Prelim Bits 01-04-2024 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs

UNESCO Global Geoparks Network

UNESCO’s Executive Board has endorsed the addition of 18 sites to the UNESCO Global Geoparks network.

• Geoparks – UNESCO Global Geoparks are areas with internationally important rocks and landscapes, all of which are managed responsibly for conservation, education and sustainable development.
• With Geology at its foundation, UNESCO Global Geoparks build upon by bringing together other aspects of heritage such as archaeology, history, culture and biodiversity.

• India – India is a signatory to the establishment of UNESCO Global Geoparks.
• However, it does not have any legislation and policy for conservation of geoheritages.
• Geological Survey of India (GSI) identifies sites as National Geological Monuments.
  • Geological Survey of India is an attached office to the Ministry of Mines with its headquarters at Kolkata.
• India is one of those countries which do not have a single geopark registered and acknowledged under UNESCO Global Geopark list.

A stone deity (Kakad Bhairav or Bhilat Baba) worshipped by the Bhils in Madhya Pradesh’s Bagh was proved to be a fossilized dinosaur egg. With this discovery, India hopes to get its first UNESCO Global Geopark Tag.

The addition of 18 new sites brings the total number of Geoparks to 213 across 48 countries and all of these countries are members of the Global Geoparks Network (GGN).

References

1. UNESCO – UNESCO names 18 new Geoparks
2. Global Geoparks Network – Global Geoparks Network (GGN)
3. UN News – UNESCO names 18 new Geoparks

Katchatheevu Island

Prime Minister blamed the congress for giving away the island of Katchatheevu.

• Location – Being the product of a 14-century volcanic eruption, Katchatheevu is relatively new in the geological timescale.
• Katchatheevu is a 285-acre uninhabited speck (a very small spot) in the Palk Strait, between India and Sri Lanka.
• It is no more than 1.6 km in length and slightly over 300 m wide at its broadest point.
• It lies northeast of Rameswaram, about 33 km from the Indian coast.
• It is about 62 km southwest of Jaffna, at the northern tip of Sri Lanka, and 24 km away from the inhabited Delft Island, belonging to Sri Lanka.
• Church – The only structure on the island is an early 20th-century Catholic shrine, St Anthony’s church.
• During an annual festival, Christian priests from both India and Sri Lanka conduct the service, with devotees from both India and Sri Lanka making the pilgrimage.

Katchatheevu is not suited for permanent settlement as there is no source of drinking water on the island.

• Dispute – Katchatheevu was controlled by the Jaffna Kingdom of Sri Lanka.
• In the 17th century, control passed to the Ramnad zamindari based out of Ramanathapuram, about 55 km northwest of Rameswaram.
• It became part of the Madras Presidency during the British Raj.
• However, in 1921, both India and Sri Lanka, at the time British colonies, claimed Katchatheevu in order to determine fishing boundaries.
• A survey marked Katchatheevu in Sri Lanka, but a British delegation from India challenged this, citing ownership of the island by the Ramnad kingdom.
• This dispute was not settled until 1974.
• Maritime Agreement – In 1974, Indira Gandhi made attempts to settle the maritime border between India and Sri Lanka, once and for all.
• As a part of this settlement, known as the ‘Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime agreement’, Indira Gandhi ‘ceded’ Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.
• As per the agreement, Indian fishermen were still allowed to access Katchatheevu hitherto.
• Unfortunately, the issue of fishing rights was not ironed out by the agreement.
• Sri Lanka interpreted Indian fishermens’ right to access Katchatheevu to be limited to rest, drying nets and for visit to the Catholic shrine without visa.

Another agreement in 1976, during the period of Emergency in India, barred either country from fishing in the other’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Again, Katchatheevu lay right at the edge of the EEZs of either country, retaining a degree of uncertainty with regards to fishing rights.

References

1. The Indian Express – Katchatheevu Island
2. The Hindustan Times – Katchatheevu Island issue
3. India Today – Katchatheevu Island row

Empathetic Voice Interface (EVI)

Hume, a New York-based research lab and technology company, has introduced what can be called the ‘first conversational AI with emotional intelligence’.

• EVI is an Application Programming Interface (API) is powered by its proprietary empathic large language model (eLLM).
• This eLLM reportedly understands and emulates tones of voices, and word emphasis to optimise human-AI conversations.
• The most standout featured of EVI is its integration capability, rather than being just a solitary application.
• Applications –
  1. AI assistants who can converse in a humanlike manner.
  2. Customer support agents who can provide a more natural and relatable service.
  3. Therapists adept at comprehending a wide range of human emotions and thoughts.

DALL-E

• DALL-E is a software that lets users generate art with the help of artificial intelligence.
• DALL-E has its origin in GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer).
• This is an open-source artificial intelligence program that can translate text, answer questions, summarize passages and generate new text.
• DALL-E is an implementation of GPT that essentially swaps text for pixels.
• DALL-E is a transformer language model that was trained on a large number of images and accompanying captions.
• This allows it to create original images from scratch using just text description.
• It can combine different objects, concepts, characteristics and styles while creating an image.

Sora

• Sora is OpenAI’s text-to-video generative AI model.
• Similar to ChatGPT, one enters a text prompt, but instead of generating answers to questions or prompts in text form, Sora will generate videos up to one minute long.

References

1. The Indian Express – EVI, AI with emotional intelligence
2. The Economic Times – Hume’s EVI with emotional intelligence
3. The Indian Express – DALL-E

Konda Reddi Tribes

Konda Reddi tribe’s indigenous knowledge of Indian laurel tree proves resourceful.

• Location – Konda Reddis are inhabiting on the banks situated on either side of river Godavari in the hilly and forest tracts of East and West Godavari and Khammam districts of Andhra Pradesh.
• Konda Reddis are recognized as Primitive Tribal Group.
• Konda Reddis are categorized as particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG).
• The population of Konda Reddis as per 1991 Census is 76,391.
• Language – The mother tongue of Konda Reddis is Telugu.
• Social structure – The Konda Reddi family is patriarchal and patrilocal.
• Monogamy is a rule but polygamous families are also found.
• God – They worship Muthayalamma (Village deity), Bhumi Devi (Earth Goddess), Gangamma Devi (River Goddess) etc.
• Festival – They celebrate festivals like Mamidi Kotha, Bhudevi Panduga, Gangamma Panduga and Vana Devudu Panduga.
• Dance – The men and women folk jointly perform the traditional colourful dance viz., Bison horn on festive and marriage occasions.
• Political Organisation – Konda Reddies have their own institution of social control called ‘Kula Panchayat’.
• Each village has a traditional headman called ‘Pedda Kapu’.
• Livelihood – They are primarily shifting cultivators and largely depend on flora and fauna of forest for their livelihood.

References

1. The Hindu – Konda Reddi’s indigenous knowledge on Indian laurel
2. India Today – Video shows water gushing out of laurel tree in Andhra
3. Government of Bermuda – Indian Laurel

Central Water Commission (CWC), Central Groundwater Board (CGWB), Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA)

There is only enough water to fill 23% of the holding capacity in all of South India’s reservoirs, Central Water Commission data.

Central Water Commission (CWC)

• CWC was earlier known as Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission (CWINC).
• It was established in 1945 by the Government on the advice of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Member in Viceroy’s Executive Council.
• The organization currently functions as an office attached to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, under the Department of Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation.
• The work of the Commission is divided among 3 wings namely:
  1. Designs and Research (D&R) Wing
  2. River Management (RM) Wing
  3. Water Planning and Projects (WP&P) Wing
• Role – Initiate and Coordinate the schemes introduced by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
• Functions –
  1. Technical Appraisal of Irrigation Projects.
  2. Management and Control of Floods.
  3. Checking Financial Feasibility and Economic Viability of Different Irrigation Projects.

Central Groundwater Board (CGWB)

• Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) is the National Apex Agency, a subordinate office of the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India.

• It is entrusted with the responsibilities of providing scientific inputs for management, exploration, monitoring, assessment, augmentation and regulation of ground water resources of the country.
• Central Ground Water Board was established in 1970 by renaming the Exploratory Tube wells Organization under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.
• It was merged with the Ground Water Wing of the Geological Survey of India during 1972.
• Central Ground Water Board is a multi-disciplinary scientific organization consisting of Hydrogeologists, Geophysicists, Chemists, Hydrologists, Hydro meteorologists and Engineers.
• Headquarters – Haryana.

Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA)

• Central Ground Water Authority has been constituted under Section 3 (3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
• CGWA aims to regulate and control development and management of ground water resources in the country.
• Activities –
  1. Macro/micro level groundwater management studies.
  2. Exploratory drilling programme.
  3. Monitoring of groundwater levels and water quality through.
  4. Implementation of demonstrative schemes for artificial recharge and rainwater harvesting for recharge augmentation.

References

1. The Hindu – Impact of a summertime water crisis
2. CWC – About
3. CGWB – About
4. CGWA – About