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Nano urea, a product developed by the Indian Farmers and Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) and heavily advertised by the Central government as a panacea to reduce farmer dependence on packaged urea, is yet to be fully tested despite having been fast-tracked for commercial application.
Normally, three seasons of independent assessment by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is required for approving a new fertilizer, but in the case of nanourea this was reduced to two. Moreover scientists are still unclear if the product can on its own cut farmers’ dependence on urea.
Nano urea is a patented and indigenously made liquid that contains nanoparticles of urea, the most crucial chemical fertilizer for farmers in India.
A single half-litre bottle of the liquid can compensate for a 45 kg sack of urea that farmers traditionally rely on, it is claimed.
Minister of Health, Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya has claimed that by 2025, India’s domestic urea production as well as production of nano urea would together mean India would be “self-sufficient” and would no longer require the 90 lakhtonnes that it imported every year and would save the country close to Rs. 40,000 crore.
The standard practice in the cultivation of crops such as wheat, rice, mustard is to use at least two 45-kg sacks of urea, which is an inorganic compound and the crops’ main source of nitrogen.
The first packet is applied during the early sowing or transplantation stage of the crop. The second stage application is done when the plant has sprouted a canopy of leaves, and is approaching the reproductive phase of plant growth.
However, a crucial point omitted in government communication around nano urea is that the traditional, packaged urea is still necessary during the initial stage, as basal nitrogen, of crop development. The nano urea could be useful once the plant grew after which the product could be sprayed on its leaves.
Based on the experiments, it was evident that 50% of the top-dressed urea (second stage application) could be replaced but not basal nitrogen. In most cases yields weren’t affected and some instances the crop yield increased.
Based on a year (two seasons) of experiments, in 2019-2020, ICAR reported results of field trials on crops that benefited from nano urea, to the Central Fertiliser Committee, which decides on whether to approve a chemical fertilizer for commercial use. The approval came through, in February 2021.
IFFCO has said farmer field trials were done over four seasons on 94 crops across 21 States since 2019. Trials were continued during Kharif 2021-22 too in all the agro-climatic regions.
Trade data flags testing time for goods exports(Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Indian Economy)
India’s merchandise exports shrank 1.15% year-on-year in August to $33 billion, while inelastic imports of petroleum and coal continued to climb, lifting imports above the $60 billion mark for the sixth successive month.
The country’s goods trade deficit moderated slightly sequentially from the record $30 billion in July, but remained the second highest on record at $28.68 billion, and widened sharply from the $11.7 billion in August 2021.
Preliminary trade data for July had also shown a 0.8% dip in exports, which was revised to a 2.1% uptick. The last time India recorded a contraction in exports was in February 2021.
Global headwinds apart, Commerce Secretary B. V. R. Subrahmanyam attributed the dip in outbound shipments, which declined 9% sequentially, to a growing tendency among international buyers to seek deferrals in shipments of confirmed orders, as well as the gamut of measures taken by the government to try and curb elevated inflation.
Exporters’ order books are full but there are cases where buyers are asking for shipments not to be despatched, adding that restrictions akin to ‘almost’ being on a negative list for exports on items like wheat, steel and iron pellets to check inflation, had also impacted trade.
While goods exports have averaged $38.5 billion a month between April and August, adding up to $192.5 billion, Mr. Subrahmanyam forecast India’s total outbound shipments in 2022-23 would touch $470 billion, or at least $450 billion in a ‘worst case scenario’. To achieve that, exports need to average between $36.8 billion and $39.6 billion over the next seven months.
The non-oil deficit accounted for nearly 60% of the total trade deficit in August, even though gold imports halved. The year-on-year dip in exports, led by sectors such as engineering goods, gems and jewellery and yarns and textiles, suggests a cautious outlook for external demand going ahead.
Hinting that the government was working on a major package to spur exports, which was likely to be unveiled in the coming weeks, the trend of flat exports to change, and measures will be taken to boost exports. India will also unveil a new Foreign Trade Policy on September 30 that should provide a fillip to exports.
News
Justice Chandrachud is new head of NALSA (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
President DroupadiMurmu has appointed Justice D.Y. Chandrachud as the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), the Union Law Ministry said in a notification.
Justice Chandrachud takes up the position that became vacant after Justice U.U. Lalit was elevated as the 49th Chief Justice of India (CJI).
The NALSA has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free legal services to the weaker sections of society.
While the CJI is the Patron-in-Chief, the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court of India is the Executive Chairperson of the authority.
Before being elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Chandrachud served as the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court and prior to that a judge of the Bombay High Court.
He was made a senior advocate in the Bombay High Court in June 1998. That year, he was appointed an Additional Solicitor General of India, a role he held until his appointment as a judge.
Book sheds new light on Bengal’s women revolutionaries(Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Modern India)
The first files on women revolutionaries in Bengal appeared in the Intelligence Branch of British India roughly around 1919. And by 1947, more than 200 cases of conviction and sentencing of women were recorded in these files.
Along with these convictions and sentences, the files of the Intelligence Branch of Bengal had a long list of women revolutionaries or suspects — approximately 900.
Along with the files, the West Bengal State Archives has history-sheets on revolutionaries and thousands of glass and film negatives that record details of their surveillance.
Such details about women revolutionaries are contained in a recent publication titled Women in the War of Freedom Unveiled, Bengal 1919-1947: Glimpse from Archival records.
Madhurima Sen, the author of the book, brings to the fore several interesting facts of the Indian freedom struggle from the functioning of the British Intelligence Branch in Bengal.
Ms. Sen, an archivist at the West Bengal State Archives, has also derived information from its photo archives wing to which many did not have access.
The Directorate of State Archives, West Bengal, one of the biggest repositories of documents from the colonial period in this part of the country, has a collection of about 50,000 glass and film negatives, including photographic print, all related to the ‘revolutionary activities’ in the 20th century.
Most women mentioned in the IB files came from Hindu upper and middle classes, who could emerge from seclusion and develop a life within and outside their families and identify themselves with social and political causes.
We, however, find names of Halima Khatun and RaziaKhatun from Mymensingh district, JobedaKhatun and Jayanab Rahim who were connected with the revolutionary/nationalist organisations of their time.
Ms. Sen said the trend of women’s region-wise participation in the revolutionary movement suggest that “conviction of women in the eastern part of Bengal was far greater than the western part.
The highest numbers of accused were from Chittagong,” the book said, adding that the numbers might have increased after the Chittagong Armoury Raid (1930).
In the western part of Bengal, the publication says, women revolutionaries were active in Kolkata and adjoining areas of 24 Parganas (North and South), Howrah, Hooghly, Bankura and Midnapore.
Women’s wings became active among the students of colleges in Kolkata. Bethune College had become a centre of radical feminist agitation.
Science and Tech
New sub-lineages of monkeypox virus emerge (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Monkeypox was a neglected disease until early this year, with few reports on cases, and that too from travellers, though the disease was endemic in Central and Eastern Africa for many years.
First identified in 1958 as a disease in imported monkeys in Denmark, monkeypox is a zoonotic viral infection that can infect humans and other animals.
The origin and source of the disease are however unknown, therefore the name ‘monkeypox’ remains a misnomer for the disease.
The identification of a cluster of cases associated with a superspreader event in Europe in May-June this year and the subsequent rapid spread across the globe prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare the outbreak of monkeypox as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
As of September 2022, over 50,000 cases of monkeypox virus infections have been reported from over 99 countries.
Over 15 deaths attributable to the disease have been reported, eight of which were reported from locations that have not historically reported monkeypox, including one from India.
As of September 2022, 10 countries account for a majority of cases (over 88%) — the U.S., Brazil, Peru, Canada, Spain, France, Germany, the U.K., Netherlands and Portugal.
The disease has predominantly affected males aged between 30-43 years, although demographics have been found to differ between regions. For instance, in West and Central Africa, a larger number of cases are reported among younger individuals.
Despite an increase in the number of global cases for four consecutive weeks, the number of reported monkeypox virus infections across the world saw a decline by over 20% in the last week of August 2022. This decline is predominantly attributable to the decreasing number of reported cases in European countries.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, European countries have cumulatively reported over 20,000 cases of monkeypox, including two deaths reported from Spain.
The first case of the outbreak in the region was reported in the United Kingdom in May 2022 in a man with a travel history to Nigeria. Heightened awareness and public health measures including vaccination could accountfor the observed decline.
Factors to consider when migrating individuals for conservation efforts(Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Conservation efforts usually aim to bring in more individuals to increase the population size of endangered species. This is done with a view of promoting gene flow.
Such a move is based on the understanding that bringing in (migrating) more members of the endangered group will lead to a greater import of genetic variation and thereby a greater variation in the focal population.
Experiments done by researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, indicate that in contrast to the simple plan outlined here, other factors, namely, the nature of the environment and the genetic constitution of the immigrants can play a role in deciding whether the evolutionary outcomes of immigration are beneficial. The study has been accepted for publication in Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
In the experiments, the researchers subjected populations of Escherichia coli that were adapting to complex and fluctuating environments to migration of colonies from outside.
These colonies consisted of varying proportion of clonal ancestral immigrants. That is to say, the immigrants consisted of a mix of clonal members and those carrying genetic variation. In parallel, the researchers studied the effects of varying the ratio of clonal members to those carrying genetic variation.
One of the major studies done in this field, published in 2007 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, showed that when bacterial cells were subjected to high level of stress — so high that it was lethal — then increasing the levels of migration increased the chances of survival in the stress environment. This implied that migration promotes adaptation.
However, the present study looks at more general conditions and yields a more complex result. They show that the results of the 2007 study do not hold true when the bacteria is subjected to non-lethal but stressful environment.
When the stress environment does not lead to complete mortality, the effects of migration on adaptation is reversed, says SutirthDey from IISER, Pune, in whose lab the experiment was conducted. This means that increasing the proportion of immigrants actually decreases the adaptation.
S. Selveshwari, from IISER Pune and an author of the paper, adds, “The genetic makeup of the immigrant individuals is another crucial factor in determining the effects of migration.
She explains that in contrast to clonal immigrants (those that do not have much of a genetic variation amongst themselves), immigrants carrying greater amount of genetic variation can counter the negative effects of migration in such environments.
Has science evolved to record dreams? (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Our understanding of human biology has taken large strides in the last century. However, progress in our understanding of dreams has been really slow. The biological function of dreams is a grey area; the only sure thing is that most human beings dream regularly.
The phase of sleep associated with vivid dreaming is called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. People who have woken up in this phase of sleep often report that they were dreaming. The rapid eye movements are a puzzle to researchers because they are difficult to measure.
A recent report ( Science Vol. 377, 2022) addresses the question of whether eye movements are related to whatever is going on in the dream. Could the movements carry information about a dream that could be analysed and interpreted?
But first, some background on the interpretation of dreams. The early twentieth century was dominated by the theories of Sigmund Freud, focused on the symbolic meaning of images recollected from dreams. The discovery of REM sleep, in 1952, led to a shift away from psychoanalysis.
The brain was found to be as active in REM sleep as in the fully awake state. Yet the body was inactive, asleep. REM sleep was found in all mammals and birds.
Michel Jouvet showed that inducing damage to the brain stem in a cat freed it from bodily immobility in the dream state. This cat would noisily fight with other cats, stopping when it woke up.
The recording of brainwaves (EEG) provided fresh insights. These recordings showed very little difference between REM sleep and the awake state.
More surprisingly, the neuroscientist Matthew Wilson recorded brain activity in a rat while it was exploring a maze and, not much later, obtained identical brainwaves when the same rat was in REM sleep — was it solving the maze in the dream?
Another way of studying dreams was to compile vast databases of dreams. Analysing 50,000 dreams led the compiler, Calvin Hall, to conclude that most dreams did not resemble surrealist paintings, and were fairly predictable.
Children may smile while dreaming, as children were more likely to dream of animals, but adult dreams were not very pleasant and were often filled with moments of anxiety.
We are anxious about important things, things that need to be resolved. In a theory proposed by Francis Crick and Graeme Mitchison, dreaming served as a housekeeping function, a nightly sorting of that particular day’s happenings.
While sorting, a few important events (possible sources of anxiety) were stored away as memories, the rest treated as clutter.
FAQ
At Vostok-22, why is India not joining naval drill? (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
From September 1-7, Russia is holding annual military exercises in its eastern region, with about 13 countries including India and China sending contingents.
While the exercises in Vostok-2022 are routine, they are the first such multilateral exercises to be held since the Russian war in Ukraine began.
They include a maritime component near the disputed islands of South Kuril, claimed by both Russia and Japan.
The countries that have sent military contingents are Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Syria and Tajikistan, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence, which estimates that “more than 50,000 troops and 5,000 units of military equipment” including 140 aircraft and 60 warships would participate in the exercises.
According to a statement issued by the Indian Defence Ministry, the Indian Army contingent is part of “joint manoeuvres to include joint field training exercises, combat discussions, and firepower exercises.”
However, India has only sent its army contingent of the 7/8 Gorkha Rifles, and will not take part in the maritime section of the two-part event.
This is because, while the first part of the land exercises will be held in Russian military training grounds in Siberia and the Far Eastern Federal District, the maritime part of the exercises would be held in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan. These are near the disputed South Kuril islands.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry issued a demarche calling on Russia to move the location of its maritime exercises, which the Russian Ambassador in Tokyo rejected, and India’s decision not to take part in the naval exercises is believed to be in deference to Tokyo’s sensitivities.
In a statement ahead of the exercises, U.S. White House Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the U.S. has “concerns about any country exercising with Russia while Russia wages an unprovoked, brutal war against Ukraine,” adding that the decision to participate was up to each country, and that the government had been “pretty public” about its opposition to the exercises in talks.
The Biden administration is in the process of stitching together support for more sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as well as a demand for price-caps on Russian oil exports, and the decision by India and other countries to participate in Vostok-2022 presents a divided approach towards Russia.
By sending an army contingent to join Russian and Chinese troops in the exercises at this time, New Delhi is aiming to send a four-pronged message.
The first is its continuing relationship with Russia despite the Ukraine war, where the Modi government has decided not to join the Western sanctions regime, or to curb oil imports and other economic engagement with Moscow.
Business
FTAs with U.K., Canada to be sealed in 2022: Subrahmanyam(Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s free trade pact negotiations with the United Kingdom are ‘within touching distance’ of a deal and a similar deal along with a Bilateral Investment Treaty with Canada is expected to be concluded by December, the government’s top trade official said on Saturday.
Exuding confidence about achieving record high overall exports of $750 billion in 2022-23 despite global headwinds, Commerce Secretary B. V. R. Subrahmanyam said that the government was readying a new Foreign Trade Policy that would be unveiled on September 30 as part of a package to propel goods exports which dipped sequentially for the third straight month in August.
We are going to probably clinch the FTA with the United Kingdom by the end of this month itself. They don’t have a full-time Prime Minister and somebody will be in place.
Once that is done, we are going to see a $10-15 billion uptick from there,” he said. Jewellery exports to the UAE had already risen 50% in the first two months following an FTA, he pointed out.
There is a global demand to move out of China and one of the reasons why countries are running to do Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with India and have become more flexible, is to reduce their own dependence on China.
In 18 of 20 top product groups Australia imports, China has 50% to 80% market share. That’s the kind of dependence, no wonder they want to sign an FTA with us,” he pointed out, adding the same issue plagues Europe and the U.K., which are looking to diversify.
That’s why we are pushing forFTAs which are an important part of our trade strategy. FTAs will open new markets and market access is our goal.
FTAs with U.K., Canada to be sealed in 2022: Subrahmanyam(Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Quantum computing is an exciting new technology that will shape our world of tomorrow by providing us with an edge and myriad possibilities. It is a fundamentally different way of processing information compared to today’s classical computing systems.
While today’s classical computers store information as binary 0 and 1 states, quantum computers draw on the fundamental laws of nature to carry out calculations using quantum bits.
Unlike a bit that has to be a 0 or a 1, a qubit can be in a combination of states, which allows for exponentially larger calculations and gives them the potential to solve complex problems which even the most powerful classical supercomputers are not capable of.
Quantum computers tap into the quantum mechanical phenomenon to manipulate information and are expected to shed light on processes of molecular and chemical interactions, address difficult optimisation problems, and boost the power of artificial intelligence.
Advances like these could open the door to new scientific discoveries, life-saving drugs, and improvements in supply chains, logistics and the modelling of financial data.
In India, we are witnessing a growing interest in quantum computing with active participation (amongst the highest) from students, developers and academia in initiatives like the IBM Quantum Challenge, IBM Quantum Summer School and Qiskit Challenge-India (Qiskit is an open-source software development kit built by IBM for the quantum developer community). We also have a growing community of Qiskit advocates and IBM Quantum ambassadors in India.
Academia plays an important role in building skills for any deep technology including quantum. Hence, last May, we announced our collaboration with leading educational institutions in India through the IBM Quantum Educators Programme.
The faculty and students of these institutions will be able to access IBM Quantum systems, quantum learning resourcesand quantum tools over IBM Cloud for educational purposes.
India is poised to play a pivotal role in the quantum technology revolution globally. As per our quantum roadmap announced in 2021, IBM debuted its first 127-qubit processor.
In 2022, IBM extended its quantum roadmap even further to clearly lay out how we will blaze a path towards frictionless quantum computing.
This expanded roadmap includes our plans to build a 4,000+qubit processor by 2023, along with significant milestones to build an intelligent quantum software orchestration platform that will allow large and complicated problems to be easily broken apart and solved across a network of quantum and classical systems.
Once realised, quantum-centric supercomputing will open up new and powerful computational spaces for industries globally.