UPSC Daily Current Affairs- 15th January 2023 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Context

Swedish state-owned mining company, LKAB, announced that it has discovered more than one million tonnes of rare earth oxides in the northern area of the country.

Rare Earths Elements

• REEs or rare earth metals are a set of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table — the 15 lanthanides, plus scandium and yttrium.
  • REEs are classified as light RE elements (LREE) and heavy RE elements (HREE).
• These metals tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanides, and have similar chemical properties.
• The 17 rare earths are:
  • cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), and yttrium (Y).

Uses

• These elements are important in technologies of consumer electronics, computers and networks, communications, clean energy, advanced transportation, healthcare, environmental mitigation, and national defence, among others.
• Scandium is used in televisions and fluorescent lamps, and yttrium is used in drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.
• Rare earth elements are used in space shuttle components, jet engine turbines, and drones.
  • Eg., Cerium is essential to NASA’s Space Shuttle Programme.

Why rare earths have become even more important in recent years?

• In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for green energy.
• Hence the demand for elements like neodymium and dysprosium, which are used in wind turbine motors, has increased.
• Also, the push for switching from internal combustion cars to electric vehicles has also led to a rise in demand for rare earth magnets — made from neodymium, boron, and iron — and batteries.

India and Rare Earth (RE) Metals

• India has 6% of the world’s rare earth reserves but it produces 1% of global output.
• Some REE are available in India such as Lanthanum, Cerium, Neodymium, Praseodymium and Samarium.
• Others such as Dysprosium, Terbium, Europium that are classified as HREE are not available in Indian deposits in extractable quantity.
• Hence, there is a dependence on countries such as China for HREE, which is one of the leading producers of RE with an estimated 70 per cent of the global production.
• Indian Rare Earths Ltd has been engaged in the mining and beneficiation of the heavy minerals.
• As per the Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-2020, the import of ores and concentrates of rare earth metals and of rare earth oxides including rutile sand are permitted freely.

What does the discovery mean for Europe and the world?

• Relief to western countries
  • Against the backdrop of the fraught relations between China and other western countries, the new discovery has come as a relief.
• Breaking Chinese monopoly
  • Globally, China holds a monopoly over rare earths production, following the withdrawal of USA from this business due to environmental and health issues.
  • China has repeatedly used its monopoly in the rare earths market for furthering its geopolitical agendas.
    • In 2010, Beijing blocked Japan’s access to rare earth elements over Tokyo’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain.
• Boost to Minerals Security Partnership (MSP)
  • The present discovery in Sweden will further strengthen the agenda of Minerals Security Partnership (MSP).
  • In August 2022, US and 10 other Partners came together for this alliance known as MSP.
    • Partners include Canada, Australia, Finland, Germany, France, Japan, Republic of Korea, Sweden, UK, US, and European Commission.
  • The goal of the MSP is to ensure that critical minerals are produced, processed, and recycled in a manner that supports the ability of countries to realize the full economic development benefit of their geological endowments.
  • The alliance was seen as primarily focused on evolving an alternative to China.

Source: The Hindu

What is Maghi Mela?

Context

Recently Maghi Mela was held in the holy city of Sri Muktsar Sahib in Punjab.

About Maghi Mela:

• It is held every year in January or the month of Magh according to the Nanakshahi calendar.
• The Mela is celebrated in memory of 40 Sikh warriors who fought the Mughals in the battle of Khidrana, which was named Muktsar after the battle.
• The battle took place near a pool of water, Khidrane di Dhabi, on 29 December 1705.
• The bodies of the warriors were cremated the following day, the first of Magh (hence the name of the festival), which now falls usually on the 13th of January.
• Sikhs celebrate the Maghi with an end-to-end recital of the holy Guru Granth Sahib and religious rituals in all the Sikh Gurudwaras.

What is Nanakshahi Calendar? 

• The Nanakshahi calendar was designed by Sikh scholar Pal Singh Purewal to replace the Bikrami calendar, to work out the dates of gurpurab and other festivals.

Source: Indian Express

GS-II

Context

A ‘Soul of Steel’ challenge was launched in Uttarakhand on 14 January which aims to test one’s high-altitude endurance.

• The general area of the expedition would be the Nanda Devi National Park.

What is the Soul of Steel Challenge?

• The challenge is an initiative of CLAW Global and is being supported by the Indian Army.
• The idea behind Soul of Steel is pooling of skill sets and creating a challenge that will unlock the human ability to survive, stabilise and thrive in high altitude areas.
• It is based on the lines of the ‘Ironman triathlon’ long-distance triathlon challenge in Europe, which tests an individual’s grit and endurance.
• Apart from life skill training and youth development, the challenges would globally promote adventure tourism in Uttarakhand.

What is CLAW Global?

• CLAW (Conquer Land Air Water) Global, is a team of Special Forces veterans and people with disabilities from different nationalities, religion, abilities etc., to project the power of self-belief and collective effort to create a powerful perception of ability and freedom.
• It was set up in January 2019 by Major Vivek Jacob, a para special forces officer who retired after 14 years of service after a combat skydive injury.
• CLAW introduced ‘Operation Blue Freedom’ – a movement to express the powerful spirit and ability of people with disabilities.

Note

• Armed Forces Veterans Day is celebrated every year on January 14. On this day, in 1953, the First Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, Field Marshal KM Cariappa formally retired from the Services.
• He led the Indian Forces to Victory in the 1947 war against Pakistan.
• The day was first observed in 2016.

Source: The Hindu 

Context

Recently, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously and rightly ruled out any additional curbs on free speech by ministers.

What is the Background?

• The case (Kaushal Kishor v the State of UP), relates to the Bulandshahar rape incident of 2016, in which the then Minister of the State termed the incident a ‘political conspiracy and nothing else’.
• A writ petition was filed by the survivors before the SC and the court raised an important question: “Can restrictions be imposed on a public functionary's freedom of speech and expression?”.

What is the Judgement of the Court?

• Majority Judgement:
  • On Reasonable Restrictions:
    • Like other citizens, ministers are guaranteed the right to freedom of expression under Article 19(1) (a), governed by the reasonable restrictions laid out in Article 19(2) — and those are enough.
    • Because “The role of the court is to protect fundamental rights limited by lawful restrictions and not to protect restrictions and make the rights residual privileges.”
  • On Collective Responsibility:
    • The majority ruling also made a valid distinction on the government’s vicarious responsibility for ill-judged or hateful remarks made by its individual ministers.
    • The flow of stream in collective responsibility is from the Council of Ministers to the individual ministers.
    • The flow is not on the reverse, namely from the individual ministers to the Council of Ministers.
    • It is not possible to extend the concept of collective responsibility to “any and every statement orally made by a Minister outside the House of the People/Legislative Assembly”.
  • Statement by an Individual Minister:
    • The court also addressed the question of whether the statement of a minister, that is inconsistent with the fundamental rights of citizens, can result in a constitutional tort.
    • A constitutional tort is a legal tool that provides for the state to be held vicariously accountable for the actions of its agents.
• A mere statement by a minister that goes against an individual’s fundamental rights may not be actionable, but becomes actionable if it results in actual harm or loss.
• Dissenting Judgement:
  • Over a Hateful Public Discourse:
    • The minority judgment expresses concern over a hateful public discourse - “hate speech, whatever its content, denies people dignity”.
    • It speaks of the special duty of public functionaries and other persons of influence to be more responsible and restrained in their speech, to “understand and measure their words”.
  • On Collective Responsibility:
    • It is possible to attribute vicarious responsibility to the government if a minister’s view represents that of the government and is related to the affairs of the state.
    • If such a statement is not consistent with the view of the Government, then it is attributable to the Minister personally.
  • Statement by an Individual Minister:
    • It holds the view that there should be a proper legal framework to define acts and omissions that amount to ‘constitutional tort’.

Way Forward

• There are enough provisions in the statute book to deal with speech that promotes enmity and violence or results in cramping the freedoms of others.
• A lack of political will and a lack of political resolve by governments to act on hate speech, particularly when it involves one of their own, is the major problem, and there are no legal shortcuts to overcome it.
• A government can weaponize the same legal provisions that are designed to curb hate speech against citizens who disagree or dissent.
• The Parliamentary privileges are conferred on the members for the smooth functioning of the parliament. But these rights should always be in conformity with the fundamental rights because they are our representatives and work for our welfare. 
• If the privileges are not in accordance with the fundamental rights, then the very essence of democracy for the protection of the rights of the citizen will be lost. 

Source: Indian Express

GS-III

Magellanic Cloud

Context

Recently, the world's most powerful telescope, NASA's James Webb telescope, has found a star formation in a dynamic cluster that lies within a nebula 200,000 light years away.

What is Magellanic Cloud?

• The Magellanic Clouds are irregular galaxies that share a gaseous envelope and lie about 22° apart in the sky near the south celestial pole.
• They are comprised of two irregular galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), which orbit the Milky Way once every 1,500 million years and each other once every 900 million years.
• These companion galaxies were named for the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, whose crew discovered them during the first voyage around the world (1519–22).
• Magellanic Clouds were formed at about the same time as the Milky Way Galaxy, approximately 13 billion years ago.
• They are presently captured in orbits around the Milky Way Galaxy and have experienced several tidal encounters with each other and with the Galaxy.
• They contain numerous young stars and star clusters, as well as some much older stars.
• The Magellanic Clouds are visible to the unaided eye in the Southern Hemisphere.

Source: PIB

Context

Union Minister of Science & Technology recently launched Geospatial Hackathon to promote Innovation and Start-Ups in India’s Geospatial ecosystem.

About  Geospatial Hackathon:

• It is a hackathon to create interest in geospatial tech and specifically build solutions leveraging maps and satellite data for solving India’s problems.
• The Department of Science and Technology(DST) under the Minister of Science & Technology in partnership with IIIT Hyderabad and Microsoft has launched this Hackathon.
• The Geospatial Hackathon will be divided into 2 parts,
  • Research Challenge: The National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board and IIIT Hyderabad brings the Startup Challenge as part of this Hackathon intending to promote the use of geospatial technologies in solving real-world problems and fostering innovation in the Indian geospatial ecosystem
  • Startup Challenge: The Research Challenge is specific to the problem statements given by DST (Survey of India).)  is proposing a Geospatial Data Processing, Solution development, and Servicing Challenge to foster the adoption of geospatial technologies and to promote innovation in India’s Geospatial ecosystem.

Source: Indian Express

Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project

Context

With residents of the Joshimath town reporting an increase in landslides and hundreds of houses at the hill town in Uttarakhand developing cracks, the district administration has issued orders to stop work on the National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project.

Key Facts about Tapovan Vishnugad hydel project:

• Location: The Tapovan Vishnugad power plant is a 520MW run-of-river project being constructed on Dhauliganga River in Chamoli District of Uttarakhand, India.
• Production Capacity: The plant is expected to generate approximately 2,558GWh of electricity per year.
• Who is developing: NTPC is developing the project at an estimated cost of approximately INR 29.78bn ($677m).

Dhauliganga River:

• Origin: It rises in the vicinity of the Niti Pass in the border regions between Garhwal region of Uttarakhand and southwestern Tibet.
• At Raini, it is joined by the Rishi Ganga river.
• It is one of the important tributaries of Alaknanda, the other being the Nandakini, Pindar, Mandakini and Bhagirathi.
• It meets the Alaknanda River (the major source stream of the Ganges river) at Vishnuprayag in Uttarakhand.
• Length: The length of this river is about 94 km.
• Tapovan, which is famous for its hot springs, is located on the banks of Dhauliganga.

National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC):

• What is it? NTPC Limited is an Indian Public Sector Undertaking incorporated under the Companies Act 1956.
• Jurisdiction: It is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Power, Government of India.
• Headquarters: New Delhi
• NTPC was conferred Maharatna status in 2010.
• Business: NTPC's core business is generation and sale of electricity to state-owned power distribution companies and State Electricity Boards in India.
• The company has also been involved in oil and gas exploration and coal mining activities.
• NTPC Limited is the largest power company in India which has a total capacity of 62,086 MW electric power generation.

Source: The Hindu