrops and hail scatter away all but the blue wavelengths due to which primarily blue light penetrates below the storm cloud.

— This blue then combines with the red-yellow of the afternoon or the evening sun to produce green, the report said.

Point to ponder: What are different types of Derecho? Where do they usually occur?

MCQ

1.Which of the following pair is not correctly matched:

a) Luhansk- Province in Ukraine

b) Bali- Venue for G20 summit, 2022

c) Marmolada- Atlas Mountains

d) Karakalpakastan- province in Uzbekistan

2.Which of the following statement is/are incorrect with respect to Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

1. It allows the Centre to issue blocking orders to social media intermediaries in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India.

2. Blocking orders issued under Section 69 (A) of the IT Act are typically confidential in nature.

a) Only 1

b) Only 2

c) Both 1 and 2

d) None

3. Which of the following statement is incorrect:

a) Rohini Commission: Sub-categorization of OBCs

b) C. Rangrajan Committee: To review the Methodology for Measurement of Poverty

c) K. Santhanam Committee: Draft National Education Policy

d) Abhijeet Sen Committee: Food policy

Answers: 1 (c), 2 (d), 3 (c)