Prelim Bits 18-10-2023 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs

Marine Cloud Brightening

Australia’s Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program is exploring whether cloud brightening could reduce coral bleaching.

• Cloud brightening is a phenomenon that occurs when aerosols are injected into clouds by natural events such as volcanic eruptions.
• Marine Cloud Brightening – Also called as cloud whitening or cloud brightening, it was originally proposed by John Latham in 1990 to control global warming by altering Earth’s energy balance.
• It is a solar geo-engineering technique that involves spraying sea salt into low-lying clouds to increase the reflectance of cloud cover that will reduce the amount of incoming solar radiation striking the surface.
• Spraying large quantities of microscopic seawater droplets will create extra droplets and make the cloud brighter.
• Sea salt scatters light directly and provides additional shade.
• Significance – It is a way to shield parts of ocean (absorbs approximately 93% of incident solar radiation) from extreme heat.
• Modelling studies suggest that it could delay the expected decline in coral cover.
• It will be short-lived and reversible as sprayed particles persist in the atmosphere for few days.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates humanity’s unintentional release of aerosols offsets around 30% of the warming effect due to greenhouse gases.

References

1. The Hindu| Marine Cloud Brightening

TV- D1 Mission

ISRO is set to launch its first-ever test flight, TV-D1, for the Gaganyaan mission, marking a pivotal moment in India's pursuit of human spaceflight.

• Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) is an abort test that will evaluate the crew module's readiness for the Gaganyaan mission.
• TV- D1 features a single-stage rocket powered by liquid propellants for this mission.
• It carries payloads including the
  • Crew Module (CM)- It will take the crew to the space which is under development and is being tested.
  • Crew Escape System (CES)- In case of any damage to the rocket, the crew will have to be taken away from the rocket and saved.
• This flight simulation replicates an abort condition during the ascent trajectory, corresponding to a Mach number of 1.2, mirroring conditions in the Gaganyaan mission.

Gaganyaan envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability to an orbit of 400 km for a 3 days mission and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.

Other Modules of Gaganyaan Mission

• ECLSS - Environmental control and life support systems will be used for controlling the temperature, oxygen, wastage process, vibration, fire hazards and many other things.
• IVHMS - Integrated Vehicle Health Management System will sense an imminent failure and take abort action autonomously.

References

1. The Hindu| TV-D1 Mission

The National Programme on AI (NPAI)

7 working groups of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had submitted the 1^st edition of IndiaAI report.

• Umbrella programme by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
• Aim - For leveraging transformative technologies to foster inclusion, innovation, and adoption for social impact
• Content repository for NPAI - INDIAai (The National AI Portal of India)

• Components
  • India Datasets Platform - It will be one of the largest collections of anonymized datasets that will be used by Indian researchers to train their multi parameter models.
  • India AI Compute Platform- It is a public-private partnership project that will create substantial GPU (Graphics processing unit) capacity for our startups and researchers.
  • India AI will also support the development of AI chips in partnership with the Semicon India program.

INDIAai portal is an initiative of MeitY, National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM)

Reference

1. PIB| IndiaAI Report

Election Seizure Management System (ESMS)

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has developed Election Seizure Management System (ESMS) for real-time updates.

• A tech platform for real-time updates on seizures from the field by state and central enforcement agencies.
• Objective - To check the flow of illegal cash, drugs and freebies such as sarees, liquor etc. thereby ensuring free and fair elections
• Features –It ensures seamless coordination and intelligence sharing amongst enforcement agencies.
• It will be used for the 1^st time during the State Assembly Elections that are scheduled for November 2023 in the 5 states of Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana.
• It will also monitor action taken by Central and State enforcement agencies against such offences.
• Nodal agencies – State nodal officers, District nodal officers and flying squad teams.

Formed on 25th January 1950, ECI is a 3-member constitutional autonomous body to conduct and regulate elections to the offices of the President and Vice-President of India, Parliament, State Legislative Assemblies and Legislative Councils.

Reference

1. Financial Express| ESMS

Ethics Committee in Parliament

Recently, Lok Sabha speaker has referred a complaint against sitting Member of Parliament (MP) to the House Ethics Committee.

• Each house of the parliament have their own ethics committee.

• Functions of Ethics Committee
  • To oversee the moral and ethical conduct of the Members of Parliament.
  • To examine the cases referred to it (by Speaker in LS and by Chairman in RS) with reference to ethical and other misconduct of Members.
  • To formulate a code of conduct for members and suggest amendments to the code of conduct from time to time.
  • To tender advice to members on questions involving ethical standards either suo motu or on receiving specific requests
• Complaints of ethics – Any person can make a complaint or the committee may also take up matters suo motu.
• It may be for alleged unethical behaviour or breach of Code of Conduct by a member or alleged incorrect information.
• Punishment for malpractice – Committee can recommend imposition of one or more of the sanctions like censure, reprimand, and suspension for a specific period.

In the case of the Ethics Committee, only an MP can be examined for misconduct whereas both MPs and non- MPs can be accused of breach of privilege by the Privileges Committee.

References

1. Indian Express| Referral of complaint to Ethics Committee
2. Lok Sabha| Ethics Committee in Parliament