Table of Contents
1. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PETROLEUM EXPORTING PLUS COUNTRIES
TAG: GS 2: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
THE CONTEXT: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+ which pumps around 40% of the world’s crude, agreed on a new oil output deal.
EXPLANATION:
- Saudi Arabia, the group’s biggest producer, will make a deep cut to its output in July on top of a broader OPEC+ deal to limit supply into 2024 as the group faces flagging oil prices.
- A surprise announcement by OPEC+ in April to deepen production cuts helped to raise prices by about $9 a barrel to above $87 per barrel in the days followed.
- The changes, however, included lowered targets for Russia, Nigeria and Angola simply to bring them into line with current production levels.
Reasons why OPEC+ cut output:
- Concerns about weak global demand as data from China has aroused fears that the economic recovery after coronavirus lockdowns by world’s second-largest oil consumer is losing steam.
- Fears of another banking crisis in recent months have led investors to sell out of riskier assets.
- A global recession could lead to lower oil prices.
- Punishing speculators as the planned cuts will also punish oil short sellers betting on oil price declines.
Reactions:
- The United States is considering passing legislation known as NOPEC, which would allow the seizure of OPEC’s assets on U.S. territory if market collusion is proven.
- OPEC+ has criticised the International Energy Agency, the West’s energy watchdog for which the United States is the biggest financial donor, for advocating oil stocks releases last year.
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
- It refers to a group of 13 of the world’s major oil-exporting nations.
- OPEC was founded in 1960 to coordinate the petroleum policies of its members and to provide member states with technical and economic aid.
- Members Countries of OPEC include Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela (the five founders), plus Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates.
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Plus:
- Opec+ is a group of 23 oil-exporting countries which meets regularly to decide how much crude oil to sell on the world market.
- These nations came to an accord towards the end of 2016 “to institutionalize a framework for cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries on a regular and sustainable basis.” These nations aim to work together on adjusting crude oil production to bring stability to the oil market.
- The list of non-OPEC nations includes Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mexico, Malaysia, South Sudan, Sudan and Oman.
2. PLASTIC POLLUTION AND WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
TAG: GS 3: ENVIRONMENT
THE CONTEXT: Since the early 20th century, plastics have become a ubiquitous part of human life, despite their many adverse impacts on the environment. This year’s World Environment Day (June 5) has the theme of #BeatPlasticPollution, calling for global solutions to combat the pandemic of plastic pollution.
EXPLANATION:
50th anniversary of the World Environment Day:
- The World Environment Day, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has been held annually on June 5, since 1973.
- The date was chosen by the UN General Assembly during the historic 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment considered to be the first world conference to make the environment a major issue.
#BeatPlasticPollution
- Hosted by Côte d’Ivoire and supported by the Netherlands, this year’s World Environment Day campaign is aimed towards discussing and implementing solutions to the problem of plastic pollution.
- According to UN data, more than 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced every year worldwide, half of which is designed to be used only once. Of that, less than 10 per cent is recycled. Consequently, an estimated 19-23 million tonnes end up in lakes, rivers and seas annually.
What is Plastic?
- The word plastic is derived from the Greek word plastikos, meaning “capable of being shaped or moulded.”
- It refers to a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient with their defining quality being their plasticity the ability of a solid material to undergo permanent deformation in response to applied forces. This makes them extremely adaptable, capable of being shaped as per requirement.
- Broadly speaking, single-use is a term which can refer to any plastic items which are either designed to be used for one time by the consumer before they are thrown away or recycled, or likely to be used in this way
- Most modern plastics are derived from fossil fuel-based chemicals like natural gas or petroleum. However, recently, variants made from renewable materials, such as corn or cotton derivatives have also emerged.
- Around 70 per cent of global plastic production is concentrated in six major polymer types – referred collectively as commodity plastics. These include: Polyethylene terephthalate or PET, High-density polyethylene or HDPE, Polyvinyl chloride or PVC, Low-density polyethylene or LDPE, Polypropylene or PP, and Polystyrene or PS. Each of these have different properties and can be identified by their Resin Identification Code (RIC) denoted by symbols found on plastic products.
- Resin identification coding system
Microplastics:
- Plastic doesnot decompose but do crumble into smaller particles called as microplastics.
- It is officially defined as plastics less than five millimetres in diameter.
- There are two categories of microplastics. Primary microplastics are tiny particles designed for commercial use, such as in cosmetics or textiles. On the other hand, secondary microplastics are particles that are a product of the breakdown of larger plastic items due to exposure to environmental factors such as sun’s radiation or ocean’s waves.
- The problem with microplastics, like all plastics, is that they do not break down easily into more harmless particles. Instead, they find their way across the planet, from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the heights of the Himalayas.
- According to the most recent global estimates, an average human consumes at least 50,000 microplastic particles annually due to contamination of the food chain, potable water, and air.
- Notably, microplastics contain a number of toxic chemicals which pose severe risks to human health. The biggest health risk associated is with the chemical BPA or Bisphenol A , which is used to harden the plastic.
- BPA contaminates food and drinks, causing alterations in liver function, insulin resistance, foetal development in pregnant women, the reproductive system and brain function.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch:
- The largest collection of plastics and microplastics in the ocean is in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Also known as the trash vortex, it is located between California and Japan, and formed due to converging ocean currents.
- As per estimates, the GPGP covers a surface area of 1.6 million sq km– roughly half the size of India There are other, smaller such garbage patches in other oceans.
- The GPGP comprises majorly of single-use plastics.
3. GENOME SEQUENCING AND BLACK DEATH
TAG: GS 3: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
THE CONTEXT: The ‘Black Death’ causing bacteria’s prehistoric trail has been traced by scientists by advanced gene-sequencing techniques.
EXPLANATION:
What is the black death?
- The ‘black death’, or the Great Plague was one of the deadliest epidemics in human history that happened in 14th century.
- The ‘black death’ is believed to have killed more than 25 million people in Europe and possibly up to 40-50% of the population in some of the continent’s major cities
- It was caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, which infects mammals. This bacteria’s discovery has been attributed separately to Alexandre Yersin, a Swiss-French physician, and Kitasato Shibasaburō, a Japanese physician and microbiologist during the plague outbreak in Hong Kong in 1894.
- Humans typically get infected through fleas or through close handling/contact with an infected human or animal.
- One possible reason for the humongous proportions of the ‘black death’ outbreak is the human-to-human transmission of the bacteria.
Plague outbreak in India:
- India has experienced plague epidemics of varying intensities from as early as 1896 in Bombay to outbreaks in Karnataka (1966) and Surat (1994) and to a more recent isolated outbreak (2004) in a village in Uttarakhand.
- India also prominently figures in the history of the plague. The plague vaccine was developed by Waldemar Haffkine in 1897 during the outbreaks in Bombay.
History of plague:
- Historical archives suggest the Plague of Justinian in the sixth century A.D. was possibly the first to be documented.
- The evidence also suggests that plague outbreaks were possibly common in Asia and Europe as early as the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age (LBNA), as implied by genetic material isolated from a Swedish tomb dated to 3000 BC.
- The LBNA period is estimated to have lasted 5,000-2,500 years before present. This era was also characterised by human contact, exchange across Europe, and a consequent social, economic, and cultural transformation of human society.
Genome-sequencing technologies:
- The advent of genome-sequencing technologies has allowed scientists to trace the trail of infectious diseases that ailed people in prehistoric times.
- This is possible in particular due to deep-sequencing of genetic material isolated from well-preserved human remains, with the help of advanced computational analysis.
- Deep-sequencing involves sequencing the genomic material multiple times to retrieve even small amounts of DNA, since the material is likely to degrade over time.
What has deep-sequencing revealed?
- Scientists have also traced the prehistoric trail providing an unparalleled view of the evolution and adaptation of human pathogens.
- They found that the reconstructed genomes lacked the gene to create a molecule called yapC, short for ‘yersinia autotransporter C’, associated with the bacteria’s ability to bind to mammalian cells and form biofilms and thus important for causing infections.
- However, they also found the presence of a functional urease D gene, which could make them toxic to fleas.
- The genome sequences from the latter also lacked the yapC and ymt genes, reinforcing the previous findings that the plague in that period was possibly not transmitted through fleas.
- The ambit of such technologies is also expanding to include studies of animal and plant diseases, along with human diseases, contributing to the unified understanding of our well-being called ‘One Health.
4. GDP ESTIMATES
TAG: GS 3: ECONOMY
THE CONTEXT: Recently, government released the so-called Provisional Estimates (PE) of India’s national income for the financial year 2022-23 (or FY23). According to the PEs, the size of India’s economy calculated by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or the market value of all final goods and services produced within the country grew by 7.2 per cent in FY23. This means, India’s GDP was 7.2% more than what it was in the previous financial year (2021-22).
EXPLANATION:
About GDP growth estimates:
- For any financial year, the GDP estimates go through several rounds of revisions.
- Each year in January, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) releases the First Advance Estimates (FAEs) for that financial year.
- In February end, after incorporating the data from Q3 (third quarter, which includes October, November and December), come the Second Advance Estimates (SAEs).
- By May-end come the Provisional Estimates (PEs) after incorporating the Q4 (Jan to March) data.
- Then with each passing year, the PEs are revised to give the First Revised Estimates, the Second Revised Estimates and the Third Revised Estimates before settling on the “Actuals”. Each revision benefits from more data, making the GDP estimates more accurate and robust.
Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE):
- However, there is a fly in the (GDP data) ointment. It is called the Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE).
- As is evident, the PFCE is the biggest engine of growth. Typically, if it is growing robustly then one would presume that the second biggest engine of GDP growth — expenditures towards investments — will follow suit. For a big economy such as India, together, these two components can create a virtuous cycle.
Typically, GDP is calculated by adding up all expenditures in the economy. These expenditures are broadly categorised in four groups:
- All the money Indians spend in their personal capacity from buying an ice cream to watching a movie to buying a TV or car. This is called the PFCE. Such expenditures account for 55%-60% of India’s annual GDP.
- All the money the governments spend on their daily uses paying salaries etc. This is called Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE) and this accounts for 10% of India’s GDP.
- All the money spent by private companies and governments towards building productive capacities in the economy. Say a firm buying desktops for its employees or the government spending money on building a road. This is called the Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) and this accounts for 30%-32% of the GDP.
- Net exports or the net of all the money that Indians received by exporting goods and services and minus all the money they spent on importing goods and services. More often than not, India’s imports are more than its exports. As such the Net Exports component is negative and drags down overall GDP.
5. INTERLOCKING SYSTEM
TAG: PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE
THE CONTEXT: Minister for Railways said that a change in the “configuration” of the track had led to the Coromandel Express smashing into the stationary goods train from behind, triggering the three-way train accident in Odisha in which 275 people have died so far.
EXPLANATION:
- The electric “point machine” is a vital device for railway signalling for quick operation and “locking” of point switches. It plays the key role in the safe running of trains.
- Failure of these machines will severely affect train movement, and any deficiencies created or left unaddressed at the time of installation of the system can result in unsafe conditions.
How the system works:
- Interlocking in railway signalling systems is a crucial safety mechanism used in the operation of train movements on railway tracks.
- It ensures that train movements continue without any conflicts with each other, preventing accidents.
- There are three main components that comprise an interlocking system: the point, the track occupancy sensing devices, and the signal. The Interlocking system coordinates the functions of these three components to control train movements.
What is the function of each of these three main components?
- Points allow trains to change tracks: The points (also called ‘switch rails’) are movable rails that guide the wheels of a train towards either a straight or a diverging track. They are typically placed at the point of divergence of two tracks going to different directions. Once a direction of a train is determined, the point gets locked at a particular position. This means that once a direction is set, the point cannot budge until the train has passed.
- Track circuits are electrical circuits (also known as track-occupancy sensing devices) that detect the presence of trains.
- Signals (which are lights of green, red, and yellow colour) are installed along the tracks to indicate the status of the track ahead.
And how do the points work?
- The digital interface of this system is a computer screen (or multiple screens) that shows the full view of the station layout and the live (real-time) movement of trains on tracks, the signals, and the position of the points.
- This is the configuration that runs all trains everywhere. This computer interface is called a data logger.
How does the system sense whether a track is occupied?
- There are various kinds of track-occupancy sensing devices. Generally, sensors are installed on the tracks that detect the passage of wheels on the rails.
- These are also called axle counters. They count how many sets of wheels or axles have passed over them in order to determine whether the entire train has passed through.
Who operates and monitors the interlocking signalling system?
- The interlocking system is usually operated and monitored by trained personnel from the signalling and telecommunications department in Railways, often known as ‘signallers’ or signal operators. They are responsible for setting the signals, monitoring track circuits, and ensuring the safe movement of trains.