Prelims & Mains

Daily Live @ 8 Am By Rahul Bhardwaj

Rahul Bhardwaj Official

https://t.me/upsc_rahulbhardwaj
GS Paper 2- International Relations:
● In this year’s Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, we, the eight
Nordic-Baltic countries, are participating in it together as
representatives of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation, the NB8.
●
● Let us join forces to protect and defend peace and stability, to
oppose aggression, to maintain a rules-based world order, and to
strengthen a world economy based on free trade, sustainability
and long-term partnerships.
●
● Our countries share a commitment to democracy and human
rights. We are all champions of an international order based on
multilateralism and international law.
●
● It is in this spirit that we pursue a very productive and deeply
valued cooperation with India which is a key country with a
long-standing democratic tradition and with which we share many
core values.
● The Nordic-Baltic cooperation with India spans fields as diverse
as innovation, green transition, maritime, health, intellectual
property rights, new technologies, space cooperation and
artificial intelligence, student exchanges, culture and tourism.
●
● Our objective for coming to India is clear: in a more
interconnected world, challenges are shared and require us to
work together.
●
● The Ukraine war affects global food and energy security, supply
chains, macro-financial stability, inflation and growth. Indeed,
the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports is especially
pernicious, given the substantial global humanitarian needs.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO,) is an
intergovernmental military alliance that was signed on 15 May
1992.

In 1992, six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth

of Independent States—Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—signed the Collective
Security Treaty (also referred to as the "Tashkent Pact" or
"Tashkent Treaty").

in 2002 those six agreed to create the Collective Security

Treaty Organization as a military alliance.
GS Paper 3
Indian Economy
Science & Technology:
● The observations made by
PAPA emphasise its
effectiveness in monitoring
space weather conditions and
its capability to detect and
analyse solar phenomena,”
the ISRO added.
● The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday said that the
Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) payload onboard the
Aditya-L1 has detected the impact of coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
●
● “Its advanced sensors have successfully detected the impact of CMEs,
including those that occurred during February 10-11, 2024,” the ISRO
said.
●
● PAPA is an energy and mass analyser designed for in-situ measurements
of solar wind electrons and ions in the low energy range.
●
● It has two sensors: the Solar Wind Electron Energy Probe (SWEEP,
measuring electrons in the energy range of 10 eV to 3 keV) and the Solar
Wind Ion Composition Analyser (SWICAR, measuring ions in the energy
range of 10 eV to 25 keV and mass range of 1-60 amu).
●
● The sensors are also equipped to measure the direction of arrival of solar
wind particles.
● The payload has been operational since December 12, 2023.
●
Aditya-L1
● India’s first solar mission, Aditya-L1 satellite will aim
to measure the solar coronal magnetic fields
regularly.
●
● It will study the sun’s outermost layers, the corona and
the chromospheres and collect data about coronal mass
ejection, which will also yield information for space
weather prediction.
●
● The seven payloads onboard the satellite are Visible
Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), Solar Ultraviolet
Imaging Telescope (SUIT), Solar Low Energy X-ray
Spectrometer (SoLEXS), High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray
Spectrometer (HEL1OS), Aditya Solar wind Particle
Experiment (ASPEX), Plasma Analyser Package For
Aditya (PAPA) and Advanced Tri-axial High Resolution
Digital Magnetometers.
 Sunspot
● A sunspot is a dark area on the sun that appears dark on the surface and
relatively cooler than the other parts.
● These sunspots have electrically charged gases that generate areas of
powerful magnetic forces.
● The gases on our sun are constantly moving which causes irregularities
in this ‘magnetic field’.
● These activities are also called ‘solar activity’. The levels of solar activity
don’t remain the same and differ from one solar cycle to another.
 Solar flares
● Solar flares are the result of changes in magnetic fields on the sunspots
that cause a huge explosion.
● These solar flares are often released into space and its radiation can
disrupt with earth’s radio communications.
● The solar flares explosion’s energy can be equivalent to a trillion ‘Little
boy’ atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
 Coronal Mass Ejections (CME)
● However, if this sunspot which can be up to 50,000 kilometres in
diameter may release a huge amount of energy which in turn will
lead to solar flares.
● These eruptions may lead to solar flares and storms. This
phenomenon is called Coronal Mass Ejections (CME).
● These flares can have a major effect on affect radio
communications, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) connectivity,
power grids, and satellites.
● Hemp is a botanical class of Cannabis sativa
cultivars grown specifically for industrial or
medicinal use.
●
● In 2017, Himachal Pradesh’s neighbour
Uttarakhand became the first State in the country
to legalise cannabis cultivation.
●
● A committee comprising lawmakers that explored
the possibility of legal cultivation of cannabis
recently recommended cultivation of cannabis for
“non-narcotic use of cannabis for medicinal,
industrial, and scientific use”.
●
● Himachal Pradesh government taking steps to
legalise cannabis (hemp) cultivation in the State
●
● Cannabis has been growing in Himachal Pradesh for decades,
and those in favour of its cultivation point out that hemp has
multiple uses ranging from phytoremediation, fibre-cloth
manufacturing, medicinal use, and use in the pulp and paper
industry.
●
● Due to the recreational use of its products as ‘charas’ and
‘ganja’, the positives of this sturdy plant has been overlooked.
●
● However, there are social concerns, especially of adolescents
and youth being drawn towards the use and abuse of cannabis
●
●
● The NDPS Act of 1985, imposes a ban on
extracting the resin and flowers from the plant,
but the law determines the method and extent of
its cultivation for medicinal and scientific
purposes.
●
● Section 10 (a) (iii) of the Act empowers the
States to make rules regarding the cultivation of
any cannabis plant, production, possession,
transport, consumption, use and purchase and
● Under India’s Narcotic
sale, and consumption of cannabis (except
Drugs and Psychotropic
charas).
● Substances (NDPS) Act
● The States are empowered to permit, by general 1985, the production,
or special order, the cultivation of hemp only for manufacture, possession,
obtaining fibre or seeds or for horticultural sale, purchase, transport,
purposes. and use of cannabis is a
punishable offence.
● The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs
(CND) voted to remove cannabis and cannabis resin
from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on
Narcotic Drugs, decades after they were first placed
on the list.
●
● With this, CND has chosen to affirm a World Health
Organisation (WHO) recommendation from 2019 to
remove cannabis from its ‘most dangerous’
category.
●
● India has voted with the majority to remove
cannabis and cannabis resin from the list of most
dangerous substances in the Convention.
●
GS Paper 2
Polity
● The Union government has modified the Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules,
2022 and notified that both gametes need not come from a married couple
in case they are certified as suffering from a medical condition. As per the
latest amendment, the couple can have a child born through surrogacy
but must have at least one gamete from the intending couple.
●
● Also, single women (widow or divorcee) undergoing surrogacy must use
self-eggs and donor sperm to avail surrogacy procedures, the notification
has said.
●
● The latest amendment comes after the Supreme Court asked why the
Centre was not taking a decision on the matter. The Union Health Ministry
has now amended the earlier rules that stated that couples undergoing
surrogacy must have both gametes from the intending couple.
●
● The District Medical Board can certify that either husband
or wife constituting the intending couple suffers from a
medical condition necessitating the use of donor gamete,
then surrogacy using donor gamete is allowed subject to
the condition.
●
● “Single women [widow or divorcee] undergoing surrogacy
must use self-eggs and donor sperm to avail surrogacy
procedures,” the notification read.
●
Rahul Bhardwaj Official

https://t.me/upsc_rahulbhardwaj