Prelim Bits 29-03-2024 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications

• M2M is a broad label that can be used to describe any technology that enables networked devices to exchange information and perform actions without the manual assistance of humans.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) facilitate the communication between systems, allowing them to make their own autonomous choices.
• M2M uses a device to capture an event, which is relayed through a network to an application that translates the captured event into meaningful information.
• Applications – Smart home meters, vehicle telemetry services, asset tracking, wearable technologies, and automated supply chain management (SCM).

Embedded SIM

Electronic SIM (eSIM)

• An embedded SIM is a SIM card that cannot be removed from a device.
• Traditional SIM cards are made so that they can easily be swapped out of a phone, so that core service information can get ported from one physical device to another.
• With an embedded SIM, the chips are made to allow for information switching, so that the actual physical chip would not get removed from the device.
• When using embedded SIM, customers would not need to order replacement SIM cards and physically integrate them into their phones.
• The idea is that manufacturers would use the same SIM card across the industry.
• However, embedded SIM cards include less customer freedom to adjust the device from one provider to another.

• eSIM is a hardware that runs an application called eUICC, which has storage to hold multiple SIM profiles at the same time (but only one can be active), and can be provisioned remotely, over the air (OTA).
• eSIM is a SIM that can load new carrier profiles digitally, over the air, which means one no longer need to physically swap SIM cards in their devices.
• The profiles stored on an eSIM can be modified remotely, through software and API calls, without needing to physically swap SIMs.
• An eSIM can hold multiple SIM profiles at the same time, which can give a device access to multiple completely different carriers, however, only one SIM can be active at a time.

Ocean Currents

• They are made up of horizontal and vertical components of the circulation system of ocean waters that is produced by gravity, wind friction, and water density variation in different parts of the ocean.
• They are similar to winds in the atmosphere that transfer significant amounts of heat from Earth’s equatorial areas to the poles and thus play important roles in determining the climates of coastal regions.
• In addition, ocean currents and atmospheric circulation influence one another.

Surface Currents

Deep Ocean Currents

• Large-scale surface ocean currents are driven by global wind systems that are fueled by energy from the sun.
• These currents transfer heat from the tropics to the Polar Regions, influencing local and global climate.
• The warm Gulf Stream originating in the tropical Caribbean, for instance, carries about 150 times more water than the Amazon River.
• The current moves along the U.S. East Coast across the Atlantic Ocean towards Europe.
• The heat from the Gulf Stream keeps much of Northern Europe significantly warmer than other places equally as far north.

• Differences in water density, resulting from the variability of water temperature and salinity, also cause ocean currents.
• This process is known as thermohaline circulation.
• In cold regions, ocean water loses heat to the atmosphere and becomes cold and dense.
• When ocean water freezes, forming sea ice, salt is left behind causing surrounding seawater to become saltier and denser.
• Surface water flows in to replace the sinking water, which in turn becomes cold and salty enough to sink.
• This global set of ocean currents is a critical part of Earth’s climate system as well as the ocean nutrient and carbon dioxide cycles.

Quick Facts

Air Quality Index (AQI)

• AQI is a number used to communicate to the public how polluted the air currently is or how polluted it is forecasted to become.
• As AQI increases, an increasingly large percentage of the population is likely to experience increasingly adverse health effects.
• Different countries have their own air quality indexes, corresponding to different national air quality standards.
• The AQI is most commonly used to describe ground-level ozone levels.
• However, the AQI can be used to represent five pollutants that pose a threat to human health.
• These pollutants are:
  1. Ground-level Ozone or O3
  2. Particulate Matter (soot and dust) or PM
  3. Carbon Monoxide or CO
  4. Sulphur Dioxide or SO2
  5. Nitrogen Dioxide or NO2

System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR)

• SAFAR is an exceptional program to reduce air pollution in India and to improve the air quality index of metropolitan cities.
• SAFAR is the first advanced air quality early warning system in India, introduced by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
• SAFAR provides location specific information on air quality in near real time and it is forecasted upto 3 days in India.
• SAFAR was developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.

Quick Facts

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI)

• IRDAI is a government apex body responsible for regulation and developing the insurance industry in India.
• It was constituted as a statutory body as per the provisions of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act 1999.
• The body was crated on the recommendations of the Malhotra Committee Report.
• All the companies wanting to run the insurance business in India are to be registered with the IRDAI.

Other Important Topics

Anthrax

Thailand recently gives warning after anthrax outbreak in Laos.

• It is a serious infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis.
• It is also known as malignant pustule or woolsorter’s disease.
• It occurs naturally in soil and commonly affects domestic and wild animals around the world.
• It is a zoonotic disease, meaning that it is naturally transmissible from animals (usually vertebrae) to humans.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved 2 vaccines, BioThrax and Cyfendus, to prevent disease.

Kuttanad wetland system

• Kuttanad is a delta region situated in the west coast of Kerala.
• The Kuttanad Below Sea-level Farming System (KBSFS) is the only system in India that practices rice cultivation below sea level.
• The rice fields, which are popularly known as "Puncha Vayals" exist in 3 landscape elements:
  1. Karapadam (upland rice fields)
  2. Kayal (wetland rice fields)
  3. Kari (land buried with black coal like materials)
• The KWS is part of the larger Vembanad Kol wetland ecosystem, which is a Ramsar Site.

CoViNet

CoViNet a network of global laboratories to identify and monitor potentially novel coronavirus of public health importance, was launched by W.H.O.

• The network will address a broader range of coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV and potential new coronaviruses.
• It currently comprises of 36 laboratories from 21 countries in all 6 WHO regions including 3 Indian laboratories.

• COVID-19 was the 1^st ‘Disease X’ and it may happen again.
• Disease X represents an unidentified virus that scientists warn could be 20 times more lethal than Covid-19.

Same sex marriage in Thailand

• Thailand is set to become the 1^st nation in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.
• 1^st Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage - Taiwan (2019).
• 1^st South Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage - Nepal (2023).

Global Summit on Extreme Heat

• It is the 1^st Summit on Extreme Heat.
• Aim – To find solutions to lessen impacts of extreme heat, save lives and mitigate costs as 2023 was the hottest on record.
• Organized By – United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
• Initiatives to combat extreme heat
  1. IFRC and USAID Extreme Heat Global Action Hub
  2. Fire Grand Challenge Prize
  3. Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)
  4. Interactive Heat Exposure Projections Map
  5. Guidance on Extreme Heat for Federal Agencies Operating Overseas and United States Government Implementing Partners
  6. Toolkit for higher education, created by the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House

Abel Prize

A French mathematician, Michel Talagrand was awarded the Abel Prize.

• The Abel Prize is an international award given annually to outstanding mathematicians.
• It was established in 2002.
• It aims to recognize groundbreaking scientific achievements in mathematics and to increase the status of the field in society.
• The prize is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) and is often called the "Mathematician's Nobel Prize".
• It is awarded by Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Global Trade Update report

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) cited that the international trade is expected to rebound in 2024, reversing the 2023 downturn.

• The report was released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
• Reasons for the economic growth in 2024
  1. Overall, moderating global inflation and improving economic growth forecasts suggest a reversal of the downward trends.
  2. Additionally, rising demand for environmental goods should boost trade in 2024.
• Findings in India (on an annual basis for 2023)
  1. The export growth saw a 6% contraction.
  2. Services exports from India grew by 14%.
  3. The services sector witnessed an 8% year-on-year growth, while trade in goods experienced a 5% decline compared to 2022.
  4. The export growth saw a 6% contraction.
  5. Services exports from India saw a 14% growth in 2023.

Bahais

• Bahais are members of a religious movement that originated in Iran in the 19^th century.
• They believe that all religions come from the same source and that all people are equal, regardless of their race, gender, or nationality.
• They also believe in the oneness of humanity and devote themselves to the abolition of racial, class, and religious prejudices.
• It has no priesthood and does not observe ritual forms in its worship.

Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary

Telangana is presently grappling with forest fires in Tadvai region of Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary in Mulugu and Amrabad Tiger Reserve.

• It was declared as a wildlife reserve in 1953.
• The vegetation here is tropical dry deciduous.
• The sanctuary is bordered by the Laknavaram Lake.
• The perennial river Dayyam Vagu flows through this sanctuary.
• The sanctuary is also famous for the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara.
• Sammakka Saralamma Jatara is a tribal festival for honouring the goddesses’ Sammakka and Saralamma.

Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica)

The Javan tiger, declared extinct in 2008, recently gave hope that a single hair found on the Java island in 2019 has been DNA-tested and is found to belong to the extinct species.

• Distribution – Javan Tiger is a now extinct subspecies of tiger endemic to the island of Java in Indonesia.
• It was one of the 3 Indonesian tiger subspecies, the Javan tiger, the Bali tiger, and the Sumatran tiger, all evolved from a single tiger ancestor called the Sunda tiger.
• Distinction – Javan tigers were smaller on average, closely related Bali tigers had long, thin stripes and a narrow face.
• Habitat – They lived in tropical forests, evergreen forests, mangrove swamps, grasslands, mountains and savannahs.