DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Recently, the Union Tourism Ministry has circulated the model law on adventure tourism to all States and Union Territories for feedback.

• Adventure tourism – A niche tourism where exploration or travel involves some degree of risk.
• It includes at least 2 among the 3 elements (physical activity, natural environment, and cultural immersion)
• Types – Hard adventure and soft adventure covering land, air and water based activities.
• Model law – It is a part of the National Strategy for Adventure Tourism covering aspects of obligations, institutional framework, registration, penalties and insurance coverage.

Adventure tourism is considered a sunshine sector for India.

National Strategy for Adventure Tourism (2022)

• Aim – To develop adventure destinations, promote safety in adventure tourism, skill development, capacity building and marketing.
• Vision - To position India as a preferred destination for adventure tourism globally.

• National Board for Adventure Tourism – It is to guide the operationalization and implementation of the strategy.
• Indian Mountaineering Foundation - IMF has a critical role in promoting adventure tourism particularly mountaineering and trekking in the Himalayas.

Psyche mission fires lasers at Earth from 16 million kilometres away, successfully demonstrating the future of communication in space.

• Launched by - NASA in 2023.
• Aim – To study the metallic asteroid called ‘16 Psyche’, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
• Type- Orbiter
• Mission – By 2029, the spacecraft will begin exploring the asteroid and will spend about 2 years orbiting the asteroid.
• It will take pictures, map the surface, and collect data to determine Psyche’s composition.

Psyche was discovered in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis. It is sometimes referred to as 16 Psyche.

• Scientific instruments – Multispectral Imager, Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer, Magnetometer, Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC).
• It uses solar electric propulsion and communicates with Earth through the Deep Space Network (DSN) of NASA.
• Significance – It will help to unlock the secrets of planets formation and evolution.

Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) – Psyche Mission

• It is a new laser communication technology that encodes data in photons at near-infrared wavelengths (rather than radio waves) to communicate between a probe in deep space and Earth.
• Using light instead of radio allows the spacecraft to communicate more data in a given amount of time.
• It is planned for the 1^st 2 years of the spacecraft’s cruise and so it does not relay Psyche mission data to earth.

Optical communications have been demonstrated previously in Low-Earth Orbit and even to the Moon but DSOC of Psyche mission is NASA’s 1^st test between Earth and distances far exceeding the Moon (deep space).

• Significance – If proven successful, it will may pave the way for broadband communications that will help support humans when sent to Mars.

Ghol fish was declared as State fish of Gujarat owing to its economic value and its uniqueness.

• Scientific name – Protonibea diacanthus.
• It is also called as black-spotted croake.
• Habitat – Usually found in the Indo-Pacific region that stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Pacific Ocean.
• In India, this fish is found mostly in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
• Threat – Pollution and relentless fishing have pushed its population to deep sea which makes it hard to catch it.
• Usage – It has nutritional and medicinal properties.
  • It is used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry.
  • To make threads used for making dissolvable surgery stitches
  • Its air bladder is used in the production of wine and beer.
• Fisherman’s lottery – It is also known as ‘Sea Gold’ for its high market value.
  • Locally, it costs Rs. 5,000 to 15,000 per kg and in export market, dried air bladder can fetch as high as Rs. 25,000 per kg.

Gujarat has a coastal belt of over 1600 km and contributes the largest share in fish production in the country.

PT-POINTERS

New Education for New India Campaign

• President of India recently launched an education campaign ‘New Education for New India’ of Brahma kumaris of Sambalpur, Odisha recently.
• This campaign is envisaged to inculcate values and uplift the consciousness of the students for better society.

ASEAN-India Millet Festival 2023

• ASEAN-India Millet Festival 2023 was recently held at South Jakarta, Indonesia.
• Organized by - Indian Mission to ASEAN in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
• Aim - To raise awareness and create a market for millets and millets-based products among the ASEAN Member states in line with International year of Millets - 2023.
• ASEAN Member states - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

EXERCISE AUSTRAHIND-23

• The 2^nd edition of AUSTRAHIND-23 will be held at Perth, Australia.
• It is a Joint Military Exercise between Australia and India.

Digital Twins

• In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Survey of India (SoI), has signed an agreement with a Mumbai-based private company, Genesys International, to prepare ‘Digital Twins’.
• Digital Twins - It aims to prepare 3D maps of several cities and towns which can be used in a variety of planning applications.
• Survey of India (SoI) – It is a historical repository of maps and the arbiter of national and State boundaries.
• It is the National Mapping Agency (NMA) of the country that works under the Department of Science & Technology.

UN Panel of External Auditors

• Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Girish Chandra Murmu, has been elected as vice-chair of the UN Panel of External Auditors recently.
• The United Nations Panel of External Auditors was established in 1959 by the UN General Assembly Resolution.
• The panel's purpose is to coordinate audits and share information about audit methods and findings.
• The Panel of External Auditors, composed of heads of 12 Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) globally.
• It oversees the external audit of the UN Secretariat, funds and programmes, and specialised agencies.

Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary

• The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has recommended the Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary bordering the Bandipur Tiger Reserve be declared as a core critical tiger habitat.
• Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the Mysore District of Karnataka.
• It's situated north of Bandipur National Park which includes the Lakshmanapura State Forest and adjacent revenue lands.
• The Nugu Reservoir occupies the northern part of the sanctuary. It is built across the Nugu River, a tributary of the Cauvery.

Same sex marriages in Thailand

• Thailand recently approves a marriage equality bill to grant same-sex couples equal rights.
• If it becomes law after Parliament’s approval, Thailand will be the 3^rd country in Asia to allow same-sex marriage.
• Other Asian countries that legalized same-sex marriages were Taiwan and Nepal.

Euclid Space Telescope

• The Euclid space telescope was launched in 2023.
• It was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Euclid Consortium (includes NASA).
• The telescope's mission is to study the composition and evolution of the dark universe.

Adi-vyakhyan

• The National Tribal Research Institute (NTRI) has recently organized Adi-Vyakhyan, a conference on Tribal Development at New Delhi as part of Jan Jatiya Gaurav Diwas.

Indira Gandhi Peace Prize

• The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace for the year 2022 was jointly awarded to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Trained Nurses Association of India recently.
• The Indira Gandhi Peace Prize, also known as the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, is an annual award established in 1986.
• Aim - To honour women, men and institutions that have done exemplary work in the service of humanity and the planet.

India has set an ambitious goal to become a leader in the electric vehicle market by 2030 with the government laying out a comprehensive roadmap to achieve this goal, which includes several initiatives and policies to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in the country.

• One of the key initiatives is the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) scheme, which provides subsidies to customers who purchase electric vehicles.
• The government has also set a target to achieve 30% electric vehicle penetration in the country by 2030.
• In this regard, the government is also taking steps for development of domestic manufacturing capabilities for electric vehicles and their components.

Key indicators: Bright Future

• Electric vehicle adoption, including four, three, and two-wheelers, and buses, has seen a significant uptick in recent years.
• Target of net-zero carbon emissions in the future will help promote the e-vehicle industry.
• Push for electric mobility will reduce dependence on oil imports and free up foreign exchange reserves.
• Last-mile mobility is a defining sector that will help carry this momentum, with partnerships with companies like Spoctech Green Ventures.
• Decisive growth in the mass-market category of private vehicles in 2023, particularly in Tier II and III cities will promote demand.
• Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) scheme extended until March 31, 2024 to provide subsidies will aid electric vehicle adoption.
• Volumes, mass adoption, and large-scale component manufacturing will drive prices down.

Various initiatives to promote e-vehicles

About: In India, the government has implemented several schemes to promote the use of electric vehicles (EVs). These include:

• FAME I & II: Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles is a government scheme, which provides incentives for the purchase of EVs and the installation of charging infrastructure.
• NEMMP: National Electric Mobility Mission Plan was launched in 2020, which aims to have at least 30% of vehicles on Indian roads be electric by 2030.
• Tax benefits: The Government has announced plans to provide an additional income tax deduction of INR 1.5 Lakh on the interest paid on loans taken to purchase electric vehicles.
• PLI: The government has announced a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to boost domestic manufacturing and attract global companies to invest in the Indian market.
• NTTM: The Government also plans to set up a National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM) to promote the use of technical textiles in various sectors, including the EV industry.
• Manufacturing plants: Setting up of battery manufacturing units in India to promote the use of electric vehicles.
• Public transport: The Government has also announced plans to promote the use of electric vehicles in the public transportation sector, by providing financial assistance to states for the purchase of electric buses.E.g., E-buses in Delhi
• Ensuring last-mile connectivity: The government has also identified last-mile mobility as a key sector to drive the adoption of electric vehicles E.g., deployment of a fleet of over 5,000 vehicles in Chennai.
• Promoting e-vehicles in government: In an attempt to promote use of electric vehicles in the public sector, the government has plans to replace existing government vehicles with electric vehicles.
• Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP): Indigenous manufacturing of electric vehicles, their assemblies/sub-assemblies, and parts/sub-parts/inputs of the sub-assemblies to be promoted over time through a graded duty structure.
• National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Storage: Government aims to drive strategies for transformative mobility and Phased Manufacturing Programmes for electric vehicles, electric vehicle Components and Batteries.

What more can be done?

• Government can devise strategies for transformative mobility for electric vehicles, electric vehicle Components and Batteries
• Creating a Phased Manufacturing Program (PMP) to localize production across the entire electric vehicle value chain.
• Coordination with key stakeholders in Ministries/ Departments/states to integrate various initiatives to transform mobility in India.
• Ensuring holistic and comprehensive growth of the battery manufacturing industry in India with initial focus on large-scale module and assembly plants on Gigascale manufacturing in future.
• Preparing roadmap for enabling India to leverage its size and scale to produce innovative, competitive multi-modal mobility solutions that can be deployed globally in diverse contexts

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are seen as key to decarbonise mobility, but there are challenges in recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles.

How the battery waste is managed in India?

What are the concerns with the Battery Waste Management Rules?

• Labelling requirements- The labels on batteries in India does not carry an icon (a crossed bin) which indicates that the batteries cannot be disposed of in regular bins.
• Design constraints- There is an absence of eco-design during assembly for recycling to employ corrective methods.
• Lack of traceability- The rules do not provide tracking of material used in the batteries, which is critical to reduce the carbon and environmental footprint of the batteries.
• Absence of harmonisation- The rules do not establish regulatory standards for testing and classifying used batteries that have a second life.
• Counterfeit documents- - Recyclers or dismantlers are falsifying documents and moving the same shipments repeatedly to meet their targets.
• Financial crunch- Recycling plants are capital intensive and will be operating at low capacity as the volume of end-of-life batteries are still very low.
• The rules do not provide incentives for recycling capacity and facilities.

Why there is a need for battery recycling and reuse?

• Limited resource availability- Recycling of batteries can generate a source for rare metals.
  • Using recycling technologies, 95% of metals can be recycled for use in manufacturing new batteries.
• Environmental hazards- If not handled well, it could reach in landfill thus contaminating soil and groundwater.
• The environmental impact of metal recycling from lithium ion batterieswaste is significantly less than from metal extraction from the mines.
• Import dependency- It is important for India to establish recycling ecosystem to save forex.India’s major import is from China which holds 51% of global cell manufacturing capacity.
• Supply chain disruption- COVID 19 pandemic has exposed business risks as a result of disruptions in the global supply chain, resulting in a long lead time for raw material deliveries.
• Recent Russia-Ukraine war has also affected the supply chain of key battery metals like nickel and aluminium, along with crude oil.
• Price discovery- Creating a well-established recycle ecosystem can help discover the resale value of batteries for reuse/ recycle applications.

Telangana model- Electric Vehicle Policy provides incentives to recycling businesses for ultra-processing.

Punjab model- Punjab is creating an e-marketplace to encourage resale of used batteries along with incentives to promote resale.

People prefer physical gold over sovereign gold bonds as no trail is left for the tax authorities.

What is Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB)?

What are theWhat is Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB)??

• Protected investment- The quantity of gold the investor pays for is protected, since he receives the ongoing market price at the time of redemption/premature redemption.
• Cost effective- These bonds offer a superior alternative to physical gold as the risks and costs of storage are eliminated.
• Passive income- Investors are assured of the market value at the time of maturity, and periodical interest.
• Flexibility- These bonds are free from issues like jewellery making charges, purity, risk of loss of scrip, etc.,
• Collateral- It is as liquid as physical gold and could be exchanged for money at the time of financial needs.
• Tax benefits- There is a provision of tax exemption from the interest and capital gains of the bond.
• Minimal risk- Gold bonds have a negligible risk factor, making them an ideal investment choice.

What makes physical gold more attractive than SGB for people?

• Liquidity restriction- SGBs are long-term investments that cannot be liquidated before 5 years from the date of investment whereas physical gold can be sold at anytime and anywhere.
• Lower returns- SGB are risk free instruments but they provide low returns when compared to other market instruments.
• Investment limit- Imposing maximum limit restricts the people their freedom of choice to invest.
• Market fluctuation- It shifts the price of gold below the bond cost price.
• Low demand- The demand for SGB is very low compared to physical gold imports.
  • Only 1.8% of total gold imports were equivalent to SGBs in the last 8 years.
• Tangible asset- Confidentiality and privacy is not possible in SGB where the KYC (Know Your Customer) norms are applied and followed as they are issued by RBI through banks.
• Cultural value- Physical gold holds emotional significance in India, especially for weddings and festivals. It is also seen as a symbol of status and wealth.
• Dependence- SGB carries the risk of default or fluctuation due to government guarantee unlike the physical gold.

For the first time, scientists were able to visualise plants sensing compounds released by other plants in danger.

• GLV – A group of compounds that a plant releases into the air when it is injured which may be a warning to other plants that danger is near.
• They consist of six carbon (C6) compounds including alcohols, aldehydes and esters which are released from almost every plant.
• 2 major defence mechanisms
  • When a plant is damaged, GLVs are released as by-products. Plants can make themselves less palatable or even indigestible to the insect attackers.
  • When an insect takes a bite of a plant leaf, calcium ions flood the leaves in the cells.
  • Future prospects – To fight agricultural pests without using pesticides and going organic.

Other internal defence responses of plants - Jasmonic acid activates plants’ defences and effectively repels insect pests.

• The Indian Navy completes 2^nd anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Guinea in Atlantic Ocean with the Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) INS Sumedha recently.
• INS Sumedha is the 3^rd of the indigenously developed Naval OPV of Saryu class.
• It was built by Goa Shipyard Limited and commissioned on 2014.

It took part in the recently conducted Operation Kaveri for evacuation of Indian diaspora from war hit Sudan recently.

• Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) visits Galathea Bay and reviews progress of proposed International Container Transhipment Port (ICTP) recently.

Galathea Bay

• Galathea Bay is located on Great Nicobar Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Galathea Bay is also the name of a National Park that was established in 1992. It is part of the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve.

• The Jammu & Kashmir government has terminated 4 government employees for being a threat to the security of the state under article 311 (2) (c) recently.
• Article 311(2) – It states that a civil servant cannot be dismissed, demoted, or reduced in rank unless they have been given a reasonable opportunity to show cause against the proposed action.

Article 311(2)(c) - It allows the government to terminate employees without ordering an inquiry into their conduct or giving them an opportunity to explain their position if the President/Governor, is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the State, it is not expedient to hold such inquiry.

• Daniel Noboa sworn in as Ecuador's President recently.
• Ecuador is a country in South America that's named after the equator, which splits the country in two. Capital – Quito.
• It's bordered by Colombia in north, Peru in east and south and in west by Pacific Ocean.
• It is home to Amazon rainforest, Andean paramos, Cloud forests, Galápagos Islands.

• A recent study says that Peru has lost more than half of its glacier surface in the last 6 decades, and 175 glaciers became extinct due to climate change between 2016 and 2020.
• The Chila mountain range lies in the Arequipa Region in the Andes of Peru.
• This mountain range is home to key first waters that give rise to the Amazon River, the longest and mightiest in the world, descend from the glacier.

It has lost 99% of its glacial surface since 1962.

• Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is a tree-dwelling herbivorous marsupial of Australia.
• Koalas are folivore specialists, feeding mainly on Eucalyptus leaves, and occasional leaves of other plant species.
• Conservation status – IUCN - Endangered.
• Chlamydia is a bacterial infection affecting many koalas in South East Queensland. Australia is planting kola corridors to save them.

Marsupials are a group of mammals that are also known as pouched mammals.

• Scientists have discovered a new species of 'music frog', Nidirana noadihing in Arunachal Pradesh recently.
• The speciality of this new species of frog is that both the male and female are vocal.
• Habitat - Swamps, ponds and paddy fields, and they often construct nests to lay their eggs.
• The new species was named after the Noa-Dihing River, which is near where the specimens were discovered and collected.
• Noa-Dihing is a tributary of Brahmaputra, originates in Arunachal Pradesh and flows through Assam and joins the Brahmaputra at Dihingmukh.
• The new species confirmed for the first time that the Nidirana genus has been found in India.

Nidirana species are known in Japan, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

• Lachit Borphukan was the commander of the Ahom forces and an icon of Assamese nationalism.
• In the Battle of Saraighat (Naval battle) on the River Brahmaputra, he thwarted an invasion by the Mughal Forces under the command of Ramsingh I.

On 24^th November each year, Lachit Diwas is celebrated in Assam to commemorate the heroism of Lachit Borphukan and the victory of the Assamese army at the Battle of Saraighat.

• India becomes Chair of International Sugar Organization (ISO) for 2024 to lead global sugar sector.
• ISO is an intergovernmental organization with 90 member countries, based in London, which was established by the International Sugar Agreement of 1968, as the body responsible for administering the Agreement.
• ISO represents (based on data for 2022) - 87% of world sugar production, 64% of world sugar consumption, 34% of world imports, 92% of world exports.

India is the largest consumer and 2^nd largest producer of sugar, 3^rd largest country in the world in ethanol production after USA and Brazil.