IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Nepal’s Seke ‘near-extinct’: The 6 degrees of endangerment of a language

News

• Recently, The New York Times reported that the “near-extinct” Nepalese language Seke has just 700 speakers around the world.
• Of these, 100 are in New York, and roughly half of these 100 stay in one building in the city. Most of the Seke-speaking community in New York stays in the Ditmas Park area of Brooklyn, or in Queens.
• The last year, 2019, was the International Year of Indigenous Languages, mandated by the United Nations (UN).

The Language

• According to the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA), Seke is one of the over 100 indigenous languages of Nepal and is mainly spoken in the five villages of Chuksang, Chaile, Gyakar, Tangbe and Tetang in the Upper Mustang district.
• The dialects from these villages differ substantially and are believed to have varying degrees of mutual intelligibility.
• In recent years, Seke has been retreating in the face of Nepali, which is Nepal’s official language and is considered to be crucial for getting educational and employment opportunities outside villages.
• According to ELA, difficult conditions at home and job prospects elsewhere have brought speakers of Seke to places such as Pokhara, Kathmandu and even New York. Therefore, the vulnerability of the language is linked to the migration of people to places where Seke is not spoken, which has reduced the intergenerational transmission of the language.
• Furthermore, the younger generation does not find much use in learning the language, giving preference to Nepali and English.

Languages in danger

• UNESCO has six degrees of endangerment. These are: safe, which are the languages spoken by all generations and their intergenerational transmission is uninterrupted; vulnerable languages, which are spoken by most children but may be restricted to certain domains; definitely endangered languages, which are no longer being learnt by children as their mother tongue.
• Severely endangered are languages spoken by grandparents and older generations, and while the parent generation may understand it, they may not speak it with the children or among themselves.
• Critically endangered languages are those of which the youngest speakers are the grandparents or older family members who may speak the language partially or infrequently and lastly, extinct languages, of which no speakers are left.
• Considering these definitions, Seke may be considered to be a definitely endangered language.
• As per UNESCO, roughly 57 per cent of the world’s estimated 6,000 languages are safe, about 10 per cent are vulnerable, 10.7 per cent are definitely endangered, about 9 per cent are severely endangered, 9.6 per cent are critically endangered and about 3.8 per cent of all languages are extinct since 1950.
• As per the Endangered Languages Project (ELP), there are roughly 201 endangered languages in India and about 70 in Nepal.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Govt issues fresh regulations, focus on crimes against women

News

• The next time an agency approaches the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for assistance from a foreign country with regard to a crime against women and children, its request would be sent abroad within 10 days of receipt.
• The MHA has revised guidelines for seeking assistance from foreign countries through letters rogatory and under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT).

Revised guidelines

• According to the new guidelines, The IS-II Divisions (now known as just the Internal Security division), MHA, shall make endeavours to transmit summons/notices/judicial pro-cess in cases relating to serious crimes against women and children to the Requested country preferably within ten working days. It is, however, clarified that the MHA cannot quantify the time period taken by the Requested Country to serve such summons/notices/judicial pro-cesses on the witness.
• The guidelines come against the backdrop of complaints from agencies of bureaucratic delays in the MHA on MLAT issues. Since these matters take a long time, agencies were of the view that unnecessary delays on the part of Indian authorities was delaying probes inordinately.
• All central or state police agencies send MLAT requests to the IS-II division which examines the request and documents attached and based on questions raised and clarifications provided, approves or rejects it. After approval, the MHA sends the request to the foreign country concerned.
• An official statement said India has signed Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties with 42 countries.
• The revised guidelines provide step-by-step guidance to investigation agencies for drafting and processing letters rogatory or mutual legal assistance requests and service of summons, notices and other judicial documents.

Cabinet clears Ordinance to remove restrictions on coal block bidding

News

• In a move to attract foreign investment into India’s coal and mining sector, the Union Cabinet approved an Ordinance that would make the process of auctioning coal mines easier.

Promulgation of Mineral Laws

• The government plans to promote foreign direct investment in the sector by removing restrictions and eligibility criteria for participation in coal block auctions, according to Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi.
• The Promulgation of Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 would allow successful bidders or allottees to utilise the coal mine “in any of its subsidiaries or holding companies,” he said.
• The Ordinance will amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, and the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015.
• It would allow companies that do not have coal mine operations in India to also participate in coal block auctions.
• Previously, there was a restriction that anybody, to participate, should have the coal mine operation in India. That restriction are removing.
• The end-use restriction had led to “comparatively less” participation in the coal block auctions. Of 204 coal block allocations cancelled by the Supreme Court in 2014, only around 29 had been auctioned.
• In August, the government allowed 100 per cent FDI in coal mining for open sale under the automatic route.
• The Ordinance also provides for composite prospecting licence-cum-mining lease for coal and lignite blocks, according to the minister. This provision was previously not applicable to coal mines.

Centre to provide Rs 5,559 crore funding to Northeast gas grid

News

• The Cabinet decided to provide Rs 5,559-crore viability gap funding (VGF)/capital grant for the North East Gas Grid project, which aims to connect all the eight states of the Northeast with a 1,656-km network of natural gas pipeline for Rs 9,265 crore.

North East Gas Grid project

• The VGF amount is 60 per cent of estimated project cost and will not be linked to project cost escalation. It is being executed by Indradhanush Gas Grid Limited under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
• It is only the second instance of the government directly funding a gas pipeline.
• The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs, also decided that a committee comprising officials from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Development of North East Region, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Department of Fertilizers, will periodically review the progress in implementation of the project.
• The grid will connect the eight states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
• The capital grant will provide natural gas supplies to various types of consumers like industrial, PNG(domestic), CNG (transport) and others. The government’s aim through this project is to substitute liquid fuels like kerosene and firewood traditionally prevalent in the region.
• Availability of natural gas across the region is expected to boost industrial growth without impacting the environment and would offer better quality of life to the people in general due to use of cleaner and green fuel.

List of world’s most powerful passports is out: Here’s where India ranks in 2020

News

• The Henley Passport Index, which periodically ranks the world’s most travel-friendly passports, released its latest report. The Indian passport featured on the 84th position on the list.

Travel-friendly passports

• According to The Henley Passport Index 2019, the Indian passport has a mobility score of 58, which means that the passport holders can access 58 countries around the world without a prior visa.
• India shares the position with Mauritiana and Tajikistan. Its rank improved from the 86th position in 2019.
• For the third consecutive year, Japan again secured the top position, with a score of 191, followed by Singapore on the second, while Germany and South Korea shared the third spot.
• Meanwhile, the passports of Pakistan (104), Somalia (104), Syria (105), Iraq (106) and Afghanistan (107) found themselves towards the bottom of the list.

Henley Passport Index

• Prepared by Henley and Partners, a London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm, the Henley Passport Index claims to be the “original ranking of all the world’s passports”.
• The index gathers data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which manages inter-airline cooperation globally. It is updated in real-time according to countries’ visa policy changes.
• The index covers 227 destinations and 199 passports.
• The IATA data is received on a fixed day every year, which forms the basis of the index. This data is then supplemented by accounting for real-time changes in visa policies.
• Using publicly available sources, a visa list is prepared, which is a list of destinations that a passport can access visa-free, through a visa on arrival, e-visa or with a traditional visa.

US officials: ‘Highly likely’ Iran downed Ukrainian jetliner with 176 onboard

News

• Two US officials said it is “highly likely” that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile brought down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 onboard.

Anti-aircraft missile

• US President Donald Trump said the deadly crash of a Ukrainian plane could have been a mistake, adding that he had a terrible feeling about the downed airliner.
• One US official said US satellites had detected the launch of two missiles shortly before the plane crashed, followed by evidence of an explosion. Two officials said Washington believed the downing of the plane was accidental.
• Ukraine meanwhile outlined four potential scenarios to explain the crash, including a missile strike and terrorism, as Iranian investigators said the plane was on fire before it fell to the ground.
• The Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800, flying to Kiev and carrying mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport, killing all 176 people on board.
• Initial reports said the plane encountered a technical problem shortly after take-off and started to head toward a nearby airport before it crashed.
• Tehran had then refused to give the black boxes to planemaker Boeing. The crash came just a few hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against Iraqi military bases housing US troops amid a confrontation with Washington over the US drone strike that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani last week.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Explained: What is Goldilocks zone?

News

• NASA reported the discovery of an Earth-size planet, named TOI 700 d, orbiting its star in the “habitable zone”.

Goldilocks zone

• • A habitable zone, also called the “Goldilocks zone”, is the area around a star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets.
  • Earth is in the Sun’s Goldilocks zone. If Earth were where the dwarf planet Pluto is, all its water would freeze; on the other hand, if Earth were where Mercury is, all its water would boil off.
  • Life on Earth started in water, and water is a necessary ingredient for life as we know it. So, when scientists search for the possibility of alien life, any rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of its star is an exciting find.
  • The newest such planet was found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, which it launched in 2018. Very few such Earth-size planets have been found so far, including some by NASA’s Kepler mission, and this one is the first such discovery by TESS.
  • TOI 700 d measures 20% larger than Earth. It orbits its star once every 37 days and receives an amount of energy that is equivalent to 86% of the energy that the Sun provides to Earth.
  • The star, TOI 700, is an “M dwarf” located just over 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado, is roughly 40% of our Sun’s mass and size, and has about half its surface temperature.
  • Two other planets orbit the star TOI 700 b, which is almost exactly Earth-size, probably rocky, and which completes an orbit every 10 days, and TOI 700 c, the middle planet, which is 2.6 times larger than Earth, is probably gas-dominated, and orbits every 16 days.
  • TOI 700 d is the outermost planet, and the only one in the star’s habitable zone.

Indian cobra genome decoded: how this knowledge can help fight snakebite

News

• An international team of researchers reported that they have sequenced the genome of the Indian cobra, in the process identifying the genes that define its venom.
• This, they hope, can provide a blueprint for developing more effective antivenom.

Existing antivenoms

• Their efficacy varies, besides producing side effects. In India, the challenge has been producing antivenom for the species known collectively as the “big four” the Indian cobra (Naja naja), common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), Russell’s viper (Daboia russelii), and saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus).
• A common antivenom is marketed for the treatment of bites from the “big four”, but its effectiveness came under question in a study published last month (not connected to the one that sequenced the cobra genome).
• While the common antivenom worked as marketed against the saw-scaled viper and the common cobra, it fell short against some neglected species and also against one of the “big four” — the common krait.
• Accidental contact with snakes lead to over 100,000 deaths across the world every year. India alone accounts for about 50,000 deaths annually, and these are primarily attributed to the “big four”.

Production of effective antivenom-challenging

• Venom is a complex mixture of an estimated 140-odd protein or peptides. Only some of these constituents are toxins that cause the physiological symptoms seen after snakebite. But antivenom available today does not target these toxins specifically.
• Antivenom is currently produced by a century-old process a small amount of venom is injected into a horse (or a sheep), which produces antibodies that are then collected and developed into antivenom.
• This is expensive, cumbersome and comes with complications. Some of the antibodies raised from the horse may be completely irrelevant. The horse also has a lot of antibodies floating in its blood that have nothing to do with the venom toxins.
• In the Indian cobra genome, the authors identified 19 key toxin genes, the only ones that should matter in snakebite treatment. They stress the need to leverage this knowledge for creation of antivenom using synthetic human antibodies.

India’s growth projected to ‘decelerate’ to 5% in 2019-2020: World Bank

News

• The World Bank has projected a five per cent growth rate for India in the 2019-2020 fiscal, but said it was likely to recover to 5.8 per cent in the following financial year.

Growth rate

• The growth rate for Bangladesh has been projected to remain above seven per cent through the forecast horizon and, in Pakistan, it is projected to languish at three per cent or less through 2020 as macroeconomic stabilisation efforts weigh on economic activity.
• In India, where weakness in credit from non-bank financial companies is expected to linger, growth is projected to slow to five per cent in fiscal year 2019/20, which ends March 31, and recover to 5.8 per cent the following fiscal year, the World Bank said.
• The global economic growth is forecast to edge up to 2.5 per cent in 2020 as investment and trade gradually recover from last year’s significant weakness, but downward risks persist, it said.
• The US’ growth is forecast to slow to 1.8 per cent this year, reflecting the negative impact of earlier tariff increases and elevated uncertainty. The Euro area’s growth is projected to slip to a downwardly revised one per cent in 2020 amid weak industrial activity.
• In the report’s India section, the World Bank said tighter credit conditions in the non-banking sector are contributing to a substantial weakening of the domestic demand in the country.
• In India, activity was constrained by insufficient credit availability, as well as by subdued private consumption.
• The bank said the regional growth in South Asia is expected to pick up gradually, to six per cent in 2022, on the assumption of a modest rebound in domestic demand.
• In India, economic activity slowed substantially in 2019, with the deceleration most pronounced in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors, whereas government-related services sub-sectors received significant support from public spending.
• The bank, in the report, praised India’s efforts to gradually eliminate subsidies on LPG. In India, starting in 2012, the government reformed its subsidy regime for liquified petroleum gas (LPG).
• LPG subsidies to households encouraged the formation of black markets where subsidised LPG distributed to households was diverted to the commercial sector.
• The government gradually increased the price of LPG for households while implementing a large-scale targeted cash transfer mechanism.

NASA’s Hubble Space telescope detects smallest known dark matter clumps

News

• Astronomers have found ‘cold’ dark matter believed to make up a bulk of the universe’s mas existing in much smaller clumps than was previously known or observed, according to an official press release by NASA.

Dark matter

• The observations are a big scientific breakthrough because finding dark matter in smaller clumps is considered especially difficult, given that dark matter is invisible.
• The scientific breakthrough was possible with the help of NASA’s Hubble Space telescope and a new observing technique being deployed. The Hubble Space telescope was used to observe eight quasars and their foreground galaxies for the discovery.
• Quasars, also called cosmic streetlights, are regions around active black holes that emit enormous amounts of light.
• Dark matter in small clumps, in the range of 1/10,000th to 1/100,000th times to the mass of our Milky Way Galaxy’s dark matter halo was discovered.  These quasars are located roughly 10 billion light-years from Earth; the foreground galaxies are about two billion light-years away from Earth.
• The discovery of dark matter in such small clump appears to confirm some fundamental predictions of ‘cold dark matter’ theory. It also gives new insights into how this dark matter behaves.
• The term cold when used in context of dark matter refers to speed of the particles, and primarily dark matter is believed to be slow-moving, rather than fast-moving.

Dark Matter and Galaxy Formation

• According to the theory, all galaxies have clouds of dark matter embedded in them. Dark Matter is an invisible form of matter, which constitutes a bulk of the universe’s mass and creates the scaffolding upon which galaxies are built, explains NASA.
• Dark matter can come together to form structures, which is hundreds of thousands of times the mass of the Milky Way galaxy or to create small clumps. While dark matter cannot be seen, its presence is detected indirectly by measuring how its gravity affects stars and galaxies nearby. So when it exists in small clumps, the traditional method of observation fails.
• In the Hubble technique, astronomers observed these eight quasars to discover the dark matter. These eight quasars and their foreground galaxies were aligned so precisely that the warping effect, also called gravitational lensing, produced four distorted images of each quasar.
• The presence of the dark matter concentrations alters the apparent brightness and position of each distorted quasar image, notes NASA.

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