1 UPSC Daily Current Affairs 05 AUG 2021 Kuthiran Tunnel (Topic- GS Paper III –Environment, Source-The Hindu) Why in the news? • Recently after the instruction from Union Highways Minister one side of Kuthiran Tunnel in Kerala has been opened on one end. About the Kuthiran Tunnel • It is the first road tunnel in Kerala. • It is a twin-tube tunnel, with three lanes in each tube, located at Kuthiran in the Thrissur district of Kerala. • The tunnel is 1.6 km long and runs through the Peechi-Vazahani wildlife sanctuary. • It will help to improve Tamil Nadu-Karnataka connectivity. About Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary • Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary headquartered in Peechi, Thrissur District of Kerala, India. • It is the second oldest sanctuary in Kerala. • The sanctuary was established in 1958 consisting of Palappilli- Nelliyampathi forests including the area of Chimmony Wildlife sanctuary. 2 Lambani attire (Topic- GS Paper II –Arts and Culture, Source-The Hindu) Why in the news? • Recently the Karnataka minister has taken oath in traditional Lambani attire. About Lambanis • They are also called ‘Lambadis’ or ‘Banjaras’. • They were once nomadic tribes who arrived from Afghanistan to India, mainly Rajasthan (in the Mewar region) and then spread themselves across the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. • They are believed to have assisted the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb to carry goods to the southern part of the country in the 17th century, and that is when some of them settled there. • The Banjaras speak ‘Gor Boli’ — also called ‘Lambadi’. • It is a language spoken by the once nomadic Banjara people across India and it belongs to the Indo-Aryan group of languages. No Script • The language does not have a native script. • It is written either in Devanagari or in the local languages, like Telugu or Kannada. INS Vikrant (Topic- GS Paper III –Defence, Source-Indian Express) Why in the news? 3 • The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) 1, which will be called INS Vikrant, has recently sailed out to sea for the first time. About INS Vikrant • It is the first aircraft carrier designed and built in India. • It has been designed by the Indian Navy's Directorate of Naval Design (DND) and is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), a public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Shipping. Weapons and equipment of the new Vikrant: • The new warship is comparable to India’s existing carrier INS Vikramaditya, which is a 44,500-tonne vessel and can carry up to 34 aircraft, including both fighter jets and helicopters. • It will operate the Russian-made MiG-29K fighter aircraft and Kamov-31 Air Early Warning Helicopters, both of which are already in use on the Vikramaditya. • It will also operate the soon-to-be-inducted American MH-60R Seahawk multirole helicopter and the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) built by Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. • The warship will offer an incomparable military instrument with its ability to project Air Power over long distances, including: o Air Interdiction, o Anti-Surface Warfare, o Offensive and defensive Counter-Air, 4 o Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare and o Airborne Early Warning. Why does it matter that this is a Made-in-India warship? • Only five or six nations currently have the capability of manufacturing an aircraft carrier — India joins this elite club now. • Experts and Navy officials said India has demonstrated the capacity and self-reliance to build what is considered to be one of the most advanced and complex battleships in the world. India’s earlier aircraft carriers • India’s earlier aircraft carriers were either built by the British or the Russians. • The INS Vikramaditya, currently the Navy's only aircraft carrier that was commissioned in 2013, started as the Soviet-Russian Admiral Gorshkov. • The country’s two earlier carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Viraat, were originally the British-built HMS Hercules and HMS Hermes before being commissioned into the Navy in 1961 and 1987 respectively. Exercise Talisman Sabre (Topic- GS Paper III –Defence, Source-AIR) Why in the news? • Recently, Australia is keen that India joins its biggest war games ‘Exercise Talisman Sabre’ in 2023. About Exercise Talisman Sabre • It is the largest bilateral combined training activity between the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the U.S. military. • It is a biennial exercise incorporating activities on land, air and sea. Indian Navy deployment • Four frontline warships from the Navy’s Eastern Fleet are scheduled to depart on the overseas deployment of over two months to South East Asia, the South China Sea and the Western Pacific for series of exercises. • During the deployment in the Indo-Pacific, the ships are scheduled to participate in bilateral exercises with the Navies of Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore (SIMBEX), Indonesia (Samudra Shakti) and Australia (AUS-INDEX) and multilateral exercise MALABAR-21. 5 • Meanwhile, the Quad group of countries comprising India, Australia, Japan and the U.S. are set to hold the annual Malabar naval exercise 2021 off the coast of Guam end of August. Significance • These maritime initiatives enhance synergy and coordination between the Indian Navy and friendly countries, based on common maritime interests and commitment towards Freedom of Navigation at sea. • In recent years, India has significantly scaled up its military cooperation with the Quad countries on a bilateral level as well as multilateral formats deepening interoperability and high technology cooperation. Covid R-Number (Topic- GS Paper III –Health, Source-AIR) Why in the news? • Recently, the R-factor which indicates the speed at which Covid-19 infection is spreading in the country is climbing steadily with Kerala and the northeastern states. About Reproduction number or ‘R0’ • It measures the rate at which a virus is transmitted based on the average number of people who will contract the virus from a person who has already been infected. • R0 is the division of the number of new infections by the number of existing infections or the average number of new infections over an infectious period. • R0= new infections/existing infections. • When the R0 is 1, it means the number of infected persons in a population is constant. • For every person who is cured of the disease or dies due to it, there will be one new case in the population. • By this logic, the ideal scenario is when the R0 is below 1, which means the infection is transmitted to fewer people. • When such a rate is maintained over a considerable period, the disease is eradicated. The R number of a virus isn’t necessarily fixed, and can change depending on: a. Immunity levels in a population b. The evolution of the virus and cultural behaviours, as well as measures, is taken to avoid the virus. 6 • World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated the R0 for coronavirus at 1.4 to 2.5. • The same strategy has been used in the past for eliminating diseases such as polio and smallpox. Note: • The higher the R0, the more contagious the infection. 7 India seeks review of WTO e-transmissions moratorium (Topic- GS Paper III –Economics, Source-Livmint) Why in the new? • Recently, India and South Africa have started bringing pressure on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) urging it to review a moratorium on the imposition of customs duty on electronic transmissions so that developing countries can generate more revenues. • A decision on whether or not the moratorium should continue will be taken at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12). • Originally scheduled for June 2020, the Conference has been tentatively postponed until June 2021. About WTO e-commerce moratorium • In 1998, WTO member countries agreed to temporarily keep custom duties on electronic downloads at Zero with periodic review. • It dates back to 1998 when ministers at the Second Ministerial Conference adopted the Declaration on Global Electronic Commerce, calling for the establishment of a work programme on e-commerce. • Since then, at every Ministerial Conference, WTO members have agreed “to maintain the current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions.” • The WTO Work Programme on Electronic Commerce defines “electronic commerce” as the “production, distribution, marketing, sale or delivery of goods and services by electronic means.” Issues with the moratorium • In March 2020, India and South Africa circulated a communication, outlining the implications the moratorium has on developing countries, including tariff revenue losses; impacts on industrialization; impacts on the use of digital technologies like 3D printing in manufacturing; as well as losses of other duties and charges. • The countries argue that the moratorium is “equivalent to developing countries giving the digitally advanced countries duty-free access to [their] markets.” • According to a UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) article, in 2017 alone, the potential tariff revenue loss to developing countries due to the moratorium was USD 10 billion. Effect of removal of moratorium • The removal of the moratorium could provide policy space for developing countries to regulate imports of electronic transmissions and generate annual tariff revenue of up to 40 times greater than that in developed countries. 8 International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement (Topic- GS Paper III – International Organisation, Source- AIR) Why in the news? • Germany has recently become the 5th country to sign the International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement after amendments to it entered into force on 8th January 2021, opening its Membership to all Member States of the United Nations. About International Solar Alliance (ISA) • The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of 121 countries initiated by India, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. • It was launched jointly by the Indian Prime Minister and the French President • during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP21, in Paris.