Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

To improve the quality of life of the Senior Citizens by providing basic amenities like shelter, food, medical care and entertainment opportunities and by encouraging productive and active ageing through providing support.

• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
• Type: Central Sector Scheme

Objectives

• To improve the quality of life of the Senior Citizens by providing basic amenities like shelter, food, medical care and entertainment opportunities, free of cost to indigent senior citizens.
• Provision of financial security, healthcare, nutrition, shelter, welfare etc. for senior citizens.
• Encouraging productive and active ageing through providing support for capacity building of State/ UT Governments/Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)/Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) / local bodies and the community at large.

Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens(IPSrC):

• It is a component of AVYAY
• Functions: Senior citizen homes (old age homes) are provided in gap districts, i.e. districts not having senior citizen homes which includes senior citizen homes not being maintained even by the State Government.
• Applications are invited from eligible organisations on e-Anudaan portal only.
• Organisations are then selected on the basis of documents provided by them, and also the recommendation of the respective State/ UT Government.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

The Delhi Forest Department is in the process of procuring electric cycles and golf carts to enable visits to the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary.

About the Asola Bhatti Sanctuary

• Asola-Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary covering 32.71 sq km area on the Southern Delhi Ridge of Aravalli hill range on Delhi-Haryana border lies in Southern Delhi as well as northern parts of Faridabad and Gurugram districts of Haryana state.
• Biodiversity significance of Ridge lies in its merger with Indo-Gangetic plains, as it is the part of the Northern Aravalli leopard wildlife corridor, an important wildlife corridor which starts from the Sariska National Park in Rajasthan, passes through Nuh, Faridabad and Gurugram districts of Haryana and ends at Delhi Ridge.
• This protected area contains one of the last surviving remnants of Delhi Ridge hill range and its semi-arid forest habitat and its dependent wildlife.
• Once the whole Delhi Ridge was a forested area, but development has destroyed several parts of it.
• Historical place around sanctuary are Suraj Kund and Anangpur Dam (both in Haryana), Tughlaqabad Fort and Adilabad ruins (both in Delhi), Chhatarpur Temple (in Delhi).
• There are several dozen lakes formed in the abandoned open pit mines in and around the sanctuary. It is contiguous to the seasonal waterfalls in Pali-Dhuaj-Kot villages of Faridabad and the sacred Mangar Bani.

Biodiversity and important species

• There are about 193 species of birds reported from Asola along with large number of medicinal plants, more than 80 species of butterflies, hundreds of other insects, mammals such as leopards, nilgai (blue bull, the largest antelope of the country), blackbuck (fastest land animal surviving in the wild in the country), black-napped hare, Indian crested porcupine, small Indian civet, golden jackal, and jungle cat.
• Delhi Ridge is the northernmost extension of one of the oldest mountain systems of the world, Aravalli range, which begin in the state of Gujarat near Great Rann of Kutch.
• Biogeographically it represents outlier of Aravalli Mountain Range among protected area in India.
• It has a high potential for establishing conservation education and nature interpretation programs.
• It is Delhi NCR’s green lung, carbon sink, source of ground water recharge, and shelter belt against advancing aridity.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

French-Canadian singer Celine Dion has opened up about being diagnosed with Stiff-Person Syndrome (SPS), a rare neurological condition that makes the muscles spasm uncontrollably. The disorder has left her with difficulties in walking and singing.

What is Stiff-Person Syndrome?

• It is a syndrome of fluctuating but progressive muscle stiffness and spasm that preferentially affects axial (back and abdominal) muscles, neurological experts noted.
• It is a central nervous system disorder, meaning encephalomyelopathy, in which myelopathic features predominate in most patients. 
• It frequently affects women with a median onset of 35 to 40 years of age.

What are its causes?

• There have been reports that spasms occur at any random time and can be triggered by loud noises, touch, and emotional distress.
• This autoimmune disease is caused by antibodies to proteins, resulting in impaired GABAergic (Gamma amino butyric acid) inhibition of the motor nerves in the brain and spinal cord. “
• It is associated with GAD65 (Glutamic acid decarboxylase) and amphiphysin antibodies. 
• 70 per cent of patients with GAD antibodies have diabetes mellitus as a comorbidity. 
• It is associated with other autoimmune diseases like cerebellitis, myasthenia gravis, hypo/hyperthyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus.
• People with amphiphysin antibodies can have SPS as a paraneoplastic (a symptom of underlying malignancy) manifestation with predominant upper limbs or cranial nerve involvement. 
• The malignancies associated with stiff-person syndrome are breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and small cell carcinoma of the lung.

Common Symptoms

• SPS is known to affect the body posture of a person due to severe pain and stiffness in muscles in the trunk (torso), arms and legs.
• But symptoms can also include a person having greater sensitivity to noise, touch, and emotional distress

Treatment

• Since it is a rare disease with heterogenous clinical manifestations, the diagnosis may be delayed by an average of six years following symptom onset
• Treatment involves the use of both symptomatic agents to enhance GABAergic influences and Immuno modulating treatment aimed at the autoimmune basis of the disease.
• In patients with paraneoplastic Stiff Person Syndrome, identification and eradication of the underlying malignancy can alleviate symptoms

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

MSMEs have availed the benefit under erstwhile PTUAS scheme. However, the PTUAS has been incorporated as a sub-scheme under the Scheme – Strengthening of Pharmaceutical Industry (SPI), which was launched in July 2022.

Three components, to provide infrastructure support for pharma MSMEs in clusters and to address the issues of technology upgradation of individual pharma MSMEs :-

• Assistance to Pharmaceutical Industry for Common Facilities (API-CF)
• Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Assistance Scheme (PTUAS
• Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices Promotion and Development Scheme (PMPDS)

About the PTUAS Scheme

• PTUAS is a credit linked scheme and under this, applications are invited from eligible Pharma MSME units since 01.08.2022. 
• For registration of application, online portal has been developed by SIDBI, the Project Management Consultant (PMC) of the scheme and details are available at https://spi.udyamimitra.in.
• The sub-scheme PTUAS is aimed to facilitate Micro, Small and Medium Pharma Enterprises (MSMEs) of proven track record to meet national and international regulatory standards (WHO-GMP or Schedule-M), interest subvention or capital subsidy on their capital loans will be provided, which will further facilitate the growth in volumes as well as in quality and it is ensivaged to support about 400 Pharma MSME units under this sub-scheme during the scheme tenure.
• SIDBI is the Project Management Consultant (PMC) of the scheme.

Question: Identify the factors responsible for the location of Pharmaceutical industry.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

 The Department has commenced the work for creating Agristack in the country. In order to create Agristack, the department has finalized the core concept of “India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)” which lays down a framework for Agristack. For this, a Task Force was constituted and in furtherance, a concept paper on IDEA was prepared and comments were invited from subject experts, farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and general public.

• Agristack is a federated structure and ownership of data is with the States only.
• Access to federated Farmers’ database is with Government only. No private company is involved in developing the federated Farmers’ database. 
• As of now, the federated database is being built by taking the publicly available data as existing in the Department and in various data silos in Government.

About Agristack

• The project will collect granular data to provide growers with a range of customized services. Like, what to plant, where to sell, market information on price movements, and linkages to formal credit arrangements. 
• Each farmer will be provided a unique farmer’s ID, which will be linked to her Aadhaar number.  
• It will contain details related to land ownership, the crops she grows, soil health and the benefits available under government schemes such as direct cash transfers, crop insurance and subsidized credit. 
• It is in line with the Centre’s Digital India programme, aimed at providing a broader push to digitise data in India, from land titles to medical records.

Benefits

• Problems such as inadequate access to credit and information, pest infestation, crop wastage, can be addressed by use of digital technology
• It will increase innovation and investment towards the agricultural sector.

Significance of Agristack

• The stack will fuel innovation and support several value-added services as deduced by a consultation paper titled India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture-IDEA. 
• It would curtail information anomalies and allow farmers to effectively plan what and how much to produce. 
• It would breed investment towards the agricultural sector and augment research towards more resilient crops.  
• Agri-tech startups received over $1.5 billion of investment in the past 5-7 years and AgriStack can open the taps for more inflows. 
• It would enable use of Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) on large datasets. This will not only support farm management but can also help develop and design new crop protection products. 
• It would be used by insurance firms to do effective crop loss assessment. This would result in prudent settlement of claims and rationalisation of future premiums.

Concerns associated with Agristack 

• Linking land ownership data with Aadhaar may hit a roadblock because the process of digitizing land records is still under progress in India. Further land disputes account for more than 60% of all civil litigation. 
• A blind reliance on technology may lead to exclusion errors as observed in other welfare programmes like the food subsidy scheme. 
• Accessibility of data is another issue as big players can easily access it while small farmers are excluded due to digital divide. Further, if the same data ends up solely in the hands of a set of large traders, it could help them manipulate markets. 
• It can be used by large corporations to encourage unnecessary purchase by the farmers. They can then sell farmers everything from chemicals to credit and pare their own current marketing and human resource costs. 
• Accuracy of data may be questionable as capturing high quality data on crops and soil conditions from India’s 150 million land parcels is not an easy task. 
• The revenue model of private firms working on pilot projects is still not clear. They may sell farmers data and breach their privacy. 

Question: What is the Agristack Project? List its benefits and limitations of the project.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

This year, the Geminids will peak around December 13-14, when, with a clear sky and away from bright city lights, you can watch scores of meteors streak across the sky.

What causes meteor showers?

• Meteors are usually fragments of comets. 
• As they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, they burn up, creating a spectacular “shower”.
• Meteors come from leftover comet particles and bits from asteroids.
• When these objects come around the Sun, they leave a dusty trail behind them. 
• Every year Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky.

What makes the Geminids unique?

• NASA describes the Geminids as “one of the best and most reliable annual meteor showers”. 
• If their peak coincides with the new moon, and if the weather is clear, the Geminids can produce approximately 100-150 meteors per hour for viewing. 
• This year however, the moon is bright, and so only 30-40 meteors per hour will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere. “But the Geminids are so bright that this should still be a good show.
• The Geminids are unique because unlike most meteor showers, they originate not from a comet, but from an asteroid, the 3200 Phaethon.
• The 3200 Phaethon was discovered on October 11, 1983. 
• It is named after the Greek mythology character Phaethon, son of the Sun God Helios. 
• It takes 1.4 years to complete one round of the Sun. 
• As the 3200 Phaethon moves close to the Sun while orbiting it, the rocks on its surface heat up and break off. 
• When the Earth passes through the trail of this debris, the Geminids are caused.

Why are they called Geminids?

• That comes from the constellation Gemini, from whose location in the sky the meteor shower appears to originate. 
• The constellation for which a meteor shower is named only serves to aid viewers in determining which shower they are viewing on a given night. 
• The constellation is not the source of the meteors. Also, you should not look only to the constellation of Gemini to view the Geminids – they are visible throughout the night sky.

How to view

• Chances of a successful viewing are higher from locations far away from the lights of cities.
• Generally, pollution makes viewing meteor showers from India difficult.
• But in areas where there is no light or air pollution, viewers do not need to use any special equipment to view the showers.
• Make sure to give your eyes enough time to adjust to the darkness, which can take about 30 minutes.
• Additionally, viewers should try to stay away from their phones, as looking at bright screens affects night vision.

Question: Differentiate between an asteroid and meteor. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Scientists in the United States have, for the first time, achieved a net gain in energy from a nuclear fusion reaction, seen as a big step forward in the decades-old endeavour to master a technology that is considered the most dependable source of energy in future.

• Fusion is a different, but more powerful, way of harnessing the immense energy trapped in the nucleus of an atom.
• This is the process that makes the Sun and all other stars shine and radiate energy.
• Attempts to master the fusion process have been going on at least since the 1950s, but it is incredibly difficult and is still at an experimental stage.
• The nuclear energy currently in use across the world comes from the fission process, in which the nucleus of a heavier element is split into those of lighter elements in a controlled manner.
• In fusion, nuclei of two lighter elements are made to fuse together to form the nucleus of a heavier atom.
• A large amount of energy is released in both these processes, but substantially more in fusion than fission.
• For example, the fusion of two nuclei of a heavier isotope of hydrogen, called tritium, produces at least four times as much energy as the fission of a uranium atom which is the normal process of generating electricity in a nuclear reactor.
• Besides greater energy yield, fusion is also a carbon-free source of energy, and has negligible radiation risks.
• But fusion reactions happen only at very high temperatures, 10 times the temperature that exists at the core of the Sun, and creating such an extreme environment in a laboratory requires huge amounts of energy.
• So far, the energy released in such experimental fusion reactions have been lower than what is consumed to create the enabling high temperatures.
• At best, some of these reactions have produced ‘near break-even’ energies. That is why the latest experiment conducted at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is being considered a big deal.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Described by scientists as “the most sophisticated cell engineering to date,” an experimental treatment would provide the teenager Alysaa a new lease of life, defeating her seemingly incurable cancer.

About T-Cell blood cancer

• T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL).
• T-ALL affects the stem cells in the bone marrow that produce a particular kind of white blood cells (WBC) called T lymphocytes (T cells).
• These cells provide a person immunity by killing cells carrying infections, activating other immune cells, and regulating the immune response.
• At least 20% of these WBC are atypical– as they accumulate in the bone marrow, they crowd out “good” WBCs and hence weaken the immune system.
• These unhealthy cells can also accumulate in other parts of the body like the liver, spleen and lymph nodes.
• While found in both children and adults, T-ALL’s incidence decreases with age.

How is T-ALL typically treated?

• Similar to any leukaemia– chemotherapy and stem cell/bone marrow transplant.
• Chemotherapy – either kills the cancerous cells or stops them from further dividing.
• It may also wreck immunity system along with it.
• If chemotherapy fails, bone marrow transplant is done.
• Patients receive an infusion of healthy bone marrow cells that will hopefully multiply and restore immunity.
• Overall treatment for T-ALL is pretty effective– children have a survival rate of over 85 per cent after five years of receiving this treatment.

What is the experimental treatment Alyssa received?

• In May, Alyssa, from Leicester in UK, began a trial where she received a dose of healthy T-cells from a donor that would hopefully attack her cancerous cells without destroying each other. 
• Known as CAR-T therapy, this principle has been around for a while, but Alyssa’s case was different.
• Traditionally, CAR-T therapy involves adding a gene to T-cells that causes them to seek out and destroy cancerous cells. 
• The modified cells are known as CAR-T cells. First, an individual’s own T-cells are removed, which are then modified and reintroduced to the individual. 
• The problem with such an approach (besides the expense) is that very often, when an individual is really sick, it is simply impossible to obtain enough healthy T-cells to create CAR-T cells.
• While donors can provide healthy T-cells to an individual, these T-cells from a foreign body are going to attack every single cell in that patient’s body, making the treatment counterproductive.
• Thus, scientists have resorted to what is known as base editing– through this technique of genetic editing, they make it possible for one donor to supply T-cells to multiple recipients, without the traditional risks associated with it. 
• Thus, Alyssa received genetically modified cells that were programmed to specifically attack her cancer while leaving the rest of her body alone.

What is base editing?

• Bases are the language of life. Just as letters in the alphabet spell out words that carry meaning, the billions of bases in our DNA spell out the instruction manual for our body.
• With advances in genetic technology, scientists have been able to zoom into a precise part of the genetic code to alter the molecular structure of just one base, effectively changing its genetic instructions.
• A team at the Great Ormond Street Hospital managed to use base-editing to create a new type of T-cell from a healthy donor that would not attack other cells in Alyssa’s body, not kill each other, survive chemotherapy and finally, hunt down all other T-cells in Alyssa’s body (healthy and cancerous). 

Question: What is base editing technique? How it helps to treat T-Cell blood cancer. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

To promote the use of ‘NAVigation with the Indian Constellation’ (NavIC), the Indian version of GPS, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will introduce the L1 frequency in all its future satellites.

• The next satellites, starting from NVS-01 onwards, will have an L1 band for civilian navigational use.

What is NavIC?

• NavIC is India’s homegrown alternative to GPS. Developed by ISRO, the navigation satellite system was first approved in 2006 at a cost of $174 million, but became operational only by 2018. 
• At present, it consists of eight satellites, covering the whole of India and up to 1,500 km from its boundaries.
• The government has said NavIC is as accurate as GPS. The “performance of NavIC system is on par with the other positioning systems”.
• The seven satellites in the NavIC constellation so far use two frequencies for providing positioning data — the L5 and S bands. 
• The new satellites NVS-01 onwards, meant to replace these satellites, will also have L1 frequency. 
• The L1 is the oldest and most established GPS signals, which even the less sophisticated, civilian-use devices such as smartwatches are capable of receiving. 
• Thus, with this band, the use of NavIC in civilian-use gadgets can go up.
• GPS satellites generally transmit on two frequencies—L1 (42 MHz) and L2 (1227.60 MHz).

Use of NavIC

• NavIC is mainly being used in public vehicle tracking, to provide emergency warning alerts to fishermen venturing into the deep sea, and for tracking data related to natural disasters.
• The government is also pushing for its increased use in smartphones.

Advantages of NavIC

• NavIC, since it is homegrown, will be more accurate than other systems.
• With a fully operational constellation and ground stations outside of India — ISRO plans to set up ground stations in Japan and France to better triangulate the entire area under NavIC coverage – 
• The system is likely to become more accurate than GPS. 
• The satellites placed directly over India also ensure better availability of signals in varied geographical regions compared to GPS, which India receives at an angle, making it difficult to access in dense forests or valleys.

Other navigation systems:

• Galileo – European Union
• GLONASS – Russia
• China’s – Beidou
• QZSS – Japan

Question: Discuss the features of NavIC, India’s version of GPS. What are its advantages?

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

The script, once patronised by Meitei rulers but which fell into disuse with the advent of Hinduism and eventually disappeared, is now enjoying a new lease of life after a decades-old movement for its revival.

About the Meitei Script

• Meitei script or Meetei Mayek is an abugida (pseudo-alphabet system) used for the Meitei language, one of the official languages of Manipur.
• The earliest epigraphic record of the script is a stone inscription from Khoibu village which was erected on the orders of Meidingu Kiyamba (1467-1508).
• ‘Meidingu’ are kings who belong to the Ningthouja clan whose rule extends from 33 AD to 1949 AD.
• The Meitei Mayek or Meitei script evolved with time and this led to conflict between various proponents.
• According to the Sahitya Akademi, the history of the Meetei Mayek script dates back to at least the 6th century and was in use till the 18th century. 
• Decline of Meitei script: In 1709, a Hindu missionary named Shantidas Gosai came to Kangleipak — the ancient name for the independent kingdom of Manipur — to spread Vaishnavism. 
• He mesmerized the kings and the high officials of the palace, and on royal orders, all religious and other precious books in Meitei Mayek were incinerated, and new ones were written in the Bengali script.
• Revival of Meitei script: The Manipuri language was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution in 1992 but in Bengali script.
• However, Meetei Mayek has seen a revival in the 21st century, with an initial shift to the Manipuri script in educational institutions and an amendment of the Manipur Official Language Act in 2021 to mandate the phasing out of Bengali script over the next ten years.