Essential Facts (Prelims): 2 March, 2019


Forest Fires

Category: Ecology

  • According to the scientists, forest fires have been occurring in India from at least 60,000 years ago, ever since modern humans appeared here.
  • In fact, several native trees and plants in these landscapes have “co-evolved” with fire: fire helps revive dormant seeds of many species.
  • The concept of fires being entirely detrimental to these ecosystems, argue the signatory scientists, has been derived from a colonial concept that looked at forests only for their timber potential. As a result, fire exclusion and suppression is the norm.
  • Fires even suppressing invasive species.
  • High-intensity fires would have negative effects, but they happen only because dry biomass has been allowed to build up and low-intensity controlled burning has been stopped.
  • Controlled fires in areas that have huge fuel loads (dry litter and biomass on the forest floor) can help prevent as well as reduce the impact of large fires later in the season.
  • If an area is continuously protected from fire, it could catch fire once in four years or so because of the high accumulation of grass, wood and twigs.

Palghar earthquake

Category: Physical geography

  • Palghar district in Maharashtra, which has seen thousands of small earthquakes since November 2018, experienced a quake measuring 4.3 on the moment magnitude (Mw) scale.
  • This is the first time the magnitude has crossed 4 here, with tremors felt even in Mumbai.
  • Scientists, however, are divided on the primary cause of this phenomenon. Some believe it is related to groundwater levels, and others attribute it to tectonic activity.
  • If high groundwater is the cause, the quakes may remain small. This phenomenon, called hydro-seismicity, is common across the Deccan plateau.
  • However, another hypothesis is that intra-plate tectonic forces could be generating stresses along faults in Palghar. Such a mechanism is believed to be behind the 1993 Latur earthquake.
  • If intra-plate activity is the cause, Palghar could see larger, more destructive quakes.
  • Till a while ago, seismologists believed the driver behind the Palghar activity was hydroseismicity. In this phenomenon, rainwater enters the existing faults in the earth’s crust. This increases pressure, which is released through small earthquakes.
  • Such earthquakes typically measure less than 4 Mw and subside by December. They are also very shallow, typically emerging from within 4-5 km underground. In contrast, the Palghar quakes have continued into February, indicating that tectonic activity is at play. Also, a few of the temblors originated from 15 km underground, deeper than most hydroseismic quakes.

Manufacturing PMI

Category: Economy

  • Manufacturing activity expanded to a 14-month high of 54.3 in February.
  • A reading over 50 denotes an expansion in activity and one below 50 shows a contraction.

Pulses MSP

Category: Agriculture

  • India’s minimum support price (MSP) programme for pulses has come under greater scrutiny at the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the US, Canada and Australia serving it a formal counter-notification, alleging that the subsidy involved was much higher than the permitted cap.
  • Defending itself at the agriculture committee meeting this week in Geneva, India said the calculations of MSP made by the US and Canada were incorrect and stressed that its price support programme for pulses was only to ensure nutrition supply for 195 million poor people.
  • The five pulses covered under MSP are chickpeas, pigeon peas, black matpe, mung beans and lentils. Contrary to India’s reported number of 1.5 per cent of total value of production, Canada and the US believed India’s MPS (market price support) for pulses was actually between 31-85 per cent, vastly exceeding its de minimis limits (cap) of 10 per cent of the total value of production.
  • Although India and a number of developing countries have been demanding that food procurement subsidies should not be capped, WTO members are yet to arrive at a “permanent solution” to the problem.

Sovereign Patent Fund

Category : Economy

  • The National Electronics Policy (NEP) 2019 aims to create a Sovereign Patent Fund (SPF) — a State-led investment fund that will acquire Intellectual Property (IP) assets important to national economic objectives.
  • The fund can develop a domestic innovation ecosystem, acquire critical IP and reduce the knowledge gap, as well as help generate new businesses based on the IP assets owned by Indian corporates.
  • Through the SPF, India can have licensing deals with IP holders and secure IP for Indian manufacturing units, thus connecting technical know-how with business needs.

Quinoa

Category: Environment

 

  • Scientists in Dubai are developing crops like quinoa that can thrive in the salty soils intruding into the world’s crop lands.
  • Dubai is trying to help farmers in the Middle East and beyond earn a living from unlikely plants known as halophytes. These plants, from trendy quinoa to obscure salicornia, flourish in salty and arid environments where staple crops like wheat or rice would wither.
  • Quinoa is a protein-rich, gluten-free grain that tastes like nutty rice that grows especially well in salty soil.

Turant

Category: Economy

  • In a bid to enter the top 50 ranking in The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Index, the Customs Department has announced further reforms under the name of Turant Customs for speedy clearance of goods at air and sea ports.
  • A critical component of EoDB index rankings 2019 is the ‘Trading Across Borders’ category in which India is ranked 80, as compared with 146 in 2018. This was possible due to reforms like Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade, e-Sanchit (e-Storage and computerised handling of indirect tax documents), and Direct Port Delivery.
  • Now, under Turant Customs, one of the major changes will be in Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange System (ICES) 1.5 for clearance of imported goods after assessment and duty payment.
  • The officer concerned will now have access to a fully automated queue of Bill of Entry ready for granting clearance in ICES 1.5. This obviates the necessity of importers having to present the BoE number and date to the officer for clearance. So, the officer will be able to immediately provide clearance on the system. Turant Customs will reduce dwell-time.

 

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