Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission will be the first demonstration of a method that could be used to protect Earth from asteroids that could pose a threat to it in the future.

• NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft is scheduled to crash into the asteroid Dimorphos at approximately 7.14 PM EDT on September 26 (4.44 AM IST on September 27). 
• Using the impact of a massive object like a spacecraft to divert asteroids is called the “kinetic impact method” of asteroid impact avoidance.

DART Mission

• DART is the first technology demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique.
• This technique could be used to mitigate the threat in case an asteroid heads towards Earth in the future.
• The mission will test this newly developed technology by allowing a spacecraft to crash into an asteroid and change its course.
• After the spacecraft has collided with the asteroid, scientists will study its impact on the trajectory of the asteroid with a range of telescopes deployed on different regions of the planet.
• This study will help scientists understand whether the kinetic effect of a spacecraft impact could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

About Dimorphos: 

• It is 160-metre-wide and orbits the much larger asteroid Didymos (about 780 metres wide). It poses no actual threat to Earth.
• Webb Telescope, Hubble and a CubeSat called LICIACube to take measurements of the changes in the system and transmit back images.
• DRACO, or Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation is a high-resolution camera to capture images of Didymos and Dimorphos while simultaneously supporting DART’s autonomous guidance system. It takes 38 seconds for one-way communication.
• CubeSat, LICIACube is built by Italian space agency, has 2 cameras and operates autonomously.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Ministry of Electronics and IT’s (MeitY’s) Startup Hub signed an agreement with social media giant Meta to launch an accelerator programme to offer grants to startups building services for the metaverse, a digital world which is a combination of virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) accessed through a browser or headset.

• The programme will support 40 early-stage startups working in extended reality (XR) technologies with a grant of Rs 20 lakh each.
• The accelerator programme will be implemented by four institutions 
• International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
• AIC SMU Technology Business Incubation Foundation, Sikkim
• Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council, Gujarat
• Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer at IIT Delhi.
• Young Indian Startups, especially from tier 2/3 cities, will play a significant role in emerging tech areas like Web 3.0, blockchain, AI, Metaverse etc. and will shape the future of Technology and the internet for India and the world.

What is Extended Reality (XR)?

• XR is an emerging umbrella term for all the immersive technologies.
• The ones we already have today—augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) plus those that are still to be created.
• All immersive technologies extend the reality we experience by either blending the virtual and “real” worlds or by creating a fully immersive experience.

What is Augmented Reality?

• Augmented reality is the integration of digital information with the user’s environment in real time. 
• Unlike virtual reality, which creates a totally artificial environment, augmented reality uses the existing environment and overlays new information on top of it.

Virtual reality (VR)

• In contrast to augmented reality, in a virtual reality experience, users are fully immersed in a simulated digital environment.
• Individuals must put on a VR headset or head-mounted display to get a 360 -degree view of an artificial world that fools their brain into believing they are, e.g., walking on the moon, swimming under the ocean

Mixed reality (MR)

• In mixed reality, digital and real-world objects co-exist and can interact with one another in real-time.
• This is the latest immersive technology and is sometimes referred to as hybrid reality. It requires an MR headset and a lot more processing power than VR or AR.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

After a moderate post-pandemic revival, the price of natural rubber (NR) has crashed to a 16-month low of ₹150 per kg (RSS grade 4) in the Indian market. 

• Under the aegis of the National Consortium of Regional Federations of Rubber Producer Societies India, a day-long sit-in protest was staged in front of the Rubber Board headquarters in Kottayam, Kerala.

What has caused the sharp fall in prices?

• The current fall in prices is attributed primarily to a weak Chinese demand and the European energy crisis, along with high inflation and an import glut, among other things. 
• While the unremitting zero COVID strategy in China, which consumes about 42% of the global volume, has cost the industry dearly, analysts have also flagged the acceleration of imports.
• The domestic tyre industry, according to them, is sitting pretty on an ample inventory, especially in the form of block rubber from the Ivory Coast and compounded rubber from the Far East.

Where does India stand in terms of the production and consumption of natural rubber?

• India is currently the world’s fifth largest producer of natural rubber while it also remains the second biggest consumer of the material globally. (About 40% of India’s total natural rubber consumption is currently met through imports)
• On the demand side, the domestic consumption rose by 12.9%, to 12,38,000 tonnes in 2021-22 from 10,96,410 tonnes in the previous year. 
• The auto-tyre manufacturing sector accounted for 73.1% of the total quantity of natural rubber consumption. 
• Import of the material, meanwhile, increased to 5,46,369 tonnes from 4,10,478 tonnes.

How does the falling price affect the growers?

• The turnaround has exposed the growers mostly small and medium scale to a painful reckoning, contributing to wide-spread panic in Kerala, which accounts for nearly 75% of the total production.
• The impact of the price fall is felt more in the rural areas, where most people are solely dependent on rubber cultivation and have no other option but to cut expenses. This has caused a sluggishness in the respective local economies, which also coincided with the festive season in Kerala.
• If a reversal in prices seem distant, the trend may also trigger a crop switch or even a fragmentation of the rubber holdings in the long run.

What do the farmers demand?

• The key demands they have raised to the Union government include raising the import duties on latex products and compound rubber to make it on par with natural rubber, by either 25% or ₹30 per kg, whichever is lower.
• Its demands to the state government are to raise the replanting subsidy in Kerala, which remains at ₹25,000 per ha, and the support price of the crop under the price stabilisation scheme to ₹200 from ₹170.

How is the Rubber Board reacting?

• Amidst all the gloom, the Rubber Board professes to be relatively sanguine as it regards the price fluctuation as cyclical and rests its hopes on the projections of a remarkable shortage of rubber seven years from now due to slow replanting in place of old trees in existing plantations. 
• The agency, for the time being, is said to be also working on a set of programmes to arrest the free-falling of prices.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Vinoba Bhave, an ardent Gandhian who had launched the Bhoodan movement. His life was a manifestation of Gandhian principles.

Vinoba Bhave

• Vinoba Bhave (1895-1982) was an Indian nationalist and social-reform leader.
• Bhave’s most notable contribution was the creation of the bhoodan (land gift) movement.
• He was born into a high-ranking Chitapavan Brahmin family in Gagode village, south of Bombay.
• He is regarded as the National Teacher of India.
• Bhave took the vow for celibacy and followed it all his life. 
• He dedicated his life to religious work and the freedom struggle.

Role in Freedom Struggle:

• Instead of appearing for an exam in Bombay in 1918, Bhave threw away his books in the fire. This happened after he read an article by Mahatma Gandhi.
• He was an ardent follower of Gandhi.
• In 1940, Bhave was selected as the ‘First Individual Satyagrahi’ against the British Raj by Gandhi in India.
• Bhave played an important role in the Quit India Movement.

Political Efforts

Bhoodan Movement: 

• In 1951, Vinoba Bhave started his land donation movement at Pochampally in Telangana, the Bhoodan Movement.
• He took donated land from land owner Indians and gave it away to the poor and landless, for them to cultivate.

Gramdan:

• Then after 1954, he started to ask for donations of whole villages in a programme he called Gramdan. 
• He got more than 1000 villages by way of donation. Out of these, he obtained 175 donated villages in Tamil Nadu alone.

Sarvodaya Movement: 

• Vinoba observed the life of the average Indian living in a village and tried to find solutions for the problems he faced with a firm spiritual foundation. This formed the core of his Sarvodaya movement. 
• Sarvodaya is Gandhi’s most important social political movement. Like Satyagraha, it too is a combination of two terms, Sarva ­ meaning one and all, and Uday ­ meaning welfare or uplift. The conjunction thus implies Universal uplift or welfare of all as the meaning of Sarvodaya.
• Although Sarvodaya was a social ideology in its fundamental form, India’s immediate post ­independence requirement demanded that it be transformed into an urgent political doctrine. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Windfall taxes are designed to tax the profits a company derives from an external, sometimes unprecedented event for instance, the energy price-rise as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

• Analysts say that companies are confident in investing in a sector if there is certainty and stability in a tax regime. 
• Since windfall taxes are imposed retrospectively and are influenced by unexpected events, they can brew uncertainty in the market.

What is a windfall tax?

• Windfall taxes are designed to tax the profits a company derives from an external, sometimes unprecedented event — for instance, the energy price-rise as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 
• These are profits that cannot be attributed to something the firm actively did, like an investment strategy or an expansion of business.
• The U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) defines a windfall as an “unearned, unanticipated gain in income through no additional effort or expense”.
• Governments typically levy this as a one-off tax retrospectively over and above the normal rates of tax. 
• One area where such taxes have routinely been discussed is oil markets, where price fluctuation leads to volatile or erratic profits for the industry. 
• There have been varying rationales for governments worldwide to introduce windfall taxes, from redistribution of unexpected gains when high prices benefit producers at the expense of consumers, to funding social welfare schemes, and as a supplementary revenue stream for the government.

Why are countries levying windfall taxes now?

• Prices of oil, gas, and coal have seen sharp increases since last year and in the first two quarters of the current year, although they have reduced recently. 
• Pandemic recovery and supply issues resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict shored up energy demands, which in turn have driven up global prices. 
• The rising prices meant huge and record profits for energy companies while resulting in hefty gas and electricity bills for households in major and smaller economies. 
• In July, India announced a windfall tax on domestic crude oil producers who it believed were reaping the benefits of the high oil prices. 
• It also imposed an additional excise levy on diesel, petrol and air turbine fuel (ATF) exports. 

What are the issues with imposing such taxes?

• Analysts say that companies are confident in investing in a sector if there is certainty and stability in a tax regime. 
• Since windfall taxes are imposed retrospectively and are often influenced by unexpected events, they can brew uncertainty in the market about future taxes. 
• Difficulty in constituting true windfall profits; their determination and level of normalisation of profit. A CRS report, for instance, argues that if rapid increases in prices lead to higher profits, in one sense it can be called true windfalls as they are unforeseeable but on the other hand, companies may argue that it is the profit they earned as a reward for risk-taking to provide the end user with the petroleum product.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which released an advice note on how windfall taxes need to be levied also said that taxes in response to price surges may suffer from design problems—given their expedient and political nature. 

• It added that “introducing a temporary windfall profit tax reduces future investment because prospective investors will internalise the likelihood of potential taxes when making investment decisions”.
• The tax should be imposed on a share of economic rents (meaning excess profits).

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Vembanad lake, the second largest wetland system in India after the Sunderbans in West Bengal, is shrinking and its unique biodiversity is under threat of ecological decay despite it being declared as a Ramsar site 20 years ago.

• The lake is a source of livelihood for farmers of Kuttanad and the fisherfolk community, continues to undergo ecological degradation due to pollution and unauthorised constructions on its banks.

Vembanad Lake

• It is the longest lake in India and the largest lake in the state of Kerala. 
• The lake is situated at sea level and is separated from the Laccadive Sea by a narrow barrier island.
• The lake is also known as Punnamada Lake (in Kuttanad) and Kochi Lake (in Kochi).
• Vallam Kali (a.k.a Nehru Trophy Boat Race) is a Snake Boat Race held every year in the month of August in Vembanad Lake.
• In 2002, the lake was included in the list of wetlands of international importance, as defined by the Ramsar Convention. 
• It is the second-largest Ramsar site in India, only after the Sunderbans in West Bengal.
• The Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary is located on the east coast of the lake.
• The unique characteristic of the lake is the Thanneermukkom saltwater barrier. It was constructed as a part of the Kuttanad Development Scheme to prevent tidal action and intrusion of saltwater into the Kuttanad low-lands.
• The Government of India has identified the Vembanad wetland under the National Wetlands Conservation Programme.
• In 2019, Willingdon Island, a seaport located in the city of Kochi, was carved out of Vembanad Lake.

Issues

• According to ecological experts and various studies conducted over the years, the lake is facing serious environmental degradation due to recurring floods, increased pollution, reduction in water spread area and increased weed growth.
• Bunds on the lake were crumbling at certain places, making fishing difficult and on top of that the lake requires regular dredging and desilting.
• Tourism poses a threat to the ecology and the water quality of the lake. Resorts and residences discharge their waste into the river and many houseboats do not have bio-toilets.

Solution

• The participation of local communities, including fisherfolk and farmers, in revival of the lake was essential.
• An inter-departmental committee has been set up to carry out a comprehensive study on checking the existing backwaters and to take further steps.
• The bund was constructed to regulate saline water intrusion into the freshwater lake.
• The Swaminathan Foundation report of 2011 and a subsequent joint study of 2012 by teams from IIT Madras and CWRDM recommendation must be implemented.

Besides environmental concerns, pollution and recurring floods in the lake also paint a bleak picture regarding the livelihood of the fisherfolk in the area and farmers as Kuttanad, also known as the Rice Bowl of Kerala, lies on the southern portion of the water body.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Since its independence, India has sought to maintain strong ties with Saudi Arabia, an important regional power and trading base in West Asia. Relations between the two countries are rooted in strong historical and civilisational links. 

Saudi Arabia is also home to more than 1.4 million Indian workers. The mutually beneficial partnership encompasses active cooperation in a wide spectrum of spheres.

• Union Minister of External Affairs co-chaired with his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the first ministerial meeting of the Committee on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation (PSSC), established under the framework of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council.
•  He also met with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary, the two leaders signed an MoU on the mechanism of consultations between India and the six-nation regional bloc.

Recent Developments

• On account of remarks on Prophet Mohammad by Nupur Sharma Saudi Arabia issued a strong statement condemning the same.
• Covid-19 pandemic: India provided 4.5 million COVISHIELD vaccines to the Kingdom, whereas, during the second wave, the latter provided India with COVID-relief material, particularly liquid oxygen. Large-scale repatriation exercise of the community due to the pandemic, which has led to more than 8,00,000 Indians being repatriated through Vande Bharat Mission
• Committee on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation (PSSC): established under the framework of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council.
• India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council – was formed to coordinate on strategically important issues. The council will be headed by the Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed and will meet every two years.

Saudi Arabia significant to India

• Indian Diaspora: The 2.7 million strong Indian community is the largest expatriate group in Saudi Arabia. They send remittances of over US $11 billion annually to India.
• Counter-terrorism: India needs Saudi Arabia to support India’s efforts against terrorism and against Pakistan. Saudi Arabia is an influential nation in Middle East and Muslim World. Riyadh has largely shown an understanding of India’s terrorism-related concerns, and has agreed to work with India in countering the global menace.
• Strategic significance: Saudi is geographically located near Strait of Hormuz. This is world’s most important oil artery and strategically important for India’s energy security.
• Investment: Saudi has one of the largest Sovereign Fund in the World. It is an important nation to invest fund in India particularly in National Infrastructure and Investment fund (NIIF). India needs fund for its infrastructure sector.
• Against Pakistan: Saudi Arabia has a substantial influence over Pakistan. India can use this influence to bring Pakistan to negotiating table for talks on terrorism and bilateral relations.
• Energy: Saudi Arabia is a source of 17% or more of crude oil and 32% of LPG requirements of India and thus a key pillar of India’s energy security. With US sanctions on Iran, India needs to import crude oil from other sources to meet its energy need. Saudi Arabia have offered India with additional crude oil supplies to meet India’s growing needs.
• Cultural: The Saudi Kingdom facilitates Hajj pilgrimage to over 1,75,000 Indians every year. This is one of the other reasons why Saudi Arabia is an important country for India.
• Exports: Other areas of interest for joint collaboration are fertilisers, food security, infrastructure, renewable energy, etc. ICT, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, electronic and manufacturing facilities, and housing are other potential areas of enhanced cooperation.

Way forward

• Need for a balance policy in terms of strategic, defence and economic partnership
• Diversification of trade relations beyond crude oil and LPG
• Collaboration on handling terrorism through sharing of military insights and increasing joint military exercises.

Gulf Cooperation Council

• The Riyadh Agreement was issued which proposed cooperative efforts in cultural, social, economic, and financial affairs.
• A Constitution was initiated in March 1981 and was signed by the Gulf Heads of State (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) on May 25-26, 1981 at Abu Dhabi, the UAE. Consequently, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) came into existence.
• The GCC is a political and economic alliance of countries in the Arabian Peninsula.
• It was established in 1981 to foster socioeconomic, security, and cultural cooperation.
• Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are its members.
• The Secretariat is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• They gather every year to discuss cooperation and regional affairs.
• All current member states are monarchies, including three constitutional monarchies(Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain), two absolute monarchies (Saudi Arabia and Oman), and one federal monarchy (the United Arab Emirates).

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

An expert team, including a representative from the International Commission on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) will visit the Hoysala temples at Belur, Halebid, and Somanathpur before submitting a report to UNESCO ahead of declaring them as a World Heritage Site.

The team will visit the 12th Century Chennakeshava temple at Belur, the Hoysaleshwara temple (12th Century) at Halebid on 15th and the 13th Century Keshava temple at Somanathpur.

The Hoysala Temples

• The Hoysala temples have a basic Darvidian morphology though they reflect other influences including that of Central India’s Bhumija mode, northern and western India’s Nagara traditions, and Karnata Dravida modes of the Kalyani Chalukyas. 

• The temples, instead of consisting of a simple inner chamber with its pillared hall, contain multiple shrines grouped around a central pillared hall and laid out in the shape of an intricately-designed star.
• Soft soapstone being the main building material.
• Decoration of the temple through sculptures – Both the interior and exterior walls, even the pieces of jewellery worn by the deities were intricately carved.
• Upraised platform known as Jagati.
• The walls and stairs of the temple followed a zigzag pattern.

Chennakeshava Temple

• Chennakeshava Temple is also referred to as Vijayanarayana Temple of Belur.It is a 12th-century Hindu temple in Karnataka.
• The temple was commissioned by King Vishnuvardhana in 1117 CE, on the banks of the Yagachi River in Belur also called Velapura, an early Hoysala Empire capital. 
• The temple is devoted to Vishnu.
• The richly sculptured exterior of the temple narrates scenes from the life of Vishnu and his reincarnations and the epics, Ramayana, and Mahabharata. However, some of the representations of Shiva are also included.

International Commission on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS):

• It is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the world.
• Headquartered in Charenton-le-Pont, France, ICOMOS was founded in 1965 in Warsaw as a result of the Venice Charter of 1964, and offers advice to UNESCO on World Heritage Sites.
• Objectives: Restoration of historic buildings and protect the world’s cultural heritage threatened by wars and natural disasters under “Blue Shield”; of which ICOMOS is a partner and founding member

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Taragiri, the third stealth frigate of the Project 17A, was launched by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. (MDL).

• The second ship of P17A class Udaygiri was launched on May 17 this year and is expected to start the sea trials during the second half of 2024. The keel of the fourth and the final ship was laid on June 28.
• The ship has been built using integrated construction methodology which involves hull blocks construction in different geographical locations and integration/erection on slipway at MDL.

Features

• The steel used in the hull construction of P17A frigates is indigenously developed DMR 249A, which is a low carbon micro-alloy grade steel manufactured by the Steel Authority of India Limited. 
• Indigenously designed Taragiri will have a state-of-the-art weapon, sensors, an advanced action information system, an integrated platform management system, world class modular living spaces, a sophisticated power distribution system and a host of other advanced features.
• It will be fitted with a supersonic surface-to-surface missile system and the ship’s air defence capability is designed to counter the threat of the enemy aircraft and the anti-ship cruise missiles would revolve around the vertical launch and long-range surface to air missile system
• The vessel is being launched with an approximate launch weight of 3,510 tonnes and is designed by the Indian Navy’s in-house design organisation the Bureau of Naval Design
• The ship, 149.02 metre long and 17.8 metre wide, is propelled by a CODOG combination of two gas turbines and two main diesel engines which are designed to achieve a speed of over 28 knots at a displacement of approximately 6,670 tonnes.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has arrested a man who had masterminded the incorporation of a large number of shell companies linked to China and provided dummy directors on their boards to run the fraudulent businesses. 

The arrest was part of the crackdown on Chinese shell companies that are allegedly into serious financial crimes in India.

What are shell companies?

• Shell companies are companies without active business operations or significant assets.
• Shell companies can be set up by business people for both legitimate and illegitimate purposes.
• Illegitimate purposes include hiding particulars of ownership from the law enforcement, laundering unaccounted money and avoiding tax.
• With the shell company as a front, all transactions are shown on paper as legitimate business transactions, thereby turning black money into white. In this process, the business person also avoids paying tax on the laundered money.
• All shell companies are not illegal. Some companies could have been started to promote start-ups by raising funds.

Indian laws to deal with shell companies

• Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Amendment Act 2016
• The Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002
• The Companies Act, 2013.

Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO)

• The Serious Fraud Investigation Office(SFIO) is a fraud investigating agency. It is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India.The SFIO is involved in major fraud probes and is the coordinating agency with the Income Tax and CBI.
• The Government approved setting up of this organization in 2003 on the basis of the recommendations made by the Naresh Chandra Committee which was set up by the Government in 2002 on corporate governance.
• As per the Companies Act 2013, SFIO is a multi-disciplinary organization under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, consisting of experts in the field of accountancy, forensic auditing, banking, law, information technology, taxation, etc. for detecting and prosecuting or recommending for prosecution white-collar crimes/frauds.
• The SFIO conducts investigations on receipt of a report of the Registrar or on intimation of a special resolution passed by a company, request from any department of the Central Government or a State Government or in the public interest.
• SFIO is headed by a Director as Head of Department in the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India.
• The Headquarter of SFIO is in New Delhi, with five Regional Offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad & Kolkata.

Tax evasion vs. Tax avoidance

• The objective of Tax avoidance is to reduce tax liability by applying the script of law whereas Tax evasion is done to reduce tax liability by exercising unfair means. Tax planning is done to reduce the liability of tax by applying the provision and moral law.

Common tax avoidance techniques include:

• Deducting a charitable donation
• Deducting Health Savings Account contributions
• Putting money into a 401(k)
• Using a student loan interest deduction