Bid Rigging

• It means any agreement, between enterprises or persons engaged in similar production or trading of goods, which has the effect of eliminating or reducing competition for bids or adversely affecting or manipulating the process for bidding.
• The Competition Act, 2002 prohibits anti-competitive agreements including Bid Rigging.
• Predatory Price means the sale of goods or provision of services, at a. price which is below the cost, as may be determined by regulations, of production of the goods or provision of services, with a view to reduce competition or eliminate the competitors.
• Prohibition of Insider Trading Regulations, 2015 is associated with Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Paddy Straw

• Punjab Government has recently proposed to use the paddy crop residue as fodder for animals, especially cattle.

Background

• Producing over 20 million tonnes of paddy straw every year, most of which is burnt in fields by farmers, leading to widespread air pollution that even spreads to neighbouring states.

Challenges

• High silica and lignin content reduces its digestive properties.
• Higher selenium content in paddy straw also limits its use as fodder in animals as compared to wheat straw.
• However, if given in moderate quantities (up to 5 kg per animal per day), selenium poses no health hazard to the animal.
• Paddy straw also contains oxalates (2-2.5%) which leads to calcium deficiency so mineral mixture should always be fed along with the straw.

Treatment

There are two methods that have been recommended to overcome the challenges of using paddy straw as cattle fodder:

1. Urea-only treatment
2. Urea plus molasses treatment

Background

• Along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India in China, Indian Army has been given certain locations that its troops have to access to patrol the area under its control.
• These points are known as patrolling points, or PPs, and are decided by the China Study Group (CSG).
• CSG was set-up in 1976, when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister, and is the apex decision-making body on China.
• Barring certain areas, like Depsang Plains, these patrolling points are on the LAC, and troops access these points to assert their control over the territory.
• It is an important exercise since the boundary between India and China is not yet officially demarcated.
• PP15 and PP17A are two of the 65 patrolling points in Ladakh along the LAC.
• PP15 is located in an area known as the Hot Springs, while PP17A is near an area called the Gogra post.

Kongka La

• Hot Springs lies in the Chang Chenmo river valley, close to Kongka La.
• Kongka La is a low mountain pass on the Line of Actual Control between India and China in eastern Ladakh.
• It lies on a spur of the Karakoram range that intrudes into the Chang Chenmo Valley adjacent to the disputed Aksai Chin region.
• Both of these are close to the Chang Chenmo river in the Galwan sub-sector of the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

Artificial Light & its effects

• Cities are no safe havens for avian life.
• Birds collide into buildings very often because windows reflect the surrounding environment or offer avenues that look open.  
• Birds that have nocturnal migratory patterns (i.e. migrate by the night) are particularly adversely affected by night lights of the city.
• Artificial lights can cause them to migrate too early or too late and miss ideal climate conditions for nesting, foraging and other behaviours.

India and light pollution

• Light pollution and other ‘by-products’ of rapid urbanisation threaten birds and other animals in the Indian subcontinent as well.
• Some migratory birds that are particularly vulnerable are those whose migratory routes pass through India, include common crane, bar-headed goose, falcon, northern wheatear, Amur falcon etc.
• Adverse effects of artificial lights on nocturnal ecology are observed on other species like bats, loris and insects.
• Light also deters sea turtles from moving to the beach at night to lay eggs.
• Hatchlings use light-cues from the horizon to move towards the ocean.
• Horizon is the line at which the earth's surface and the sky appear to meet.
• However, artificial sources draw them away from the ocean, leading to their death.
• Like birds, species of migratory fish too bear the brunt of the untoward consequences of anthropogenic lights.
• Artificial lighting has also altered predator-prey relations.

BepiColombo Mission

• It  is Europe's first mission to Mercury.
• Launched on 20 October 2018, it is on a seven year journey to the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet in our Solar System.
• BepiColombo is a joint mission between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), executed under ESA leadership.
• The mission comprises two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio).
• ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) will study the planet's surface and interior.
• JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MIO) will study the planet's magnetic field.
• When it arrives at Mercury in late 2025, it will endure temperatures in excess of 350 °C and gather data during its one-year nominal mission, with a possible one-year extension.
• Bepi Colombo is the first Mercury mission for the ESA and Japan.
• Only two other spacecraft have visited Mercury: NASA's Mariner 10 and MESSENGER.