★★★★★ 4.5/5
Prelims: Environment (Species-special characteristics), Golden Backed Frog, Bonnet Mushroom
Mains: General Studies-III, Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.
Why in the News ?
Scientists discovered a frog in Western Ghat which seems to have a mushroom growing out of its side.
Source: IE
Key Facts 🗝️
- Endemic: Western Ghats of Karnataka and Kerala, specifically above the Palghat Gap, where it is known to thrive in relative abundance.
- Habitat: Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests in the Western Ghats of India.
About:
Golden-backed Frog:
- These frogs prefer to reside near streams, ponds, and other water bodies, where they can lay their eggs and find their food.
- Food: Insectivorous and feed on a range of small insects and arthropods such as ants, beetles, and crickets.
- Threats: habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution of water bodies, and the introduction of non-native species.
Bonnet Mushroom:
- It is commonly found as a saprotroph (an organism that feeds on non-living organic matter) on rotting wood.
- It belongs to the Mycena genus.
- Mycenas are hard to identify to species and some are distinguishable only by microscopic features such as the shape of the cystidia.
- Some species are edible, while others contain toxins.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Prelims: PYQ/FAQ
Q. With reference to “Gucchi” sometimes mentioned in the news, consider the following statements:
1. It is a fungus.
2. It grows in some Himalayan Forest areas.
3. It is commercially cultivated in the Himalayan foothills of north-eastern India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A) 1 only
B) 3 only
C) 1 and 2
D) 2 and 3
Answer: c. 1 and 2
Explaination:
- Guchhi mushroom is a species of fungus in the family Morchellaceae of the Ascomycota. They are pale yellow in colour with large pits and ridges on the surface of the cap, raised on a large white stem.
- It is grown in the foothills of Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, and Jammu and Kashmir.
- The mushrooms cannot be cultivated commercially and grow in conifer forests across temperature regions. It takes months for villagers to collect enough of these mushrooms, dry them and bring them to the market. These mushrooms are also replete with health benefits. They are rich in potassium, vitamins and copper. They are also a rich source of vitamin D apart from several B-vitamins
★★★★★ 5/5
Prelims: History (Ancient History – Harappan site), Morodharo, Harappa Civilisation.
Mains: General Studies-I Indian Culture – Salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Why in the News ?
Archaeologists recently discovered a Harappan-era fortified settlement named Morodharo. They said architectural details at the new site bear striking resemblance to Dholavira.
Source: TOI
Key Facts 🗝️
- Morodharo Location: Kutch District, Gujarat.
- The thickness of the wall is an average of 3.3 m.
- It has a 10×10 m platform on the south-west side and a well on the north-east.
About:
Morodharo
- It is a fortified settlement dating back to the Harappan-era.
- Features:
- The settlement looks mature (2,600-1,900BCE) to late (1,900-1,300 BCE) Harappan.
- Findings: Burial cairns, which are mounds of stones to demarcate a boundary, are also found here. Harappan pottery with perforated jar sherds, reserved slipware, and terracotta cakes were unearthed. All these items have a striking resemblance to those found in Dholavira.
Harappan Civilization:
- The Indus Valley/Harappan civilisation was the first urban civilisation in South Asia, coexisting with Mesopotamia and Egypt.
- The Harappan civilisation occupied the largest area (approximately 8,00,000 sq km) among the three civilisations.
- Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan), Mohenjo-Daro (Sindh, Pakistan), Dholavira, Lothal, and Surkotada (Gujarat, India), Kalibangan and Banawali (Rajasthan, India), and Rakhigarhi (Haryana, India) are the major cities in the Harappan period.
- The features of town planning of Harappan civilisation included:
- Rectangular grid pattern: The Harappan cities were designed on a grid pattern, with streets running in a north-south and east-west direction, forming a well-organized layout. Streets and lanes were cutting across one another almost at right angles, thus dividing the city into several rectangular blocks.
- Planned streets and alleyways: The streets and alleyways of Harappan cities were planned and constructed with precision. They were wide enough to allow the movement of carts and pedestrians, and some streets had covered drains running alongside them.
- Fortification: The cities were surrounded by fortified walls made of mud bricks, providing protection against robbers, cattle raiders, and floods.
- Division of cities: The city was divided into two parts: an upraised citadel and the lower part of the city.
- Upper part: An upraised citadel in the western part was used for constructing buildings of large dimensions, such as granaries, administrative buildings, pillared halls, and courtyards.
- Lower part: Below the citadel in each city lay a lower town containing brick houses, which were inhabited by the common people.
- Material used: They used burnt bricks on a large scale in almost all kinds of constructions, and there was the absence of stone buildings during Harappan culture.
- Residential areas: The cities were divided into distinct residential areas. Houses were made of baked bricks, often with multiple stories, indicating a well-developed urban society. The houses were generally built around courtyards, and some had private wells and properly ventilated bathrooms. No window faced the streets, and the houses had tiled bathrooms.
- Sophisticated drainage systems: The drainage system of the Harappans was elaborate and well laid out. Every house had drains, which opened into the street drains. Drains were made of mortar, lime, and gypsum.
- Granaries and storage facilities: The cities had well-planned granaries and storage facilities to store surplus agricultural produce.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Prelims: PYQ/FAQ
Q. Which one of the following ancient towns is well-known for its elaborate system of water harvesting and management by building a series of dams and channelizing water into connected reservoirs?
A) Dholavira
B) Kalibangan
C) Rakhigarhi
D) Ropar
Ans: a. Dholavira
Explaination:
- The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the most remarkable and well-preserved urban settlements in South Asia dating from the 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BCE (Before Common Era). Discovered in 1968, the site is set apart by its unique characteristics, such as its water management system, multi-layered defensive mechanisms, extensive use of stone in construction and special burial structures.
- It has a complex system for collecting and storing rain water within several reservoirs. Planners in the ancient city of Dholavira had conceptualised an amazing system of drains, dams and tanks to manage water.
★★★★★ 4/5
Prelims: Polity (International Agreements), Data Exclusivity, European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Generic Drugs.
Mains: General Studies-II Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Why in the News ?
India has recently taken a firm stance against the inclusion of ‘data exclusivity’ clauses in its ongoing discussions with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) for a free trade agreement.
Source: TH
📌 FYI on Prelims:
Free Trade Agreement
- A free trade agreement (FTA) is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports and exports among them.
- Under this agreement, goods and services can be bought and sold across international borders with little or no government tariffs, quotas, or prohibitions to inhibit their exchange.
- It is the opposite of trade protectionism or economic isolationism.
- first mentioned in 1817 by economist David Ricardo
- India has signed 13 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with its trading partners including the Agreement on the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), India-Japan CEPA, and India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA).
About:
Data Exclusivity:
- It is a clause in the draft agreement that puts a minimum 6-year embargo (a legal prohibition on commerce) on clinical trial data generated during the testing and development of a drug.
- Thus, manufacturers seeking to produce generic versions of drugs would either need to generate such data on their own, which is an expensive proposition, or wait out for the above specified period before selling their versions in India.
Impact on India’s Generic Drug Industry:
- India’s generic drug industry has been pivotal in providing affordable alternatives to expensive medications globally.
- However, the imposition of data exclusivity could severely hamper this industry’s growth and accessibility of affordable medicines.
- Demand for data exclusivity has consistently emerged since 2008 from both the European Union (EU) and the EFTA during trade negotiations with India.
- Despite this, India has consistently refused these requests.
European Free Trade Association:
- The EFTA is the intergovernmental organisation of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland (all four are not a part of the EU).
- It was founded by the Stockholm Convention in 1960.
- It aims to promote free trade and economic integration to the benefit of its four Member States and their trading partners around the globe.
Generic Drug
- It is a medication that has exactly the same active ingredient as the brand-name drug and yields the same therapeutic effect.
- It is the same in dosing, safety, strength, quality, the way it works, the way it is taken, and the way it should be used.
- These similarities help to demonstrate bioequivalence, which means that a generic medicine works in the same way and provides the same clinical benefit as the brand-name medicine.
- They also have the same risks and benefits as their brand-name counterparts.
- Generic drugs do not need to contain the same inactive ingredients as the brand-name product. A generic drug can only be marketed after the brand name drug’s patent has expired. Generic drugs are usually much less expensive than brand-name drugs.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Prelims: PYQ/FAQ
Q. “closed economy” is an economy in which (2011)
(a) the money supply is fully controlled
(b) deficit financing takes place
(c) only exports take place
(d) neither exports or imports take place
Ans: d. neither exports or imports take place
Explaination:
- The closed economy is that economy in which neither imports nor exports take place in that particular country.
- As the name suggests the country provides the consumers with everything they need from within the country’s economy.
★★★★★ 5/5
Prelims: Environment (Tiger Reserves), Buxa Tiger Reserve, Tiger reserves, Tiger
Mains: General Studies-III, Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.
Why in the News ?
The Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal celebrated a significant ecological milestone as a ‘resident tiger’ was spotted after 40 years, marking a crucial development in wildlife conservation efforts.
Source: TOI
Key Facts 🗝️
- India is home to 75% of the world’s tiger population. As per the latest report on the Status of Tigers in India, the tiger count in the country has surged to 3,167 as of 2022.
- Project Tiger is an ongoing centrally sponsored program of the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change that provides government assistance to tiger states for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves
📌 FYI on Prelims:
- Protected areas in West Bengal: Gorumara, Sundarbans, Neora Valley, Singalila, Jaldapara, Sundarban Tiger Reserve, Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve, and Eastern Dooars Elephant Reserve.
- A ‘resident tiger’: A tiger that establishes its territory and habitat within a specific area for an extended period. This term is often used in wildlife conservation to denote a tiger that consistently resides and breeds within a particular region, indicating the presence of a stable population within that ecosystem.
About:
Buxa Tiger Reserve
- It spans 760 square kilometres in North Bengal’s Alipurduar district and is a vital component of the larger tiger territory stretching into Bhutan.
- It boasts corridor connectivity with forests in Bhutan to the North, Kochugaon and Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam to the East, and Jaldapara National Park to the West, facilitating the migration and genetic diversity of Bengal tigers.
- The Tiger Augmentation Project launched in 2018 aims to monitor and boost the tiger population. Other protected areas in West Bengal include Gorumara, Sundarbans, Neora Valley, Singalila, Jaldapara, Sundarban Tiger Reserve, Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve, and Eastern Dooars Elephant Reserve.
Tiger Reserves:
- A protected area designated for the conservation of the tigers is referred to as Tiger Reserve.
- A tiger reserve may also be a national park or wildlife sanctuary.
- Eg: The Sariska Tiger Reserve is also a national park. It is so because the place was originally created as a national park and later dedicated to tiger conservation.
- Tiger Reserves are notified by State Governments as per provisions of Section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 on advice of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
- Presently, India accommodates a total of 54 Tiger Reserves (with the most recent addition being the Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve)
- A protected area designated for the conservation of the tigers is referred to as Tiger Reserve.
Tiger
- Scientific Name: Panthera tigris
- Indian Sub Species: Panthera tigris tigris.
- Habitat:
- Its habitat stretches from Siberian temperate forests to subtropical and tropical forests on the Indian subcontinent and Sumatra.
- It is the largest cat species and a member of the genus Panthera.
- Traditionally eight subspecies of tigers have been recognized, out of which three are extinct.
- Bengal Tigers: Indian Subcontinent
- Caspian tiger: Turkey through central and west Asia (extinct).
- Amur tiger: Amur Rivers region of Russia and China, and North Korea
- Javan tiger: Java, Indonesia (extinct).
- South China tiger: South central China.
- Bali tiger: Bali, Indonesia (extinct).
- Sumatran tiger: Sumatra, Indonesia.
- Indo-Chinese tiger: Continental south-east Asia.
- Threats:
- Habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation and poaching.
- Protection Status:
- Wildlife Protection Act 1972 – Sch 1
- International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Endangered.
- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): Appendix I.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Prelims: PYQ/FAQ
Q. Consider the following protected areas: (2012)
- Bandipur
- Bhitarkanika
- Manas
- Sunderbans
Which of the above are declared Tiger Reserves?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1, 3 and 4 only
(c) 2, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Ans: b. 1, 3 and 4 only
★★★★★ 5/5
Prelims: Science and Technology (Emerging trend), OpenAI, Sora, ChatGPT, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), DALL-E, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs).
Mains: General Studies-III Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life.
Why in the News ?
OpenAI, the creator of the revolutionary chatbot ChatGPT has unveiled a new generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) model that can convert a text prompt into video, an area of GenAI that was thus far fraught with inconsistencies.
Source: IE
📌 FYI on Prelims:
DALL-E
- DALL-E is a text-to-image model developed by OpenAI (introduced in January 2021) that creates digital images from natural language descriptions.
- DALL·E can generate imagery in multiple styles, including photorealistic imagery, paintings, and emoji.
- It can also manipulate and rearrange objects in its images, and can correctly place design elements in novel compositions without explicit instruction.
- It can also animate a static image, transforming it into a dynamic video presentation.
About:
Sora:
- Sora is an AI model developed by OpenAI –– built on past research in DALL·E and GPT models –– and can generate videos based on text instructions.
- Sora can create full videos in one go or add more to already created videos to make them longer.
- It can produce videos up to one minute in duration, ensuring high visual quality and accuracy.
- Features:
- Sora can generate complex scenes with various characters, precise actions, and detailed backgrounds.
- Not only does the model understand the user’s instructions, but it also interprets how these elements would appear in real-life situations.
- It is capable of generating compelling characters that express vibrant emotions.
- Sora can also create multiple shots within a single generated video that accurately persist characters and visual style.
- Shortcomings of the model:
- It may struggle with accurately simulating the physics of a complex scene, and may not understand specific instances of cause and effect.
- For example, a person might take a bite out of a cookie, but afterward, the cookie may not have a bite mark.
OpenAI
- Establishment: December 2015 as a non-profit AI research organisation whose goal was to develop “artificial general intelligence,” or AGI.
- AGI is essentially software that is as smart as humans.
- The organisation said it wanted to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity and no big tech company, like Google, would master the technology and monopolise its benefits.
- Founding members: Among its founding members were Altman, Brockman, Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, Amazon Web Services, Infosys, right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
- The evolution: Around two years after its inception, OpenAI released a report titled ‘Improving Language Understanding by Generative Pre-Training.’
- This introduced the idea of Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs).
- GPTs are a type of large language model (LLM) that use transformer neural networks to generate human-like text.
- GPTs are trained on large amounts of unlabelled text data from the internet, enabling them to understand and generate coherent and contextually relevant text.
- They can be fine-tuned for specific tasks like: Language generation, Sentiment analysis, Language modelling, Machine translation, Text classification.
- GPTs use self-attention mechanisms to focus on different parts of the input text during each processing step.
- This allows GPT models to capture more context and improve performance on natural language processing (NLP) tasks.
- NLP is the ability of a computer program to understand human language as it is spoken and written — referred to as natural language.
- Establishment: December 2015 as a non-profit AI research organisation whose goal was to develop “artificial general intelligence,” or AGI.
ChatGPT
- ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) model developed by OpenAI.
- It is a variant of the popular GPT-3 (Generative Pertained Transformer 3) model, which has been trained on a massive amount of text data to generate human-like responses to a given input.
- The answers provided by this chatbot are intended to be technical and free of jargon.
- It can provide responses that sound like human speech, enabling natural dialogue between the user and the virtual assistant.
Generative AI, or generative artificial intelligence:
- Form of artificial intelligence (AI) in which algorithms automatically produce content in the form of text, images, audio, and video.
- Generative AI is powered by foundation models (large AI models) that can multi-task and perform out-of-the-box tasks, including summarization, Q&A, classification, and more.
- These systems have been trained on massive amounts of data.
- It works by using a Machine Learning (ML) model to learn the patterns and relationships in a dataset of human-created content. It then uses the learned patterns to generate new content.
- Typically, it starts with a simple text input, called a prompt, in which the user describes the output they want. Then, various algorithms generate new content according to what the prompt is asking for.
- Bard, ChatGPT are popular Generative AI tools.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Prelims: PYQ/FAQ
Q. With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? (2020)
- Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units
- Create meaningful short stories and songs
- Disease diagnosis
- Text-to-Speech Conversion
- Wireless transmission of electrical energy
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only
(b) 1, 3 and 4 only
(c) 2, 4 and 5 only
(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Ans: b. 1, 3 and 4 only
Explaination :
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions.
- Artificial Intelligence has various applications in today’s society. in multiple industries, such as Healthcare, entertainment, finance, education, etc.
- AI has been used in disease diagnosis, creating songs like ‘I am AI’ and ‘Daddy’s Car’ and creating short stories and fictions. AI has been used in Text -to -speech conversion, e.g. Cerewave AI.
- Artificial Intelligence has also found use in power industry, e.g. Machine -learning assisted power transfer (based on AI) using magnetic resonance and AI used for energy efficiency. Hence all the options are correct.
★★★★★ 4.5/5
Prelims: International Relations (Important organizations, conferences), Munich Security Conference, NATO
Mains: General Studies-II Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Why in the News ?
External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi have met briefly in Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, their first meeting in more than six months.
Source: TH
Key Facts 🗝️
- Venue: It has been held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, since 1963.
- HQ of NATO – Brussels, Belgium.
- It was established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) on April 4, 1949.
About:
- Munich Security Conference (MSC)
- It is the world’s leading forum for debating international security policy.
- Objective: To build trust and contribute to the peaceful resolution of conflicts by sustaining a continuous, curated, and informal dialogue within the international security community.
- Venue: It has been held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, since 1963.
- It is a venue for diplomatic initiatives to address the world’s most pressing security concerns.
- It brings together security experts, and politicians, military leaders, and the defense industry from around the world.
- MSC regularly convenes high-profile events on particular topics and regions and publishes the Munich Security Report, an annual digest of relevant figures, maps, and research on crucial security challenges.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
- It is a transatlantic security alliance of 31 like-minded North American and European countries.
- Aim: To protect peace and to guarantee the territorial integrity, political independence, and security of the member states.
- Article Five of the treaty: If an armed attack occurs against one of the member states, it should be considered an attack against all members, and other members shall assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary.
- This article forms the core of the Alliance, a promise of collective defense.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Mains: PYQ/FAQ
Q. How has NATO evolved over time to adapt to new security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, and what is the significance of NATO in the context of China’s growing military and economic power?
