DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS IAS | UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 10th October 2024

 Syllabus

• Mains – POLITY & GOVERNANCE

Context: In August-September, heavy rains impacted cities across Gujarat, especially Vadodara, where flooding, power outages, and waste-filled streets crippled the city. While residents criticized the Vadodara Municipal Corporation, the local body worked tirelessly to mitigate the damage, underscoring the crucial role of urban local bodies (ULB’s).

Background: –

• ULBs include Municipal Corporations, Municipalities, and Nagar Panchayats. They are responsible for urban governance and providing essential services like waste management, sanitation, and urban planning.

Historical Context:

• Pre-colonial: Informal governance structures which varied based on the city’s primary activities (religious town or trading town).
• Colonial Era: British established city institutions like Improvement Trusts (e.g., in Bombay, Calcutta) for urban sanitation.
• First Municipal Body: Established in Madras (1687), followed by Bombay and Calcutta. The improvement trusts were tasked with the responsibility of cleaning up the city and ensuring that epidemics were prevented.
• Lord Ripon’s Resolution: In 1882, Lord Ripon (often called as father of local self-government in India) introduced the resolution for local-self governments, thereby laying the foundations of a democratically elected municipal government to manage cities.

Post-Independence Evolution:

• After independence, municipal corporations continued to evolve but faced major obstacles with a growing population and limited infrastructure. They were heavily reliant on their respective state governments for financial and operational support.
• 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (1992):
  • Gave constitutional recognition to ULBs as the third tier of governance.
  • Part IX-A: Details the composition, roles, and powers of ULBs.
  • 12th Schedule: Lists 18 functions devolved to ULBs (e.g., urban planning, public health).
  • The amendment mandated elections every five years, with municipal councillors elected from local constituencies (wards). While the elected mayor serves as the ceremonial head, real executive power rests with the municipal commissioner, a state-appointed bureaucrat.

Challenges Faced by ULBs:

• Financial Constraints: ULBs lack sufficient revenue sources. Property taxes and state government funding are the primary revenue streams. Initiatives like municipal bonds remain rare due to lack of expertise.
• Political Autonomy: Mayors have limited executive power compared to municipal commissioners. State governments often exert control through funding and legislative changes (e.g., Bihar Municipality Amendment Bill, 2024).
• Personnel and Expertise Shortage: ULBs face low state capacity, with a significant shortage of urban planners and technical experts (1 planner per 75,000 people). Indian cities will need 3 lakh planners by 2031.

International Comparison:

• Global Cities: Mayors in cities like London and New York have significant power over policies, including housing, transportation, and infrastructure.
• Example: London’s Mayor controls Transport for London (TfL). TfL is responsible for improving mobility and accessibility in London. It is also in charge of implementing the Mayor’s sustainable transport plan whereby 80 per cent of trips in London shall be on foot, cycle or public transport by 2040.

The Way Forward:

• Greater Financial Autonomy: ULBs should raise revenue through market measures (bonds, securities) and user charges (parking fees, congestion charges).
• Participatory Budgets: Allow residents to decide how taxes are used, increasing local problem-solving.
• Improved Technical Expertise: ULBs need to recruit more experts and planners to tackle complex urban challenges like floods and heat islands.
• Decentralized Governance: According to the principle of subsidiarity, local issues should be managed by ULBs, minimizing reliance on state or central governments.

Source: Indian Express

 Syllabus

• Mains – GS 3

Context: Union Minister for Textiles recently said that the Indian textile and apparel sector is aiming for a total business of $350 billion annually by 2030. However, the industry went through a tumultuous phase during the last two financial years, casting a shadow on the possibility for growth.

Background: –

• Several MSME textile mills downed their shutters as there is no demand.

What is the status now?

• In FY22, India was the third largest textile exporter globally, enjoying a 5.4% share. India is also said to have the second largest manufacturing capacity, with capability across the value chain.
• The sector’s contribution to GDP is close to 2.3% (FY21) and 10.6% of total manufacturing Gross Value Added (GVA) in FY23. About 105 million people are employed by the textile and garment units, directly and indirectly.
• For an industry that has 80% of its capacity spread across MSMEs and is sensitive to global markets, FY2021-2022 saw tremendous growth with $43.4 billion exports.
• However, slowdown in demand that started in 2022-2023 only worsened in FY24 with a slump in exports and domestic demand. This impacted manufacturing clusters severely. Tamil Nadu, which has the largest spinning capacity in the country, saw the closure of nearly 500 textile mills in the last two years.

Why did exports slump?

• Geopolitical developments and a slump in demand in buying countries hit the exporting units. This was exacerbated by high raw material prices of both, cotton and Man Made Fibres (MMF), and the growing import of fabrics and garments.
• The imposition of a 10% import duty on cotton has made Indian cotton more expensive compared to international prices. In the case of MMF, introduction of quality control orders has disturbed raw material availability and price stability.
• The industry is repeatedly demanding removal of the import duty on cotton at least during the off-season months of April to October.

What are the other challenges?

• Apart from policy issues, the industry is also staring at disruptions in its traditional business systems. Direct retailing to customers through e-commerce is a trend with more startups entering this space.
• Foreign brands are fast-tracking the adoption of ESG (Environmental, Social, & Governance) sustainability across the supply chain. They are defining sustainability targets and want to source from vendors who will meet these targets. Further, there is a rise in comfort wear, loungewear, and athleisure as the emphasis on comfortable clothing has increased among consumers.

Source: The Hindu

 Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Context: The 2024 Nobel Prize for chemistry was jointly awarded to David Baker for his work on computational protein design and to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for developing technologies to predict the structure of proteins.

Background: –

• The chemistry prize concerns two areas in the field of protein research: design and structure.

Why are proteins important?

• All life requires proteins and all proteins are made of amino acids. While there are many types of amino acids in nature, only 20 of them in different combinations make up all the proteins in the human body and in most life-forms.
• Amino acids are found in tissues — like muscles, skin, and hair — that provide structural support; they’re catalysts in biochemical reactions; move molecules like oxygen across membranes; control muscle contraction that lets us move and have our hearts beat; and help cells communicate with each other to perform tasks.

What is the protein-folding problem?

• A protein has many identities and one of them depends on the arrangement of its amino acids in the three dimensions of space — in other words, its 3D structure. And scientists have spent decades trying to understand how proteins attain these structures.
• In 1962, John Kendrew and Max Perutz won the Nobel for elucidating the first 3D models of haemoglobin and myoglobin, both proteins, using X-ray crystallography. (This method reveals a crystal’s structure based on how its constituent atoms scatter X-rays. For this the proteins need to be purified and crystallised first). A year earlier, Christian Anfinsen had found that a protein’s 3D structure is governed by the sequence of amino acids in the protein, and won the 1972 chemistry Nobel.
• Notable breakthrough arrived in 1969 when scientists found that a protein doesn’t try to bend into different shapes before settling into its final one. Instead it somehow knows the shape it needs to have and rapidly folds itself to acquire it. The mysterious nature of this ‘knowledge’ of the protein is called the protein-folding problem.
• By the late 2010s, scientists had worked out the structures of around 1.7 lakh proteins — a large number yet still small compared to the roughly 200 million proteins in nature. This situation changed drastically around 2018.

What is AlphaFold?

• Hassabis co-founded DeepMind in 2010 and which Google acquired. Here, Hassabis and his colleagues unveiled AlphaFold in 2018. AlphaFold is a deep-learning model able to predict the structures of almost all proteins after training on the set of known structures.
• DeepMind launched its successor AlphaFold 2 in 2020, when it was able to predict the structure of proteins with an accuracy comparable to that of X-ray crystallography.
• Jumper led the work on AlphaFold 3. This model is able to predict the structures of various proteins as well as how two proteins and/or a protein and another molecule might interact.
• Given enough computing power, these machine-learning models are capable of deducing the 3D shapes of most proteins in a matter of hours. However, these machines have not been able to say why a protein prefers a particular structure.

What is protein design?

• Baker, who received the other half of chemistry Nobel, developed tools that scientists use to design new proteins with specific shapes and functions. His first notable work was in 2003, when he led a team to create a novel protein and determined its structure using a bespoke computer program they had developed in 1999 called ‘Rosetta’.
• The ability to design proteins has far-reaching implications. For example, in 2022, Baker’s team developed an antiviral nasal spray to treat COVID-19. At its heart were proteins the team designed using computational methods in the laboratory to stick to vulnerable sites on the viral surface and target the spike protein.

Source: The Hindu

 Syllabus

• Prelims – CURRENT EVENT

Context: The 28th edition of the multi-national maritime exercise MALABAR 2024 commenced on Wednesday in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam.

Background:

• The exercise is aligned with the Indian Government’s vision of Security & Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) and reflects India’s growing engagement with like-minded nations.

About Malabar Exercise

• The Malabar Exercise is a significant annual naval exercise that involves the navies of India, the United States, Japan, and Australia.
• Inception: The Malabar Exercise began in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between the Indian Navy and the United States Navy.
• Expansion: Japan became a permanent participant in 2015, and Australia joined in 2020, transforming it into a quadrilateral exercise.

Objectives

• Interoperability: The primary goal is to enhance interoperability among the participating navies through joint training and operations.
• Maritime Security: It aims to promote maritime security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Strategic Coordination: The exercise focuses on strategic and operational coordination to counter regional threats and ensure a rules-based maritime order.
• Structure of the Exercise: The exercise is typically divided into two phases:
  • Harbour Phase: This phase includes planning conferences, professional exchanges, and cultural events. It allows the navies to plan and coordinate their activities.
  • Sea Phase: This phase involves complex naval drills, including anti-submarine warfare, air defense exercises, surface warfare drills, and live weapon firing.

Malabar 2024

• Host: India is hosting the Malabar Exercise in 2024, with activities centered around Visakhapatnam.
• Activities: The exercise includes live weapon firing, complex surface operations, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare drills, and joint maneuvers involving a range of naval assets.

Significance

• Regional Security: Malabar plays a crucial role in maintaining the security dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region, especially in counterbalancing China’s growing influence.
• Cooperation: It fosters mutual understanding and cooperation among the participating nations, enhancing their ability to work together in times of crisis.

Source: Deccan Herald

 Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – ECONOMY

Context: Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has achieved a new milestone with gross enrolments under the scheme having crossed 7 crore.

Background: –

• This milestone was achieved with an enrolment of enrolment of over 56 lakh in the current Financial Year, i.e., FY 24-25

About Atal Pension Yojana (APY)

• APY was launched on May 9, 2015 with an aim to create a universal social security system for all Indians, especially the poor, the underprivileged and the workers in the unorganised sector.
• The scheme is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)
• Eligibility
  • APY is applicable to all citizen of India aged between 18-40 years.
  • Account Requirement: A savings account with an authorized bank or post office is necessary.
• Subscriber Contribution: Contributions can be made monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly, and the amount depends on the age of joining and the desired pension amount.

Pension Benefits

• APY’s design focuses on ensuring a guaranteed minimum pension to subscribers upon reaching the age of 60, based on their contributions during their working years.
• Pension Amount: Subscribers can choose a fixed monthly pension of ₹1,000, ₹2,000, ₹3,000, ₹4,000, or ₹5,000, which starts after they reach 60 years of age.
• Nomination: It is mandatory to appoint a nominee for the APY account.
• In case of death of subscriber pension would be available to the spouse and on the death of both of them (subscriber and spouse), the pension corpus would be returned to his nominee.
• Tax Benefits: Contributions to the APY qualify for tax benefits under Section 80CCD(1) of the Income Tax Act.

Source: Hindu Businessline

Q1.) Consider the following statements regarding the Malabar Exercise:

1. The Malabar Exercise started as a trilateral exercise between India, Japan, and the United States in 1992.
2. Australia became a permanent participant of the Malabar Exercise in 2020.
3. The Malabar Exercise focuses on enhancing maritime security and interoperability among participating navies.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 and 2 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2, and 3

Q2.) Consider the following statements regarding the protein-folding problem and AlphaFold:

1. A protein’s three-dimensional structure is determined by the sequence of amino acids in the protein.
2. AlphaFold is a machine-learning model developed by DeepMind to predict the structure of proteins with accuracy comparable to X-ray crystallography.
3. AlphaFold 3 can predict the interaction between two proteins.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 and 2 only
b) 1 and 3 only
c) 2 and 3 only
d) 1, 2, and 3

Q3.) Consider the following statements regarding the Atal Pension Yojana (APY):

1. APY is applicable to all Indian citizens aged between 18-40 years.
2. Subscribers are guaranteed a fixed monthly pension of ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 upon reaching the age of 60, depending on their contribution.
3. Contributions to APY are eligible for tax benefits under Section 80CCD(1) of the Income Tax Act.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3

Comment the answers to the above questions in the comment section below!!

ANSWERS FOR ’  10th October 2024 – Daily Practice MCQs’ will be updated along with tomorrow’s Daily Current Affairs

Q.1) –  c

Q.2) – b

Q.3) – b