Current Affairs Apr 9

Copyright (Amendment) Rules, 2021

Why in News?

• The Government of India has notified Copyright (Amendment) Rules, 2021.
• In India, the copyright regime is governed by the Copyright Act, 1957 and the Copyright Rules, 2013. The Copyright Rules, 2013 were last amended in the year 2016.
• The amendments have been introduced with the objective of bringing the existing rules in parity with other relevant legislations.

About

• It aims to ensure smooth and flawless compliance in the light of the technological advancement in digital era by adopting electronic means as primary mode of communication and working in the Copyright Office.
• A new provision regarding publication of a copyrights journal has been incorporated, thereby eliminating the requirement of publication in the Official Gazette.
• In order to encourage accountability and transparency, new provisions have been introduced, to deal with the undistributed royalty amounts and use of electronic and traceable payment methods while collection and distribution of royalties.
• To reinforce transparency in working of copyright societies a new rule has been introduced, whereby the copyright societies will be required to draw up and make public an Annual Transparency Report for each financial year.
• The time limit for the Central Government to respond to an application made before it for registration as a copyright society is extended to one hundred and eighty days, so that the application can be more comprehensively examined.

PIB

Concept of Ayurveda And Its Allied Disciplines Into Veterinary Science

Why in News?

• A Memorandum of Understanding between Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), Ministry of Fisheries and Ministry of AYUSH was signed.
• To introduce the concept of Ayurveda and its allied disciplines into veterinary science by their promotion in research and development including research on new formulations in quality drugs for veterinary science through medicinal herbs.

Significance

• This cooperation will help to develop a regulatory mechanism for the use of Ayurveda in the veterinary sector for the benefit of animal health, livestock owners’ community and the society at large.
• The initiative involves capacity building in related areas through training, exploring marketing possibilities for herbal veterinary medicines on a sustainable basis and providing for services including cultivation, preservation and conservation of medicinal plants.
• The cooperation will help in developing herbal veterinary education programs and creating awareness among dairy farmers and agro-farmers about utilization and importance of herbal veterinary medicine and cultivation of medicinal herbs.

PIB

Dozen rare quadruply imaged quasars discovered

Why in News?

• A group of astronomers have discovered a dozen quasars that have been warped by a naturally occurring cosmic “lens” and split into four similar images.
• This rare discovery increases the number of known quasars or quads by about 25 percent and can help determine the expansion rate of the universe and help address other mysteries.

Quasars

• Quasars are extremely luminous cores of distant galaxies that are powered by supermassive black holes. Quadruply imaged quasars are rare, and the first quadruple image was discovered in 1985.
• Over the past four decades, astronomers had found about fifty of these “quadruply imaged quasars” or quads for short, which occur when the gravity of a massive galaxy that happens to sit in front of a quasar splits its single image into four.

Cosmological Dilemma

• In recent years, a discrepancy has emerged over the precise value of the universe’s expansion rate, also known as Hubble-Lemaître’s constant.
• Two primary means can be used to determine this number:
• one relies on measurements of the distance and speed of objects in our local universe, and
• the other extrapolates the rate from models based on distant radiation left over from the birth of our universe called the cosmic microwave background.
• The problem is that the numbers do not match.
• The quasars lie in between the local and distant targets used for the previous calculations.
• The new quasar quads, which the team gave nicknames such as “Wolf’s Paw” and “Dragon Kite,” will help in future calculations of Hubble-Lemaître’s constant and may illuminate why the two primary measurements are not in alignment.

PIB

CSIR-CMERI Oxygen Enrichment Unit

Why in News?

• The CSIR-CMERI indigenously developed Oxygen enrichment unit works on the principle of Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) and utilizes Zeolite Columns to selectively remove nitrogen from air under certain pressure, thereby increasing the Oxygen Concentration.

Oxygen Enrichment Unit

• An Oxygen enrichment unit is a device, which concentrates the Oxygen from the air around us by selectively removing nitrogen to supply an oxygen-enriched air.
• The concentrated Oxygen is delivered to the patients, having respiratory diseases, through oxygen mask or nasal cannula.
• The device may be used in remote places, homes or hospital like facilities for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), chronic hypoxemia and pulmonary edema.
• It may be used as an adjunct treatment for severe sleep apnea (in conjunction with a continuous positive airway pressure unit).
• The commercially available Oxygen Enrichment Units generally work till 8000 ft from sea level.
• With an optional plug-in module, this unit can work upto the altitude of 14000 ft with a penalty on flow rate thereby making it very handy for the usage of the high altitude terrain battlefield in contingencies.

PIB

New species from Arunachal

Why in News?

• A bird spotted in Arunachal Pradesh at an altitude higher than its recorded perch in adjoining China has become the 1,340th species of the bird family in India.
• The three-banded rosefinch is a resident of southern China and a vagrant in Bhutan.
• A team of scientists from Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) spotted and photographed this rare species of bird in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The three-banded rosefinch belongs to the family Fringillidae, which are seed-eating passerine birds with a distinctively conical bill.
• They may be using the high altitude temperate coniferous forest of Arunachal Pradesh as a passage while migrating from China to Bhutan.
• Since 2016, the bird checklist has increased by 104 species new to India. There were three additions to the checklist of India while the three-banded rosefinch was the fifth new species recorded during the current year.

THE HINDU

“Muon g-2” Experiment

Why in News?

• Fermilab, the American particle accelerator, has released first results from its “muon g-2” experiment.
• These results spotlight the anomalous behaviour of the elementary particle called the muon. The muon is a heavier cousin of the electron and is expected to have a value of 2 for its magnetic moment, labelled “g”.
• Now, the muon is not alone in the universe. It is embedded in a sea where particles are popping out and vanishing every instant due to quantum effects.
• So, its g value is altered by its interactions with these short-lived excitations.
• The Standard Model of particle physics calculates this correction, called the anomalous magnetic moment, very accurately.
• The muon g-2 experiment measured the extent of the anomaly, Fermilab announced that “g” deviated from the amount predicted by the Standard Model. That is, while the calculated value in the Standard model is 2.00233183620 approximately, the experimental results show a value of 2.00233184122.
• They have measured “g” to an accuracy of about 4.2 sigma, when the results are combined with those from a 20-year-old experiment, which means the possibility that this is due to a statistical fluctuation is about 1 in 40,000.

The g factor

• The muon is also known as the fat electron. It is produced copiously in the Fermilab experiments and occurs naturally in cosmic ray showers.
• Like the electron, the muon has a magnetic moment because of which, when placed in a magnetic field, it spins and precesses, or wobbles, slightly, like the axis of a spinning top.
• Its internal magnetic moment, the g factor, determines the extent of this wobble.
• As the muon spins, it also interacts with the surrounding environment, which consists of short-lived particles popping in and out of a vacuum.
• The implications of this difference in the muon’s g factor can be significant.
• The Standard Model is supposed to contain the effects of all known particles and forces at the particle level.
• So, a contradiction of this model would imply that there exist new particles, and their interactions with known particles would enlarge the canvas of particle physics.
• These new particles could be the dark matter particles which people have been looking out for, in a long time. These interactions make corrections to the g factor and this affects the precession of the muon.
• If the measured g factor differs from the value calculated by the Standard Model, it could signify that there are new particles in the environment that the Standard Model does not account for.

THE HINDU

Rohingya shall not be deported until procedure is followed

Why in News?

• The Supreme Court did not order the release of Rohingyas reportedly detained in Jammu. The court, however, said they should not be deported unless proper procedure is followed.
• A Bench held that though rights to equality and due process of law enshrined in the Constitution are available to both citizens and foreigners, the right “not to be deported” is ancillary to citizenship.
• The rights guaranteed under Articles 14 (equality) and 21 (due process of law) are available to all persons who may or may not be citizens.
• But the right not to be deported, is ancillary or concomitant to the right to reside or settle in any part of the territory of India guaranteed under Article 19(1)(e).
• Article 19 (1) (e) of the Constitution guarantees to every citizen of India, the right “to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India”.
• In India, no legislation has been passed that specifically refers to refugees. Hence, the Rohingya refugees are often clubbed with the class of illegal immigrants deported by the government under the Foreigners Act 1946 and the Foreigners Order 1948.
• This is coupled with discrimination against the Rohingyas by the government, they being largely Muslim refugees. Legally, however, a refugee is a special category of immigrant and cannot be clubbed with an illegal immigrant.

THE HINDU

Bulgarian cave

Why in News?

• DNA extracted from remains found in a Bulgarian cave of three people who lived roughly 45,000 years ago is revealing surprises about some of the first Homo sapiens populations to venture into Europe, including extensive interbreeding with Neanderthals and genetic links to present-day East Asians.
• Scientists sequenced the genomes of these three individuals — all males — using DNA obtained from a molar and bone fragments discovered in Bacho Kiro Cave near the town of Dryanovo, as well as one female who lived roughly 35,000 years ago at the same site.
• Our species first appeared in Africa approximately 300,000 years ago and later trekked to other parts of the world, sometimes encountering Neanderthals — our close cousins — already inhabiting parts of Eurasia. The three Bacho Kiro Cave males represent the oldest securely dated Homo sapiens individuals from Europe.
• Interbreeding, known as admixture, between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals before the extinction of Neanderthals sometime after 40,000 years ago has been previously shown, with present-day human populations outside Africa bearing a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA.
• The new study suggests interbreeding was more common than previously known for the first Homo sapiens in Europe.

THE HINDU

Indian ‘double mutant’ strain named B.1.617

• The ‘double mutant’ virus that scientists had flagged last month as having a bearing on the spread of the pandemic in India, has a formal scientific classification: B.1.617.
• Other than a place on the coronavirus’s evolutionary history, it also brings focus on the role the variant may be playing in the pandemic.
• The variant is common in India — and has a couple of defining mutations, E484Q and L425R, that enable them to become more infectious as well as evade antibodies.
• Though these mutations have individually been found in several other coronavirus variants, the presence of both these mutations together have been first found in some coronavirus genomes from India.
• Certain variants of the coronavirus, for instance, B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 — have been termed the ‘United Kingdom’ and ‘South Africa’ variant respectively because they have mutations associated with large spikes in these countries or reduce the efficacy of vaccines and are termed ‘Variants of Concern (VOC)’.

Resistant to T cells

• L452R, some studies show, could even make the coronavirus resistant to T cells, that are class of cells necessary to target and destroy virus-infected cells.
• They are different from antibodies that are useful in blocking coronavirus particles and preventing it from proliferating.
• So far, only three global VOCs have been identified: the U.K. variant, the South African and the Brazilian (P.1) lineage.

THE HINDU

Chabahar Port

Why in News?

• India accelerated the work on Chabahar Port early this year and the strategic Iranian port is expected to be operational by next month.
• In 2015, India agreed to help develop Iran’s Chabahar Port and an associated railway that would enable India to trade with Afghanistan unimpeded by Pakistan.
• In May 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Iran and signed an agreement to invest $500 million to develop the port and related infrastructure.
• During 2011-2016, when U.N. sanctions were in force on Iran, India’s central bank ceased using a Tehran-based regional body, the Asian Clearing Union, to handle transactions with Iran, and the two countries agreed to settle half of India’s oil buys from Iran in Indian currency.
• India reduced its imports of Iranian oil substantially after 2011, but, after the sanctions were eased in 2016, India’s oil imports from Iran increased to as much as 800,000 bpd in July 2018 — well above 2011 levels.

THE HINDU

Lemurs and giant tortoises among species at risk

• Unique island species including lemurs and the Galapagos giant tortoise could be at high risk of extinction if the planet warms by more than 3C above pre-industrial levels, new research warns.
• Analysis of 270 biodiversity hotspots suggests almost half of endemic marine species and 84% of endemic mountain species will face extinction if the planet warms by more than 3C, which if current trends continue could happen in 2100.
• However, keeping the global temperature rise to 1.5C – the target limit set by the Paris Agreement – would reduce the risk of global extinctions tenfold.
• If the world manages to stick to 1.5C of warming, just 2% of land-based endemic species would be at risk of extinction, compared with 20% at more than 3C.
• Species are endemic if they are only found in one place, such as an island, mountain range or single country.
• The increase is even more significant in marine ecosystems.
• Madagascar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, as well as islands in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean could lose all endemic plant species within the next 30 years.
• The theory behind the projection is that endemic species often thrive in ecological niches, but their restricted range means they are less able to move as the environment changes, making them more vulnerable to climate change.
• Island species are particularly at risk because they have high levels of endemicity and small population sizes living in a relatively small range.
• Using International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria, researchers defined species at high risk of extinction if losses were projected to be greater than 80% due to climate change.
• Introduced species may cause additional pressure on habitats, as endemic species are replaced by more adaptable, generalist species, generally leading to the homogenisation of wildlife-rich areas.
• Sea level rise, extreme weather events, habitat loss, pollution and resource extraction will also further increase the extinction risk of endemic island species, although these were not included in the research.
• Around 1m species are at risk of extinction, many within decades, according to a UN report. Scientists warn that more than 500 species of land animal are on the brink of extinction, with two out of five plant species also at risk.

THE GUARDIAN

Antarctic ice shelves

• More than a third of the vast floating platforms of ice surrounding Antarctica could be at risk of collapsing and releasing “unimaginable amounts” of water into the sea if global temperatures reach 4C above pre-industrial levels.
• Researcher said that limiting the temperature rise to 2C could halve the area at risk and avoid a drastic rise in sea levels.
• Ice shelves are permanent floating sheets of ice that connect to a landmass; most surround the coasts of Antarctica.
• Ice shelves are important buffers, preventing glaciers on land from flowing freely into the ocean and contributing to sea level rise.
• When they collapse it’s like a giant cork being removed from a bottle, allowing unimaginable amounts of water from glaciers to pour into the sea.

THE GUARDIAN