Deepak Yadav Education UPSC

Deepak Yadav Education

Q. Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiers)’, often in
the news, is

(a) a division of World Health Organisation

(b) a non-governmental international organisation

(c) an inter-governmental agency sponsored by European Union

(d) a specialized agency of the United Nations

The vessel is the Dali, which sails under
the flag of Singapore. The 32,000-ton
ship was built in 2015. A London-based
spokesman for Synergy Marine, its
manager and operator, said the Dali had
around 4,900 containers on board at the
time.

The bridge allows commercial ships to

enter the Port of Baltimore, one of the
top ports in the US in terms of volume
and value of cargoes. It is the largest US
port for handling cars and light trucks.
Asbestos
News:-
Recently, the United States announced a
comprehensive ban on all forms of the deadly
carcinogen asbestos.

About Asbestos:
• Asbestos is a generic term for a group of six
silicate minerals with similar but distinct
properties. These are generally divided into two
sub-groups; serpentine and amphiboles.

• Serpentine asbestos (chrysotile or white

asbestos) was the most commonly used type
of asbestos.
Properties:
• These are resistant to heat and
corrosion.
• It is non-flammable even at very high
temperatures.
• It is extremely flexible and durable.
• It has good tensile strength.
• It has low heat conductivity and high
resistance to electricity.

• It was once widely used in construction

materials, insulation and consumer
goods. India's asbestos requirement is
met through imports from Russia,
Kazakhstan, Brazil and China.
• asbestos in USA was primarily used by
the chlor-alkali industry, which produces
chlorine bleach, caustic soda and other
chemicals used in water treatment.

Health impacts:
• According to the World Health Organization,
all varieties of asbestos are associated with
conditions such as lung cancer,
mesothelioma, laryngeal cancer, ovarian
cancer and asbestosis, a lung fibrosis.

• If products containing asbestos are

disturbed, tiny asbestos fibers are released
into the air. When asbestos fibers are
breathed in, they may get trapped in the
lungs and remain there for a long time.
 Cocoa Production
News:-
A shortage of cocoa beans has led to a
near shutdown of processing plants in
Ivory Coast and Ghana, the two countries
responsible for 60% of global production.

About Cocoa:
• It is an important plantation crop grown for
chocolates around the world. It is known as
a crop of humid tropics and is native to
Amazon basin of South America.

• It is mainly grown in an area of

land around the equator between 20
degrees latitude north and south.
Required climatic conditions:
• It can be grown up to 300 m above
mean sea level.

Rainfall: It requires an annual rainfall of

1500-2000 mm.

Temperature: The temperature range of

15°-39°C with optimum of 25°C is
considered ideal.

Soil: It requires deep and well drained

soils. Majority of area under Cocoa
cultivation is on clay loam and sandy loam
soil.
• It grows well in the pH range of 6.5 to 7.0.
Shade requirement:
• Cocoa was evolved as an under-
storey crop in the Amazonian forests.
Thus commercial cultivation of cocoa
can be taken up in plantations where
50 per cent of light is ideally available.

Major producing regions in the

world: About 70 percent of the world’s
cocoa beans come from four West African
countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and
Cameroon.

• In India, it is mainly cultivated

in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil
Nadu mainly as intercrop with Arecanut
and Coconut.
Class eNotes

One Stop Solution For Current Affairs

 Lianas
As the world grapples with rising
temperatures, a groundbreaking
study led by the University of the
Sunshine Coast, Australia exposes an
unlikely menace of Lianas.

About Lianas:
• Lianas (also known as vines,
climbing plants or climbers)
are plants with long, flexible,
climbing stems that are rooted in
the ground, and usually have long
dangling branches.
• They particularly thrive in disturbed
forest areas — such as those affected by
logging, natural treefalls,
landslides because they can quickly
grow towards the forest canopy using
trees as support.

• In terms of climate, lianas are

more resilient to variations in moisture
and temperature, which gives them a
competitive advantage over trees. They
use their climbing ability, resilience to
climatic stress, and efficient water and
nutrient usage to outcompete trees for
sunlight and resources.
• They compete for sunlight in the
canopy and suppress trees.
Their lower carbon sequestering
capacity compared to trees further
exacerbates the threat to carbon
storage.

Impacts on forest ecosystem

• An increase in lianas’s competitive
success over trees can significantly
affect the forest ecosystem. Lianas,
being a disturbance-favouring
plant form, can impact trees from
the understory to the canopy.
• Their prolific growth following heavy
disturbance can lead to decreased
tree regeneration, growth and
survival, altering forest structure and
ecosystem function, which, in turn,
can affect the subsequent recovery
of forest.

• Its proliferation can alter nutrient

cycling within forests and decrease
the overall resilience of forests to
environmental changes, making
ecosystems more susceptible to
further disturbances.
Brucethoa isro
News:-
Researchers recently named a new
species of deep-sea isopod
discovered off the Kerala coast after
the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO).

About Brucethoa isro:

• It is a new species of deep-sea
isopod discovered off the Kollam
coast, Kerala. The tiny fish-parasitic
crustacean, belonging to the genus
Brucethoa, was recovered from the
base of the gill cavity of the Spinyjaw
greeneye, a marine fish.
• It is the second species within this genus to
be documented in India. It has been
named Brucethoa isro in honour of the Indian
space agency’s successful space missions.

• Females of the species tend to be larger than

males. Females grow to about 19 mm in
length and 6 mm in width, while males are
smaller at around half the size.

What are Isopods?

• Isopods are an order
of invertebrates (animals without
backbones) that belong to the
greater crustacean group of animals, which
includes crabs and shrimp.
• They also live in many different types of
habitats, from mountains and deserts to
the deep sea and they are distributed
worldwide.

Features:
• They are one of the most morphologically
diverse of all the crustacean groups, coming
in many different shapes and sizes.

• Isopods often do not look alike, but

they do have common features. For
example, all isopods have two pairs of
antennae, compound eyes and four sets of
jaws. Their body consists of seven segments,
each with its own pair of walking legs.
• Isopods have a short abdominal
section composed of six
segments, called “pleons,” and one
or more of these segments is fused
into a tail section.

• About half of the known species of

isopods live in the ocean. Others
live in coastal and shelf waters,
moving around on the seafloor or
living in plants.

• Most of them are free-living, but a

number of marine species are
parasitic on other animals.
Subduction Zone
News:-
• A recent study by scientists in
Portugal predicts the 'Ring of Fire'
subduction zone beneath the
Gibraltar Strait may lead to the
Atlantic Ocean's closure in 20
million years.

About Subduction Zone:

• A subduction zone is a spot where
two of the planet's tectonic plates
collide and one dives, or
subducts, beneath the other.
• Tectonic plates are pieces of the
Earth’s rigid outer layer that slowly
move across the planet's surface over
millions of years.

• This is the main tenet of plate

tectonics, the theory that portions of
Earth's shell glide over the lower
mantle, taking continents with them.

• That outer layer, known as

the lithosphere, consists of the Earth’s
crust and the upper section of the
mantle, a dense, hot layer beneath the
crust.
 • When two tectonic plates meet at a
subduction zone and one slide
underneath the other, this lithosphere
material curves down into the hot
mantle.

• This tectonic process can produce some of

the planet’s most
powerful earthquakes, tsunamis, and
volcanoes.

• This subduction process frequently occurs

because of the two different types of
lithospheres that make up tectonic
plates: Continental and oceanic.
 • Because oceanic material is
denser than continental
lithosphere, when the two collide
at a subduction zone,
the oceanic portion sinks into
the mantle beneath the more
buoyant continental lithosphere.

• Subduction zones can also occur

when both colliding plate sections
consist of oceanic material. In these
cases, older, denser oceanic
lithosphere sinks below younger,
more buoyant oceanic lithosphere.
 • A new oceanic lithosphere forms at the spots where plates separate,
allowing hot mantle material to rise to the surface. As it moves away
from those boundaries, this lithosphere cools and gets denser. Thus,
older oceanic lithosphere can more easily sink.

• The sinking plate, or "slab," at a subduction zone tends to bend at an angle

of about 30 degrees from Earth's surface, though some angles are flatter
or steeper than this.

• Sometimes, subduction can begin spontaneously, without the forces of

collision between plates. This happens as the lithosphere becomes
unstable and sinks under the force of gravity. The oceanic lithosphere
may grow so old and dense that it collapses and spontaneously forms a
subduction zone.
• Subduction zones occur in a
horseshoe shape around the edge
of the Pacific Ocean, offshore of the
USA, Canada, Russia, Japan, and
Indonesia, and down to New Zealand
and the southern edge of South
America.

• Called the "Ring of Fire," these

subduction zones comprise “the
most seismically and volcanically
active zone in the world,”,
responsible for more than 80% of the
world's biggest earthquakes and
most of the planet’s active
volcanoes.
Earth Hour
News:-
The power discoms in the national
capital are gearing up to make the 'Earth
Hour' a success by encouraging their
consumers to switch off non-essential
lights and electric appliances for one
hour on March 23 night.

About Earth Hour:

• It is a global grassroots
movement uniting people to take
action on environmental issues and
protect the planet. It is organized by the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
• It started in Sydney, Australia, in
2007 as a symbolic lights-out
event and has since grown into a
global movement involving
millions of people in over 190
countries and territories. It takes
place towards the end of March
every year.

• “Earth Hour” encourages people to

switch off all lights for an
hour, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
local time, to promote awareness
of climate change challenges and
energy conservation.
• Governments and companies also
participate by turning off non-essential
lights in their buildings, monuments and
landmarks to raise awareness about the
impact of energy consumption on our planet.

Key Facts about World Wildlife Fund (WWF):

• It is an international non-governmental
organization (NGO)founded in 1961 in Morges,
Switzerland, to protect endangered species
of wildlife and preserve natural habitats.

Mission: To stop the degradation of the

planet’s natural environment and to build a
future in which humans live in harmony with
nature.
• WWF works with a broad spectrum of
partners,
including governments, industry,
and local communities, to find
solutions to the challenges that face
our natural world.
Usha Mehta
News:-
• A movie was released recently which is
based on the biography of Indian
freedom fighter Usha Mehta.

About Usha Mehta:

• She was born in a village named Saras,
near Surat in Gujarat in 1920. She was a
true Gandhian at heart and was
popularly known as Ushaben.

• At the age of eight in 1928, she

participated in a protest march against
the Simon Commission.
In 1942, she and her associates established
the Secret Congress Radio during Quit
India Movement. It played a crucial role in
keeping the freedom movement leaders
connected with the public.

Setting up an underground station:

• Background:
• At the advent of the War in 1939,
the British had suspended all amateur
radio licences across the Empire.
Operators were supposed to turn in all
equipment to the authorities, with severe
punishment for those who failed to do so.
• Alongside Mehta, Babubhai Khakar,
Vithalbhai Jhaveri and Chandrakant
Jhaveri were key figures in organising
Congress Radio.

Congress Radio case:

• The trial of the five accused in the—
Mehta, Babubhai Khakar, Vithalbhai
Jhaveri, Chandrakant Jhaveri, and
Nanak Gainchand Motwane (who sold
key pieces of equipment to the team) —
generated a lot of excitement in
Bombay.

• Vithalbhai and Motwane were

acquitted, Mehta, Babubhai and
Chandrakant received stern sentences.
• Usha Mehta was released
from Pune’s Yerawada Jail in
March 1946, and hailed in
the nationalist media as
“Radio-ben”.
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
Startup Forum

News:-
• The fourth edition of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
Startup Forum was organized
recently in New Delhi.

About Shanghai Cooperation

Organisation Startup Forum:
• It is a platform for the stakeholders
from the startup ecosystems from
all SCO Member States to interact
and collaborate.
• It aims to create multilateral cooperation
and engagement for startups among the
SCO Member States. It will empower the
local startup ecosystems in the Member
States.

• The following are the objectives of the

engagement:
• Sharing of best practices to promote
entrepreneurship and innovation to
build knowledge-exchange systems.

• Bringing Corporates and

Investors across to work closely with
startups and provide local
entrepreneurs with much-needed
support and market access.
 • Increasing scaling opportunities for
startups by providing solutions in the
field of social innovation and provide
the Governments with a plethora of
innovative solutions.

• Facilitating cross-border
incubation and acceleration
programs that will enable the
startups to explore international
markets and get focused mentorship.

• India will host the second meeting of the

Special Working Group for Startups and
Innovation (SWG) in November 2024 and
SCO Startup Forum 5.0 in January 2025.
• Previously, Startup India had organized various initiatives for SCO Member
states including:
• SCO Startup Forum 1.0: The SCO Startup Forum in 2020 laid the
foundation for multilateral cooperation and engagement for startups
among the SCO Member States.

• SCO Startup Forum 2.0: The two-day Forum was held virtually in
2021. SCO Startup Hub, a single point of contact for the SCO startup
ecosystem, was launched in this forum.

• SCO Startup Forum 3.0: DPIIT organised the first ever physical SCO
Startup Forum in 2023 for the SCO Member States.

• 1st Meeting of the SWG: The first Meeting of the SCO Special Working
Group on Startups and Innovation (SWG), permanently chaired by India,
was organised on the theme ‘Growing from Roots’ in 2023.
PIB’s Fact Check Unit
News:-
Recently, Supreme Court put on hold Centre's
notification on setting up 'fact-check unit’.

About PIB’s Fact Check Unit:

• It was established in November 2019. It was
started with an objective of acting as a
deterrent to creators and disseminators
of fake news and misinformation.

• It also provides people with an easy avenue

to report suspicious and questionable
information pertaining to the Government of
India.
• It is mandated to counter misinformation on
Government policies, initiatives and schemes
either suo motu or under a reference via
complaints.

• The FCU will actively monitors, detects and

counters disinformation campaigns, ensuring
that false information about the Government
is promptly exposed and corrected.

Organisation:
• It is headed by a senior DG/ADG level
officer of the Indian Information Service
(IIS). The day-to-day operations of the
Unit are handled by IIS officers at various
levels.
 • The Unit reports to the Principal Director
General, PIB who functions as the
Principal Spokesperson of the
Government of India.

Fact-Check Mechanism:
• Users send requests over WhatsApp,
email or a web portal. Each such request
received is considered as a ‘Query’.
Queries are segregated by the Unit
based on their relevance to matters
pertaining to Government of India.

• Only queries pertaining to Government of

India are considered and taken up as
Actionable Queries, while others are
deemed not relevant for action.
Ebola
• Scientists recently found a new way in
which Ebola reproduces in the human
body, identifying a potential target for
drugs to prevent the viral disease.

About Ebola:
• Ebola virus disease (EVD, or Ebola) is a
rare but severe illness in humans.

• It is caused by several species

of viruses from the genus Ebolavirus,
that are found primarily in sub-Saharan
Africa.
• It gets its name from the Ebola River, which is
near one of the villages in the Democratic
Republic of Congo where the disease first
appeared.

Transmission:
• Ebola isn’t as contagious as more
common viruses like colds, influenza,
or measles.

• It spreads to people by contact

with the skin or bodily fluids of an infected
animal, like a monkey, chimp, or fruit bat.

• Then it moves from person to person in

the same way.
 • You can’t get Ebola from air, water, or
food. A person who has Ebola but has no
symptoms can’t spread the disease, either.

• There are occasional Ebola disease

outbreaks in people, occurring primarily
on the African continent.

Symptoms:
• Symptoms of Ebola can start two to 21
days after being infected by the virus.

• Symptoms start out flu-like but

can progress to severe vomiting,
bleeding, and neurological (brain and
nerve) issues.
Treatment:
• There is no known treatment for Ebola,
although experimental vaccines and
therapeutics are being tested.

• Current therapy consists of maintenance of

fluid and electrolyte balance and
the administration of blood and plasma to
control bleeding.

Mortality:
• Mortality rates for EVD range from 25 percent
to 90 percent, with an average of 50 percent.

• Death usually occurs as a result of shock due

to fluid loss rather than blood loss.
Vechur cow
• Dr. Sosamma Iype won the Padma Shri
in 2022 for one of her remarkable work
of saving and resurrecting a breed of
indigenous cattle, the Vechur cow.

About Vechur cow:

• It is one of the rare dwarf cattle breeds
of India, it is considered to the smallest
cattle breed in the world.

• It is known by the name of a place

Vechur - a small place by the side of
Vembanad lake near Vaikam in
Kottayam district of South Kerala.
• These are light red, black or fawn and
white in colour. The animals are
well adapted to the hot and humid
climate of the area. Milk production is
relatively higher than any other dwarf
cattle.

• It is docile, short, disease-resistant and

easy to maintain with low food
requirement as compared to other
crossbred species.

• It is resistant to Mastitis (blockage of

teats in the udder), foot and mouth
diseases and respiratory infections and
require almost no veterinary care.
• The medicinal property of its
milk has been accepted by
Ayurveda too.

• Since the Vechur cow milk has

got higher proportion of smaller
fat globules and saturated fatty
acids, it would be
therapeutically useful in
malabsorption syndrome.
Gulaal Gota
• With Holi set to be celebrated on March 25,
in some parts of Rajasthan’s Jaipur, an old
tradition will play out where colours will be
thrown through a unique medium called
the “Gulaal Gota”.

About Gulaal Gota:

• It is a small ball made of lac, filled with dry
gulaal. They are made by Muslim lac
makers, called Manihaars, only in Jaipur.

• The tradition of using Gulal Gota goes back

to 400 years when the erstwhile Jaipur
royal family members would play Holi with
them.
How it is prepared?
• The making of Gulaal Gotas
involves first boiling the lac
in water to make it flexible.
Lac is a resinous
substance that is secreted
by certain insects. It is also
used to make bangles.

• After shaping the lac, colour

is added to it. At first red,
yellow and green are added
as other colours can be
obtained through their
combinations.
• After the processing is
done, artisans heat the lac. It is
then blown into a spherical
shape with the help of a blower
called “phunkni”. Then, gulaal is
filled in the balls before they are
sealed with lac.

• The lac is brought

from Chhattisgarh and
Jharkhand and the female scale
insect is one of the sources of
lac. The lac insects also yield
resin, lac dye and lac wax.
Galapagos Islands
News:-
• The Galapagos Islands, a beautiful
destination and a UNESCO World Heritage
Site, is facing a pressing issue: rising visitor
numbers threatening the delicate balance
of this unique ecosystem.

About Galapagos Islands:

Location:
• It is situated in the Pacific Ocean.
• It is distributed on either side of the
Equator with an underwater wildlife
spectacle with abundant life.
• Repeated volcanic eruptions helped to form
the rugged mountain landscape of
the Galápagos Islands.

• In comparison with most oceanic

archipelagos, the Galapagos are very young
with the largest, and youngest islands,
Isabela and Fernandina, with less than one
million years of existence and the oldest
islands, Española and San Cristóbal,
somewhere between three to five million
years.

• Mount Azul, at 5,541 feet, is the highest point

of the Galapagos Islands.
Climate:
It is characterized by low rainfall, low humidity, and relatively low air and
water temperatures.

• It is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978.

Biodiversity:

• The Galápagos are best known for many species are endemic, as they
are not found anywhere else in the world.

• These include the giant Galápagos tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra),

the marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus), the flightless
cormorant (Phalacrocoraz harrisi), and theGalápagos penguin.
• The Galápagos
penguin (Spheniscus
mendiculus) is the only penguin
species to live in the Northern
Hemisphere.
Sea Cucumber
News:-
Researchers have discovered the
pivotal role that sea cucumbers play
in maintaining the health of the
world’s reefs.

About Sea Cucumber:

• These are part of a larger animal
group called echinoderms and are
invertebrates that live on the seafloor.
Their body shape is similar to a
cucumber, but they have small
tentacle-like tube feet that are used
for locomotion and feeding.
• They are found in all marine
environments throughout the
world, from shallow to deep-sea
environments. Sea cucumbers are
benthic, meaning they live on the
ocean floor.

• They excrete inorganic nitrogen and

phosphorus, enhancing the
productivity of benthic biota.

Reproduction:
• Sea cucumbers exhibit both sexual
and asexual reproduction.
 • Unlike most terrestrial
animals, sea cucumber
eggs undergo external
fertilization—females release
eggs into the water that are
fertilized when they come into
contact with sperm that males
have released.

Conservation status:

Wildlife Protection Act of 1972:

Schedule I

CITES: Appendix II
Key facts about Netravati River
• The principal bench of the National Green
Tribunal (NGT) in New Delhi has initiated
action on the Netravati Waterfront Promenade
Development Project in Mangaluru.

About Netravati River:

Origin: It rises between Kudremukh and
Ballalaryan Durga in the Dakshina Kannada
district of Karnataka.

• It flows generally in a North-South direction up

to Gohattu, where it takes a turn towards the
West and there after flows in East-West
direction up to its out fall into the Arabian Sea
near Mangalore.
Tributary: The Kumaradhara, a major left-bank
tributary joins near the village Uppinangadi.

• The climate of the basin is characterized

by heavy rainfall, high humidity and
oppressive weather in the hot season.

What is National Green Tribunal?

• It has been established under the National
Green Tribunal Act, 2010.

• It is mandated to make disposal

of applications or appeals finally within 6
months of the filing of the same.
Composition:
• It comprises the Chairperson, the
Judicial Members and the Expert
Members.

• They shall hold office for a term of 5

years and are not
eligible for reappointment.

• The Chairperson is appointed by the

Central Government in consultation with
the Chief Justice of India (CJI).

• A Selection Committee shall be formed

by the central government to appoint
the Judicial Members and Expert
Members.
 • There are to be at least 10 and a
maximum of 20 full-time Judicial
members and Expert Members in
the tribunal.

• New Delhi is the Principal Place of

Sitting of the Tribunal and Bhopal,
Pune, Kolkata and Chennai shall be
the other four places of sitting of the
Tribunal.
Q. Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiers)’, often in
the news, is

(a) a division of World Health Organisation

(b) a non-governmental international organisation

(c) an inter-governmental agency sponsored by European Union

(d) a specialized agency of the United Nations