Geomagnetic Storm

• According to the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, Earth just experienced a strong geomagnetic storm with a severity classification of G4 (NOAA).
• The second-highest severity rating, G4, has the potential to result in widespread issues with power grid voltage regulation. Protection mechanisms may inadvertently trip critical grid power assets as a result.

About geomagnetic storm

• An energy exchange from the solar wind into the space environment around Earth causes a geomagnetic storm, which is a significant disturbance of the magnetosphere.
• The release of magnetic energy from the sunspots, known as solar winds, results in solar storms.
• These storms are the result of variations in the solar wind, which dramatically change the currents, plasmas, and fields in the magnetosphere of Earth.
• A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) or a fast solar stream collides with our planet's magnetosphere when it arrives there.
• The magnetosphere of the Earth is produced by its magnetic fields, and it typically shields humans from solar particle emissions.

Type of solar storms

• Solar flares: A solar flare is a sudden increase in brightness on the Sun that is typically seen close to its surface or near a group of sunspots.
• Geomagnetic Storm: A geomagnetic storm is a brief disruption of the Earth's magnetosphere brought on by an interaction between the solar wind shock and the magnetic field of the planet.
• Solar Particle Events: A solar particle event, also known as a solar proton event (SPE), or prompt proton event, occurs when particles (mostly protons) emitted by the Sun are accelerated either by coronal mass ejection shocks in interplanetary space or by flares that occur close to the Sun during the event.

What Consequences Would Such a Storm Have?

• Global Positioning Systems (GPS), radio, and satellite communications can all be negatively impacted by solar storms. Programs for space exploration and aircraft flights are at risk.
• The magnetosphere, which surrounds the Planet and serves as a shield, may become disturbed.
• During performing spacewalks, astronauts face the risk of being exposed to solar radiation outside of the atmosphere's shielding effects.

How are they predicted?

• Computer models are used by solar physicists and other scientists to forecast solar storms and other solar activity.

• A storm's arrival time and pace can be predicted using current models.

• However it is still not possible to predict the storm's structure or orientation.

• More intense responses from the magnetosphere and more intense magnetic storms may result from specific magnetic field orientations.

• There is a need for better space weather forecasts and more effective techniques to protect satellites because to the growing global reliance on satellites for nearly every activity.

Read Also: Sun, Solar Missions & Solar Phenomenon

Earth Hour

• Earth Hour is a global movement that aims to inspire people, communities, and businesses to turn off all unnecessary electric lights for one hour.
• As a pledge to the environment, it is held on the final Saturday in March.

Background:

• In Sydney, Australia, in 2007, it was infamously launched as a lights-off occasion. In the years thereafter, it has expanded to involve more than 7000 cities and towns worldwide. Today, Earth Hour educates the general public on a wide range of environmental issues. The now broader movement is still mostly being driven by the one-hour event.

About Earth hour

• The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) launched its annual Earth Hour campaign in 2007.
• More than 180 nations are encouraged to turn out their lights between 8.30 and 9.30 p.m. local time.
• In an effort to conserve energy and promote environmental protection, the goal is to avoid using illumination that is not absolutely necessary.
• Theme: Invest in Our Planet.
• The World Wildlife Fund has been hosting Earth Hour every year since 2007 as a way to encourage conservation and renewable energy. To lessen the impact of global warming, increase awareness of climate change, and support wildlife conservation, people are urged to turn off their lights for one hour during this period.

What distinguishes Earth Day from Earth Hour?

• In contrast to Earth Hour, which encourages people to use less electricity, Earth Day (April 22) honours nature by encouraging people to plant trees, recycle frequently, and keep the environment clean

What justifies Earth Hour?

• Throughout the past ten years, discussions about climate change and global warming have dominated the scientific community. Climate change has greatly endangered people and other creatures because of the world's constantly growing population.
• A few of the threats that have a significant impact on how life functions on earth include global warming, increased pollution due to ever-increasing industrialization, dwindling forest cover, and rising sea levels.
• The WWF works to raise public awareness of the imminent threats of changing climate, despite the fact that the biggest polluters are enormous industries, so that the public can exert pressure on the national governments to enact environmentally friendly policies and legislation.

Signifies:

• Earth Hour strives to raise awareness and start worldwide discussions about preserving the environment, addressing the climate problem, and cooperating to create a better future for people.
• The symbolic Earth Hour, in which all lights are turned off to promote energy conservation and raise awareness of climate change, has grown into the largest grassroots movement in the world.

The World Wildlife Fund

• It is the top conservation organisation in the world and operates in more than 100 nations
• It was founded in 1961 and has its corporate headquarters in Gland, Switzerland.
• Mission: To protect the environment and lessen the grave risks to the variety of life on Earth.
• Additional WWF initiatives include:
• TX2 Aim (a global pledge to double the number of wild tigers in the globe by 2022)
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the WWF jointly run the programme TRAFFIC.

Read Also: Earth's Inner Core

Foreign Trade Policy 2023

• The Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023 was recently introduced by the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Textiles. It takes effect on April 1, 2023.

About

• The new strategy, which replaces the previous one that had been in effect since 2015 and takes effect in 2023–2024, intends to virtually triple India's exports of products and services from an anticipated $760 billion in 2022–2024 to $2 trillion by 2030.
• The Old Policy allowed for a 75% increase in exports, from $435 billion in 2015–16 to $760 billion in 2022–23.
• India's global market share in goods and services exports is extremely low, and the government wants to increase it to 7% to 10%.
• The goal of the policy, which is founded on the ideas of partnership and trust with exporters, is process automation and re-engineering to make it easier for exporters to conduct business.

The Key Approach is built upon four pillars:

• the Incentive to Remission, Export Promotion through Collaboration - Exporters, States, Districts, Indian Missions, Ease of Doing Business, Reduction in Transaction Cost and E-Initiatives, and
• Emerging Areas - E-Commerce Developing Districts as Export Hubs, and Simplifying Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment, and Technologies (SCOMET) Policy.

Provision

• The new policy won't have an expiration date and will be adjusted in response to comments from the sector and the changing global trade environment. Although the policy will be perpetual, the schemes it will sanction will have a deadline.
• There are no significant new policies that permit the import of capital goods subject to specific export obligations, with the exception of a one-time pardon under the existing Advance Authorisation and Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) programmes.
• A new prospective export market called "merchanting trade" has been made possible by the Policy.
• In the merchanting trade, a middleman from India is used to transfer products from one foreign country to another without ever entering Indian ports. This will also permit the export of prohibited products.
• Process Re-Engineering and Automation: The strategy places an emphasis on export development and promotion, shifting from an incentive regime to a regime that is facilitating, based on technological interface and collaborative principles.
• It will be simpler for MSMEs and others to receive export benefits thanks to reduced fee structures and IT-based programmes.
• Regional Offices will now administer duty exemption programmes for export production in a rule-based IT system environment, doing away with the requirement for manual interface.

Towns of Export Excellence (TEE):

• Together with the 39 already designated towns, four additional towns—Faridabad, Mirzapur, Moradabad, and Varanasi—have been given TEE status
• Developing Partnerships with State Governments and Moving Forward with the Districts as Export Hubs Initiative: The FTP aims to develop partnerships with State governments and move forward with the Districts as Export Hubs (DEH) initiative to promote exports at the district level and expedite the growth of the grassroots trade ecosystem.
• Via an institutional system, the State Export Promotion Committee and District Export Promotion Committee at the State and District levels, respectively, will work to identify export-worthy goods and services and address issues at the district level.
• For each district, district-specific export action plans defining the district-specific strategy to encourage export of designated goods and services must be produced.

Goals and Objectives:

• By 2030, the government wants to double the value of all exports from India to USD 2 trillion, with equal contributions from the goods and services sectors.

• The RBI's new payment settlement structure, which it announced in July 2022, will help the government promote the use of the Indian rupee in international trade.

• With nations with which India has a trade surplus, this might be especially helpful.

Challanges

• Due to the extensive documentation requirements, the export process in India takes longer than in many other nations. For each step of the shipping procedure, Indian exporters are required to prepare a substantial number of paperwork.

• Planning ahead is also necessary due to the fact that certification authorities are not always on duty or open on weekends in Indian ports.

• India's weakest link is its inadequate infrastructure. India received a score of 68.1 in the 2019 ranking of 100 nations by data company Statista based on the quality of their infrastructure. In order to put this into perspective, top-ranked Singapore scored 95.4, while Bolivia, which is currently in last place, got 57.1, lagging by about 10 points behind India.

Read Also: RBI and Financial Stability Report

CERT-in may be exempted from RTI

• According to information provided to Parliament by the government, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) may soon be immune from having to reply to requests made under the Right to Information Act.

About

• The Second Schedule to the RTI Act, which deals with exempted organisations like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Border Security Force, has been reviewed by the Department of Personnel and Training in relation to a proposal from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to include the CERT-in .
• The names of the intelligence and security agencies that are excluded from the scope of the RTI Act are listed in Schedule-II.
• The exemption would provide CERT-in the right to reject any request for information, even requests for information on questions of policy. In light of the body's April 2022 guidelines mandating cryptocurrency companies and Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers to preserve user requests, this is significant.

About CERT-in

• It's a division of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which was set up in 2004 in accordance with the IT Act 2000.
• It is the central agency for handling risks to computer security.
• Enhance the Indian Internet domain's defences relating to security.
• When cyber incidents such as data breaches and ransomware attacks are reported, coordinate with governmental and commercial organisations in India.
• As a guide for organisations, publish advisories on software vulnerabilities.
• There seem to be responsibilities shared by CERT-IN and other organisations that include:
• The National Technological Research Organization (NTRO), which reports to the Prime Minister's Office, is home to the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Center (NCIIPC).
• The Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible for overseeing the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).