04 November 2022

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – Stubble Burning: GS III – Topic Environment Conservation

Context:

• Bhupender Yadav, the union environment minister, forecasted that the National Capital Region’s (NCR) air quality would deteriorate to “severe” levels. He asserted that Punjab had “formally rejected” to employ the biodecomposer spray intended to assist farmers in managing their paddy straw, in defiance of its obligations to lessen stubble burning.

What causes stubble to burn?

• Due to the short window of time between rice harvest and wheat sowing, farmers typically prepare fields for wheat sowing around November.
• Carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide are only a few of the toxic gases and particles that burning produces.

Why do farmers choose to burn their branches and twigs?

• They don’t have any other options that would let them use them well.
• Farmers are ill-equipped to handle rubbish because they cannot afford the expensive technology that is available to treat the waste material.
• Farmers may be persuaded to burn their fields in an effort to save money and avoid investing in scientific methods of managing stubble if they have less income as a result of crop loss.

Benefits:

• It swiftly cleans up the field and is the most affordable option.
• eliminates weeds, especially those that are herbicide-resistant.
• Pests such as slugs and others are eliminated.
• can lessen nitrogen scarcity.

Consequences:

• Burning open stubble causes the emission of dangerous pollutants into the atmosphere, including as methane (CH4), carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (CO). They could eventually contribute to pollution.
• Fertility of the soil: Burning husk on the ground depletes the soil’s nutrients and reduces its fertility.
• Heat Penetration: When stubble burns, heat is produced, permeating the soil and destroying beneficial microorganisms while also causing moisture loss.

Stubble Burning’s substitutes include the following:

• Paddy straw-powered power plants should be promoted. Furthermore, it will generate job prospects.
• Crop wastes can increase the moisture in the soil and encourage the growth of soil microorganisms, both of which are beneficial to plant growth.
• To produce enriched organic manure, the leftover leftovers can be composted.
• The scientific investigation may examine fresh possibilities for industrial use, such as the extraction of yeast protein.

In view of the observations made by the Supreme Court, what should be done?

• It is feasible to offer rewards for refraining from beard burning and punishment for doing so.
• The current Minimum Support Price (MSP) Scheme must be interpreted in such a way that the impacted States are permitted to completely or partially withhold the benefit of MSP to those who continue to burn agricultural waste.

Example of Chattisgarh:

• In an experimental move, the Chhattisgarh government created the Gauthans.
• Each town has a gauthan, a five-acre plot where all the leftover stubble is collected through parali daan (donations from the public) and transformed into organic fertiliser by mixing it with cow manure and a few natural enzymes.
• The programme may help young people in rural areas obtain employment.
• The government pays the transportation expenses to get the parali from the farm to the adjacent gauthan.
• It has been successful for the state to produce 2,000 gauthans.

Source The Hindu

 2 – Monetary Policy Committee: GS III – Topic Indian Economy

Context:

• The first-ever inflation goal miss that necessitates a letter to the government will be discussed at an emergency meeting of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee (MPC) on Thursday.

About the monetary policy:

• The employment of monetary instruments under the central bank’s supervision to accomplish the objectives outlined in the Act is known as monetary policy.
• The basic goal of the RBI’s monetary policy is to preserve price stability while keeping growth in mind.
• A critical prerequisite for sustainable growth is price stability.
• The Indian government and Reserve Bank are obligated to deliberate on the inflation target (4% + 2%) once every five years in accordance with the revised RBI Act of 1934.

About MPC:

• The Finance Act (India) of 2016 amended the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 to create the MPC.
• With the help of instruments like the repo rate, reverse repo rate, bank rate, and cash reserve ratio, it is entrusted with setting monetary policy (CRR).
• In accordance with Section 45ZB of the RBI Act as revised in 1934, it was established by the Central Government of India.

Functions:

• The MPC is in charge of choosing the different policy rates, such as the MSF, Repo Rate, Reverse Repo Rate, and Liquidity Adjustment Facility.

MPC’s composition:

• Six people will make up the committee. Three of the six candidates will be presented by the government. The MPC won’t have any government representatives present.
• The governor would serve as the ex-officio chairperson, and the other three members would be from the RBI. Members will include both the central bank’s executive director and the deputy governor in charge of monetary policy at the RBI.

Choosing the members and terms:

• The Search-cum-Selection Committee, which would choose the government’s nominees to the MPC, would be composed of the Cabinet Secretary, the RBI Governor, the Economic Affairs Secretary, and three experts in economics, banking, finance, and monetary policy.
• Members of the MPC are appointed for four-year terms and are not eligible for reappointment.

How do decisions get made?

• Each member has one vote, and decisions are made by majority vote.
• The chairman of the committee will be the governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The governor will have a casting vote in the event of a tie, but he or she will not be able to overturn the choices made by the other panellists.

 Source The Hindu

 3 – Black Sea: GS I – Topic Geography

Context:

• Russia rejoined the Black Sea Grain Agreement on Wednesday, allaying worries about yet another interruption to the world’s food supply networks. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has previously declared that while Moscow would postpone its participation in the pact, it would not leave it.

About:

• The Black Sea is an outlying sea of the Atlantic Ocean.
• Between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, it is situated in the middle.
• The Black Sea is surrounded by six nations: Turkey to the south, Romania to the west, Ukraine to the east, Russia to the east, and Ukraine to the north.
• Through the Turkish Straits and the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea finally empties into the Mediterranean Sea.
• It is connected to the tiny Sea of Marmara by the Bosporus Strait, which is itself connected to the Aegean Sea by the Strait of the Dardanelles.
• The Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov in the north.

Merconic Basin:

• The largest body of water in the world with a meromictic basin is the Black Sea.
• The water layers in a meromictic lake do not combine. The higher layers of water, which receive their oxygen from the atmosphere, do not mix with the deeper seas.
• As a result, anoxic water makes up around 90% of the volume of the deeper Black Sea. Areas of groundwater, freshwater, or ocean water that lack dissolved oxygen are referred to as anoxic waters.
• As a result, the anoxic layer is responsible for the preservation of historic shipwrecks discovered in the Black Sea.

Source The Hindu

 4 – RISAT 2 Satellite: GS III – Topic Science and Technology

Context:

• The RISAT-2 satellite, which ISRO launched in 2009, unexpectedly re-entered the atmosphere.
• The 300 kg RISAT-2 satellite conducted an unforeseen re-entry on October 30 in the Indian Ocean near Jakarta, the space agency reported on Thursday.
• On October 30, 2022, at 00:06 UTC, the satellite, which only weighted around 300 kg, made an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, impacting in the Indian Ocean not far from Jakarta.

Details about the satellite RISAT-2B:

• It will take the place of the RISAT-2, which was used to monitor activity in camps in Pakistan and hinder terrorist border crossing attempts. It has a five-year minimum life duration.
• India has launched three RISAT satellites into low-Earth orbit over the previous ten years, including this one (557 kilometres).
• The RISAT-2B X-band synthetic aperture radar can be used to identify the size, structure, velocity, and change of objects on Earth.
• The data will be incorporated with the optical remote sensing data now being collected by traditional satellites
• For the military, agricultural predictions, and disaster relief organisations, the information from this satellite is essential.

Source The Hindu