April 2, 2023: Important Current Affairs

Bandipur completed 50 years as a Project Tiger Reserve 

• The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi launched the flagship conservation programme to arrest the big cat’s dwindling population.
• There were 12 tigers in Bandipur when Project Tiger was launched.
• The number of tigers utilising the park is 173 while the number of tigers within the reserve has been pegged at 126 as per the Status of Tigers Co-predators and Prey in India, 2018, published by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, 
• In 1941, the Venugopal Wildlife Park was constituted extending over 800 sq km of which 82 sq miles was known as Bandipur Sanctuary within the park. 
• The boundary extended from Moyar river forming the natural southern border towards the Nilgiris, and northwards, it stretched till Gundlupet including the 1,450 m high Himavad Gopalswamy Betta. The entire park was named after Venugopala, the deity at the temple atop the hill. 

India and Malaysia have agreed to settle trade in the Indian rupees, the Ministry of External Affairs announced on on April 1, 2023.

• The announcement came in the backdrop of ongoing official efforts to Safeguard Indian trade from the impact of Ukraine crisis. 
• The shift away from The U.S. dollar which has been the dominant reserve currency for international trade so far has added significance as it indicates India is willing to take concrete steps towards de-dollarisation of its international trade.
• The Union Bank of India in a statement said that it has become the first bank in India to operationalise this option by opening a Special Rupee Vostro Account through its “corresponding bank” in Malaysia — India International Bank of Malaysia. 
• India-Malaysia bilateral trade touched $19.4 billion during 2021-22 and expected to help bilateral trade to overcome currency-related obstacles. Malaysia is the third largest trading partner of India in the ASEAN region, after Singapore and Indonesia that account for $30.1 billion and $26.1 billion bilateral trade with India respectively. 

Novel catalyst offers to make hydrogen more viable as fuel
carbon-based catalyst to make water electrolysis more efficient, as well as being more stable and affordable than other catalysts that perform the same function

• The electrolysis of water — to split it into its constituent atoms using electricity — consumes a lot of energy. The traditional solution is to use a catalyst to induce the water molecules to split at a lower energy. Common catalysts are based on iridium and ruthenium, which are expensive and in great demand in other sectors.
• laser carbon’, by exposing a sheet of a polyimide polymer to a laser beam, carbonising the exposed bits and leaving the remainder rich in nitrogen.
• In an electrolyser, the nitrogen atoms drew electron clouds towards themselves, encouraging nearby carbon atoms to bond with atoms or molecules containing electron pairs. So, the location of these atoms became active sites for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER).
• The OER is a stumbling block in electrolysis because it has many intermediate steps and proceeds slower than the rest of the reaction cycle, thus reducing the energy efficiency. 
• laser carbon is simpler to synthesise, and “can be batch-manufactured with a laser” in an environmentally friendly process, unlike other carbon-based catalysts 

Marburg virus outbreak in two African countries 

• The Marburg virus was first identified in 1967 during outbreaks in Germany and Serbia and is known to cause severe and fatal viral haemorrhagic fevers in humans.
• The virus is closely related to another deadly virus, Ebola and is rated as a high-risk pathogen by the WHO. Marburg virus is transmitted to humans through contact with infected animals such as fruit bats, and further human-to-human transmission can occur through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected patient or contaminated surfaces resulting in outbreaks.  

Can countries be sued over climate change? 

• The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that asked the International Court of Justice at The Hague to provide an opinion on what kind of obligations countries have towards climate change reduction, based on the promises they have made to the U.N. Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC).  
• Article 96 of the U.N. Charter to ask the ICJ to deliberate on two questions: 1) What are the obligations of states under international law to ensure the protection of the climate system for present and future generations? 2) What are the legal consequences under these obligations for states where they, by their acts and omissions, have caused significant harm to the climate system, particularly for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and for people who are harmed.  
• India has updated its NDC (nationally determined contribution) commitments, as required by the 2015 Paris Agreement and has said it’s on its way to sourcing half its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.  
• In the neighbourhood, the list of co-sponsors included Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and a number of island countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). India is also watching how global powers like the U.S. and China respond to the resolution, as without their support, it will be hard to implement.  
• During the discussion on the resolution, the U.S. representative voiced concerns about whether “launching a judicial process” was the best way to reach “shared goals”. “Successfully tackling the climate crisis is best achieved via diplomatic efforts,” the U.S. representative added, according to a UN press release. Indian officials have also said that the ICJ process can only speak about climate change issues and problems broadly and that it cannot name or profile any one country in the process. Pointing to the Paris agreement as a landmark shift towards a “bottom-up” approach, where states themselves determine their ability to mitigate climate change, they also said any attempt to impose an opinion in a “top-down” manner would be resisted. Many other countries are likely to voice their opinion as the process gathers momentum in the months ahead. 
• According to the latest IPCC “Synthesis report”, global climate levels have already increased 1.1 degrees since pre-industrial levels in the past century, and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions reductions, as much as by a half are required by 2030 to keep this goal. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who has called for measures to defuse the “climate-time bomb” said that the ICJ opinion was “essential”, and would “guide the actions and conduct of states in their relations with each other, as well as towards their own citizens.” 

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