Mizoram quake zone caught between two geological faults
Paper: I
Mains: General Studies-I: Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society.
Why in news:
- Mizoram’s zone of “scary” earthquakes is caught between two subterranean faults, a geologist assigned to make a preliminary study on the frequent tremors.
- The State’s Champhai district and adjoining areas could experience aftershocks for several months but the people there have nothing to worry if their magnitude does not measure above 5 on the Richter scale.
Key Details:
- According to the geologist, earthquakes have happened and will happen in that part of Mizoram because it is caught between two geological faults i.e, the Churachandpur Mao Fault and the Mat Fault.
- The Churachandpur Mao Fault is named after two places in Manipur and runs north-south into Myanmar along the border of Champhai.
- The Mat Fault runs northwest-southeast across Mizoram, beneath the river Mat near Serchhip.
- There are several shallower transverse or minor faults in between these two major faults that are deeper.
- People there have nothing to worry about if their magnitude does not measure above 5 on the Richter scale.
Faults:
- Faults are discontinuities or cracks that are the result of differential motion within the earth’s crust.
- It is a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock.
- Faults allow the blocks to move relative to each other. This movement may occur rapidly, in the form of an earthquake.
- Vertical or lateral slippage of the crust along the faults causes an earthquake.
Disabled are entitled to same benefits of SC/ST quota: SC
Paper: II
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in News:
The Supreme Court, in a significant decision, confirmed that persons suffering from disabilities are also socially backward and entitled to the same benefits of relaxation as Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates in public employment and education.
Supreme Court Judgement:
- The Supreme Court, in a significant decision, confirmed that persons with disabilities are also socially backward and entitled to the same benefits of relaxation as Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates in public employment and education.
- A three-judge Bench led by Justice Rohinton Nariman upheld a 2012 judgment of the Delhi High Court in Anamol Bhandari (minor) through his father/Natural Guardian v. Delhi Technological University.
- “In Anamol Bhandari, the High Court has correctly held that people suffering from disabilities are also socially backward, and are therefore, at the very least, entitled to the same benefits as given to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates,” the Supreme Court held in the judgment.
Biocon’s COVID-19 drug tested on too few patients to reliably conclude on benefits, say experts
Paper: III
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in News:
Biocon Ltd’s psoriasis drug, Itolizumab, re-purposed for COVID-19 and headlined as “breakthrough drug” for treating the moderately sick and the severely ill, appears to have been tested on too few patients to reliably conclude on its benefits, according to a review by The Hindu of data presented by the company to the Drug Controller General and comments by independent experts,who’ve seen the data.
Challenge:
- To test the drug’s efficacy at preventing deaths or improving health outcomes, the company recruited 30 patients across four hospitals.
Key Details:
- Biocon announced that it had received the Drug Controller General’s approval to use the drug for emergency use in cases where the infection caused a cytokine storm.
- Cytokine storm is an uncontrolled attempt by the immune system to neutralise the virus that often ended up damaging the lungs and other organs and even death.
- When the cytokines that raise immune activity become too abundant, the immune system may not be able to stop itself.
- It implies that the levels of released cytokines are injurious to host cells.
- According to the company officials, that nobody on the drug died was significant proof of its success.
- They asserted that, given that the drug had been in use since 2013 and tested on at least 500 for psoriasis, its safety was not in doubt.
- The evaluation also rests on Itolizumab being added to the “best standard of care”. In general, this consisted of hydroxychloroquine, ritonavir (antivirals), oxygen therapy, antibiotics, heparin [to avoid clotting] and methylpredisarone [a corticosteroid].
China, Iran close to reaching trade and military partnership
Paper: II
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in news:
Iran and China have quietly drafted a sweeping economic and security partnership that would clear the way for billions of dollars of Chinese investments in energy and other sectors.
Key Details:
- The partnership would vastly expand Chinese presence in banking, telecommunications, ports, railways and dozens of other projects.
- In exchange, China would receive a regular and heavily discounted supply of Iranian oil over the next 25 years.
- The proposed agreement also describes deepening military cooperation, potentially giving China a foothold in a region that has been a strategic preoccupation of the United States for decades.
- It calls for joint training and exercises, joint research and weapons development and intelligence sharing — all to fight “the lopsided battle with terrorism, drug and human trafficking and cross-border crimes.”
Challenges/Issues:
- The partnership undercuts U.S. efforts to isolate the Tehran government because of its nuclear and military ambitions.
- It represents a major blow to the Trump administration’s aggressive policy toward Iran since abandoning the nuclear deal reached in 2015 (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
- Renewed U.S. sanctions, including the threat to cut off access to the international banking system for any company that does business in Iran, have succeeded in suffocating the Iranian economy by scaring away badly needed foreign trade and investment.
- But Tehran’s desperation has pushed it into the arms of China, which has the technology and appetite for oil that Iran needs.
- Iran has been one of the world’s largest oil producers, but its exports, Tehran’s largest source of revenue, have plunged since the Trump administration began imposing sanctions in 2018; China gets about 75% of its oil from abroad and is the world’s largest importer, at more than 10 million barrels a day in 2019.
- It would create new and potentially dangerous flashpoints in the deteriorating relationship between China and the U.S.
Punjab farmers find a better way to grow paddy
Paper: III
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in news:
The Punjab government relaxed sowing schedules for the current year, and many farmers chose Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR) technique instead of traditional transplanting.
Benefits of Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR) technique:
- According to the farmers and agricultural experts, large scale use of DSR technique to plant paddy could solve the staggering problem of stubble burning.
- Saves labour costs involved in sowing and transplant.
- Less water consumption for irrigation.
- Most importantly, it results in very little post-harvest stubble.
- Stubble burning is a key cause of air pollution across the northern region.
- The DSR crop gets mature 7-10 days faster than with transplantation.
- A short window of 20-25 days is the key reason for stubble burning.
NATGRID gets access to data from 14,000 police stations
Paper: III
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in News:
The National Intelligence Grid has signed an MoU with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to access the centralised online database on FIRs and stolen vehicles.
NATGRID:
- First conceptualised in 2009, NATGRID seeks to become the one-stop destination for security and intelligence agencies to access databases related to immigration entry and exit, banking and telephone details of a suspect on a “secured platform”.
- The data will be procured by NATGRID from 21 organisations such as telecom, tax records, bank, immigration, etc.
- NATGRID will act as a link between intelligence and investigation agencies.
- The project aims to go live by December 31, 2020.
Key Details:
- The MoU will give NATGRID access to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems database, a platform that links around 14,000 police stations.
- At present, security agencies directly contact an airline or a telephone company if they are on a suspect’s trail. The data is shared through international servers. The NATGRID will ensure that such information is shared through a secure platform.
- Once NATGRID is operational, all agencies will have to route their requests through the secured platform. However, the State police will not be part of NATGRID and they could directly contact the airlines or railways for information.
Issues and challenges:
- On the concern raised of the MoU that it would infringe on the federal system of the Constitution, an official said that since the NCRB under the Union government is only a repository and the data pertaining to FIRs of a particular police station are a State subject, it does not violate any legal provisions as FIRs are shared with all the police stations.
- Earlier the Civil Aviation Ministry and airline companies had raised concerns in providing information to yet another agency — NATGRID.
- The airlines contended that they already provide information to the Bureau of Immigration and the Customs authorities. The deliberations with the airlines are still on.