Latest News
EDITORIALS & ARTICLES
15th April 2021
New Year Festival in States
Recently, the Prime Minster Shri Narendra Modi has greeted people on the occasion of Bohag Bihu, Vishu, Puthandu, Naba Barsha, Vaisakhadi and Maha Bishuba Pana Sankranti.
Bohag Bihu
Lithium-ion batteries provide power through the movement of ions. Lithium is extremely reactive in its elemental form. That’s why lithium-ion batteries don’t use elemental lithium. Instead, lithium-ion batteries typically contain a lithium-metal oxide, such as lithium-cobalt oxide (LiCoO2). This supplies the lithium-ions. Lithium-metal oxides are used in the cathode and lithium-carbon compounds are used in the anode. These materials are used because they allow for intercalation. Intercalation means that the molecules are able to insert something into them. In this case, the electrodes are able to have lithium-ions move easily in and out of their structures.
Inside a lithium-ion battery, oxidation-reduction (Redox) reactions take place.
Reduction takes place at the cathode. There, cobalt oxide combines with lithium ions to form lithium-cobalt oxide (LiCoO2). The half-reaction is:
CoO2 + Li+ + e- → LiCoO2
Oxidation takes place at the anode. There, the graphite intercalation compound LiC6 forms graphite (C6) and lithium ions. The half-reaction is:
LiC6 → C6 + Li+ + e-
LiC6 + CoO2 ⇄ C6 + LiCoO2
Recharging a lithium-ion battery work
When the lithium-ion battery in your mobile phone is powering it, positively charged lithium ions (Li+) move from the negative anode to the positive cathode. They do this by moving through the electrolyte until they reach the positive electrode. There, they are deposited. The electrons, on the other hand, move from the anode to the cathode.
When you charge a lithium-ion battery, the exact opposite process happens. The lithium ions move back from the cathode to the anode. The electrons move from the anode to the cathode.
As long as lithium ions are making the trek from one electrode to another, there is a constant flow of electrons. This provides the energy to keep your device running. Since this cycle can be repeated hundreds of times, this type of battery is rechargeable.
Advantages of Lithium Ion Batteries
- The Assam’s Bohag Bihu festival is a time of celebration marks the beginning of theAssamese New Year.
- The word “Bihu” is derived from the Sanskrit word Bishu, meaning “to ask blessings and prosperity from the Gods” before the onset of the harvest season.
- During the Bohag Bihu, Assamese people, dressed in their traditional attire such as dhoti, gamosa, and saadar mekhela, dance in circles singing the traditional Bihu Geet.
- It is commonly known Rongali Bihu.
- It is an important festival celebrated in the state of Kerala, and by Keralites around the country and the world.
- It marks the first day of the Malayalam calendar and, therefore, is celebrated with a lot of festive excitement by Malayalis.
- It signifies new beginnings, new hopes and aspirations.
- It is the day when people pray for their loved ones and look forward to a new year of health and well-being.
- A special feast called ‘sadya’ is customarily prepared in every Malayali household.
- Puthandu or Puthuvarusham is celebrated with much fervour by people in Tamil Nadu.
- Puthandu is derived from two words i.e. Puthu meaning ‘new’ and Andu meaning ‘year’.
- Puthandu is celebrated when the sun is exactly over the equator.
- Shubho Nabo Barsho or Pohela Boisakh marks the first day of the Bengali lunisolar calendar.
- It is celebrated as the Bengali New Year.
- It marks the beginning of the financial year for the Bengali business class and shopkeepers and businessmen worship Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi.
- Mesadi - Vaisakhadi is a festival for the harvest season.
- It is a colorful festival of rejoicing and for the harvest.
- ‘Pana Sankranti’ or ‘Maha Bishuba Sankranti’ marks the Odia New Year.
- People mark the advent of the New Year by drinking pana, a sweet-sour drink made with bael (wood apple), fruits and sugar.
- The Prime Minister has laid great emphasis on the use of modern technologies in farming sector, so that farmers can get benefitted and enhance their income through it.
- The money of various schemes including Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan) is being deposited directly in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries under the government's idea of transparency.
- The agricultural economy is the backbone of our country because it has contributed positively to country's economy even in adverse conditions like Corona epidemic.
- The government is preparing a farmer database by linking the land records of farmers across the country.
- The data related to PM Kisan, Soil Health Card and Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme, available with the government, have been integrated.
- It is a pilot project in selected 100 villages in 10 districts of 6 states (Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh).
- It aims to develop farmer interface for smart and well-organized agriculture, including post-harvest management and distribution.
- The Microsoft has joined in with its local partner, CropData for the implementation of this project.
- The project is for one year and both sides inking the MoU will bear the cost on their own.
- The project will carry out various tasks for the betterment of farmers in the selected 100 villages, which will enhance their income.
- The project will reduce the input costs for farmers and make farming easy.
- It is proposed to undertake similar pilot projects with other public and private players to create a vibrant digital agro-ecosystem in the country.
- The MANAS platform stands for Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System.
- It was endorsed as a national program by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).
- It is a comprehensive, scalable, and national digital wellbeing platform and an app developed to augment mental well-being of Indian citizens.
- It was initiated by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
- It is a joint venture by Pune-based Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) and National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru.
- The application has been developed by the Bengaluru centre of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).
- It is based on life skills and core psychological process, with universal accessibility, delivering age-appropriate methods and promoting positive attitude focusing on wellness.
- The current version has identified two age groups i.e. ages 15 to 20, termed as Mann-Marg, and ages 20 to 35, termed as YoungISTAN.
- It is a mobile application to promote wellbeing across age groups.
- It integrates the health and wellness efforts of various government ministries, scientifically validated indigenous tools with gamified interfaces developed/researched.
- The app must be integrated with the public health schemes like the National Health Mission, Poshan Abhiyan, e-Sanjeevani and others so that it is used widely.
- MANAS as an initiative is intended to build a healthier and happier community, to empower it to nurture its innate potential for building a Swasth and Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
- It is designed in collaboration with the Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG-N).
- It is aimed at submission of complaints about atrocities against citizens who belong to the Scheduled Castes.
- It will facilitate an end-to-end e-filing of complaints and grievances and their tracking.
- It is intended to make the hearing process work on similar lines as e-courts.
- The portal is linked to the Commission’s website and one can file one’s complaint upon registering on it.
- It will be available in English and Hindi, though documents can be uploaded in multiple languages, and different file types.
- It would make it easier for Scheduled Castes population of our country to register their complaint from any part of the country.
- It shall enable SC population to file their application and other atrocity and services related grievances online and to get them addressed in a time bound manner.
- The NCSC aims to streamline the grievance redressal specially of the Scheduled Caste population through this portal.
- The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment is committed for the empowerment and transformation of weaker and deprived sections of our society.
- The complaints for atrocities against citizens who belong to scheduled castes had to be filed by hand so far.
- It is a constitutional body under article 338 appointed by the President.
- It has been established with a view to provide safeguards against the exploitation of Scheduled Caste.
- It shall be the duty of the commission to investigate and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the Scheduled Castes under this Constitution.
- It renews its commitment to serve the cause of the SC community as mandated in the Constitution and policies of the government.
- The Spain’s socialist government has asked for permits to start exhuming the bodies from the vast mausoleum on the outskirts of Madrid.
- It was originally built by former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, and has since become a sort of shrine for the far-right in the country.
- The government spokeswoman had said that Spanish authorities have received more than 60 exhumation requests from relatives of the victims of the civil war, who are buried at the site.
- The Valle de los Caídos or Valley of the Fallen is built on the slopes of a mountain range on the outskirts of Madrid.
- It was constructed by former dictator Francisco Franco following the Spanish Civil war (1936-1939) as a burial monument and memorial Church.
- The valley was built in part by political prisoners of Franco’s regime over a period of 18 years.
- Its goal is for the Valley to be seen as a place of commemoration, remembrance and homage to the victims of the war.
- The government vowed to foot the bill for the exhumation of all the victims of the civil war and Franco’s regime.
- The aim of the project is to transform the valley into a civil cemetery for the remains of people killed on both sides during the civil war.
- The ambitious project will involve a fair deal of construction work that will permit workers to safely access and remove the remains.
- It has now been described by an international team of researchers from China, Brazil, UK, Denmark and Japan, and has been also dubbed as “Monkeydactyl”.
- The pterosaur species were reptiles, close cousins of dinosaurs and the first animals after insects to evolve powered flight.
- The Monkeydactyl has been named as Kunpengopterus antipollicatus.
- “Antipollicatus” in ancient Greek means “opposite thumbs”.
- The Paleontologists had identified that species as a pterosaur that lived over 77 million years ago in todays’ Western Canada.
- It was named Cryodrakon boreas and believed to be one of the largest flying animals.
- The pterosaur species Researchers have described a pterosaur species with opposable thumbs, which could likely be the earliest-known instance of the limb.
- The term ‘antipollicatus’ was attached to the name because the researchers’ findings could be the first discovery of a pterosaur with an opposed thumb.
- The research team scanned the fossil of K. antipollicatus using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT).
- It is a technique making use of X-ray to image an object.
- The opposability of the thumb is defined as being able to “simultaneously flex, abduct and medially rotate the thumb” in a way that one is able to bring the tip of the thumb to touch the tips of the other fingers.
- Along with humans, some ancient monkeys and apes also had opposable thumbs.
- Humans have a relatively longer and distally placed thumb, and larger thumb muscles.
- It implies that humans’ tip-to-tip precision grip when holding smaller objects is superior to non-human primates.
- The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded to Stanley Whittingham, John Goodenough and Akira Yoshino for work that led to the development of lithium-ion batteries.
- The first commercially viable Li-ion battery was created by Yoshino in 1985 who developed on Whittingham and Goodenough’s work.
- The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences notes that the foundation of the lithium-ion battery was laid during the oil crisis of the 1970s.
- It is an advanced battery technology that uses lithium ions as a key component of its electrochemistry.
- During a discharge cycle, lithium atoms in the anode are ionized and separated from their electrons.
- The lithium ions move from the anode and pass through the electrolyte until they reach the cathode, where they recombine with their electrons and electrically neutralize.
- The lithium ions are small enough to be able to move through a micro-permeable separator between the anode and cathode.
- These batteries can be used to store solar and wind power, which means that with their widespread use it may even be possible to live in a fuel free society.
- A lithium battery for an emergency power backup or UPS protects from traditional power loss or instability.
- The lightweight lithium batteries power electric vehicles with increased efficiency due to reduced weight and size as compared to lead-acid batteries.
- The rechargeable lithium batteries are ideal for remote monitoring systems due to their long life, small size and not losing power via self-discharge during inactivity.
Lithium-ion batteries provide power through the movement of ions. Lithium is extremely reactive in its elemental form. That’s why lithium-ion batteries don’t use elemental lithium. Instead, lithium-ion batteries typically contain a lithium-metal oxide, such as lithium-cobalt oxide (LiCoO2). This supplies the lithium-ions. Lithium-metal oxides are used in the cathode and lithium-carbon compounds are used in the anode. These materials are used because they allow for intercalation. Intercalation means that the molecules are able to insert something into them. In this case, the electrodes are able to have lithium-ions move easily in and out of their structures.
Inside a lithium-ion battery, oxidation-reduction (Redox) reactions take place.
Reduction takes place at the cathode. There, cobalt oxide combines with lithium ions to form lithium-cobalt oxide (LiCoO2). The half-reaction is:
CoO2 + Li+ + e- → LiCoO2
Oxidation takes place at the anode. There, the graphite intercalation compound LiC6 forms graphite (C6) and lithium ions. The half-reaction is:
LiC6 → C6 + Li+ + e-
LiC6 + CoO2 ⇄ C6 + LiCoO2
Recharging a lithium-ion battery work
When the lithium-ion battery in your mobile phone is powering it, positively charged lithium ions (Li+) move from the negative anode to the positive cathode. They do this by moving through the electrolyte until they reach the positive electrode. There, they are deposited. The electrons, on the other hand, move from the anode to the cathode.
When you charge a lithium-ion battery, the exact opposite process happens. The lithium ions move back from the cathode to the anode. The electrons move from the anode to the cathode.
As long as lithium ions are making the trek from one electrode to another, there is a constant flow of electrons. This provides the energy to keep your device running. Since this cycle can be repeated hundreds of times, this type of battery is rechargeable.
Advantages of Lithium Ion Batteries
- It has high energy density and having potential for yet higher capacities.
- It requires relatively low self-discharge i.e. self-discharge is less than half that of nickel-based batteries.
- It needs low maintenance because no periodic discharge is needed and there is no memory.
- They do not contain toxic cadmium, which makes them easier to dispose of than Ni-Cd batteries.
- The major disadvantages of Li-ion batteries include their susceptibility to overheating and their being prone to damage at high voltages.
- The batteries made with flammable and combustible materials also start losing their capacity over time such as a laptop battery in use for a few years does not function as well as a new one.
- Li-ion batteries require safety mechanisms to limit voltage and internal pressures, which can increase weight and limit performance in some cases.
- The researchers have developed a technique which can precisely estimate one of the most important battery internal states known as SOC, short for state of charge.
- SOC reflects the remaining capacity of the battery that is how much more charge can be withdrawn from the battery before it gets fully discharged.
- The knowledge of remaining capacity helps to:
- Optimize battery’s capacity utilization;
- Prevent overcharging and undercharging of the battery;
- Increases its lifespan, reduces cost; and
- Ensures safety of the battery and its surroundings
- In 2019, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory developed a Lithium-ion battery that does not catch fire.
- In January 2020, researchers from Australia claimed that they developed the world’s most efficient lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery.
- It is capable of powering a smartphone for five continuous days which is the equivalent of an electric car being able to drive a distance of over 1,000 km.
- The materials used in the Li-S batteries are not different from those in Li-ion batteries but the Australian researchers reconfigured the design of the sulfur cathodes to accommodate higher stress without a drop in overall capacity.
- The Li-S batteries are generally considered the successors of Li-ion batteries because of their lower cost of production, energy efficiency and improved safety.
- Their cost of production is lower because sulfur is abundantly available.
POSTED ON 15-04-2021 BY ADMIN
Next previous 
General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
IAS GOOGLE is googled by the team of Raja Sir’s Cracking IAS Academy. Sources include The Hindu, Indian Express, pib.nic.in, Down To Earth, Economic Times, Vigyan Prasar, AIR and the like. IAS GOOGLE has been prepared in pace with emerging UPSC Trends.