THE WORLD
Spike in illness and pneumonia cases in China, WHO seeks more information
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday officially requested that China provide detailed information on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children. Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission held a press conference on November 13 to report an increase in incidence of respiratory diseases in the country, the WHO said in a statement.
• Increase in respiratory illnesses in China-what you know so far?
• For Your Information-WHO said groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China. WHO said it is unclear if these are associated with the overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities, or separate events.The global health agency said Chinese authorities attributed the increase to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae (a common bacterial infection which typically affects younger children), respiratory syncytial virus, and the virus that causes COVID-19.Chinese authorities stressed the need for enhanced disease surveillance in healthcare facilities and community settings, as well as strengthening the capacity of the health system to manage patients. Both China and the WHO have faced questions about the transparency of reporting on the earliest COVID-19 cases which emerged in the city of Wuhan in late 2019 and early 2020.Since mid-October, WHO said northern China has reported an increase in influenza-like illness compared to the same period in the previous three years. It said the country has systems in place to capture information on trends in illness incidence and to report that data to platforms such as the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.WHO said that while it seeks additional information, it recommends that people in China follow measures to reduce the risk of respiratory illness, including vaccination; keeping distance from people who are ill; staying home when ill; getting tested and medical care as needed; wearing masks as appropriate; ensuring good ventilation; and regular hand-washing.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍‘Closely monitoring situation, low risk to India’: Govt on spike in respiratory illness in China
FRONT PAGE
Governor can’t keep Bill pending indefinitely: SC underlines law
Syllabus:
Advertisement
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
Mains Examination:
• General Studies II: Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.
• General Studies II: Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein
Key Points to Ponder:
Advertisement
• What’s the ongoing story- Underlining that the “Governor, as an unelected Head of the State, is entrusted with certain constitutional powers” but “this power cannot be used to thwart the normal course of law-making” by the state legislature, the Supreme Court has ruled that a “Governor cannot be at liberty” to keep a “Bill pending indefinitely without any action whatsoever”.
• What exactly the Supreme Court said?
• What Supreme Court said on the “Substantive part of Article 200 empowers the Governor to withhold assent to the Bill”?
• Why this ruling is important?
• The expression ‘as soon as possible’ is significant-What is that?
• The Governor, is “a symbolic head and cannot withhold action on Bills passed by the State Legislature”-Elaborate
• What is the standard legislative procedure in state legislature?
• How Bills are passed in state assembly?
• What is role of governor in legislative procedure in state legislature?
Advertisement
• What does the Constitution say about the Governor’s role in giving assent to Bills?
• Every bill, after it is passed by the assembly or by both the Houses in case of a bicameral legislature, is presented to the governor for his assent. There are four alternatives before the governor-what are they?
Advertisement
• If the governor gives his assent to the bill, then what happens with the bill?
• If the governor withholds his assent to the bill, then what happens?
• Can the Governor withholds the Bills indefinitely?
Advertisement
• Do You Know-While Article 163 of the Constitution deals with the powers of the Governor generally, Article 200 specifically deals with the issue of granting assent to Bills. Both the provisions are read together to determine the contours of the power the Governor holds on this issue.When a Bill passed by the legislature of a state is presented to the Governor, the Governor has four options: (1) grant assent to the Bill; (2) withhold assent to the Bills; (3) return the Bills for reconsideration; or (4) reserve the Bill for the consideration of the President.Article 200 reads: “When a Bill has been passed by the Legislative Assembly of a State or, in the case of a State having a Legislative Council, has been passed by both Houses of the Legislature of the State, it shall be presented to the Governor and the Governor shall declare either that he assents to the Bill or that he withholds assent therefrom or that he reserves the Bill for the consideration of the President.”However, the Article has a key proviso. It says that the Governor “may, as soon as possible” return Bills other than money Bills, with a message requesting that the House reconsider it in parts or in whole. However, once the Legislative House reconsiders the Bill and sends it to the Governor once again, the Governor “shall not withhold assent therefrom”.The tug-of-war between the government and the Governor in the Opposition-ruled states essentially lies in the wordplay in the proviso. The proviso says the Governor must return the Bill “as soon as possible” but does not prescribe a specific timeframe. Raj Bhavans have exploited this ambiguity to sit on Bills indefinitely without returning them to the state legislature.
• Can a Governor in practice actually sit on a Bill forever?
• What is happening in Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Kerela?
• What is the argument of the states in the Supreme Court?
• For Your Information-Apart from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, and Punjab too, have sought the intervention of the Supreme Court on the issue.Kerala in its plea has argued that three Bills have been pending with Governor Arif Mohammad Khan for more than two years, and three Bills for more than a year. A PIL on this issue in the Kerala High Court had made the state government a respondent, but the HC refused to intervene, prompting the state to move the SC. Telangana has argued that more than 10 key Bills are pending with Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and that seven of those Bills were passed by the Assembly and sent for the Governor’s assent in September 2022. Tamil Nadu has argued that the Governor by not “signing remission orders, day to day files, appointment orders, approving recruitment orders, granting approval to prosecute Ministers, MLAs involved in corruption including transfer of investigation to CBI by Supreme Court, Bills passed by Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly” is bringing the entire administration to a halt and “creating adversarial attitude by not cooperating with the State administration”.
• What can the Supreme Court do now?
• Do You Know-Several aspects dealing with the Governor’s powers — such as the role in recommending President’s Rule, inviting the party with a majority to form the government, or during a trust vote — have been litigated extensively, and there is now settled law on these aspects.The SC has now been called upon to decide a new aspect — whether it can fix a timeline for Governors to give assent to Bills, which amounts to deciding whether it can prescribe limits to an office exercising constitutional powers.In the past, the court has reluctantly fixed timelines for the Speaker’s office to decide disqualification cases.A Governor cannot be made a party before the Supreme Court. Generally, therefore, the court issues notice to the Secretary of the Governor in such disputes.
• Various attempts were made to understand the role of the governor to strengthening centre-state relations-Can you name those committees and their recommendations?
• Administrative Reforms Commission of 1968, the Rajamanar Committee of 1969, the Sarkaria commission of 1988 andPunchhi Commission-What were their recommendations in the context of role of Governor?
• The Sarkaria Commission, set up in 1983 to look into Centre-state relations, proposed certain points for the selection of Governors-Know them in detail
• What Punchhi Committee, constituted in 2007 on Centre-state relations said on selection the Governor?
• The Punchhi Committee recommended deleting the “Doctrine of Pleasure” from the Constitution-What is “Doctrine of Pleasure”?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Governor’s role in passing Bills
📍The 360° UPSC Debate Does India really need state Governors?
Deepfake ads with celebrities raise red flags, Govt says risky
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Main Examination:
• General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
• General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- Shahrukh Khan appears to be ostensibly advertising a betting platform on Instagram, claiming that “everyone wins in the game”. So does Virat Kohli, who seems to bat for a betting app with claims of big gains that he’s personally made. But, there’s a catch. Their audio and video are slightly out of sync. That is because while it appears that Khan and Kohli are making these claims on Instagram and Facebook advertisements, which have been viewed tens of thousands of times, it is not actually them – but digitally altered versions of their face and voice to make it seem like them.
• Deepfakes of popular celebrities raise red flags-know why?
• What is a deepfake?
• What are they for?
• Is it just about videos?
• How are they made?
• Who is making deepfakes?
• How to spot a deepfake?
• Are deepfakes always malicious?
• What about shallowfakes?
• Deepfakes and Shallowfakes-Compare
• Do You Know-Deepfake is a portmanteau of “deep learning” and “fake”. It is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software that superimposes a digital composite on to an existing video (or audio).The origin of the word “deepfake” can be traced back to 2017 when a Reddit user, with the username “deepfakes”, posted explicit videos of celebrities.“The term first rose to prominence when Motherboard reported on a Reddit user who was using AI to superimpose the faces of film stars on to existing porn videos, creating (with varying degrees of realness) porn starring Emma Watson, Gal Gadot, Scarlett Johansson and an array of other female celebrities,” a report in The Guardian said. In June this year, a deepfake video surfaced that showed Mark Zuckerberg saying that he is in total control of the stolen data of billions of people.Deepfakes constitute fake content — often in the form of videos but also other media formats such as pictures or audio — created using powerful artificial intelligence tools. They are called deepfakes because they use deep learning technology, a branch of machine learning that applies neural net simulation to massive data sets, to create fake content.It employs a branch of artificial intelligence where if a computer is fed enough data, it can generate fakes which behave much like a real person. For instance, AI can learn what a source face looks like and then transpose it onto another target to perform a face swap.The application of a technology called Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN), which uses two AI algorithms — where one generates the fake content and the other grades its efforts, teaching the system to be better — has helped come up with more accurate deepfakes.GAN can also come up with computer-generated images of fake human beings, which has been used by a website called ‘This Person Does Not Exist’. This makes it virtually impossible to detect whether the videos or images we see on the Internet are real or fake.Deepfakes can be really difficult to detect. For instance, many people had fallen for Tiktok videos of Tom Cruise playing golf which were later revealed to be deepfakes.A paper presented at the Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision 2021 describes a new technique which renders deepfakes more foolproof, making it difficult for traditional tools to detect them.The study, led by Paarth Neekhara and Shehzeen Samarah Hussain, both PhD students at University of California San Diego, found that the detection tools can be deceived by inserting slightly manipulated inputs called adversarial examples into every video frame.
• What are the threats posed by deepfake videos?
• Is there a crackdown in the offing?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Centre will soon issue regulations to tackle deepfakes: IT Minister
Supreme Court’s first woman judge, an icon of empowerment
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
Main Examination: General Studies I: Social empowerment
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- Justice Fathima Beevi, whose appointment as the first Muslim woman judge of the Supreme Court had inspired women to pursue the legal profession, died at a private hospital in Kerala’s Kollam on Thursday. She was 96.
Considered a role model for gender justice, she had been an icon of women’s empowerment as she blazed a trail in the legal profession and otherwise.
• Who was Justice Fathima Beevi?
• “Justice Fathima Beevi had been an icon of women’s empowerment as she blazed a trail in the legal profession and otherwise”-Elaborate
• For Your Information-Justice Beevi, who had also served as the governor of Tamil Nadu from 1997 to 2001, finished school at Catholicate School in Pathanamthitta in 1943, completed her graduation in Chemistry from Women’s College, and studied law at a government law college in Thiruvananthapuram.Born in Pathanamthitta in 1927, she was the eldest of eight children of Annaveetil Meera Sahib and Khadeeja Beevi. Sahib, a government employee with the registration department, wholeheartedly supported and encouraged the educational aspirations of his children, particularly his six daughters at a time when Muslim girls shied away from higher education.After Beevi graduated in Chemistry, it was Sahib who persuaded his daughter to go for a law course. Her dream was a post-graduation in Chemistry, but Sahib was inspired by the story of Anna Chandy, the first woman judicial officer in the then erstwhile Travancore state. Sahib had then said that a post-graduation in Chemistry would get her into the teaching career, but law would help her climb up ladders.She made history in the corridors of the legal profession as well as judiciary, at every level. In 1949-50, when she graduated as a law student, it was mandatory to clear an exam by the Bar Council to get enrolled as a lawyer. In 1950, Beevi became the first woman law graduate to get the gold medal from the Bar Council.She then enrolled as a junior advocate in Kollam district court. A Muslim woman in a headscarf in the court had irked orthodox elements in the Muslim community. But Beevi went on to break the glass ceiling.After eight years, she joined the judicial service as a munsiff and then became the district sessions judge in 1974. She got elected as a munsiff through a competitive exam held by the then government.Beevi was appointed as a judge of the Kerala High Court in 1983 and was elevated to a judge of the Supreme Court in 1989. Justice Beevi leaves behind an illustrious career as the judge of the Supreme Court from 1989 to 1992.As a judge, Justice Beevi stood for equality in crucial verdicts. She was part of the bench which heard a case pertaining to certain provisions of the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Appointments) Act in 1991. She also highlighted the constitutional provision that safeguards every citizen against the arbitrary exercise of authority by the state or its officers.After retiring from the apex court, she served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and also as the governor of Tamil Nadu.As governor of Tamil Nadu, she had hit headlines after rejecting the mercy pleas of those convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. After the Supreme Court reconfirmed the death sentences awarded to Nalini, Murugan, Santhan, and Perarivalan in 1999, Beevi as Governor of Tamil Nadu commuted the death sentence awarded to Nalini the next year, on the grounds that she was a woman and had a daughter. However, she rejected the clemency petitions of the other three accused.Her tenure as the governor of Tamil Nadu was eventful on another ground. In the 2001 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK led by J Jayalalithaa had obtained a majority, but she was then debarred from contesting elections for six years after she was convicted in a corruption case. But Beevi invited Jayalalithaa to form the government and was ready to administer the oath of office to her as the chief minister.Beevi was of the view that the majority party had elected her as the leader of the parliamentary party of the AIADMK. She then submitted her resignation in the wake of the Union Government recommending the President to recall the Governor on the ground that the Raj Bhavan failed to discharge its constitutional obligations.
• What is the Status of Women in the Indian judicial System?
• Why do we need women judges?
• How many women judges are there in Supreme Court of India?
• What causes the low representation of women in the Indian judicial system?
• For Your Information-The apex court had its first woman judge in 1989, when Justice M Fatima Beevi was appointed after her retirement as a judge of Kerala High Court. She was followed by Justices Sujatha Manohar, Ruma Pal, Gyan Sudha Misra, Ranjana Prakash Desai, R Banumathi, Indu Malhotra, Indira Banerjee, Kohli, Nagarathna and Trivedi. The last three were sworn-in on the same day — September 2, 2021 — during the tenure of then Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, taking the number of serving women judges to a historic four, including Justice Banerjee.
• “Despite women’s increased engagement in public life, they remain significantly underrepresented in decision-making positions especially in judiciary”-Comment
• “In order to attain gender equality, more female judges should be appointed”-do you agree?
• Know some facts- In most European countries, there are more women than men professional judges or magistrates; however, women represent 41 per cent of the judges in national supreme courts and only 25 per cent of courtpresidents. (United Nations)
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Justice Fathima Beevi and the doors she opened
THE EDITORIAL PAGE
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- Gurjit Singh Writes: India is in the same region and needs to engage with aspects of APEC so that its economic goals can be met. This can make India a better alternative to new FDI in China.
• ‘The 2023 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was held in San Francisco last week’-Know the key takeaways
• What is the Golden Gate Declaration?
• “The outcome of the summit process is that China and US are talking again after nearly a year”-Elaborate further
• “China’s economic strength has dissipated”-How far you agree?
• India and APEC-connect the dots
• For Your Information-The Golden Gate Statement says that APEC will seek a well-functioning dispute settlement system for WTO, accessible to all members by 2024, and pursue a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. The WTO aspect is important for India but India’s absence from regional trading arrangements in the Indo-Pacific and with the US needs a relook if the supply-chain initiatives and Indian export resilience is to benefit.APEC is among the early institutions in the Indo-Pacific, but since it does not include India, it is still restricted to the old functional terminology of the Asia-Pacific. China prefers this, too. APEC labels its members as economies rather than countries, making it easier for the participation of Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan).The APEC focus was on sustainability, inclusion, resilience and innovation. India has similar objectives. In order to attain these, a peaceful engagement between China and the US is imperative. If successful, these can make APEC the locomotive for sustainable growth and shared benefits. India is in the same region and needs to engage with aspects of APEC so that its economic goals can be met. This can make India a better alternative to new FDI in China.
• What is Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)?
• Origin and Development of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)-Know in details
• Do You Know-APEC is a regional economic forum that was established in 1989. Its stated aim was to “leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific and create greater prosperity for the people of the region through regional economic integration”. Notably, many East Asian countries had recorded increasing growth rates in the ’80s and the decade preceding the formation of the forum.The 21 members of APEC are termed “economies” (rather than countries or member states) because trade and economic issues are the focus of the grouping. In a reflection of the idea, Taiwan and Hong Kong attend APEC meetings as distinct entities, even though China says they are parts of China and not independent entities.The APEC economies are Australia, Brunei, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong (as part of China), the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, and Chile – as located geographically around the Pacific Ocean.
• Map Work-APEC Member Countries
• What role has it played over the years?
• Why is India not a part of the APEC grouping?
• Why India has not got membership in APEC?
• Why APEC needs India?
• For Your Information-The grouping has always championed free trade, the lowering of trade tariffs, and economic liberalisation. According to the US State Department, “During its first five years of operation, APEC established its core objectives. In the 1991 Seoul Declaration, APEC member economies proclaimed the creation of a liberalized free trade area around the Pacific Rim as the principle objective of the organization.”An article by experts at the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), noted, “The dynamic growth attributable to APEC initiatives contributed significantly to the development of a growing middle class in the developing Asia-Pacific region. APEC economies’ 2.9 billion citizens make up roughly 60 percent of global GDP. As of 2018, they represented 48 percent of global trade.”India has expressed interest in joining APEC, and made a formal request in 1991 – the year in which the Union government ushered in economic reforms for liberalisation and globalisation. In 2016, then Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament that the request to join was based on India’s geographical location, the potential size of the economy, and degree of trade interaction with the Asia-Pacific.The response noted that APEC has had an informal moratorium on expanding membership for many years now. This is despite the fact that the US-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region issued in 2015 states that “The United States welcomes India’s interest in joining the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as the Indian economy is a dynamic part of the Asian economy.”
• What is the aim of the APEC summit this year?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍APEC
THE IDEAS PAGE
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change
Main Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-Derek O’Brien writes: Stopgap solutions like odd-even usage of car number plates or temporary smog towers will not solve the problem. Long-term national policy interventions are needed
• Air Pollution in India-how severe it is?
• For Your Information-According to the State of Global Air 2020 report, air pollution killed over 1.16 lakh newborns in India within 27 days of their birth. As per a study by Lancet Planetary Health, one of every five deaths in 2019 could be attributed to air pollution. The effects of air pollution start impacting a child even before she is born. Studies have shown a direct link between pregnant women exposed to bad air quality and stillbirth, preterm delivery, and low birth weight in babies.
• “Particulate matter pollution is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease in India”- What is Particulate matter?
• ‘An estimated eight million deaths globally were attributed by the WHO to air pollution’-Analyse the magnitude of Air pollution on Human life
• “Though Delhi makes the headlines every year, the problem is not limited to the National Capital Region (NCR). It is a pan-India problem”-Discuss
• “Air pollution is not only bad for health, but also for the economy”-How?
• “Mitigating air pollution in India must be viewed as an investment, rather than an expenditure”-Comment
• “Long-term national policy interventions are needed both at the macro level and the micro level”-Know the policy interventions in this matter
• For Your Information-Transport sector: Phasing out petrol or diesel vehicles and switching to electric vehicles (EV) is a must. The Union government needs to heavily subsidise electric vehicles to entice consumers to switch to EVs. Instead, as per media reports, the government has decided to discontinue FAME II subsidy (incentivising electric buses, two/three/four wheelers). This will militate against faster adoption of EVs. Use of public transport and cycling, for short distances, must be encouraged. The use of bioethanol instead of conventional fossil fuels will also lessen the burden on the environment.Industrial sector: Brick kilns need to adopt the Induced-Draught Zigzag Kilns instead of the widely-used Fixed Chimney Bull’s Trench Kilns. Stacking the kilns in a zigzag pattern leads to more efficient fuel combustion, and reduces PM2.5 emissions by 20 per cent and black carbon emissions by 30 per cent. Highly polluting industries should be monitored for particulate matter concentration and emission rate through Online Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (OCEMS). Heavy fines must be levied for exceeding applicable limits.Residential sector: Open burning of garbage and household waste needs to be completely banned and strictly enforced. Start in the locality. Also imperative is a switch from traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes in rural and deprived households to 100 per cent usage of LPG fuel. Though the concept of the government’s Ujjwala scheme was good, how it failed miserably in its implementation can become the subject of a forthcoming column.Environmental sector: From the Western Ghats to the Andamans, the Union government’s mantra seems to be industrialisation at the cost of environmental damage. India has been ranked at the bottom in a list of 180 countries that were judged for their environmental performances in the 2022 Environmental Performance Index. Vast tracts of forest land and ecologically fragile areas have been sacrificed at the altar of profit. Our ecosystem needs to be protected.
• “Modern civilisation has put a price even on air”-Decode the quote
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍PM 2.5, Sulphur Dioxide, and more: What are the pollutants in our air, and how they impact health
EXPLAINED
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity, and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialisation.
Main Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- After much debate over its contribution to the national capital’s alarming pollution levels, the farm fire season is drawing to a close.
Across six states — Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — a total of 55,725 farm fires were recorded between September 15 and November 23. Of these, 36,323 fires were in Punjab, with the state also seeing the highest single-day count for the season so far, with 3,230 fires recorded on November 5.
• Who collects the data?
• Do You Know- Starting September 15, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute’s (IARI) Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS) Laboratory puts out a daily bulletin on paddy residue fires.This bulletin, carrying data from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi, provides a district-wise breakdown of the number of farm fire incidents recorded, as well as comparative figures from previous years (2020 onwards). It also gives the exact location where these fires were recorded, the satellite that recorded them, time of recording, and their intensity or fire power.The CREAMS Laboratory was set up in 2013, “with the primary purpose of monitoring crop conditions against extreme climatic events,” VK Sehgal, Principal Scientist and nodal officer at the laboratory, told The Indian Express. “Then, the Union government started the central sector scheme on crop residue management in 2018. We were asked if we can monitor [farm fires] to determine the impact of the scheme,” he said.
• How is the data collected?
• What are the monitoring protocols?
• How are paddy fires identified?
• For Your Information- Crucially, researchers need to differentiate paddy crop residue fires from forest fires, or fires coming from industries and brick kilns. This is done by first identifying areas under paddy cultivation, and then mapping farm fires accordingly.“Paddy has a different reflectance signature [describing how much light is reflected from a surface], and we see that signature over time. Paddy usually has a background of water, so its signature is different from that of other crops like say sugarcane or maize. Then you overlay the fire event with this, and we say it is a paddy fire,” Sehgal explained.For an active fire, the satellite provides the land surface temperature. “If the land surface temperature of a given point is more than a particular threshold when compared to its surroundings, it is indicative of a fire. This threshold varies with season, day and night. Once these points are produced, we overlay the administrative boundaries and aggregate them state-wise, district wise, tehsil wise, what is the location, from which satellite it is recorded, day or night, at what time it was detected,” Sehgal said.
• Why is fire intensity also recorded?
• What happens once the bulletin is prepared?
• What are the data’s limitations?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Delhi’s ‘very poor’ air run continues, set to turn ‘severe’ on Saturday
For any queries and feedback, contact priya.shukla@indianexpress.comThe Indian Express UPSC Hub is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest Updates.
Also Read
Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week.
