1. NATIONAL MISSION FOR CLEAN GANGA (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 - Gov. Initiative)

Context: The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), which implements Centre’s flagship Namami Gange scheme, has signed a Memorandum of Common Purpose (MoCP) with the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI).

National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG):

• About: It is a society under the Societies Registration Act 1860.
• Formation: It was formed to act as implementation arm of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) which was constituted under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA),1986, and was established to address pollution challenges in the Ganga River.

oNGRBA has since been dissolved with effect from the 7th October 2016, consequent to constitution of National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga (referred as National Ganga Council).

• NMCG - Organizational Structure:

oNational level: Two-tier management structure and consists of: The Governing Council and Executive Committee.

oAt the state level: State Programme Management Groups (SPMGs): Act as the implementing arm.

• Implementation: It is undertaken across three phases: Entry level, medium term and long term activities.

Namami gange programme

• Aim: It is an integrated umbrella programme, aimed to ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of river Ganga and its tributaries by adopting a river basin approach.
• Implementation: It was inaugurated in June 2014.
• Two objectives: Conservation and rejuvenation of Ganga.

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2. PRIVATE MEMBERS BILL Syllabus GS Paper 2 - Polity)

Context: Recently, a discussion was started in the Parliament on a private member’s Bill to amend the Constitution demanding a system to fix the accountability of Governors.

Private Member’s Bill

• About: The Bills introduced by private members are referred to as private member’s Bills and those introduced by ministers are called government Bills.
• Introduction: A Private Member’s Bill can be introduced in either the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha.
• Admission of a Private Bill - is decided by the Chairperson in the case of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker in the case of the Lok Sabha.
• Parliamentary Committee

oLok Sabha: It has a special Parliamentary Committee on Private Member's Bills and Resolutions, with 15 members, and the Deputy speaker as its Chairperson.

oRajya Sabha does not have such a committee, however, the same function is performed by its Business Advisory committee.

• Private member: Any Member of Parliament, who is not a minister, is referred to as a private member. Both private members and ministers take part in the law-making process.
• Private member Bill (Status): Only 14 private member bills (5 introduced in Rajya Sabha) have become laws since the first Lok Sabha in 1952. No private member’s Bill has been passed by Parliament since 1970.

oFirst private member bill to become a law was the Muslim Wakfs Bill, 1952, passed in 1954.

oLast Private Member bill passed was Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Bill, 1968.

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3. BIOFORTIFICATION (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Sci and Tech)

Context: Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare recently informed the Parliament that since 2014, 142 biofortified varieties have been developed under aegis of the ICAR and they don’t have any impact on ecological conditions especially on soil and water.

Biofortification:

• About: It is the process of improving the nutritional quality of food crops. This can be achieved through agronomic practices, conventional breeding or biotechnology-based approaches like genetic engineering and genome editing. Ex: Golden Rice.
• Types:

oAgronomic biofortification: It describe the biofortification method in which deliberate application of mineral fertilization is carried out to increase the concentration of the desired micronutrients in the edible part of the crop to increase dietary intake.

oConventional breeding: It is a process of development of new varieties of crops by using older techniques and natural processes without using the latest molecular plant biological tools.

oTransgenic breeding: It refers to the genetic improvement of crop plants in relation to various economic traits useful for human beings by means of genetic engineering tools.

oGenetic engineering: It is a process of using the recombinant DNA technology to alter the genetic make-up of an organism.

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  Genetic modification (GM) technology
• About: It allows the transfer of genes for specific traits between species. It embeds a new trait which does not occur naturally in the species using laboratory techniques.
• In India: GEAC cleared the cultivation of BT cotton in 2002. This is the only GM crop approved for cultivation in India till date. 
• Approval: In India, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is the apex body that allows for the commercial release of GM crops. 

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4. CARBON TAX (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Environment)

Context: Commerce and Industry Minister of India recently said that the government will address the issue of the European Union’s plan to impose carbon tax on some imports. It is mainly known as carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).

Carbon tax:

• Meaning: It is a tax levied on the carbon emissions required to produce goods and services.

oCarbon taxes are intended to make visible the "hidden" social costs of carbon emissions, which are otherwise felt only in indirect ways like more severe weather events. 

oIt is a form of ‘pollution tax’.

• Purpose: To reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing prices of the fossil fuels that emit them when burned. 
• History and Rationale: David Gordon Wilson first proposed this type of tax in 1973.
• Design: A carbon tax involves two primary factors: the level of the tax, and the use of the revenue.

Carbon leakage:

• About: It happens when the regulation of emissions in one country/sector pushes those emissions to other places that with less regulation.

oLeakage effects can be both negative (i.e., increasing the effectiveness of reducing overall emissions) and positive (reducing the effectiveness of reducing overall emissions).

oNegative leakages, which are desirable, can be referred to as "spill-over".

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5. CLIMATE CHANGE PERFORMANCE INDEX (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Environment)

Context: The report Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2024, was recently release during the COP28 session.

Climate Change Performance Index, 2024

• Released by: German watch, New Climate Institute and Climate Action Network Europe.
• About: It is an annual report that has been prepared since 2005 with the involvement of nearly 450 climate and energy experts, assesses each country’s performance in four categories:

o(1) GHG Emission (40%)

o(2) Renewable Energy (20%)

o(3) Energy Use(20%) 

o(4) Climate Policy (20%).

• Ranking: No country has occupied the first three ranks.

oDenmark retained the top spot followed by Estonia and the Philippines.

oIndia: India has been ranked 7th , an improvement of one spot over last year’s performance when it was ranked eighth.

üOf the four indices considered, India was ranked 9th in GHG Emissions and 10th in Energy Use among assessed countries; 10th in Climate Policy and 37th in Renewable Energy.

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6. MONETARY POLICY COMMITTEE (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Economy)

Context: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s last monetary policy of the calendar struck a happy rate by increasing its growth forecast to 7% even as it signalled that it is completely in control of the inflation tolerance.

Monetary Policy Committee 

• About: It is body created in 2016, responsible for fixing the benchmark interest rate in India.

oIts meeting are held at least four times a year (specifically, at least once a quarter) and it publishes its decisions after each such meeting.

oThe committee is answerable to the government of India if the inflation exceeds the range prescribed for three consecutive quarters.

• First proposed by: The Urjit Patel Committee.
• Members: The committee comprises six members – three officials of the Reserve Bank of India and three external members nominated by the government of India.

oThey need to observe a "silent period" seven days before and after the rate decision for "utmost confidentiality".

oThe governor of the Reserve Bank of India is the chairperson ex officio of the committee. 

• Decisions: It is taken by majority with the governor having the casting vote in case of a tie.
• The current mandate: To maintain 4% annual inflation until 31 March 2026 with an upper tolerance of 6% and a lower tolerance of 2%.

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7. GLOBAL VOYAGE2050 PROJECT (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Env and Eco)

Context: India has been selected as pioneer lead country for International Maritime Organization (IMO) Green Voyage2050 Project, with the objective to assist developing countries in their efforts to reduce Green House Gases (GHG) emissions from ships.

Green Voyage2050 Project

• About: It is a partnership project  between the Government of Norway and IMO.
• Launched in: May 2019.
• Aim: To transform the shipping industry towards a lower carbon future, to spur global efforts to demonstrate and test technology solutions. 
• Initiative: The global partnership is supporting developing countries, including Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), in meeting their commitment towards relevant climate change and energy efficiency goals, for international shipping, through supporting the Initial IMO GHG Strategy.

oPrivate sector participation is achieved through enhancing the existing Global Industry Alliance to Support Low Carbon Shipping with new partners from the maritime sector. 

International Maritime Organization (IMO)

• About: It is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating shipping.
• Established in 1948 (came into force: 1959)
• Members: 174 member and 3 associate members;
• HQ - London, UK
• IMO’s primary purpose - to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping. Its remit today includes safety, environmental concerns, legal matters, technical cooperation, maritime security and the efficiency of shipping.

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8. GENE EDITING (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Science and Technology)

Context: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a pair of gene therapies for sickle cell disease, including the first treatment based on the breakthrough Crispr gene editing technology.

• The Crispr gene therapy uses the breakthrough gene editing technology that won its inventors the Nobel Prize in 2020.

Genome editing (also called gene editing)

• About: A group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA. These technologies allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome.
• Approach: A well-known approach to genome editing is called CRISPR-Cas9, which is short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9.

oThe CRISPR-Cas9 system is faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient than other genome editing methods.

Sickle cell disease

• About: It is one of a group of inherited disorders known as sickle cell disease.
• Cause: It is caused by a change in the gene that tells the body to make the iron-rich compound in red blood cells called haemoglobin.
• Symptoms: Extreme tiredness or irritability due to anaemia, painful swelling of hands and feet, and jaundice in the early stages.
• Treatment: Blood transfusions alleviate anaemia and lower pain crisis risk.

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9. ANTARCTICA (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – IR)

Context: It’s 40 years since India became permanent resident of Antarctica.

• The Tricolour was unfurled in Antarctica in January 1982 but India did not have a permanent base there till its third expedition arrived in December 1983 and set up buildings where scientists could live year-round.

Antarctica

• About: It is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean).

oIt contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, being about 40% larger than Europe.

• Regulation: It is governed by about 30 countries, all of which are parties of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System.

oProhibited activates: Military activity, mining, nuclear explosions, and nuclear waste.

oAllowed activities: Tourism, fishing and research.

India’s research stations

• In Arctic: Himadri - located at Ny Alesund, Spitsbergen Island, Norway, IndARC - India's first underwater observatory at Svalbard, Norway.
• In Antarctic: Two operational research stations - Maitri (Commissioned in 1989) and Bharati (Commissioned in 2012)

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10. ADITYA L1 MISSION Syllabus GS Paper 3 - Sci & Tech)

Context: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) recently said that the first ever full-disk images of the Sun had been captured by India’s Aditya-L1 Mission.

Aditya-L1 Mission  

• About: It is the country’s first dedicated solar mission. It is a fully indigenous effort with the participation of national institutions.

oChina, Japan, the US and European countries have similar missions that investigate solar flares, coronal mass ejections and the sun’s magnetic fields.

• Aim: The mission aims to study the Sun from a halo orbit around first Sun-earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from Earth.

oLagrange points are positions in space where objects sent there tend to stay put. At Lagrange points, the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them.

oThere are five points in any two-body system like this, where the net of all these forces is zero. Among the five Lagrange points, L1 is the most favoured to get an unhindered view of the Sun. 

• Payloads: The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors.

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