VAID ICS LUCKNOW

(WEEKLY CURRENT AFFAIRS)

20th April-27th April 2022

ENGLISH VERSION
 VAID ICS LUCKNOW

TOPICS: GS III

Carbon Pricing Approach

Why in News?

Pennsylvania has become the first major fossil fuel-producing state in the US to adopt a carbon
pricing policy to address climate change.

 It joins 11 states where coal, oil and natural gas power plants must buy credits for every ton of
carbon dioxide they emit.

What is the Carbon Pricing Approach?

Carbon pricing is an instrument that captures the external costs of greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions
and ties them to their sources through a price usually in the form of a price on the carbon dioxide
(CO2) emitted.

 These GHG emissions include the costs of emissions that the public pays for, such as damage to
crops, health care costs from heatwaves and droughts, and loss of property fr om flooding and
sea-level rise.
 A price on carbon helps shift the burden for the damage from GHG emissions back to those who
are responsible for it and who can avoid it.

There are two main types of carbon pricing namely:

Emission Trading System : It is a system where emitters can trade emission units to meet their
emission targets.
Carbon Tax: It directly sets a price on carbon by defining a tax rate on greenhouse gas emissions or –
more commonly – on the carbon content of fossil fuels.
Different approaches adopted by countries to address climate change:
Social Cost of Carbon: The United States has adopted a less direct approach known as the Social
Cost of Carbon. This approach calculates future climate damages to justify tougher restrictions on
polluting industries.
Carbon Pricing approach: On the other hand, countries like Canada have adopted a Carbon Pricing
approach. For example, Canada imposes fuel charges on individuals and also makes big polluters pay
for emissions. It’s one of 27 nations with some kind of carbon tax.

Differences:

 The social cost of carbon attempts to capture the value of all climate damage, centuries into the
future.
 Carbon pricing reflects how much companies are willing to pay today for a limited amount of
emission credits offered at auction.

In other words, the social cost of carbon guides policy, while carbon pricing represents policy in
practice.

Significance of Carbon Pricing:

1. Putting a price on carbon helps to incorporate climate risks into the cost of doing business.
2. Emitting carbon becomes more expensive, and consumers and producers seek ways to use
technologies and products that generate less of it.
3. The market then operates as an efficient means to cut emissions, fostering a shift to a clean
energy economy and driving innovation in low-carbon technologies.
4. Complementary renewable energy and energy efficiency policies are also critical to cost -
effectively drive down emissions.

Issues related to Carbon Pricing:

 Carbon prices now exist in 46 countries, covering about 22 percent of the carbon pollution that
humans release each year. But these policies are riddled with loopholes.
 Big carbon polluters like fossil fuel companies, electric utilities, automakers, petroc hemical
companies, and other heavy industries, have used their structural power to receive policy
exemptions.
 According to the World Bank, countries need policies between $40 to $80 per tonne to meet the
Paris Agreement targets. Yet half of the world’s carbon prices are less than $10 per tonne.
 Some researchers suggested that it limits innovations. But there is no strong evidence that carbon
pricing has rapidly induced the innovation we need in new, cleaner technologies.
 mRNA vaccines:
Topics: GS III

Why in News?
A California based pharmaceutical company has developed ARCT-154, a self-amplifying
mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 infection.

Benefits:
It offered 95% protection against severe Covid-19 and 55% against Covid infection.
What are mRNA vaccines?
An mRNA vaccine use messenger RNA that encodes the spike protein of the coronavirus.

 The mRNA directs the cell to produce copies of the spike protein, so that the immune
system will recognise the spike if and when actual infection takes place, and mount a
response.

Examples: Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

What are self-amplifying mRNA vaccines?

A self-amplifying mRNA vaccine is an improvement on the traditional RNA platform. It encodes four
extra proteins in addition to the vaccine antigen, and these enable amplification of the original strand of
RNA once inside the cell. The basic advantage is that it requires a smaller dose.

Topics : GS III

Protected Cultivation
Why in News?

 Recently ,the importance of Protected cultivation was highlighted .

What is Protected cultivation?

 It is a process of growing crops in a controlled environment which means that the temperature,
humidity, light and such other factors can be regulated as per requirement of the crop.

This assists in a healthier and larger production.

 It offers a massive potential to shorten and optimise farm-to-plate supply chains by making
food available closer to the consumer and thereby can go a long way to improve the
nation's GDP and reduce imports dependency.
 It gives opportunities for the cultivation of horticultural crops in an entrepreneurial form for
the upmarkets in urban and semi-urban areas.
 At present in India, the small and medium farmers have started flower and vegetable
cultivation under different types of modular protected structures depending upon their
investment capacity and availability of market in their area.
 Image Courtesy:NCERT

Objectives of Protected Cultivation

 Protection of plants from abiotic stress (physical or by non-living organism) such as

temperature, excess/deficit water, hot and cold waves, and biotic factors such as pest and
disease incidences, etc
 Efficient water use with minimum weed infestation.
 Enhancing productivity per unit area.
 Minimising the use of pesticides in crop production.
 Promotion of high value, quality horticultural produce.
 Propagation of planting material to improve germination percentage; healthy, uniform,
disease free planting material and better hardening.
 Year-round and off-season production of flower, vegetable or fruit crops.
 Production of disease-free and genetically better transplants.

Limitations of Protected Cultivation

 High cost of initial infrastructure (capital cost).

 Non-availability of skilled human power and their replacement locally.
 Lack of technical knowledge of growing crops under protected structures.
 All the operations are very intensive and require constant effort.
 Requires close supervision and monitoring.
 A few pests and soil-borne pathogens are difficult to manage.
 Repair and maintenance are major hurdles.
 Requires assured marketing, since the investment of resources like time, effort and finances,
is expected to be very high.
Schemes for protected cultivation

 The Government of India executes various schemes for protected cultivation at the central and
the state levels to popularise these high-tech plant growing techniques.
 National agencies through their leading schemes viz.
o National Horticulture Board (NHB), National Horticulture Mission (NHM), Mission for
Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)
o Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana(RKVY) creates awareness and provides financial support to
the farmers, so that protected farming for high value horticultural crops could be adopted
easily.

Way Forward

 Protected cultivation has the potential to create new jobs, skill sets, and economic
opportunities for the agriculture students of our country, who are seen to be able to adapt
and move forward with the learning curve quickly.
 If agricultural universities and students are able to capitalise on this, the market is bound to grow
significantly and explode with new job opportunities alongside chartering new ground-
level innovations and pathways to further develop our agri-economy in the years to come.
 The positive impact on the circular economy particularly with vertical farming methods like
cocoponics (by upcycling agricultural residues into compost and thus creating value out
of it) has the potential to create new revenue streams and income opportunities, especially for
farmers living near wastelands or marginal rural areas and in mitigating the soil degradation
problem of India’s rural economy..

Additional Information

 Vertical farming:
o Vertical farming grows crops in vertical, stacked layers without putting too much
impact on land and water resources which are scarce.
o It includes soilless farming techniques, among others.
o Vertical farming systems like aeroponics and hydroponics come under the broad
umbrella ambit of ‘protected cultivation
o History
 Notably, in 1915, Gilbert Ellis Bailey coined the term vertical farming and he
went on to write a namesake book.
 The modern concept was first proposed in 1999 by professor Dickson
Despommier.

 Hydroponics:
o To reduce soil-related cultivation issues, hydroponics involves growing food in water
by using its natural, mineral content.
  Aeroponics:
o It is said that NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) motivated the
initiative of aeroponics to find an efficient way to grow plants in space in the 1990s.
o Since there is no one growing medium, nutrient solutions are sprayed over plants,
which requires very less eater, no soil, and minimal space.

 Aquaponics:
o The term combines fish farming and hydroponics. The nutrient-rich waste from fish
tanks serves as a fertiliser for the hydroponic plants.

Topics: GS 2

India 3rd the highest military spender

1. World military spending continued to grow in 2021, reaching a record $2.1 trillion despite the
economic fallout of the pandemic, according to new data on global military spending published by the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
2. The five largest spenders in 2021 were the U.S., China, India, the U.K. and Russia, together accounting
for 62% of expenditure. The U.S. and China alone accounted for 52%.
3. India’s military spending of $76.6 billion ranked third highest in the world.
4.This was up by 0.9% from 2020 and by 33% from 2012. Amid ongoing tensions and border disputes
with China and Pakistan that occasionally spill over into armed clashes, India has prioritised the
modernisation of its armed forces and self-reliance in arms production.
Topics : GS 2
The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030.
The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 outlines India’s strategy for the
elimination of the disease by 2030.
The framework has been developed with a vision to eliminate malaria from the country and contribute to
improved health and quality of life and alleviation of poverty.
In line with the WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 (GTS) and the Asia Pacific
Leaders Malaria Alliance Malaria Elimination Roadmap, the goals of the National Framework for
Malaria Elimination in India 2016–2030 are
1. Eliminate malaria (zero indigenous cases) throughout the entire country by 2030; and
2. Maintain malaria-free status in areas where malaria transmission has been interrupted and prevent re-
introduction of malaria.

National Strategic Plan (NSP) for Malaria Elimination (2017-2022)

 Over the past 15 years, India has made considerable progress in reducing its malaria burden. It has
a vision of a malaria-free country by 2027 and elimination by 2030.
 However, the country still faces daunting challenges as malaria epidemiology exhibits enormous
heterogeneity and complexity. The disease is mainly concentrated in tribal and remote areas of the
country.

Is there a vaccine for Malaria?

1. Mosquirix or RTS, S/AS01 is a recombinant protein-based malaria vaccine. In October 2021, the
vaccine was endorsed by the World Health Organization for "broad use" in children, making it the first
malaria vaccine candidate, and the first vaccine to address parasitic infection, to receive this
recommendation.
2. The vaccine is being called RTS, S. It is the first, and to date, the only, vaccine that has demonstrated it
can significantly reduce malaria in children. In clinical trials, the vaccine was found to prevent
approximately 4 in 10 malaria cases, including 3 in 10 cases of life-threatening severe malaria.

FACTS FOR PRELIMS:

 ‘Lucy’ Mission:
Launched in October 2022, this is NASA’s first mission to explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.

 It is a solar-powered mission.
 It is estimated to be over 12 years long, during the course of which the spacecraft will visit eight asteroids
covering a distance of about 6.3 billion km to deepen the understanding of the “young solar system”.

Aim of the mission:

The mission is designed to understand the composition of the diverse asteroids that are a part of the Trojan
asteroid swarms, to determine the mass and densities of the materials and to look for and study the satellites
and rings that may orbit the Trojan asteroids.
What are Trojan Asteroids? Why are they called so?
These asteroids are believed to be the remnants of the early solar system, and studying them will help scientists
understand its origins and evolution, and why it looks the way it does.

 The Trojan asteroids are believed to be formed from the same material that led to the formation of planets
nearly 4 billion years ago when the solar system was formed.

Splinternet
The internet is changing. The outcome of the recent spat between the Center and Twitter is one among
many instances which may alter the future of the world wide web. The open web, now a mere shadow of
its former self, is often dubbed the splinternet.

 A fusion of the words “split" and “internet", the splinternet is a fragmented version of the world
wide web with national identities. The reasons for this ‘split’ include global politics, national
security, religion and more.
 In its original form, the internet transcended borders and allowed people unfettered access to
virtually everything, while the splinternet limits citizens’ access to data, forces businesses to keep
data within borders, and even changes how they operate within a state.
 Splinternet is often defined as the balkanization of the net, as nations try to preserve their sovereign
identities and economic interests.
 The Gilets Jaunes (yellow vests) movement

The Gilets Jaunes (yellow vests) movement was not led by any union or political party and the
protesters’ demands were not clearly articulated: some want tax cuts (on fuel), some want tax rises (for
the rich), some want more public services, some want more generous state benefits, some want a stronger
President and some want all of these things at once.

 The Gilets Jaunes have targeted the French state as both villain and saviour. They have organized
groups to protest outside government offices all over the country yet, despite their ire, they also
demand redress from the very same state they abhor.
 They want the French government to lower fuel taxes, cut property taxes, and hire more doctors
for rural clinics. This paradox has a long pedigree in French history.

RASCs
Respiratory airway secretory cells, or RASCs, are a new type of cell that resides deep within human
lungs and may play a key role in human lung diseases.
•The cells line tiny airway branches, deep in the lungs, near the alveoli structures where oxygen is
exchanged for carbon dioxide. The scientists showed that RASCs have stem-cell-like properties
enabling them to regenerate other cells that are essential for the normal functioning of alveoli.
•There are also evidence that cigarette smoking and the common smoking-related ailment called
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can disrupt the regenerative functions of RASCs.
Thus, correcting this disruption could be an effective way to treat COPD.

•COPD involves progressive damage to and loss of alveoli, exacerbated by chronic inflammation.
•It is estimated to cause about 3 million deaths every year around the world. Patients often are
prescribed steroid anti-inflammatory drugs and/or oxygen therapy, but these treatments can only
slow the disease process rather than stop or reverse it.
•RASCs, in addition to their secretory function, serve as predecessors for AT2( Alveolar type II
cells) cells -- regenerating them to maintain the AT2 population and keep alveoli healthy.
•Differentiated AT2 cells produce pulmonary surfactant, a lipoprotein substance that is required for
proper lung function.
•Premature human newborns frequently do not have adequate numbers of differentiated AT2 cells
and thus do not produce sufficient amounts of pulmonary surfactant. Inadequate amounts of
surfactant can lead to neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), which until recently was a
leading cause of death in premature newborns.
•AT2 cells are known to become abnormal in COPD and other lung diseases, and the researchers
found evidence that defects in RASCs might be an upstream cause of those abnormalities.

Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet

National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed that
the huge Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet is indeed the largest icy comet nucleus ever seen by
astronomers.
•This comet has an estimated diameter of almost 129 kilometres. The nucleus is around 50 times
larger than that of most known comets, and its mass is estimated to be around 500 trillion tonnes.
•The comet was discovered by astronomers Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein in archival
images from the Dark Energy Survey at an astronomical observatory in Chile. It was discovered by
chance in November 2010 and has been intensively studied since.
•The Bernardinelli-Berstein comet has been travelling towards the sun for over a million years and it
is believed to have originated in the Oort Cloud, a distant region of the solar system that is predicted
to be the source of most comets.
•The Oort Cloud is still only a theoretical concept as the comets that constitute it are too faint and
distant to be directly observed. It was first hypothesised by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in 1950.
•The Bernardinelli-Berstein comet follows a 3-million-year-long elliptical orbit and has an estimated
temperature of minus 348 degrees Fahrenheit – warm enough to sublimate carbon monoxide from the
surface to produce the dusty coma.
•It is unlikely that the Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet can become a threat to the earth. It is travelling
at a speed of 22,000 miles per hour from the edge of the solar system towards us, but it will never get
closer than one billion miles away from the sun. That is a little farther than the planet Saturn, and
even this situation is not likely to occur till 2031
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