Prelim Bits 24-04-2024 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs

Key aspects

Ground level ozone

Stratospheric ozone

About

It is an air pollutant near the earth’s surface formed by chemical reactions between pollutants in the presence of sunlight.

It is known as the “ozone layer”, located high in the Earth’s stratosphere.

Location

Found in the lowest layer of the atmosphere called the troposphere, which extends from the Earth’s surface up to 10km in altitude.

It is located in stratosphere which is above the troposphere and extends from about 10 km to 50km above the Earth’s surface.

Formation

It forms as a result of complex chemical reactions involving precursor pollutants, specifically volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the presence of sunlight at ground level.

Primarily forms through natural processes, where oxygen molecules (O2) are exposed to high-energy ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun,

Role

It is considered a harmful air pollutant contributes to the formation of smog and can have harmful effects on human health and the environment.

It serves as a protective role as it absorbs and blocks a significant portion of the sun’s harmful UV radiation.

Key terms

About

Base Erosion and Profit Shifting

• It refers to tax planning strategies used by multinational enterprises that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to avoid paying tax.
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) actively working to combat BEPS.
• OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS is implementing 15 actions to tackle tax avoidance, improve the coherence of international tax rules, ensure a more transparent tax environment, and address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy.

Treasury shopping

• It typically involves the attempt by a person to indirectly access the benefits of a tax treaty between two jurisdictions without being a resident of one of those jurisdictions.
• It is a means of tax avoidance that involves the use of tax driven structures to take advantages of favourable double taxation agreements.
• It undermines tax sovereignty by claiming treaty benefits in situations where these benefits were not intended to be granted, thereby depriving jurisdictions of tax revenues.

Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA)

• It is essentially a bilateral agreement entered into between two countries with the basic objective to promote and foster economic trade and investment between two countries by avoiding double taxation.
• Double taxation relief is one of the goals of  DTAA, which aims to promote the nation as an appealing investment destination.
• Anti-abusive clauses are included in DTAAs to make sure that only legitimate citizens of the two countries benefit from them.

Principle Purpose Test (PPT)

• It was introduced as a part of BEPS project, which aims to prevent treaty abuse and treaty shopping by ensuring that tax treaty benefits are granted only in appropriate circumstances.
• It is designed to deny tax treaty benefits if it can be determined that obtaining these benefits was one of the principal purposes of any arrangement or transaction.
• This test is intended to counteract aggressive tax planning strategies that exploit the provisions of tax treaties.

General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR)

• It is an anti-tax avoidance law under Income Tax Act, 1961 framed by the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance.
• The regulation allows tax officials to deny tax benefits, if a deal is found without any commercial purpose other than tax avoidance.
• It allows tax officials to target participatory notes and deny double taxation benefits if it were found to avoid taxes.

OECD’s multilateral instrument

• It is a multilateral convention to implement tax treaty related measures to prevent BEPS.
• It offers concrete solutions for governments to close loopholes in international tax treaties by transposing results from the BEPS Project into bilateral tax treaties worldwide.
• It allows governments to implement agreed minimum standards to counter treaty abuse and to improve dispute resolution mechanisms while providing flexibility to accommodate specific tax treaty policies.

Galathea Bay

• It 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.
• Vegetation- Galathea National Park consists largely of tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests.
• Fauna- Notable animal species found in the park include the giant robber crab, megapode and Nicobar pigeon.
• Climate- Acute tropical climate here, only with the summer season and monsoons, the inhabitants of the park here have never encountered winter conditions.
• It is the prime nesting site of giant leatherback turtle, the largest turtle in the world.

Viral disease

About

Prevention

Zika virus

It is a vector-borne flavivirus primarily caused by the bite of Aedes mosquitoes, mainly Aedes aegypti and Aedes Albopictus.

• There is no specific treatment available but symptoms can be treated with antipyretics and/or analgesics.
• Vector control by using larvicides and protection against mosquito bite is a key measure to prevent it.

Dengue

It is the world’s fastest-growing vector borne disease transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquito.

• No specific treatment but early detection and access to proper medical care greatly lower fatality rates of severe dengue.
• Dengvaxia and Qdenga are the vaccines available to treat dengue.

Chikungunya

It is a ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus that belongs to the alphavirus genus of the family Togaviridae transmitted by the bites of infected female ‘Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes’.

• As of now, there is no cure, only symptomatic relief, with analgesics to help with the pain, antipyretics for the fever, rest, and adequate fluids.
• Vaccine has been developed by European vaccine manufacturer and to be branded as Ixchiq.

Volcanoes in news

Location

Mount Merapi, Mount Ruang

Indonesia

Mount Villarrica

Chile

Mount Litli Hrutur, Sundhnukagigar crater

Iceland

Mount Klyuchevskoy

Russia

Great Sitkin volcano

Alaska

Hunga volcano

Tonga