Articles Covered:

1. Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi
2. Methamphetamine
3. India ranks 93 out of 180 countries in corruption perceptions index 2023
   Hybrid vehicles could be a cleaner solution for India than EVs, at least for the next 7-10 years
4. Test tube rhinos: Why rebuilding doomed species is a desperate race against time
5. Snow Leopard
6. Maratha forts to be India’s nomination for UNESCO World Heritage List
7. Significance of the South China Sea
8. Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project

Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi:

AQI is a number, which is a measure of air quality. The higher the AQI, the worse the air. — There are six categories of AQI, namely ‘Good’ (0-50), ‘Satisfactory’ (50-100), ‘Moderately polluted’ (100-200), ‘Poor’ (200-300), ‘Very Poor’ (300-400), and ‘Severe’ (400-500).

• Delhi’s air pollution crisis has reached alarming levels, with AQI readings surpassing 999 in Anand Vihar and exceeding 450 in Noida. The city is shrouded in a persistent smoky haze, posing severe health risks, especially for vulnerable groups like children and the elderly.
• The situation is exacerbated by farm fires, adverse weather conditions, and vehicular emissions. Strict measures and collaborative efforts are imperative to address this dire issue and protect the well-being of Delhi’s residents.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi is a measure that indicates the level of air pollution in the city. It takes into account various air pollutants

such as

1. particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10),
2. sulfur dioxide (SO2),
3. nitrogen dioxide (NO2),
4. carbon monoxide (CO), and
5. ozone (O3), and calculates a single value to provide an overall assessment of air quality.

The AQI typically categorizes air quality on a scale from “Good” to “Hazardous,” with specific colour codes and health implications associated with each category.

Government Initiatives to Control Delhi’s Pollution:

1. Green War Room:A nine-member team that monitors the actions taken by 20 government agencies against pollution on a real-time and daily basis.
2. Delhi Government has recently launched a major anti-pollution campaign, Yuddh Pradushan Ke Viruddh, which includes a tree transplantation and other such initiatives.
3. Green Delhi App:A mobile app that allows citizens to report any instances of pollution such as garbage burning, industrial emissions, or traffic congestion.
4. A solution developed by PUSA institute that helps farmers decompose the crop residue in their fields without burning it. The government provides free spraying of bio-decomposer in Delhi’s farmlands.
5. Water Sprinklers:The use of water sprinklers, mechanized road sweeping machines, anti-smog guns, and sprinkling facilities on high-rise buildings to reduce dust and particulate matter in the air.
6. Industry Pollution:The monitoring of industrial sites and ensuring that they use clean and authorized fuel. The government has also extended piped natural gas (PNG) to industries and set up the country’s first e-waste eco-park in Delhi.
7. PUC Certificates:The enforcement of pollution under control (PUC) certificates for vehicles and banning trucks that carry non-essential goods from entering the city. The government has also hired 1,000 private CNG vehicles to augment the public transport system.

• The installation of smog towers that use large fans and filters to purify the air. The first smog tower has been set up at Connaught Place and has shown positive effects.
• Pollution Hotspots:The identification of 21 pollution hotspots in Delhi and deploying special teams to monitor and mitigate the sources of pollution in these areas.

Methamphetamine:

• Methamphetamine — meth for short — is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system, and is used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy, a sleep disorder.

• Crystal methamphetamine or crystal meth is a form of the drug that looks like glass fragments or shiny, bluish-white rocks. It is chemically similar to amphetamine.
• Methamphetamine can be smoked, swallowed in the form of a pill or tablet, snorted, and injected after dissolving the powder in water or alcohol.
• Methamphetamine can lead to myocardial infarction (heart attack); it can cause stroke. The drug can affect the heart, the brain, and the kidneys. It can result in the blood pressure shooting up suddenly. So, it is a very dangerous drug if there is an overdose.
• Meth raises the amount of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine, a natural chemical, plays a role in body movement, motivation, and reinforcement of rewarding behaviours.

India ranks 93 out of 180 countries in corruption perceptions index 2023:

INDIA ranked 93 out of 180 countries on the corruption perceptions index for 2023 as its overall score remained largely unchanged, according to a Transparency International report.

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

1. The index, which lists countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, ranked Denmark at the top, followed by Finland, New Zealand and Norway.
2. The index uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. In 2023, India’s overall score was 39 while in 2022, it was 40. India’s rank in 2022 was 85. In the Asian region, Singapore ranked at the top, scoring 83 and occupying the fifth slot.
3. “India (39) shows score fluctuations small enough that no firm conclusions can be drawn on any significant change. However, ahead of the elections, India sees further narrowing of civic space, including through the passage of a (telecommunication) Bill that could be a ‘grave threat’ to fundamental rights,” the report said.

Corruption Perception Index: First launched in 1995 by the Transparency International, the Index has been widely credited with putting the issue of corruption on the international policy agenda. Transparency International is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to fighting corruption. It was founded in 1993 and is based in Berlin, Germany. The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Hybrid vehicles could be a cleaner solution for India than EVs, at least for the next 7-10 years:

• A crucial element of the world’s transition to becomingnet-zero is electric vehicles(EVs).
• However, hybrid electric vehicles(EVs) present a big opportunity for economically developing countries to begin the transition instead of waiting.

Different Types of EVs:

1. HEVs (Hybrid EVs):They combine a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) system with an electric propulsion system, resulting in a hybrid drivetrain that substantially lowers fuel usage. Example, Toyota Hyryder in India.
2. An ICEis a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber.
3. PHEVs (Plug-in hybrid vehicles): They have a hybrid drivetrain that uses both an ICE and electric power for motive power, backed by rechargeable batteries that can be plugged into a power source. Example, Chevrolet Volt.
4. BEVs/full EVs:They have no ICE or fuel tank (no tailpipe emissions), and run on a fully electric drivetrain powered by rechargeable batteries. Example, Tata Nexon in India, or the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S.
5. FCVs (Fuel cell vehicles): FCVs combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, which runs the motor, and the only residue of the chemical process is water. Example, Toyota’s Mirai and Honda’s Clarity.

Test tube rhinos: Why rebuilding doomed species is a desperate race against time:

With frozen embryos in stock, surrogacy can in theory keep producing calves. However, they have to be raised as — and by — northern white rhinos. That is why the first calf must land while the last two surviving animals are still around

• The death of the last male in 2018 made the extinction of the northern white rhino an inevitability. But already in 2015, a group of 20 scientists from five continents had launched an audacious and expensive project to rebuild the subspecies through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Researchers have created an embryo of the northern white rhino by using In vitro Fertilization (IVF) process:

Presently, there are only two northern white rhinos in the world.

White Rhino:

1. White rhinos are the second largest land mammalafter the elephant.
2. White rhinos are also known as thesquare-lipped rhinoceros due to their square (not pointed) upper lip.
3. Two genetically different subspeciesexist, the northern and southern white rhino and are found in two different regions in Africa.
4. The IUCN Status of White Rhino is Near Threatened.The IUCN status of its subspecies is as follows:

• Northern White Rhino: Critically Endangered
• Southern White Rhino: Near Threatened

1. There is also the black (or hook-lipped) rhinoceros in Africa,which too, is fighting for survival, and at least three of whose subspecies are already extinct. It is critically endangered in the IUCN Red list.
2. The Indian rhinoceros different from its African cousins, most prominently in that it has only one horn. It is vulnerablein the IUCN Red list.
3. There is also a Javan rhino,which too, has one horn, and a Sumatran rhino which, like the African rhinos, has two horns. Both Javan and Sumatran Rhino are critically endangered in the IUCN Red list.

In vitro Fertilization: IVF is one of the more widely known types of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). In vitro comes from the latin word ‘in glass’, i.e. studies are done in a test tube rather than in a human or animal. The opposite to ‘In-vitro’ is ‘In-vivo’, which comes from the latin word ‘within the living’. In vivo refers to experimentation being done in a living organism. In vitro means outside the body. Fertilization means the sperm has attached to and entered the egg. During IVF, mature eggs are collected (retrieved) from the ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then the fertilized egg (embryo) or eggs (embryos) are transferred to a uterus.

Snow Leopard:

1. It is found in the mountainous regions of central and southern Asia.
2. In India, it is seen in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
3. The Hemis National Parkhas a good presence of Snow Leopard.
4. They play a key role as a top predator, an indicator of the health of their high-altitude habitat, and, increasingly, an important indicator of the impacts of climate change on mountain environments.

Conservation status:

1. IUCN Red List: Vulnerable 
2. Under CITES it is listed in Appendix I
3. Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972: chedule I

Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) Programme:

• It is a high-level inter-governmental alliance of all the 12 snow leopard range countries. The snow leopard countries namely, India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Maratha forts to be India’s nomination for UNESCO World Heritage List:

The nomination includes a total of twelve component parts or forts, out of which eight are under the protection of the Archeological Survey of India,

• The nomination has a total of twelve components — Salher Fort, Shivneri Fort, Lohagad, Khanderi Fort, Raigad, Rajgad, Pratapgad, Suvarnadurg, Panhala Fort, Vijay Durg, Sindhudurg in Maharashtra and Gingee Fort in Tamil Nadu.

The ‘Maratha Military Landscapes of India’ will be the country’s nomination for the UNESCO World Heritage List for the year 2024-25, the Ministry of Culture announced

“In the Maratha Military Landscapes of India, Salher fort, Shivneri fort, Lohgad, Raigad, Rajgad and Gingee fort are hill forts, Pratapgad is hill-forest fort, Panhala is hill-plateau fort, Vijaydurg is coastal fort whereas Khanderi fort, Suvarnadurg and Sindhudurg are island forts,” the ministry said.

Recently – santiniketan, hoyasala temples are added to list . total number-42

There are 42 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India. Santiniketan, established by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, becomes the 41st site to be declared a world heritage site in India in September 2023. The UNESCO also included the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas in Karnataka in the list in September 2023.

Significance of the South China Sea:

Strategic Location: The South China Sea is bordered by China and Taiwan to the north, the Indo-Chinese peninsula (including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore) to the west, Indonesia and Brunei to the south, and the Philippines to the east (referred to as the West Philippine Sea).

It is connected by the TAIWAN STRAIT with the East China Sea and by the Luzon Strait with the Philippine Sea (both marginal seas of the Pacific Ocean).

• Trade Importance: Approximately USD 3.37 trillion worth of trade passed through the South China Sea in 2016, making it a crucial global trade route.

1. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 80% of global trade by volume and 70% by value is transported by sea, with 60% of it passing through Asia and one-third of global shipping moving through the South China Sea.
2. China, the world’s second-largest economy, relies heavily on the South China Sea, with an estimated 64% of its trade passing through the region. In contrast, only 14% of U.S. trade traverses these waters.
3. India relies on the region for approximately 55% of its trade.

Fishing Ground: The South China Sea is also a rich fishing ground providing a vital source of livelihood and food security for millions of people in the region.

Major Disputes in the South China Sea:

Dispute:

1. The heart of the South China Sea dispute revolves around territorial claims to land features (islands and reefs)and their associated territorial waters.
2. The major island and reef formations in the South China Sea are the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands, Pratas, the Natuna Islands and Scarborough Shoal.
3. As many as70 disputed reefs and islets are under contention, with China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan all building more than 90 outposts on these disputed features.
4. China claims up to 90% of the sea with its “nine-dash line” mapand has physically expanded islands and constructed military installations to assert control.
5. China has been particularly active in theParacel and Spratly Islands, engaging in extensive dredging and artificial island-building, creating 3,200 acres of new land since 2013.
6. China also controls the Scarborough Shoal through a constant Coast Guard presence.

Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project:

• It aims to harvest surplus wateravailable during rainy season in rivers in Southern Rajasthan such as Chambaland its tributaries, including Kunnu, Parvati, Kalisindh, and use this water in south-eastern districts of the state, where there is scarcity of water for drinking and irrigation.

1. ERCPis planned to meet drinking and industrial water needs of the southern and south eastern Rajasthan, for humans and Livestock till the year 2051.
2. It proposes to provide drinking water to 13 districts of Rajasthanand provide irrigation water for 2.8 lakh hectares of land through 26 different large and medium projects.

13 districts: Jhalawar, Baran, Kota, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Tonk, Jaipur, Karauli, Alwar, Bharatpur, Dausa and Dholpur.

Benefits:

1. A significant area of land will get irrigation facilities.
2. It intends to improve the ground water table in the rural areasof the state.
   Positively influencing the socio-economic conditions of the people.
3. It adds special emphasis on the DMIC and envisages that sustainable water sources will enhance and help industries grow in these areas.
   Resulting in investment and revenue.

Chambal River: It is one of the most pollution-free rivers of India. It originates at the Singar Chouri peak in the northern slopes of the Vindhya mountains (Indore, Madhya Pradesh). From there, it flows in the North direction in Madhya Pradesh for a length of about 346 km and then follows a north-easterly direction for a length of 225 km through Rajasthan. It enters U.P. and flows for about 32 km before joining the Yamuna River in Etawah District. It is a rainfed river and its basin is bounded by the Vindhyan mountain ranges and the Aravallis. The Chambal and its tributaries drain the Malwa region of northwestern Madhya Pradesh. The Hadauti plateau in Rajasthan occurs in the upper catchment of the Chambal River to the southeast of the Mewar Plains. Tributaries: Banas, Kali Sindh, Sipra, Parbati, etc. Main Power Projects/ Dam: Gandhi Sagar Dam, Rana Pratap Sagar Dam, Jawahar Sagar Dam, and Kota Barrage. The National Chambal Sanctuary is located along river Chambal on the tri-junction of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It is known for critically endangered gharial, the red-crowned roof turtle, and the endangered Ganges River dolphin.