The Passport Seva Programme Version – 2 is an extension of Passport Seva Programme Version – 1. It is an online service. It was launched under the National E – Governance Plan.

Why in News recently?

The Government of India is to launch e – Passports very soon for citizens renewing their passport or applying for new passport.

About PSP – V – 2.0

• It is an expansion of PSP – 1. It brought in several changes to the delivery of passports. The main objective of the second version is to create a digital platform for passport related services. This is to make the process more transparent, accessible and reliable.
• Under the second version, several technological upgrades are to be added. This includes Chat – Bot, advance data analytics, auto – response, cloud enablement and natural language processing.
• Also, the new version will issue e – passports.
• The Government of India is planning to create new data centres for implementing the project. Also, it will create disaster recovery centre, passport seva kendras and Post Office Passport Seva Kendras.

What are E – Passports?

• The main aim of providing e – passports is to make them more secure. It will make immigration easy. It is an upgrade of the traditional passport.
• The E – Passports come with a chip. The chip carries personal details of the holder including biographical information. This prevents unauthorized data access.
• The software for the E – Passport was developed by National Informatics Centre and IIT Kanpur.
• The E – Passports have been designed in accordance with the ICAO standards. ICAO is International Civil Aviation Organization. ICAO operates under United Nations. It was established in 1944.

Chang’e 5 lunar lander of China has found first-ever on-site evidence of water on the surface of moon.

Highlights

• Study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on January 8, 2022.
• It revealed that the lunar soil at the landing site comprises of less than 120 grams water per ton or120 parts-per-million (ppm) water.
• It further reveals that, a light, vesicular rock carries 180 ppm water.
• These are much drier as compared to that of Earth.

Confirmation of Water

Presence of water on Moon had been confirmed by remote observation earlier. However, lander has detected signs of water in rocks and soil.

How was water detected?

• Water was detected on the spot for the first time, by a device on-board the lunar lander. The device measured the spectral reflectance of regolith and rock.
• Water content in the regolith and rock can be estimated since water molecule or hydroxyl absorbs at a frequency of around three micrometers.

What contributed to humidity of lunar soil?

According to researchers, Solar wind contributed to the most humidity of lunar soil. Solar wind brought hydrogen, which makes up the water. While, additional 60 ppm water in the rock is believed to be originated from the lunar interior.

The Chang’e-5 spacecraft

It is the fifth lunar exploration mission of Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. It is also the first lunar sample-return mission of China. It has been named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e. The space craft was launched on November 23, 2020 from Hainan Island and it landed on the Moon on December 1, 2020. It collected around 1,731 g of lunar samples and returned to the Earth on December 16, 2020. The spacecraft had landed on one of the youngest mare basalts, which is located at a mid-high latitude on the moon.

What samples did it collect?

The spacecraft collected the samples, which are a mixture of granules. It was collected from both on the surface and beneath.

Recently a report was made public by Copernicus Climate Change Service, which is a European Union programme. The report found that, 2021 was the fifth-hottest year on the Earth.

Key Findings of the report

• As per report, last seven years have been the warmest on record. 2021 was ranked fifth among those 12-month spans because of continued rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
• Scientists warn that, rise in greenhouse gas emissions could propel the Earth to suffering irreversible damage.
• Report found that, mean global temperature was between 1.1 to 1.2 degrees Celsius higher in 2021, as compared to pre-industrial levels. The temperature was in the range of 2 to 2.2 degrees.
• Scientists note that, average temperature rise surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius could result into permanent damage to the Earth and have huge detrimental environmental impacts.

Hottest Summer in Europe

2021 was another year of extreme temperatures and hottest summer in Europe. There were unprecedented high temperatures in North America and heatwaves in the Mediterranean. In Europe, devastating floods were observed, fuelled by heavy rainfall. Sicily, in Italy, experienced the hottest temperatures in recorded history in Europe.

Scenario in North America

Several regions in North America and Northeast Canada experienced temperature anomalies in 2021.  Temperatures were atypically warm during the beginning of the year as well as during the fall. For North America, heatwave caused June to be the warmest on record.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) recently categorised the Red Sanders (or Red Sandalwood) again into the ‘endangered’ category in its Red List.

Red Sanders

• The species, called Red Sanders, is scientifically called as Pterocarpus santalinus.
• It is an Indian endemic tree species and its geographical range is restricted to Eastern Ghats.
• The species is endemic to a distinct tract of forests in Andhra Pradesh.
• It was classified as ‘near threatened’ in 2018. It was a moment of celebration when species was lifted off from the endangered category since 1997.

Why was the species categorised in endangered list?

The Red Sanders species has been experiencing a decline in population by 50-80 percent, for last three generations. Thus, it was again added to Endangered category.

CITES status

Red Sanders is listed under Appendix II of CITES. As a result, it is banned from international trade. The harvest of the tree is also restricted across states, but illegal trade is there in practice.

IUCN red list

The Red List is maintained by IUCN. It is a list of flora and fauna species and categorises them on the basis of their conservation status. The status include:

1. Least concern– It is for the species, which are abundant in numbers.
2. Extinct– It is for those species, which have completely disappeared from the planet.
3. Critically endangered- This category is for threatened species.
4. Endangered– Threatened species are added to this list
5. Vulnerable– The category is reserved for threatened species.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) projected that; western disturbance is likely to hit the eastern states from January 11, 2022.

Key Points

• Making these predictions, IMD issued yellow and orange alerts for the states of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar, for January 11 to January 13.
• Scattered to fairly widespread light or moderate rainfall is expected over these states.
• Isolated thunderstorms with lightning or hail are also predicted for Jharkhand, Bihar & Gangetic West Bengal on January 11 while for Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim & Telangana on January 12.

What is western disturbance?

Western disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in Mediterranean region. The disturbance brings sudden winter rain over northern parts of Indian subcontinent. It extends in east up to northern parts of Bangladesh and South eastern Nepal. It is a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern and is driven by the westerlies. Western disturbances are more frequent and stronger in the winter season.[6]

How moisture originates?

The moisture in such storms originates over Mediterranean Sea, Caspian Sea and Black Sea. Extratropical storms are a global phenomenon, wherein moisture is carried in upper atmosphere. They are different than their tropical counterparts, in which moisture is carried in lower atmosphere. In Indian subcontinent, moisture is shed as rain when this storm system encounters the Himalayas.

Government appointed new directors to the Indian Institutes of Technology in Delhi, Indore, Madras, and Mandi, on January 10, 2022.

Name of the new directors

• Prof Rangan Banerjee was appointed as next director of IIT Delhi.
• Prof V Kamakoti has been elevated as director of IIT Mandi.
• Prof Laxmidhar Behera has been appointed as director of IIT Mandi
• Prof Suhas Joshi has been appointed as director of IIT Indore.

Who were the outgoing directors?

The outgoing directors of IIT Delhi Prof Ramgopal Rao and of IIT Madras Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi, were serving on extension. Their five-year tenures were ended in April 2021. IIT Mandi was being led by acting director Prof Ajit Kumar and IIT Indore was being led by Neelesh Kumar Jain.

NIRF ranking of these IITs

In the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings 2021, IIT Madras had topped the list in engineering category. IIT Delhi was placed at 2^nd place, IIT Indore at 10^th, while IIT Mandi was placed at 31^st rank.

On January 11, 2022, India and Korea held a bilateral trade talk. The talks focused on non – tariff barriers, market access issues, trade deficit faced by the Indian exporters. The countries also discussed investment related issues.

Background

The India – Korea bilateral trade was 20 billion USD in 2018. However, it started decreasing after that. And it was largely hit by the pandemic. The recent talks mainly discussed on this issue.

About the Talks

The talks aimed to make the relations “Equitable and Balanced and mutual advantage“. India raised the issues faced by the Indian exporters in Korea. This included difficulties faced while exporting products such as engineering, steel and agri products. The difficulties are around the stringent regulatory rules of Korea. The other Indian products facing market access issue in Korea are meat, pomegranate, grapes, eggplants and okra.

India has sought investments in sectors such as e – vehicles, semiconductors and technical textiles.

CEPA in the talks

The countries reviewed CEPA upgradation. CEPA is Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. CEPA is a Free Trade Agreement. The agreement provided better access for the Indian service industries. This included engineering, IT, finance, engineering and legal field. With the agreement, Korean manufacturers were provided huge tariff concessions to 1%.

Trade Agreements between the countries

In 2010, India and Korea signed Economic Cooperation Agreement. This increased the trade and investment in both the countries.

The James Webb telescope was launched by NASA on Christmas eve. The telescope can unfold only when it is in the orbit. The telescope succeeds Hubble telescope.

About James Webb Telescope

It was jointly developed by NASA, Canadian Space Agency and European Space Agency. It was launched in Ariane rocket. The unfolding of the telescope is human controlled.

Milestones

The telescope was launched to scan the galaxies and stars formed 13.7 bilion years ago. Cost of the telescope is 10 billion USD.

Deployment of James Webb Telescope

The telescope took 15 days to align to its right form. It had 18 segments and they were all aligned manually. It took 12 days to align the mirrors. The alignment process is still going on and it is to take three months to get the telescope ready for its first flight.

Objectives

• The telescope will look further back than the Hubble’s telescope. It has a larger mirror. These mirrors are tuned to the IR (Infra red).
• James Webb Telescope is to study exoplanets and atmospheres.
• Also, the telescope will search for atmospheres similar to the earth’s.
• It will search for galaxies formed during big bang. Also, it will determine the evolution process of galaxies. It will observe the star formation. Also, the telescope will measure chemical and physical properties of planets.

Location

The telescope is to be placed in an orbit that is 1.5 million kilometres from the earth. This is called second Lagrange Point L2.  It is not placed in the orbit of the earth.

James Webb Telescope to study the Dark Ages

There are five ages of the Universe. They are Primordial Era, Stelliferous Era, Degenerate Era, Black Hole Era and Dark Era.

The Odisha Government recently increased the upper age limit of candidates to enter into State Civil services exams. The age was increased from 32 years to 38 years. This was done by amending the State Civil Services Rules, 1989.

About the rise in upper age limit

The increase in age limit has been made for 2021, 2022 and 2023 exams only. Odisha government relaxed the age limit for people belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Socially and Educationally backward classes, persons with disabilities and for women.

What are the relaxations?

• SC/ST/OBC: The maximum age limit is now 43 years, that is, 38+5.
• Women of all categories: 38+5 = 43 years
• General category: 38+10 = 48 years
• SC/ST/SEBC PwD categories: 53 years

Why were the provisions made?

The age limit has been relaxed to nullify the COVID induced delays in conducting the exam. Because of the pandemic, the age of the candidates passed by and they are not able to appear in exams. It is essential to make such alterations to improve employment rate in the states.

Employment Status in Odisha

The Labour Force Participation rate in Odisha is 48.3%. This mirrors national rate of 48.3%. The worker population ratio is 44.9%. And the National worker population ratio is 46.8%. The unemployment rate in the urban areas is higher than that of the employment rate.

Demographic dividend

In Odisha, 56% are engaged in agriculture. 18% in construction and 7.8% in other services. Around 30% are engaged in other services. Informal sector is the largest job provider in Odisha. With such conditions, it is essential to increase the employment window in the state. The extension of age limit will help achieve this.

Recently, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last effort to save his life, in Maryland hospital in USA. It was done for the first time in the history of medical.

Key Points

• The patient is doing well three days after this highly experimental surgery.
• This marks a significant step in the decades-long debate on using animal organs for life-saving transplants. However, it is too soon to know, if the operation will work.
• As per Doctors at University of Maryland Medical Center, transplant highlighted that heart from a genetically modified animal can function in human body, without immediate rejection.

Who was the patient?

The patient was David Bennett aged 57. He knew there was no guarantee of whether the experiment would work. But he was ready for the operation because he was dying and was ineligible for a human heart transplant.

Why this experiment was conducted?

There is a huge shortage of human organs, which are donated for transplant. This drives scientists to figure out how to use animal organs for transplant instead. In 2021, there were just around 3,800 heart transplants in the U.S. so, if this experiment works, there will be endless supply of these organs from animals for patients.

Prior attempts

Prior attempts of such transplants have failed, largely. This is because, patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ. For instance in 1984, Baby Fae, who was a dying infant, lived for 21 days with a baboon heart.

On January 7, 2022, the Canadian government officially implemented a bill on ‘ban of Conversion therapy’ which was passed by the Canadian Parliament in December 2021.

Key Points

• With the ban of conversion therapy, Canada joined a select list of countries that have discontinued the discredited treatment which claims to be able to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation.
• The bill has made “providing, promoting, or advertising the conversion therapy” a criminal offence. It will now be illegal to promote, advertise, benefit from, or subject someone to this harmful or hateful, because rights of LGBTQ2 are human rights.

What is LGBTQ2?

LGBTQ2 acronym is used by the Canadian government. “2” refers to Two-Spirit that is male and female. Thus, LGBTQ2 is a culturally-specific identity used by Indigenous people for indicating a person whose gender identity, sexual orientation or spiritual identity comprises both male and female spirits.

What are the provisions of new law?

• Under the new law, anyone who seeks to subject someone of any age, with his consent or not, to the conversion therapy will face imprisonment of up to five years.
• If someone is found to be promoting, advertising, or profiting from this practice, they will face imprisonment of up to two years.

Conversion Therapy

The conversion therapies are based on the belief that sexual orientation can be cured or changed. This practice is often performed by religious leaders. However, some licensed clinicians are also involved in the practice.

Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov recently ordered officials to find a method of finally extinguishing the ‘Gateway to Hell’ in the country.

Key Points

• Turkmenistan’s Gateway to Hell is the raging flames, burning for five decades in a large natural gas crater.
• This is not the first time, when officials have been ordered to find a way to extinguish the huge fire.
• This decision was taken as man-made crater “negatively affects the environment as well as health of the people living nearby.

Is it a natural phenomenon?

No, the Gateway to Hell is not a natural phenomenon. But a human disaster, despite this fact, the crater attracts a lot of tourists from worldwide.

The Darvaza gas crater

The Darvaza Crater, which is also called as the Door to Hell, is 225 feet wide 99 feet deep, crater. It has a diameter of 70 metres, across an area of 5.5 square metres. It is a natural gas field collapsed into a cavern near Darvaza in Turkmenistan.

How was the Door to Hell created?

• It is believed that, in 1971, a simple miscalculation by Soviet scientists led to the creation of this crater.
• The Soviet scientists had underestimated the amount of fuel laying below. Their boring equipment drilled through an underground cavern. Because of this, a deep sinkhole was created.
• After the gas driller fell into the pit, scientists were concerned that the crater would release noxious gases. Toxic methane gas had already started leaking into the atmosphere.
• Thus, in order to stop the methane from reaching neighbouring areas and causing damage to the environment & living organisms, scientists decided to set the crater ablaze.

The Government of India is to provide third dose of vaccine. This third dose has been named “precaution dose” or booster dose.

About the precaution dose

• The health care workers, comorbid patients (people with severe medical conditions) and frontline workers are eligible to get the precaution dose.
• Five states in the country are to go for elections. They are Manipur, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand. Personnel to be deployed in the election duty will be treated as front line workers. And they will also receive the precaution dose.
• The gap between the second dose and precaution dose is nine months.
• The precaution dose is the same as the previous doses.
• The eligible citizens will receive SMS from CoWIN.
• After administering precaution dose, a digital vaccination certificate will be sent.

New Vaccines in the country

Recently, India approved two new vaccines. They are Convax of Serum Institute of India and Corbevax of Biological E. Both the vaccines were authorized for “restricted use in emergency situation”. So far India has approved eight vaccines.

Current Vaccines used

COVISHIELD of Serum Institute of Technology, COVAXIN of Bharat Biotech and Sputnik V of Russia are being used currently.

Other Approved vaccines

• ZyCoV – D of Cadilla. It is the first DNA vaccine against COVID-19.
• Moderna vaccine. It is a two-dose vaccine. It uses genetic code of messenger RNA.
• Johnson and Johnson vaccine. It is a single dose vaccine.
• Corbevax of Biological E. It is a two dose vaccine, It was designed using similar technology used to develop Hepatitis B.
• Covovax of American biotechnology

The Government of India recently decided to allow 20% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in LIC (Life Insurance Corporation). This is to be done by amending the Foreign Exchange Management Rules (FEMA).

What is the plan?

The DFS, DIPAM are to create a plan to amend the FDI in insurance sector after consulting DPIIT. DFS is Department of Financial Services. DIPAM is Department of Investment and Public Asset Management and DPIIT is Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). Why is the consultation required? DIPAM operates under Finance Ministry and DPIIT operates under commerce and industry ministry.

Changes to be made

• Changes have been proposed in FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management) rules
• 20% FDI in LIC
• The current FDI policy of India does not foreign investments in body corporates. This is to be changed. A body corporate is an entity that has separate legal existence.

How is body corporate different from company?

Company is any organization that is registered under the Companies Act 2013. On the other hand, a body corporate is defined as the company incorporated outside India. This does not include co – operative society or central government institutions. For instance, Reliance, Tata Steel are all companies. Microsoft, Alphabet, Facebook are all body corporate. If the same company is incorporated in India or registered under Companies act, 2013, then they are called company. For instance, Google India Private Limited is a company while Google is a body corporate.

On January 10, 2022, the US and Russian officials met in Geneva. They are to discuss on several issues including the tensions around Ukraine.

Why has the dialogue come up?

The US and other western countries are under the fear of Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine is supported by US and other western countries. Ukraine was formed after the disintegration of Soviet Union.

Russia’s stand during the dialogue

Russia demanded several concessions from the US and NATO allies. Russia denied attacking Ukraine during the talks. However, Russia has actually stationed thousands of troops in the Ukraine border. This triggered a cold war between US and Russia.

US’s stand during the dialogue

US threatened to impose severe sanctions if Russia attacked. Also, NATO – Russia Council meet is to be held in Brussels. The conference is to focus Ukraine issue. Also, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is to meet in Vienna to discuss on the same issue.

What are the other organizations involved?

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is a military alliance between the European, American and Eurasian countries.

OSCE: It mainly deals with arms control, freedom of press, human rights and fair elections. The members are mainly from Europe, Asia and North America

What is the issue?

The issue started when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Crimea is located in Ukraine. It holds Strait of Kerch. This strait is the only route for Russia to reach the Mediterranean countries. The strait connects Sea of Azov and Black Sea. It is a major trade route.