UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 03-06-2020

SPIC MACAY

• SPIC MACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth) is a non-political, nationwide, voluntary movement founded in 1977 by Dr Kiran Seth.
• He was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to the arts in 2009.
• It is a participatory student movement registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
• In 2011, it was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana award in recognition of its contribution to youth development.
• Its intention is to enrich the quality of formal education by increasing awareness about different aspects of Indian heritage and inspiring the young mind to imbibe the values embedded in it.
• It is supported nationally by the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• It has been organizing national and international conventions for the last 35 years.

Anubhav project

• It is a week-long online project, organized by SPIC MACY seeks to help youngsters indulge in mystical and diverse aspects of Indian art, culture and heritage. It is expected to reduce the stress triggered by Covid-19.
• The movement has a central executive body in New Delhi and organizes its programmes through a worldwide network of schools, colleges and educational institutions.

Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award

• In 1992, a year after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) of the Indian National Congress (INC) instituted Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana award in memory of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
• This award is presented every year to those who have devoted their life in understanding and promoting social harmony.
• It constitutes a citation and cash Prize of Rs. 10 Lakh.

Social Enterprise

• A social enterprise is a revenue-generating business. Its primary objective is to achieve a social objective, for example, providing healthcare or clean energy.
• This in no way means that a social enterprise can’t be highly profitable.
• In fact, most social enterprises look and operate like traditional businesses.
• The only catch is that the profit these entities generate is not necessarily used for payouts to stakeholders, but reinvested into their social programmes.

Recommendations on Social Stock Exchanges

• A working group constituted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on social stock exchanges has submitted its recommendations.
• The panel was set up by Sebi in September 2019 under the Chairmanship of Ishaat Hussain, to suggest possible structures and regulations for creating SSE to facilitate listing and fund-raising by social enterprises as well as voluntary organisations.
• The idea of a social stock exchange (SSE) for listing of social enterprise and voluntary organizations was mooted by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget 2019-20.
• Key recommendations are as follows

1. Allow direct listing of non-profit organizations through the issuance of bonds and a range of funding mechanisms.
2. Funding mechanisms suggested include some of the existing mechanisms such as Social Venture Funds (SVFs) under the Alternative Investment Funds.
3. A new minimum reporting standard has also been proposed for organisations which would raise funds under social stock exchanges (SSE).
4. Profit social enterprises can also list on SSE with enhanced reporting requirement, to encourage, giving culture some tax incentives have also been suggested.

Social Stock Exchange

• SSE aims for a vibrant and supportive ecosystem, enabling the non-profit sector to realize its full potential for creating social impact.
• India need a significant amount of patient capital to repair and rebuild those livelihoods, which are the bedrock of her economy.
• Conventional capital that prioritizes financial returns will not be able to carry such a burden all by itself.
• Thus role of SSE is significant, it is meant to serve private and non-profit sector providers by channeling greater capital to them.
• As per the proposal, SSE can be housed within the existing stock exchange such as the BSE and/or National Stock Exchange (NSE).
• This will help the SSE leverage the existing infrastructure and client relationships of the exchanges to onboard investors, donors, and social enterprises (for-profit and non-profit).
• With this, Social welfare enterprises and non-profits could soon get to raise so-called social capital on a transparent electronic platform, aiding the process of rebuilding livelihoods ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recombinant DNA Technology

• It is a technology used for producing artificial Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) through the combination of different genetic materials (DNA) from different sources is referred to as Recombinant DNA Technology.
• Recombinant DNA technology is popularly known as genetic engineering.
• Recombinant DNA technology involves several steps in specific sequence:

1. Isolation of Genetic Material: It involves the isolation of desired DNA in its purest form i.e. free from macromolecules.
2. Cutting the gene at the recognition sites: The restriction enzymes determine the location at which the desired gene is inserted into the vector genome (a virus or plasmid that is used to ferry a desired DNA sequence into a host cell).
3. Ligation of DNA Molecules: Ligation involves joining of the two pieces – a cut fragment of DNA and the vector together with the help of the enzyme DNA ligase. the DNA molecule thus produced is called recombinant DNA.
4. Insertion of Recombinant DNA into Host: The recombinant DNA is introduced into a recipient host cell. This process is termed as Transformation.

• After the insertion of the recombinant DNA into the host cell, it gets multiplied and is expressed in the form of the manufactured protein under optimal conditions.
• The effectively transformed cells/organisms carry forward the recombinant gene to the offspring.
• The recombinant DNA molecule produces new genetic combinations that are of value to science, medicine, agriculture, and industry.
• This technology is used in

1. Gene Therapy - It is used as an attempt to correct the gene defects which give rise to heredity diseases.
2. Clinical diagnosis - It has been useful in detecting the presence of Human immunodeficiency Virus in a person.
3. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) is an example of the application of recombinant DNA technology, it is a test that detects and measures antibodies in blood.
4. Medicines - For the production of Insulin.
5. Agriculture - To produce genetically-modified organisms such as Flavr Savr tomatoes.

Guidelines for Recombinant DNA Technology in India

• Biosafety refers to policies and procedures adopted to avoid risk to human health and safety and to the conservation of the environment as a result of the use of GMOs for research and trade
• Under the Biosafety Research programme, main emphasis is given to facilitate the implementation of biosafety procedures, rules and guidelines under Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and Rules 1989 to ensure safety from the use of GMOs and products thereof in research and application to the users as well as to the environment.
• A three tier mechanism comprising

1. Institutional Biosafety Committees (IBSC) at the Institute/company.
2. Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) in the Department of Biotechnology.
3. Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) in the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoE&F) for granting approval Genetically Engineered (GE) crops.

Indian Biosafety Knowledge Portal

• It was launched in 2019 through which the Department receives all new applications related to research proposals.
• This has made the whole process transparent and time bound.
• It is a web based portal, with a major thrust to reach out to researchers, industry and other stakeholders to provide latest scientific information and regulatory guidance related to authorization of Genetically Modified Organisms/Living Modified Organisms (GMOs/LMOs) and products thereof.

Antifa

• US administration has announced that the far-left group Antifa would be designated as a terrorist organization.
• This announcement was made after massive protests following the death of George Floyd.
• Antifa/ Anti-fascists is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning movements that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
• Anti-fascists of the movement tend to be grouped on the leftward fringes of the US political spectrum, many describing themselves as socialists, anarchists, communists or anti-capitalists.
• The origin is traced as far back as Nazi Germany.
• While the movement has had a presence in several European countries and has come into focus in the United States in recent years.
• Antifa members typically dress in black and often wear a mask at their demonstrations, and follow far-left ideologies such as anti-capitalism.

D10 - 5G Club

• UK administration has approached the US with the prospect of creating a 5G club of 10 democracies, including India, amid growing security concerns related to Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
• Proposed D10 club of democratic partners would include G7 countries - UK, US, Italy, Germany, France, Japan and Canada – plus Australia, South Korea and India.
• It will aim to create alternative suppliers of 5G equipment and other technologies to avoid relying on China.

Generations of Mobile Networks

• First generation (1G) 1980 - delivered analog voice.
• Second generation (2G) early 1990s - introduced digital voice (e.g. CDMA- Code Division Multiple Access).
• Third generation (3G) early 2000s - 3G brought mobile data (e.g. CDMA2000).
• Fourth generation (4G) 2010s: 4G LTE ushered in the era of mobile broadband.
• Fifth generation (5G) 2020s - 5G is based on OFDM (Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing), a method of modulating a digital signal across several different channels to reduce interference.

Source: PIB, the Hindu, Indian Express