UPSC Key: Water-Ice on the Moon, Wine Industry in India and India-Mauritius

Fireworks as Pradhan attacks TN govt, Stalin says watch your words

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers.

What’s the ongoing story: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin launched a blistering attack on Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, accusing him of arrogance, deception, and withholding the state’s rightful share of education funds in an escalating standoff over the National Education Policy (NEP) and the PM Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan-What happened now?

• What is PM SHRI and National Education Policy (NEP)?

• Why Tamil Nadu’s refused to implement the NEP?

• ‘Critics call the NEP an attempt to impose a uniform national curriculum at the expense of regional languages and state autonomy’—Do you agree with the same?

• What are the several concerns raised by Tamil Nadu regarding NEP?

• How does the Union Government respond to Tamil Nadu’s protest?

Key Takeaways:

• Responding to Pradhan’s remarks in the Lok Sabha — in which the Union minister accused the Tamil Nadu government of “dishonesty” and “ruining” students’ futures by taking a “U-turn” on its agreement to implement the PM SHRI scheme — Stalin fired back in a statement that cast the Centre’s stance as not just coercive but fundamentally undemocratic.

• The controversy stems from Tamil Nadu’s refusal to implement the NEP, a sweeping overhaul of India’s education system that has been opposed by several non-BJP-ruled states — including Karnataka and Kerala. Critics call the NEP an attempt to impose a uniform national curriculum at the expense of regional languages and state autonomy.

• The DMK government has been a vocal opponent of NEP since the beginning, with Stalin repeatedly branding it as an imposition of the BJP’s ideological agenda. In August 2023, he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the Centre to expedite the release of Tamil Nadu’s share under the Samagra Shiksha scheme—a central initiative supporting school education—without linking it to PM SHRI compliance.

Do You Know:

• The DMK has historically resisted attempts to introduce Hindi in Tamil Nadu’s education system, a position that gained momentum under the leadership of former Chief Minister C N Annadurai and later M Karunanidhi. Stalin has maintained that the NEP’s emphasis on Sanskrit and Hindi sidelines regional languages like Tamil, making its implementation in the state untenable.

• Tamil Nadu has an almost century-old history of anti-Hindi agitations. Unlike most other states — including southern states such as Kerala and Karnataka — it follows a two-language formula in which students are taught only Tamil and English

• Over several years, the Centre has maintained that education is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, and that the implementation of the three-language formula is the responsibility of the states.

• In 2004, then Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh of the Congress said in Parliament: “The role of the Central Government in the matter of the implementation of the three-language formula is recommendatory. Implementation of this formula is the sole responsibility of the State Governments.”

• HRD Minister Smriti Irani, of the BJP, reiterated this position in 2014, saying that it was up to the states to finalise their own curricula and syllabi.

• However, now, the Ministry of Education has linked the release of Samagra Shiksha funds to the implementation of the NEP, effectively forcing the hands of the states when it comes to their respective education policies.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Why TN, Centre are clashing over NEP’s 3-language formula

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering Similar Theme:
1. Which of the following provisions of the Constitution does India have a bearing on Education? (2012)
1. Directive Principles of State Policy
2. Rural and Urban Local Bodies
3. Fifth Schedule
4. Sixth Schedule
5. Seventh Schedule
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3, 4 and 5 only
(c) 1, 2 and 5 only
(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Presence of water-ice likely outside Moon’s polar regions as well: Chandrayaan-3 data

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies III: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

What’s the ongoing story: WATER-ICE ON the Moon could be more prevalent than understood earlier. A new analysis of data from one of the instruments aboard Chandrayaan-3 suggests that there was a good probability that water-ice was present in locations outside of the polar regions of the Moon.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is ChaSTE?

• What exactly ChaSTE revealed?

• Discuss the significance of Chandrayaan-3’s discovery of water-ice outside the Moon’s polar regions.

• Examine the role of water-ice in enabling long-term human missions on the Moon.

• How Chandrayaan-3’s discovery of water-ice outside polar regions could redefine future lunar colonization plans.

• What can be the geopolitical and economic implications of water-ice discovery on the Moon?

• How India’s space diplomacy and resource utilization policies can be strengthened in light of Chandrayaan-3’s findings.

Key Takeaways:

• Using data from Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), scientists at the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory have shown that surface and sub-surface temperatures in the higher latitudes of the Moon’s surface varied greatly with even very small changes in altitudes over a short distance.

• Inclined areas in these latitudes that were not directly facing the Sun could have environments very similar to the polar regions, and could host water-ice below the surface.

• The findings have been published in the Communications Earth and Environment journal, a Nature publication.

• A research team led by K Durga Prasad at PRL used the temperature data recorded by ChaSTE to infer the possibility of water-ice in locations similar to Shiv Shakti point where Chandrayaan-3 had landed.

• As of now, water-ice on the Moon is understood to be present only in the polar regions, particularly under the craters where the Sun’s rays are unable to reach. Chandrayaan-3 had landed around 70 degree South, closest to the lunar South Pole that any spacecraft has landed but not quite in the polar region.

Do You Know:

• ChaSTE, which is a sort of a thermometer, was the first instrument to carry out on-site temperature measurements of the Moon’s surface and sub-surface near the polar regions. Previous estimates of temperatures in these regions came from satellite measurements.

• ChaSTE had earlier revealed that there was a difference of nearly 60 degree Celsius between the temperature of the Moon’s surface, and the layer just 10 cm beneath it. This extreme non-conductivity of heat by the top layer of lunar surface shed new light about the composition and evolution of the Moon, and could have interesting practical implications like creating temperature-controlled habitats for future human visitors.

• TWO INSTRUMENTS onboard Chandrayaan-1 had confirmed the presence of water on Moon. Their observations had found strong signals of water in the polar regions, including thick deposits of water-ice. Now, Chandrayaan-3 is suggesting that the prevalence of water-ice might not
be confined to the polar regions only, and could be found in the areas immediately outside as well.

• The place where ChaSTE penetrated the surface, on a slope facing the Sun, the temperature was recorded to be 355 Kelvin (about 82 degree Celsius). Just about a metre away, where the surface was relatively flatter, another sensor onboard the Vikram lander, measured the temperature to be about 332 K (about 59 degree Celsius).

• “ChaSTE observations suggest that the lunar surface temperatures show a significant spatial variability at metre scales. The sunward (sun-facing) slopes are found to be recording much higher temperatures (~30 K or more) in comparison to flat locations or poleward (anti-Sunward) slope regions,” the study said.

• On its own, low surface temperatures are not evidence of the presence of water-ice, but do offer interesting clues for further examination. Huge temperature difference over such small distances can reveal new insights about the properties of the lunar surface and what lies beneath.

• The study said such small inclines in the high-latitude regions (60-80 degrees north or south of equator), particularly when they were not facing the Sun, could be hosting environments that were similar to the ones existing in the polar regions.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍What the first findings from ISRO’s Chandrayaan 3 mission tell us about the Moon

Previous Year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
📍What is India’s plan to have its own space station and how will it benefit our space programme? (2019)

IN PARLIAMENT

CCTVs were on, Rly safety top priority: Vaishnaw rejects Opp stampede charge

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

What’s the ongoing story: The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024 through voice vote amid a walkout by a section of Opposition members alleging attempts to hide details of the stampede at the New Delhi railway station on February 15, which left 18 people dead.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024-know key features of the bill

• Indian Railway Board Act, 1905 and Railways Act, 1989-know in brief

• How the Bill will facilitate ease of doing business and attract private investment in railways.

• Evaluate the provisions of the Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024 regarding land acquisition.

• Analyse the role of regulatory frameworks introduced under the Bill in ensuring efficient railway operations.

Key Takeaways:

• With the passage of the Bill — cleared by the Lok Sabha on December 11 last year — provisions of Indian Railway Board Act, 1905 will be repealed and incorporated into the Railways Act, 1989. The Bill will empower the Centre to make provisions pertaining to qualification, experience, tenure of appointments of the chairman and other members of the railway board and also the manner of filling up the posts.

Do You Know:

• The ‘Railways Act, 1989’ governs the functioning and administration of the Indian Railways, including provisions for organising the Railways into zones for administrative convenience. The ‘Indian Railway Board Act, 1905’ established the Railway Board as the central authority to oversee Indian Railways. Under this Act, the central government may delegate its powers and functions concerning Railways to the Board.

• The ‘Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ was introduced in the Lok Sabha. This Bill seeks to repeal the 1905 Act and integrate its provisions related to the Railway Board into the 1989 Act. According to the Bill’s Statement of Objects and Reasons, this move aims to streamline the legal framework and eliminate the need to refer to two separate laws.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Railways (Amendment) Bill a move to privatisation, says Opp

Previous Year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
2.With reference to bio-toilets used by the Indian Railways, consider the following statements: (2015)
1. The decomposition of human waste in the bio toilets is initiated by a fungal inoculum.
2. Ammonia and water vapour are the only end products in this decomposition which are released into the atmosphere.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Teach a woman to fish: How this Odisha district is empowering its residents

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Main Examination: General Studies II: Important aspects of governance

What’s the ongoing story: Currently, 2.6 lakh women from 1,199 women SHGs are engaged in sustainable pisciculture, which has been taken up over an area of 520 hectares

Key Points to Ponder:

• The women empowerment initiative in the Kendrapara district mentioned in the article primarily focuses on what?

• ‘The initiative in Kendrapara district promoting women-led fish farming is a significant step toward economic and social empowerment of women in rural areas’—discuss

• Analyse the role of fish farming in enhancing rural income, especially for women.

• What challenges do women face in adopting fish farming as a sustainable livelihood option, and how can these challenges be addressed?

• How can government policies like PM Matsya Sampada Yojana and NRLM be leveraged to further empower women in the fisheries sector?

Key Takeaways:

• When Shantilata Samal from Koranda village in Odisha’s Kendrapara district retired four years ago, she decided to turn her energies into a community venture — undertaking pisciculture with her women’s self-help group (SHG) under Mission Shakti. Formerly an integrated child development services (ICDS) supervisor, Samal now spends a significant portion of her time on the local pisciculture enterprise at the panchayat tank.

• Promoted by Suryawanshi Mayur Vikas, a 2018-batch Odisha-cadre IAS officer when he was the district collector and magistrate of the Kendrapara district, the ‘Input Assistance to WSHGs for Pisciculture in Gram Panchayat Tanks’ initiative envisions facilitating women SHG groups to collaborate with the state’s Directorate of Fisheries and undertake pisciculture in their local panchayat tanks.

• According to officials, women self-help groups are provided the necessary technical and input assistance by giving them access to bank loans. The initiative is a means to empower women by generating employment opportunities, one official said.

Do You Know:

• On March 4, Suryawanshi, currently the collector and district magistrate of Balasore, was awarded The Indian Express Excellence in Governance Award under the Gender and Inclusion category for his initiative.

• “Considering that pisciculture is a highly profitable business, we have taken the panchayat tank on lease for a period of five years from 2022. The lease amount was Rs 12,200. The district administration helped us to get quality fingerlings of popular breeds and also helped us get subsidies. We have started earning profit from the panchayat pond,” Samal told The Indian Express.

• Under the initiative, SHG members are in a supervisory role, overseeing the feeding of the fish, monitoring their growth and eventually selling them in the local market. But they also generate employment opportunities for others by engaging men from the local village for many of the tasks.

• Around 4-5 metric tonnes of fish are produced in a tank of one hectare of land annually, which helps the SHGs to earn over Rs 3 lakh every year, one official from the fisheries department said.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍A FIELD OF HER OWN

Previous Year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
📍Defining blue revolution, explain the problems and strategies for pisciculture development in India. (2018)

THE IDEAS PAGE

The dangers of delimitation

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies I: population and associated issues

• General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

What’s the ongoing story: Yogendra Yadav Writes: That would be the best way to honour the federal contract implicit in the foundation of the Indian Union

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is delimitation?

• Why are southern states nervous about delimitation?

• Explain the concept of Delimitation and the constitutional provisions related to it.

• Examine the rationale behind freezing the Lok Sabha seats in 1971.

• What are the challenges of lifting the freeze on Lok Sabha seats in India?

• Explain the concept of demographic dominance in the context of delimitation.

Key Takeaways:
Yogendra Yadav Writes:

• Delimitation is the last thing the Indian Union needs today. The resolution adopted by the all-party meet in Tamil Nadu asking to postpone delimitation by another 30 years is not just about protecting the interest of one state or one region. It is about strengthening the bonds of national unity.

• A permanent freeze on the re-allocation of parliamentary seats would help secure the Indian Union against possible challenges. The best way to honour the “federal contract” implicit in the foundation of the Indian Union would be to assume that the current distribution of Lok Sabha seats is cast in stone, as if the Constitution-makers made a sacred power-sharing compact never to be revisited.

• The current debate and the present argument are limited to one of the two components of a fresh “delimitation” of constituencies. No one has any objections to the routine exercise of redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituency boundaries within each state or to an increase in the number of assembly seats for any state. This does not affect the federal balance.

• The real issue concerns the reapportionment of seats for different states and Union Territories that was frozen 50 years ago. Should we unfreeze it? Or extend the freeze? Or go for a permanent freeze? That is what the debate is about.

Do You Know:
Yogendra Yadav Writes:

• It must be recognised that the original constitutional provision of a regular revision was based on a principle — of “one person, one vote, one value”. This democratic principle mandates that each member of a legislature must represent roughly the same number of persons. If there are serious deviations, the value of the vote in large constituencies is less than that of those in smaller constituencies.

• An analysis by Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson shows the likely result if the Lok Sabha seats are reallocated in proportion to each state’s projected population in 2026.
—In this scenario, all the South Indian states would be losers — Kerala (down eight seats) Tamil Nadu (down eight seats), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (combined loss of eight seats), Karnataka (down two seats).
—Other major losers would also be non-Hindi states: West Bengal (down four seats), Odisha (down three seats), and Punjab (down one seat). Except Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand (down one seat each), all the big gains would accrue to North Indian Hindi-speaking states: Uttar Pradesh (up 11 seats), Bihar (up 10 seats), Rajasthan (up six seats) and Madhya Pradesh (up four seats). This has the potential of seriously upsetting the already tenuous balance between Hindi and non-Hindi speaking states, especially vis-a-vis the South Indian states.

• The “Hindi heartland” that already controls 226 out of 543 seats would now have 259 seats, nearly a majority. The southern states (currently 132 seats) that can join hands with a major eastern or western state to veto any major constitutional amendment would lose this critical power under the new post-delimitation arrangement.

• Hindi speaking and non-Hindi states would be losers in one respect but gainers in another respect. A national consensus on this contract, bypassing the short-term calculus of electoral gains and losses, would be a step towards what Partha Chatterjee calls a “just republic”, the foundational principle of the Republic of India.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Delimitation & the South

Previous Year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
3.With reference to the Delimitation Commission consider the following statements: (2012)
1. The orders of the Delimitation Commission cannot be challenged in a Court of Law.
2. When the orders of the Delimitation Commission are laid before the Lok Sabha or State Legislative Assembly, they cannot effect any modification in the orders.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

GOVT & POLITICS

Grape expectations: Italy sniffs a wine opportunity in India

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Main Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

What’s the ongoing story: Wine tariffs are a key sticking point in the negotiations for an India-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA), but Italy is already betting big on the Indian market to push its premium wines.

Key Points to Ponder:

• India and Italy-Know the bilateral ties between the two countries?

• Identify the key factors driving the demand for wine in India.

• Discuss the impact of cultural and regulatory barriers on the growth of the wine industry in India.

• Grapes and Wine-Connect the dots

• Suggest policy measures to promote sustainable wine production in India and facilitate international wine trade.

• Analyse the impact of high import tariffs on imported wines on India’s wine market.

Key Takeaways:

• Italy’s flagship wine roadshow, Vinitaly, made a pitstop in New Delhi for the first time over the weekend, focusing on niche, luxury wines. It brought a host of exhibitors from the country’s top wine-producing regions, such as Apulia, Tuscany, Veneto, Campania and Abruzzo, to seek business opportunities and collaborations.

• The India leg marks a strategic initiative aimed at promoting Italian wine culture and forging connections between Italian producers and India’s growing network of importers, distributors and consumers, said the organisers.

• Trade between India and the EU has grown by around 90% in the past decade, but the FTA talks have stalled over the years due to sharp differences between India and the 27-nation bloc. The EU wants India to reduce tariffs on cars, wine, whisky and some agricultural products. The negotiations resumed in Brussels on Monday, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and EU President Ursula von der Leyen set a year-end deadline to conclude the talks.

• “Italy is the first wine producer in the world. But for Italy, wine is much more than a beverage or an economic factor. It is an integral part of Italian culture. Wine is a driver of conviviality, togetherness, good-taste and quality. Values and traits that we share with India. Wine can further foster contacts and exchanges between our peoples and countries,” the Ambassador of Italy to India, Antonio Bartoli, told The Indian Express on the sidelines of the event.

Do You Know:

• Despite concerns over high tariff rates that India applies on European wine, going up to 150%, Italy sees the Indian market, along with China, as a big window of opportunity for its signature wines.

• The story of the Indian wine industry is inextricably linked to Maharashtra’s sunny Nashik region. Dubbed as the “Napa Valley of India”, Nashik’s tryst with vineyards began around the 1970s, when farmers started experimenting with grapes as a cash crop. The experiment paid off due to factors like Nashik’s dry, semi-sandy soil; its long dry winters; easy availability of water from its 20 dams; and the short distance from consumption centres like Mumbai, Pune and others.

Alcohol consumption patterns in the country.

• While Karnataka too has reaped the benefits of grape cultivation, one of the only two states in India to do so, of 2.5 lakh hectares of vineyards in the country, around 80 per cent lie in Nashik. Just as Nashik was a pioneer when it came to grape cultivation in India, winemakers say viticulture, or the process of making wine from grapes, started in this region too.

• Around 6,000-7,000 acres in the district currently grow grapes exclusively for viticulture. Besides growing grapes and making wine, both Maharashtra and Karnataka account for 57 per cent of wine consumption in India. Of this, around 70 per cent is limited to Mumbai, Goa, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Is climate change crushing India’s growing wine industry?

UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:
4.The term ‘Old World Wines’ and ‘New World Wines’ is often used in the wine industry. Which of the following is true regarding them?
1. Old World Wines generally come from European countries.
2. New World Wines are known for more innovative and less regulated wine production methods.
3. India is classified as a New World Wine producer.
4. France, Italy, and Spain dominate the Old World Wine production.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
a) 1, 2, and 3 only
b) 2, 3, and 4 only
c) 1, 2, 3, and 4
d) 1, 3, and 4 only

EXPLAINED

Why Mauritius matters

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

What’s the ongoing story: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Mauritius Tuesday for a two-day State visit, his second since 2015. He will be the Chief Guest at Mauritius’ National Day Celebrations on March 12.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Map Work-Mauritius

• India and Mauritius-Know the background

• India and Mauritius share deep cultural and historical ties-Discuss

• Discuss the strategic importance of Mauritius in India’s ‘Security and Growth for All in the Region’ (SAGAR) policy.

• How does India’s infrastructure development in the Agalega Islands contribute to regional security?

• With growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean, critically examine how India’s partnership with Mauritius can act as a counterbalancing force to secure its maritime interests.

Key Takeaways:

• Mauritius, a strategically located island nation in the western Indian Ocean, is an important neighbour for India. A key reason for the special ties is that people of Indian-origin comprise nearly 70% of the island’s population of 1.2 million.

• In March 2015, when PM Modi visited Mauritius, India signed a Memorandum of Understanding to improve transport facilities at Agaléga island.

• This agreement said that infrastructure “for improving sea and air connectivity at the Outer Island of Mauritius will go a long way in ameliorating the condition of the inhabitants of this remote Island. These facilities will enhance the capabilities of the Mauritian Defence Forces in safeguarding their interests in the Outer Island.”

• Agaléga island is located 1,100 km north of Mauritius and is closer to the Indian southern coast. It is spread over an area of 70 sq km. In February 2024, India and Mauritius jointly inaugurated the air strip and the jetty projects.

Do You Know:

• Mauritius was once a French colony, before being taken over by the British. Under the nearly century-long French rule (in the 1700s), Indians were first brought to Mauritius from the Puducherry region to work as artisans and masons. Under British rule, about half a million Indian indentured workers came to Mauritius between 1834 and the early 1900s. About two-thirds of these workers settled in Mauritius.

• Even the National Day has an interesting Indian connection. Mahatma Gandhi had briefly stopped in Mauritius on his way to India from South Africa in 1901. He gave the Indian workers three transformative messages: the importance of education, political empowerment, and staying connected with India. Thus, as tribute to Gandhi, the National Day of Mauritius is celebrated on March 12, the date of the Mahatma’s Dandi march.

• Mauritius was among the first few countries with which independent India established diplomatic relations in 1948. Since its independence from the British in 1968, Mauritius has mainly been ruled by two major political families, the Ramgoolams (Seewoosagur Ramgoolam and his son, Navin) and the Jugnauths (Anerood Jugnauth and son, Pravind). Navin Ramgoolam, who won the elections last year, has been the PM of Mauritius twice before (from 1995 to 2000, and from 2005 to 2014).

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India and the geopolitics of Mauritius: The ‘Star and Key’ to the Indian Ocean

HOW A GENE-EDITED BANANA MAY HELP REDUCE FOOD WASTE

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General Science

Main Examination: General Studies III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

What’s the ongoing story: Brown, over-ripe bananas often end up in dustbins, even when they are perfectly edible. This has led to scientists developing a new genetically-engineered banana which has a longer shelf-life, and does not brown as much.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Why do bananas turn brown?

• Ethylene and Banana-Connect the dots

• How was a non-browning banana produced?

• India has a significant stake in achieving food security, reducing food wastage, and enhancing crop productivity. How can gene-editing technology in crops like bananas, tomatoes, and wheat transform India’s agriculture sector?

Key Takeaways:

• Tropic, the UK-based biotech company which has developed these bananas, claims that their fruit remains fresh and yellow for 12 hours after being peeled, and is also less likely to turn brown when bumped during harvesting and transportation.

• Bananas are extremely perishable, with some estimates saying that as much as 50% of the crop goes to waste each year. A UK government
survey from 2017 suggests that British people bin roughly 1.4 million edible bananas every day, The Guardian reported.

• This is financially wasteful and harmful for the environment. Food waste is a major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are causing global warming. Preventing bananas from browning may reduce food waste by encouraging people to eat older but edible fruit.

• According to the company’s press-release, “Tropic’s non-browning bananas… can support a reduction in CO2 emissions equivalent to removing 2 million passenger vehicles from the road each year”.

Do You Know:

• Bananas boast a colourful life cycle — they start at a deep green, change to a delicious yellow, and end (if not consumed beforehand) at an unappetising brown. These changes are a product of their ripening process, which is caused by a hormone called ethylene.

• Although many fruits produce ethylene, bananas produce a lot of it. And unlike melons and citrus fruits, they keep producing ethylene even after being harvested. Contact with ethylene triggers the activity of a number of genes, including one which linked to the production of the enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO).

• It is this enzyme that makes bananas turn brown. PPO coming in contact with oxygen breaks down the yellow pigment in bananas to a brown hue. Bruising of the fruit — as is common during its handling — leads to the production of higher quantities of ethylene, and thus speeds up the ripening and browning process.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Why you must stop throwing the strings in a banana

 When our ancestors started using tools: the theories and the evidence

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World

What’s the ongoing story: Our ancient ancestors were using bone tools at least 1.5 million years ago, roughly a million years earlier than was previously thought, a study published last week in the journal Nature reported.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Discuss the significance of stone tool usage in human evolution.

• How did the transition from Oldowan to Acheulean tools mark a cognitive and technological leap in human history?

• The development of stone tools by early humans not only signifies technological advancement but also reflects social, cognitive, and cultural evolution—Elaborate

• Explain how the archaeological evidence of tool usage provides insight into human migration patterns, cognitive development, and social evolution.

• “The emergence of Acheulean tools marked the beginning of the cognitive revolution in human history.” Critically analyse this statement

Key Takeaways:

• The earliest known stone tools are even older, dating to 3.3 million years ago. These dates are based on prehistoric tools that have survived into the present. Our ancestors were likely using wooden tools just as long ago, although none have endured the vagaries of time. The earliest evidence for the use of wood dates back to only 700,000 years ago.

• Experts today suggest that our ape-like ancestors might have been using sticks and stones in their daily lives millions of years prior to what the oldest tools can be dated to. This means that tool technology predates the emergence of our genus, Homo, and that it is not a uniquely human trait, as was long believed.

• British palaeoanthropologist Kenneth Oakley in the late 1940s identified tool-use and toolmaking as uniquely human traits which implied “a marked capacity for conceptual thought”.

• In his influential book, Man the Tool-Maker (1949), Oakley wrote: “The real difference between what we choose to call an ape and what we call man is one of mental capacity.”

• While Oakley acknowledged that other species may also use things in nature as tools, he said that “to conceive the idea of shaping a stone or stick for use in an imagined future eventuality is beyond the mental capacity of any known apes”

Do You Know:

• In 1964, British-Kenyan palaeoanthropologist Louis Leakey and his colleagues proposed that a collection of roughly 1.7 million-years-old fossils discovered at the Olduvai Gorge (present-day Tanzania) belonged to a new species within our own genus. He named this species Homo habilis, or the “handy/able man”, due to its presumed ability to make tools.

• This assessment was based on the discovery of certain cranial bones which indicated a large brain size, hand bones that indicated dexterity needed for toolmaking, and an assortment of stone tools that were found at the site. Notably, Leakey insisted that these fossils belonged to the genus Homo because toolmaking was a uniquely human trait.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: What a skull tells us about human evolution

Previous Year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
5.The word ‘Denisovan’ is sometimes mentioned in media in reference to (2019)
a) fossils of a kind of dinosaurs
b) an early human species
c) a cave system found in North-East India
d) a geological period in the history of Indian subcontinent

THE WORLD

Former central banker Carney to lead Canada; faces Trump, tariffs & polls

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

What’s the ongoing story: Former central banker Mark Carney on Sunday (March 9) won the leadership election for Canada’s Liberal Party, with 86 percent of the vote. He will now take over as Canada’s Prime Minister, following Justin Trudeau’s resignation in January.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Who is Mark Carney?

• Discuss the role of Mark Carney in shaping the post-crisis financial landscape, especially with reference to Quantitative Easing (QE) and Basel III regulations.

• “The appointment of Mark Carney as the head of Canada raises hopes of a stable economic future, but challenges like US protectionism and climate change policy persist.”—Discuss

• Discuss the major economic challenges that Canada may face under Carney’s leadership.

• Critically examine the impact of US tariffs on Canada and how Carney could potentially navigate these challenges.

Key Takeaways:

• Carney’s ascent comes at a trying time for Canada as it battles an unprecedented trade war with its longtime ally and neighbour, the United States. Under President Donald Trump, the US has imposed tariffs on Canada and threatened to annex Canada as the “51st state” of the US. In his victory speech, Carney acknowledged US actions and said, “The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country. If they succeed, they will destroy our way of life.”

• The former governor of the central banks of Canada and England vowed to uphold the retaliatory C$30 billion worth of tariffs instituted by Trudeau on American imports to Canada, until “the Americans show us some respect”. Carney’s election also marks the first time a political outsider has become the Canadian Prime Minister.

Do You Know:

• Carney’s election has effected a “Lazarus-like” revival in the Liberal camp, according to The Economist.

• After 10 years with Justin Trudeau at the helm, the party’s popularity plummeted amid widespread discontent about the increase in unemployment and inflation, as well as a housing crisis. Calls for Trudeau to step down were heightened over the last year with party backbenchers petitioning for his resignation last October, and the exit of the New Democratic Party from the minority coalition government a month earlier.

• The next parliamentary election must be held by October 2025, but this will likely be called sooner.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍‘America is not Canada’: Mark Carney, set to be new Canada PM, says retaliatory tariff measures to remain until US commits to free trade

 

PRELIMS ANSWER KEY

1. (d) 2.(d) 3.(c) 4.(c) 5.(b)

  

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