UPSC DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS (15TH SEPTEMBER, 2023)

Vagus Nerve

Syllabus :GS 3/Science and Technology

In News

• Research has indicated a link between vagus nerve dysfunction and long COVID.

About the Vagus Nerve

• They’re actually a pair of nerves, one on each side, that run from brainstem, through the neck, to chest and stomach. 
  •  They are the longest cranial nerves, going from brain to large intestine, fulfilling their meaning (‘vagus’ in Latin means ‘wandering’) by passing through, or connecting with neck, heart, lungs, abdomen and digestive tract – all important parts. 
• They form a key part of the parasympathetic nervous system.
  • They are the 10th of 12 cranial nerves and contain 75% of the parasympathetic nervous system’s nerve fibre. 
• They work bi-directionally, allowing the brain and body to communicate with each other. 

Related Research

• Researchers are increasingly looking at ways through which stimulation of the vagus nerve may potentially help with various health conditions.
  • Some treatments are already in existence, for instance, an implantable vagus nerve stimulator is used to treat epilepsy and depression (that does not respond to conventional treatment), by stimulating areas of the brain that lead to seizures and affect moods.
• Vagus nerve stimulation is also being studied for other diseases and disorders such as migraines, polycystic ovary syndrome, alcoholism, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and gut disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn’s disease.

[Brain activity in a patient before, top row, and after vagus nerve stimulation]

Vagus nerve’s connection to long COVID

• A study found that those with Post-Covid-19 Condition (PCC) or long COVID were more likely to have vagus nerve-related symptoms, compared to those who had recovered from COVID-19 and those not infected, indicating that vagus nerve dysfunction could have a role in the pathophysiology of PCC.

Does vagus nerve stimulation benefit all patients?

• Implanted vagus nerve stimulation does not work for everybody, and is not intended to replace conventional treatment.
• It is still being studied and more research is needed into its potential therapeutic effect.

K2-18 b

Syllabus :GS 3/Space 

In News

• NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in its study of K2-18 b discovered the presence of carbon dioxide and methane.

About K2-18 b

• K2-18 b is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits an M-type star. 
• It is 120 light years from earth and orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 a.
• It is 8.6 times as massive as Earth and the size lies that of between earth and Neptune.
• Its discovery was announced in 2015.

Discoveries 

• The observations of James Webb also provided a possible detection of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS).
  • On Earth, DMS is only produced by life.
    • The bulk of the DMS in Earth’s atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments. 
• Planet k2-18b is within the  “habitable zone” of its star, that is conditions are just right – neither too hot nor too cold – for life to exist.
• Webb’s discovery adds to recent studies suggesting that K2-18 b could be a Hycean exoplanet, one which has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface.

Future Outlook

• NASA now intends to conduct follow-up research with the telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) spectrograph that they hope will further validate their findings and provide new insights into the environmental conditions on K2-18 b.

Digital Birth Certificates

Syllabus: GS2/Governance

In News

• All reported births and deaths in the country will be digitally registered on the Centre’s portal from October 1.

About

• The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023  paves way for digital birth certificates. 
• It will be a single document to be used for admission to educational institutions, applications for driving licence, government jobs, passports or Aadhaar, voter enrolment, and registration of marriage, among others, will come into effect from October 1.
• The centralised database will also update the National Population Register (NPR), ration cards, property registration and electoral rolls.
• It will be compulsory for States to register births and deaths on the Centre’s Civil Registration System (CRS) portal and share data with the RGI which functions under the Union Home Ministry.

National Population Register (NPR)

• NPR is the first step to the creation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), as per the Citizenship Act.
• NPR, first collected in 2010 and updated in 2015 through door-to-door enumeration, already has a database of 119 crore residents.

Fake News and Misinformation

Syllabus: GS3/ Internal Security

In News

• Recently, police in various states have opened investigations against a large number of people for allegedly spreading misinformation and fake news

About Fake News (Yellow Journalism)

• Meaning: Fake news, broadly termed as false news or misinformation that is created or spread with the deliberate intent of causing harm; in the case of misinformation, the element of intent is thought to be absent.
• Fake news can be propagated through any media: print, electronic and social.
• Fake news can be related to anything –
  • Commercially driven sensational content
  • Nation-state sponsored misinformation
  • Highly partisan news site
  • Social media itself
  • Satire or parody
• Governments and regional bodies worldwide are grappling with this evolving threat, complicated further by technological advancements like Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT.

Data on Misinformation 

• Misinformation manifests differently across the globe, necessitating a nuanced approach to addressing the problem. 
• For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, India encountered a significant amount of misinformation (16 per cent), but the nature of the content differed from that in the West, where anti-vaccine narratives gained traction.
  • In India, the claims were more diverse, ranging from immunity to natural remedies, requiring distinct messaging from the Indian government and experts.

Legal remedies to tackle Fake News

• Indian Broadcast Foundation (IBF)
• The Press Council of India
• IPC Sections 153A and 295
• Broadcasting Content Complaint Council (BCCC)
• Defamation Suit
• The Information Technology (IT) Act
• Contempt of Court laws
• Constitution

Challenges & Outcomes

• Influencing opinions: It can be used to influence public opinions, to gain popularity or to malign the image, character of certain individuals or opponents or to defame them.
• Issue of fake news during elections: During the 2016 US Presidential elections,  a bipartisan Senate committee found that before and after the 2016 election, the Russian government used social media advertising to spread misinformation and conspiracy theories.
• On similar lines, there has been talk of Facebook interfering with India’s electoral democracy. 
• Disturbing harmony: It affects social & communal harmony by spreading extremists’ ideologies especially in sensitive areas like radicalization of youths, inciting violence and hatred among the communities, swinging public opinions etc.

Suggestions

• Need of a comprehensive strategy: To effectively tackle these threats, a comprehensive strategy is required — one that combines
  • Appropriate platform regulation, 
  • Accountable fact-checking, and 
  • Responsible adoption of emerging technological solutions. 
• AI tools for India’s specific needs: While AI exacerbates the problem of misinformation in some aspects, purpose-built AI tools with human intelligence support can significantly enhance the speed and scale at which harmful online content is addressed.
  • However, it is crucial to tailor any strategy to India’s specific needs and interests while incorporating best practices from around the world.

• Considering regional factors for Automated speech detection systems: Automated hate speech detection systems which proved effective for English and European languages, faced challenges in countries like Myanmar and Ethiopia, where local languages’ nuances were not adequately understood.
  • The devastating consequences of these failures highlight the importance of considering regional factors, including local languages and cultural context, when combating dangerous online content.
• Fact-checking organisations: Fact-checking organisations play a crucial role in India’s approach to misinformation.
  • The country boasts the world’s largest fact-checking community, operating across languages and different media. 
  • By implementing a self-regulatory framework, combining regulation and collaboration, the Indian government can further leverage the potential of this diverse community to combat and mitigate the harms caused by online misinformation. 
  • Indian fact-checking organisations have already begun collaborating with MeitY, reflecting their recognition of the need for self-regulation.

Way Ahead

• India’s strong fact-checking community, combined with its leading software industry, positions the country to develop and implement a multifaceted approach to misinformation. 
• This approach can serve as a model for other nations, particularly those in the Global South.
  • India has previously shown leadership in addressing misinformation, as seen in its collaboration with WhatsApp in 2018 to address the circulation of misleading videos that led to lynchings. 
• As the world’s largest democracy, India is well-placed to create a regulatory framework that protects freedom of speech and the press while combating misinformation. 

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

Syllabus: GS 2/Polity and Governance

News

• A policy that allowed young undocumented immigrants to live and work in the United States, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), has been declared illegal by a US court.

What is DACA?

• In 2012, the US Secretary of Homeland Security announced that upon meeting certain requirements, people who came to the United States as children illegally can request deferment or delay in legal action against them for a period of two years, subject to renewal.
• The move was to make immigration policy of the USA  to be more fair, more efficient, and more just – specifically for certain young people sometimes called Dreamers.
• Dreamers derives from the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) bill, which aims to make permanent legal residency possible for undocumented immigrants to the US.

Criteria to Qualify for DACA

• The government agency US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) lists certain criteria for qualifying for DACA.These are:
  • The person must be under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012, 
  • They should have come to the United States before their 16th birthday, 
  • They should have certain educational qualifications, not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor and 
  • Do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.
• According to the USCIS, such people are then eligible to request work authorization and legally hold a job. It described deferred action as an exercise of “prosecutorial discretion”, to defer removal action against an individual for a certain period of time. Deferred action does not provide lawful status.

Need for DACA

• It is often argued that the Dreamers were brought to the USA  by their parents – sometimes even as infants – and often have no idea that they’re undocumented.Hence such people deserved a deferment against punishment or deportation.
• Since 2012 hundreds of thousands of people have been given DACA permits from countries in Central and South America. Approximately 2,40,000 undocumented Indians were living in the US in 2011, making India the seventh-highest country of origin for undocumented individuals in the United States. Only a few thousand Indians have made use of DACA permits.

Planetary Boundaries

Syllabus: GS3/Environment and Biodiversity

In News

• The world has breached six of the nine planetary boundaries necessary to maintain Earth’s stability and resilience, according to a new study. 

What are Planetary Boundaries?

• In 2009, 28 internationally renowned researchers identified and quantified a set of nine planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and feel good in the future.
  • If we cross these limits, abrupt or irreversible environmental changes can occur with serious consequences for humankind.
• The nine planetary boundaries identified are:
  • Climate change
  • Change in biosphere integrity (biodiversity loss and species extinction)
  • Stratospheric ozone depletion
  • Ocean acidification
  • Biogeochemical flows (phosphorus and nitrogen cycles)
  • Land-system change (for example deforestation)
  • Freshwater use
  • Atmospheric aerosol loading (microscopic particles in the atmosphere that affect climate and living organisms)
  • Introduction of novel entities

About the Study

• The findings are an update to the planetary boundaries framework, which was first launched in 2009, to define the environmental limits within which humanity can safely operate.
• The researchers first identified the processes in the Earth’s ecosystem that have been important for maintaining favourable conditions for humans in the last 12,000 years. This period is known for its stable and warm planetary conditions.
• Next, they assessed how much humans are changing them and identified the level at which human activities raise the risk of potentially dramatic and irreversible changes in the overall conditions on Earth. 
• The breaching of individual boundaries does not imply immediate disaster but raises the risk of setting processes in motion that are likely to dramatically and irreversibly change the overall environmental conditions on Earth to one that no longer supports civilisation as we know it

Findings of the Study

• Humans caused a breach in the planet’s safe climate and land system in 1988 and are now facing a risk of approaching systemic disruption.
• The six boundaries include climate change, biosphere integrity (genetic diversity and energy available to ecosystems), land system change, freshwater change (changes across the entire water cycle over land), biogeochemical flows (nutrient cycles), and novel entities (microplastics, endocrine disruptors, and organic pollutants).

• Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide: The researchers set the planetary boundary for atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at 350 parts per million (ppm) currently, this has reached 4w17 ppm.
• Land System Change: The current value is beyond the safe limits.
• Biosphere Integrity: The limit was kept at less than 10 extinctions per million species-years but the extinction rate was greater than 100 extinctions per million species-years. This boundary has also been violated.
  • Currently, it is estimated around one million of the 8 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, and over 10 percent of the genetic diversity of plants and animals may have been wiped out over the last 150 years. 
  • The second aspect of biosphere integrity is the energy available to the ecosystem or the net primary production (NPP). It is equal to the difference between the amount of carbon produced through photosynthesis and the amount of energy that is used for respiration.
  • Humans are appropriating roughly 30 percent of the energy that was available to support biodiversity before the Industrial Revolution this could drive biodiversity loss.
• Freshwater: Which includes blue water (surface and groundwater) and green water (available water for plants).
  • Human impacts on blue and green water were calculated to be 18.2 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively, which is higher than the boundary of 10.2 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively.
  • The analysis showed that violations of blue and green water boundaries occurred in 1905 and 1929, respectively.
• Nitrogen and Phosphorus: The boundary was fixed at 11 teragrams (Tg) for Phosphorus and 62 Tg for Nitrogen. This is now 22.6 Tg and 190 Tg, respectively. 
• Introduction of novel entities: It was calculated to be zero. This means humans have transgressed this limit as well.
• Stratospheric ozone depletion, aerosol loading and ocean acidification were found to be within the planetary boundary.
  • However, the risk that aerosol loading and ocean acidification exiting their boundaries is increasing.

Rubber Cultivation in India

Syllabus: GS3/Agriculture

Context

• The Rubber Board is implementing a project to expand the area under natural rubber in the Northeastern States.

Rubber Board

• It is a statutory body constituted under the Rubber Act 1947, for the overall development of the rubber industry in the country.
  • The Rubber Production and Marketing (Amendment) Act, 1954, amended the name of the Board as ‘The Rubber Board’.
• It functions under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry of the Government of India.
• The Board’s headquarters is located at Kottayam in Kerala.
• As per Section 4(3) of the Rubber Act 1947, the Board shall consist of a Chairman and other members.

Government’s Initiatives:

• The Rubber Plantation Development Scheme: It has components for promoting rubber cultivation in traditional and non-traditional regions, mainly in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Odisha and West Bengal.
  • Later, the Scheme for Rubber Development in Northeast focused on new planting of rubber in the North Eastern States.
• Rubber Production Incentive Scheme (RPIS): It provides financial support and technical assistance for planting of new rubber plants.
  • It guarantees a minimum price of Rs.150 per kilogram for rubber.
• NE Mitra scheme: The Rubber Board, in association with major tyre companies, is implementing it to contemplate fresh cultivation of rubber in 200,000 hectares in five years.
• Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme: The All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) is formulating a PLI to promote rubber goods production in the country, and expected to give an impetus to the rubber goods industry in India, which is now emerging as an alternative to China.

Divya Kala Mela 

Syllabus: GS2/Empowerment of Vulnerable section 

News

• A 10 day Divya Kala Mela will be organized in Varanasi.

About

• Divya Kala Mela is an initiative of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) towards economic empowerment of PwD/Divyangjan. 
• It will showcase the products and craftsmanship of Divyang (PwD) entrepreneurs/ artisans from across the country.
• So far six Divya Kala Mela have been organized in Delhi (2022 ), Mumbai (2023),  Bhopal (2023), Guwahati ( 2023), Indore ( 2023),  Jaipur (2023) and Varanasi is the seventh one in the series.
• Product category: Home Décor & Lifestyle, Clothing, Stationery and eco-friendly products, packaged food and organic products, Toys & Gifts, Personal Accessories – Jewellery, Clutch Bags.
• Significance: It will be an opportunity for all to go ‘vocal for local’. Also products made by Divyang craftsmen with their extra determination can be seen/purchased.

Cochlear Implants (CI)

Syllabus: GS3/Developments in Science and Technology

News: 

• The burden of hearing loss in India is significant as it is one of the most common congenital anomalies to affect children.

About:

• The WHO Reports that severe to profound hearing loss affects nearly 2 – 3 per 1000 live births, making it the most common congenital abnormality to affect newborns the world over.
  • This scenario is even more pronounced in developing countries such as the Indian sub-continent, especially with the continuing problem of consanguineous marriages.

• Hearing loss at birth is considered a social stigma even in present-day society and results in a double tragedy, as it leads to not only deafness but also speech and language deprivation and communication problems.
• However, hearing loss today is the only truly remediable handicap, due to remarkable advances in biomedical engineering and surgical techniques.
  • Rather than mend a diseased organ, the emphasis has shifted to bypassing it with a bionic prosthetic device.

Cochlear implants (CI)

• Cochlear implants (CI) can help deafened individuals living in a world of silence enter the world of sound.
• They are biocompatible and safe as well as extremely effective in restoring hearing in both children and adults with severe -profound hearing loss, who do not benefit from conventional hearing aids. 
• These implantable devices electronically stimulate the cochlear nerve (nerve of hearing), bypassing the damaged hair cells of the cochlea (inner ear).
  • Thus, hearing restoration is the first successful attempt in medical science to integrate an electronic device with the central nervous system, in order to fully restore a lost special sense organ.

• CIs are electronic devices with external and internal components and are designed to detect mechanical sound energy and convert it into electrical signals that can be delivered to the cochlear nerve.
• These electrical signals are processed by an external speech processor and sent via a radiofrequency interface into an array of electrodes implanted surgically within the cochlea (inner ear).
• Early identification and management of hearing loss is extremely important for good outcomes with a CI.
• In Tamil Nadu, the cochlear implant program has been very successful as free cochlear implants are being sponsored for children under six years and below the poverty line.
  • Nearly 5000 CIs have therefore been performed in Tamil Nadu under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.

iGOT Karmayogi Platform

 Context: The iGOT Karmayogi Bharat platform, in partnership with NITI Aayog, has introduced a new collection dedicated to the Aspirational Blocks Programme (ABP).

• This initiative aims to enhance the competencies of 5,000 Block-level officials in 500 identified Blocks, helping them perform their duties effectively in under-served areas.
• The curated module includes ten courses covering topics such as time management, communication, leadership, sustainable development goals, problem-solving, stress management, and team building.

About iGOT Karmayogi Platform:

 iGOT Karmayogi (https://igotkarmayogi.gov.in/) is a comprehensive online portal to guide government officials in their capacity-building journey. The portal combines 6 functional hubs for online learning, competency management, career management, discussions, events and networking.