Mains Focus-(22nd June 2018)

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Paper-1 : Physical Geography

The Tilt — or why Thursday had longer daylight hours than any other day

June 21 was summer solstice, the longest day of the year — as compared to the night — in the northern hemisphere. Winter solstice occurs on December 21 or 22, when the night hours are the longest.

But why are the hours of daylight not the same every day?

The explanation lies in Earth’s tilt. The planet’s axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of 23.5°C. This tilt — combined with factors such as Earth’s spin and orbit — leads to variations in the duration of sunlight on any location on different days of the year. The tilt is also responsible for the different seasons.

Day & night

Day occurs on the side facing the Sun, and changes to night as Earth continues to spin on its axis. On the Equator, day and night are equal. The closer one moves towards the poles, the more extreme the variation. During summer in either hemisphere, that pole is tilted towards the sun and the polar region receives 24 hours of daylight for months. During winter, the region is in total darkness for months.

Key latitudes

A latitude is a measure of a location’s distance from the Equator. Earth’s tilt helps define some familiar imaginary lines, which are also key to determining when a solstice occurs. At latitudes of 23.5° (matching the tilt) are the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, north and south of the Equator. At 66.5° (or 90° minus 23.5°) are the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, north and south. It is at latitudes higher than 66.5° (in either direction) that days of constant darkness or light occur

Solstice

On each Tropic, the sun is directly overhead at noon once a year. When this happens on the Tropic of Cancer, it is summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. When on the Tropic of Capricorn, it is winter solstice.
On the Equator, the sun is directly overhead on two days. These are the spring equinox in March and the autumn equinox in August. Across Earth, day and night are of equal length on these two dates. On the Equator, day and night are equal every day.

Paper 1: Role of women & women’s organization

Missing Women in India

Context

Low representation of women in democracy

B.R. Ambedkar once said that “political power is the key to all social progress”
In India, women suffer substantially greater socio-economic disadvantages than Western democracies

Effects of political representation of disadvantaged groups

Observing a member of their own group in charge of a public office changes attitudes and infuses confidence in the minority group.This may be referred to as the reporting channel
The second effect is an increase in the responsiveness of the official towards the pleas of disadvantaged groups.This is termed as the recording effect
The knock-on economic effects are apparent as well.There is a strong connection between the implementation of political reservations and small-scale entrepreneurship among women

Status of women representation

The proportion of women in the Lok Sabha has seen only a paltry increase since independence—from 4.5% in the first Lok Sabha to the current 12% in the 16th Lok Sabha
The 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution in 1993 made it mandatory to earmark 33% of all positions in Panchayati raj institutions for women

What limits women representation?

Political parties in India tend not to follow provisions in their constitutions reserving seats for women in different committees
The second barrier is the lack of education and leadership training.Additionally, since women are not integrated in any local political process initially, and, unlike men, are not part of the relevant social and power networks, women leaders are prone to inefficiencies

Way forward

Socio-economic disadvantages lead to reduced opportunities for women to participate in the political process, leading to a weakened representation
There is a pressing need for education and leadership training to familiarize them with the local government functioning and instill in them a sense of agency

Paper 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

No to IVD Devices

Clinical Trials of Medical Devices

Medical devices under local rules are classified based on associated risks, into Class A (low risk), Class B (low moderate risk), Class C (moderate high risk) and Class D (high risk).
The manufacturers of medical devices are required to meet risk proportionate regulatory requirements that have been specified in the rules and are based on best international practices.
As of now, all medical devices that fall under regulation have to undergo single or multiple clinical trials to prove their performance and quality in comparison to products currently available in the market.
Conduct of clinical investigations while following the international practices is conducted in a manner that ensures objectives of patient safety and welfare and discovery of new medical devices.

Proposed Amendment in Medical Devices Rules

IVDs include all blood testing techniques, tests that can detect diseases, conditions or infections for major conditions such as HIV, HBV (Hepatitis B), HCV (Hepatitis C).
The government has proposed to do away with clinical trials for in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) devices with the aim of speeding up availability of such devices in India.
The Union health ministry will now release a notification to this effect, after a meeting of the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) at which the board agreed to the proposal to amend the provisions of the Medical Devices Rules

What are the amendments?

The board deliberated the matter and agreed to the proposal to amend the provisions in Rule 64 making it identical for waiver of clinical performance evaluation of in-vitro diagnostic medical devices.
This is in line with a waiver given for medical devices under Rule 63 of the Medical Device Rules.

What are the benefits of doing so?

The new rules seek to remove regulatory bottlenecks to make in India, facilitate ease of doing business while ensuring availability of better medical devices for patient care and safety.
Medical device experts believe that the move will help importers to a large extent as the exemption of trials would also mean accelerating approval of state-of-the-art devices.

But it raises few questions as well

The question is whether the US, Japan and EU (European Union) will give a similar reciprocal advantage to Indian exporters and waive off the need for clinical evaluation if such devices are sold in India.
Regulation is not only about patient’s safety. It is also about parity.

Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Power Sector-‘Pariwartan’

Stressed Power Projects

Stressed projects have drawn bids for around Rs 1-2 crore per MW under the insolvency and bankruptcy code, a fraction of the Rs 5 crore per MW needed to build them.
Issues faced by the stressed projects include a paucity of funds, lack of power purchase agreements and fuel shortages.

Plan for PARIWARTAN

The government plans to warehouse stressed power projects totaling 25,000 MW under an asset management firm to protect the value of the assets
This will prevent their distress sale under the insolvency and bankruptcy code until the demand for power picks up.
State-run Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd (REC) has identified projects with a total debt of around Rs 1.8 trillion as part of the scheme, which is under government consideration
It has been tentatively named Power Asset Revival through Warehousing and Rehabilitation, or ‘Pariwartan’.
The ‘Pariwartan’ scheme is inspired by the Troubled Asset Relief Programme, or TARP, which was introduced in the US during the 2008 financial crisis.
The proposed plan also aims to stem the rise in bad loans in the power sector.

Key Propositions

These stressed power projects will be housed under an asset management and rehabilitation company (AMRC) that will be owned by financial institutions.
While the promoter’s equity will be reduced to facilitate a transfer of management control to the financial institutions, the lenders will convert their debt into equity.
The AMRC will manage the projects and may ask utilities such as NTPC Ltd to operate and maintain them. The AMRC will charge a fee and help complete projects that are stranded for lack of funds.
These projects will be transferred to the AMRC at net book value, wherein it will own a 51% stake in the projects and the balance 49% will be held by the lenders,” said the government official cited above.

Paper 3- Science and Technology

India discovered Exo-Planet

In a feat that is critical for India and science, Ahmadabad based lab discovered a planet orbiting a star 600 light years away.
This is a 1^st for Indian scientists and is a vindication of India’s space potency.

What the metrics of Exo-planet studies

Why – Exo-planets are those celestial bodies that orbit stars outside our solar system in clearly defined elliptical paths.We need to understand how planets form around stars, to understand our solar system better, for which study of exo-planets are key.Habitability of exo-planets is a keenly studied area, which is mainly based on its distance from its star (the planet should be neither too hot nor too cold).Indian scientists have been trying to track exo-planets since 2012, but it was only recently that PRL, Ahmadabad became the 1^st to achieve the feat.
What – The 1^st thing is to understand about exo-planets are their characteristics and fundamental parameters – mass, radius, and atmosphere.With mass and radius, it is easy to get the density, which will help in making a rough estimate of the planet’s composition
The challenge – Detecting an exo-planet is very difficult as it is a dull object that will invariably be roaming around the bright spot of its star.Direct imaging of exo-planets is almost impossible, although new techniques are being evolved by NASA and others.There are only 5-6 spectrographs around the world that can measure the mass of exo-planets at high precision (radial velocity less than 2 m/s)India counts itself as one of the few countries that has the instruments to discover and analyse such difficult worlds.

Then, how are exo-planets studied?

How – The presence of a planet will make its star wobble, which can be measured using a precise spectrograph.This spectrographic reading will help in measuring the mass of the planet.When the planet passes between its star and Earth, the intensity of light from that star (which reaches the earth) gets minutely dim. This dip in star’s flux is measured, and this is subsequently employed to estimate the radius of the planet.

What are the observed results of the newly detected exo-planet?

A suspected planet (now been coded as “K2-236b”), was under the observation of the Ahmadabad based lab over 1½ years.
In Jan 2018, scientists conclusively stated that their object of observation was a planet, which was then confirmed by “Mount Abu Space Observatory”.
The planet is said to be composed of 70% iron, ice or silicates and 30% is gas, with about 27 Earth-masses and 6 Earth-radii.
In terms of mass and radius, the planet is akin to Neptune, and it is just one-seventh of the distance away from its star as compared to ‘Sun-Earth distance’.
One year on that planet is about 19.5 Earth-days and surface temperatures average to about 600°C, which thereby makes it uninhabitable.

How does the future of exo-planetary studies in India look?

Indian space scientists have set out with the ultimate aim of detecting planets of close-to-Earth mass (2 to 10 Earth masses).
A new 2.5-m telescope at “Mount Abu Observatory” with a bigger spectrograph is likely to be installed by 2020, and it will be called “PARAS-2”.
PARAS-2 is slated to have the capacity to even measure smaller exo-planets that are just about 2 or 4 times Earth’s mass.
It is also hoped that ISRO will launch some space missions relating to exo-planet studies.