Daily Current Affairs

The harvest of polluted air (GS Paper 3, Environment)

Why in news?

• The haze and smoke over Delhi, which has become an annual event for about three weeks in October-November, has triggered a temporary ban on construction activities and the movement of trucks and diesel four-wheelers that do not comply with BS-VI norms.
• The Supreme Court will hear a petition on agricultural stubble burning in the northern states, considered the prime reason for the extremely bad air quality in Delhi-NCR.

 

Is agricultural burning the main culprit?

• At this time of the year, the burning of agricultural waste in Punjab and Haryana is indeed the dominant reason for the smoke and haze over Delhi.
• The particulate matter from the burning contributes 30-40% of the PM2.5 concentrations in Delhi’s air during this time.
• It is the single largest source of PM2.5 levels on most days during this period.

 

Role of weather:

• However, the weather plays a critical role as well, a 30-40% rise in pollutants at any other time of the year would not cause the same impact.
• Agricultural waste burning in Punjab and Haryana happens in the months of May and June as well, although at a smaller scale. At that time, it accounts for about 15-20% of PM2.5 concentrations in Delhi’s air. But the air quality over the capital hardly ever becomes this bad.
• The reason is the weather, or rather, heat. Hotter air rises higher above the surface, and takes the pollutants along with it. The polluting particles are lifted 2-3 km above the surface or even higher, before getting dispersed.
• During October-November, however, the air is not that hot. The pollutants are trapped and tend to get concentrated at lower levels of the atmosphere, resulting in the smoke and haze situation that is being witnessed now.

 

But why is agricultural waste burned?

• This waste is the remains of the paddy crop after it has been harvested. This kind of burning is not specific only to Punjab or Haryana. However, the scale of burning in these states is much bigger than elsewhere.
• Even in these states, this practice is relatively new. Even 10 years ago, the crop-burning problem was not this acute.
• The burning is necessitated by the need to prepare the fields for the next crop in a very short window of time. Due to a slight shift in the cropping pattern in these states, there is now very little time between the harvesting of one crop and the planting of the next crop.
• The traditional method of manually uprooting, or cutting, the stumps of the previous crop is time-consuming, and can delay the sowing of the next crop. So, farmers resort to the easier option of burning these remains.

 

Remedial measures:

• Several solutions have been suggested, and are being tried.
• These include suggestions to change the crop cycle, deployment of mechanised equipment for harvesting that would render burning unnecessary, and conversion of this waste into something more useful, like a source of energy, which can become an incentive for not burning.
• Hundreds of crores have been allocated in the last few years to buy the necessary equipment or to try out the alternative methods of dealing with this problem. But clearly, these equipment and methods have not been deployed effectively.

 

Other contributing factors:

• Construction has a small contribution to PM2.5 concentration. The particles released from these activities are usually larger, and add to PM10 concentrations. Banning of construction, therefore, is unlikely to have any significant impact on the prevailing situation.
• Diesel vehicles, particularly older trucks, are indeed important contributors to high PM2.5 levels. And a ban on their movement can help in improving the situation somewhat.
• However trucks, which are the biggest generators of pollutants in the diesel vehicle segment, are not allowed to move inside Delhi during the day in any case. In fact, the movement of trucks only at night results in a significant variation in the PM2.5 levels between day and night times.

New technique for efficient fabrication of liquid crystal display devices with lowered cost

(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)

Why in news?

• Recently, a new easier technique of manufacturing liquid crystal displays has been developed, which can reduce the cost of the devices.
• An essential requirement of liquid crystal devices (LCDs) is the unidirectional planar alignment of the constituent liquid crystals (LC) over large areas.

Disadvantages of rubbing method:

• Although the conventional polymer rubbing method yields quality LC alignment, it possesses unavoidable and undesirable drawbacks such as production of electrostatic charges and dust particles that interfere with display operation, and even cause damage to the electronic components of the display.
• While electrostatic charges increase the failure rate, dust creates defects which seriously compromises with the performance of the device.
• Other problems include multistep process for coating and the necessity for high-temperature curing. This has led to a surge in demand to replace this rubbing method with new non-contact techniques.

 

2D nanomaterials:

• The latest among these techniques is to employ 2D nanomaterials;graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), transition metal dichalcogenides, and so on as alignment layers.
• However, all these have a built-in lacuna owing to the deployment of the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method as this technique necessitates high deposition temperature, necessity for precursors and by-products that are often hazardous or toxic.
• Besides, when the CVD method is used, unidirectional LC alignment is observed over only small regions.  

 

h-BN nanoflakes:

• A team of scientists from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, conceptualized and implemented a novel way of employing a 2D materials to overcome the drawbacks of current methods.
• Using h-BN nanoflakes as the specific material, they employed a procedure called solution-processed deposition technique and found it to be effective in getting the LC alignment over a much larger area.
• They also found the resultant crystals to be quite robust with no evidence of decay in LC orientation over several months.

 

Way Forward:

• The method demonstrating a non-conventional and contact-free route for getting unidirectional alignment of LC, is also much simpler, scalable, flexible for adaptation, and cost-effective.

 

All employees can opt for EPFO pension scheme: SC

(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)

 

Why in news?

• Recently, the Supreme Court upheld the Employees’ Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014 of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organistion as “legal and valid” while reading down certain provisions.

What was the appeal to the SC?

• A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India has allowed the appeals of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and the Union government challenging the judgments of the High Courts of Kerala, Rajasthan, and Delhi, which had quashed the EPS Amendment of 2014.

Key Highlights of the judgement:

• The SC used its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to allow eligible employees who had not opted for enhanced pension coverage prior to the 2014 amendments, to jointly do so with their employers within the next four months.
• The court struck down a requirement in the 2014 amendments that employees who go beyond the salary threshold (of Rs. 15,000 per month) should contribute monthly to the pension scheme at the rate of 1.16% of their salary.
• The requirement to contribute 1.16% of the salary to the extent that such salary exceeds Rs. 15,000 per month as an additional contribution made under the amendment scheme is held to be ultra vires to the provisions of the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

 

Implementation period:

• The court suspended the implementation of this part for six monthsfor the authorities to generate funds or to make relevant changes/adjustments/amendments to the scheme.
• Also, the court has given four months to employees who could not enrol in the scheme and are entitled to do so.
• There were 58.55 million subscribers to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) till 2021.

 

What experts has to say?

• There were 58.55 million subscribers to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) till 2021.
• Some experts say though the apex court has granted relief by extending the period of enrolling under the scheme to those who missed out, the upholding of the amendment will lead to the newly enrolled employees getting their pension capped with no option to increase their contributions under the scheme.
• This is a blow to employees who trusted such schemes and were eager to subscribe to them. Now, after their retirement, the amount of pension, when calculated on the basis of a meagre Rs 15,000, will come to a pittance and can barely support them in their old age.
• This may mean employees, especially those in high-salary brackets, will have to invest in commercial financial products in the market to plan for their retirement. This decision has brought all categories of employees on the same footing, irrespective of their salaries and financial requirements.

 

Employees’ Pension Scheme:

• Employees of various establishments are covered by the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (the Act), which provides for a provident fund account in the name of each employee of a covered establishment.
• In this account, the employee contributes 12 per cent of her/his basic salary and the employer contributes an equal amount.
• Section 6A was inserted into the Act, authorising the creation of a scheme to provide pension to employees. Thus, the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995, was born.
• According to the scheme, the maximum salary on the basis of which pension was to be calculated was Rs 6,500 per month. An amount of 8.33 per cent from the employer’s contribution (12 per cent) would go to the employee’s pension fund.
• Later, on March 16, 1996, a proviso was added to the EPS, granting the option to the employer and the employee to contribute more to the pension fund -- at 8.33 per cent of the basic salary of the employee.

 

Amendment in 2014:

• The EPS was amended with effect from September 1, 2014, which limited the maximum pensionable salary at Rs 15,000 per month.
• The EPS was amended to give an option to the existing members as on September 1, 2014, to submit a fresh application, jointly with their employers, to contribute on salaries exceeding Rs 15,000 per month.
• However, in this case, the employee would have to make a further contribution at the rate of 1.16 per cent on the salary exceeding Rs 15,000. Also, such a fresh option would have to be exercised within six months of the date of the amendment.

 

E.U. Digital Markets Act

(GS Paper 3, Economy)

 

Why in news?

• The Digital Markets Act (DMA) entered into force in the European Union (EU) on November 1, after it was agreed for by the European Parliament in March 2022.

 

Details:

• The bill, which was first proposed by the European Commission in December 2020, endeavours to put an end to unfair practices by tech companies that act as ‘gatekeepers’ in the online space.
• It seeks to confront the domination of Big Tech which restrains the growth of new and alternate platforms.
• However, critics have put forth that this would hinder innovation in the sector, especially if they are asked to share information and expertise essential for their own competitive success. 

What does the law entail? 

• The Digital Markets Actintroduces quantitative thresholds and penal provisions to keep a check on platforms that act as private rule-makers by virtue of their dominance in the space, thereby creating bottlenecks in the digital economy.
• The obligations mentioned under the Act are meant to open up possibilities for smaller and emerging players to compete in an equal market based on the merits of their products and services, in turn, also generating the scope for further innovation in the space. 
• As for consumers, the Act ensures access to a wider array of options as well as a lower price of services made possible by enforcing competition and de-exclusivities. 
• The Act designates companies with sizeable dominance in any of the ‘core platform services’ as ‘gatekeepers’.
• These services include app stores, online search engines, social networking services, certain messaging services, video sharing platform services, virtual assistants, web browsers, cloud computing services, operating systems, online marketplaces and advertising services.  
• Other than this, the emergence of newer innovations and more players are also expected to create more jobs in the sector.  

What is the quantitative threshold to be deemed a ‘gatekeeper’? 

• In addition to managing a ‘core platform service’, a company must have accrued an annual turnover of at least €7.5 billion in each of the last three financial years in the E.U. or have an average market capitalisation of at least €75 billion in the last financial year.  
• Operational qualifications require that it must have at least 45 million monthly active users in the Union and more than 10,000 annual active business users in the last financial year. 
• And lastly, the position must be entrenched and durable, that is, meeting each of the criteria in the last three financial years. 
• Additionally, a proportionate subset of obligations may apply should the company, presently a non-gatekeeper, attains the stipulated threshold in the future. This is to prevent them from acquiring the same ‘gatekeeper dominance’ by unfair means. 

 

What happens when rules are violated? 

• In case of non-compliance, the Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the company’s annual revenue accrued from global operations. This would extend up to 20% in case of repeated infringements. Violations shall also invite periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of its daily worldwide turnover. 
• For systematic infringements, and in situations where there are no alternatives or equally effective measures available, the European Commission can pursue additional remedies.
• These may include obliging a gatekeeper to sell a business or an essential part of it such as an important unit, asset, intellectual property rights or brand.
• Other than this, the ‘gatekeeper’ could be barred from acquiring a company in the same space or that collects similar data to that involved in the observed non-compliance. 

 

How does the implementation look in reality? 

• Broadly, DMA would ensure that ‘gatekeepers’ would not be able to disfavour services and products offered by third parties on their platform for their own similar services and products. Additionally, it would ensure interoperability with platforms offering similar services. 
• More importantly, ‘gatekeepers’ would have to permit businesses to access data that was generated when they used the latter’s platform. This is to ensure that users do not unfairly benefit from their dual roles.
• Other important changes that ‘gatekeepers’ will have to implement are ensuring that end users are able to easily unsubscribe from core platform services – including pre-installed apps, preventing the installation of default software along with the operating system, allowing businesses to use alternative in-app payment systems as well as allowing end users to download alternative app stores.
• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) recently imposed a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on Google for “abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies”. 

 

What about inter-operability?  

• Interoperability among platforms would be a particularly important factor with respect to messaging services. For perspective, the provision would entail, say, WhatsApp users being able to freely send and receive messages (including media attachments) from a competing messaging app, say iMessages.  
• The functionality would be instituted as per a stipulated timeline. When the Act enters into force, ‘gatekeepers’ would have to ensure interoperability for text messages between two individual users.
• More complex functionalities, such as group text messaging, would have to be instituted after two years of enforcement, while audio or video calls between users may be instituted within four years.  
• Only users of non-gatekeeper companies would have the option to refuse the interoperability.  
• The idea is to avert any entry barrier that may deter users from opting for a non-gatekeeper service and prevent ecosystem captivity.
• Additionally, having multiple services for users, especially vulnerable users, to choose from may help protect against improper governmental surveillance and censorship. 

 

What are the criticisms? 

• Critics argue that interoperability in messaging might bother end-to-end encryption of messaging apps. Though mandated by the law, it would a particularly tough precondition considering that communication now would be cross-platform, that is, beyond a platform’s controllable dominion.
• However, several researchers, argue that the feature cannot be compromised upon.
• S&P Analytics said that the move would mean that companies unable to combine and cross-utilise data would not be able to create targeted advertisements.
• For example, ‘gatekeepers’ would not be able to push advertisements for phones after noting that a consumer was looking for the easiest route to a retailer. Thus, sharing of user data would be less than ideal because they are central to the company’s own competitive success.  
• Further, critics have suggested that the ‘gatekeeper’ threshold may emerge as a deterrent to further innovation for both emerging and established companies. The trade-off between further innovation and compliance requirements on attaining the threshold might not appeal to some.  
• And lastly, it has been suggested that the DMA’s penal provision of forbidding acquisitions in the space would hamper start-up lifecycles.

 

What’s next?

• The Act will apply six months after it entered into force, that is, from May 2, 2023.

 

Mathura-Vrindavan to become a carbon neutral tourist destination by 2041

(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)

 

Why in news?

• Mathura-Vrindavan, one of India’s largest pilgrimage centres, aims to become a “net zero carbon emission” tourist destination by 2041.

 

What does it translate?

• This means that tourist vehicles will be banned from the entire Braj region, which includes famous pilgrim centres such as Vrindavan and Krishna Janmabhoomi.
• Instead, only electric vehicles used as public transport will be allowed into the area.
• All 252 waterbodies and 24 forests in the area will also be revived.
• According to the plan, the Braj region’s annual pilgrim-tourist footfall is expected to multiply from the current level of 2.3 crore to six crore by 2041.

How to attain a net zero carbon emission status?

• To attain a net zero carbon emission status, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere, by oceans and forests for instance.
• To facilitate this in Mathura-Vrindavan, the plan divides the entire region into four clusters, each containing two of the eight key cities.
• The idea is to form small circuits called ‘Parikrama Paths’ which the pilgrim can undertake either on foot or using electric vehicles. In case they want to travel from one destination to another they can avail electric mini-buses.
• This will be the first such carbon neutral master plan for a tourist destination in India.

 

Master Plan:

• Tourists would park their vehicles outside the cities and use only electric vehicles such as e-rickshaws and mini-buses to travel within these small circuits.
• The plan envisages three to five charging points for electric vehicles in Mathura and Vrindavan and two each in other key towns.
• Each Parikrama Path will include water kiosks, centres distributing prasad, dining halls and resting spaces for tourists.
• Some of the Paths being planned are in Govardhan, Gokul, Barsana and Vrindavan, all places deeply associated with Krishna devotion.

 

Multiple modes of transport:

• The eight key cities of Mathura, Vrindavan, Gokul, Barsana, Baldeo, Gokul, Nandgaon, Govardhan and Mahavan would also be connected through an inland waterways system and a narrow-guage railway line.
• The existing 12.9 km narrow gauge railway line connecting the twin cities of Mathura and Vrindavan would be redeveloped, providing pilgrims access to Krishna Janma Bhoomi and Dwarkadhish temple in Mathura, and Banke Bihari and other temples in Vrindavan.
• Similarly, the existing 24 kms of national waterways connecting Vrindavan, Mathura and Gokul will also be developed, improving pilgrim access to places like Banke Bihari, Cheer Ghat and Kesi Ghat in Vrindavan and Kans Qila, Vishram Ghat and Dwarkadhish temple in Mathura.
• A tourist will be able to cover the 24 km rout in about 45 minutes.

 

What’s next?

While the draft masterplan was submitted in March, the strategy document will be submitted this month after which it will be released for public consultation.