Sweet, not protein, in bamboo fruits triggers rat boom: study

• The Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI), Thiruvananthapuram, conducted the study between 2009 and 2022 at its Bambusetum where the species was introduced during 1988-1996.
  • The study was funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), the Department of Science and Technology, the Government of India, and the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) under the Kerala government.

Melocanna baccifera:

• It is a tropical bamboo species known for its association with the occurrence of ‘bamboo death,’ ‘rat floods’ and famines in northeast India.
• Researchers detected a correlation between the sugar content in the fruit of Melocanna bacciferaand the frenzied feeding and population boom in rats during ‘Mautam’, the cyclical, mass bamboo flowering that occurs once in 48 years.
• Called ‘Muli’ in northeast India, Melocanna baccifera is the largest fruit-producing bamboo and is native to the northeast India-Myanmar region.
• During its gregarious flowering, the bamboo produces large fruits which draw animal visitors/predators.
  • They include pollen predators (honey bees), fruit predators (millipedes, slugs and snails, fruit borers, monkeys, rats, porcupines, wild boars and palm civets), seedling predators (rabbits, deer), and insect/pest predators (ants, mantis).
  • During this period, they also multiply rapidly, a phenomenon dubbed as ‘rat flood.’
  • Once the fruits are gone, they start devouring standing crops, causing famines that have claimed thousands of human lives.
• Earlier, it was presumed that ‘high protein in fruits/seeds’ was attracting the rats. However, a JNTBGRI study in 2016 that was part of the research found that the fruit actually contains very little protein. The predation is mainly due to the high content of sugars.

What is carbon border tax, which India opposed at COP27

• A carbon border adjustment tax is a duty on imports based on the amount of carbon emissions resulting from the production of the product in question. As a price on carbon, it discourages emissions.
• The carbon border tax involves imposing an import duty on a product manufactured in a country with more lax climate rules than the one buying it.
• The European Union (EU) has proposed a policy — called the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism — to tax products such as cement and steel, that are extremely carbon intensive, with effect from 2026.
• EU claimed that the tax will benefit the environment and provide a level playing field to companies, those opposing it call the tax unfair and protectionist.

BASIC group’s stand:

• They say it puts the burden of climate compliance on developing countries, when historically, they have done much less to pollute the environment and yet are often more vulnerable to effects of climate change.

‘Carbon leakage’:

• Some developed nations, in efforts to cut emissions, impose high costs on carbon-intensive businesses in their own countries.
• Businesses can potentially sidestep this simply by moving production to a country with less stringent rules, a practice called carbon leakage.

Uda Devi

• On November 16, events to commemorate the martyrdom of Uda Devi, a freedom fighter from the Pasi community, were held at various places in Uttar Pradesh.
• She was born in Ujirao, Lucknow.
• She was part of the royal guard of Begum Hazrat Mahal of Awadh.
• Uda Devi is remembered not only for her stories of valour but also for her skill as a leader who managed to mobilise people — specially Dalit women — to take up arms against the British.
• On November 16, 1857, Uda Devi was among the soldiers who clashed with the British regiment stationed near the Gomti River.
• She formed an all-women battalion, today called the Dalit Veeranganas, to take part in armed uprisings against the British.
• Devi belonged to the Pasi community, which was labelled a ‘criminal caste’ by the British administration under the Criminal Tributes Act, 1871.
• Pasis are traditionally pig-herders and toddy tappers and were listed as the second-largest Dalit group in Uttar Pradesh after the 2001 census.

G20: Odisha''s renowned sand sculptor Sudarsan Pattnaik thanks PM Modi for mentioning ''Bali Jatra'' in Bali

• It literally means ‘voyage to Bali’.
• It is one of the country’s largest open-air fairs that commemorates the 2,000-year-old maritime and cultural links between ancient Kalinga (today’s Odisha) and Bali and other South and Southeast Asian regions like Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
• This year’s Baliyatra, which concluded recently also found a place in the Guinness World Records for achieving an impressive feat of origami, the creation of beautiful paper sculptures.
• The festival is organised by the Cuttack district administration and Cuttack Municipal Corporation in association with several other government agencies.

Origins of the festival:

• The origins of the festival, which begins on Kartik Purnima (full moon night in the month of Kartik) can be traced back more than 1,000 years.
• The Bay of Bengal region had several ports, and sadhavas (traders) traditionally began their voyage across the sea on this auspicious day, when the winds were favourable for the boats, known as boita, to sail.
• According to historians, popular items of trade between Kalinga and Southeast Asia included pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, silk, camphor, gold, and jewellery.
• Even today, thousands of people across Odisha sail decorative miniature boats made of banana stems, paper, or thermocol to celebrate boita bandana, or the worshipping of the boats.

‘A Decade of POCSO’

• Ten years after the enactment of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which deals specifically with child sexual abuse, an analysis of POCSO cases across India has found gaps in its implementation – including increasing pendency of cases and a high rate of acquittals.
• The analysis, titled ‘A Decade of POCSO’, was carried out by the Justice, Access and Lowering Delays in India (JALDI) Initiative at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, in collaboration with the Data Evidence for Justice Reform (DE JURE) program at the World Bank.
• Acquittals: The analysis has found that 43.44% of trials under POCSO end in acquittals while only 14.03% end in convictions.
• For every one conviction in a POCSO case, there are three acquittals.
• Acquittals are significantly higher than convictions for all the states studied.
  • For instance, in Andhra Pradesh, acquittals are seven times more than convictions; and in West Bengal, acquittals are five times more than convictions.
  • In Kerala, the gap between acquittal and conviction is not very high with acquittals constituting 20.5% of the total disposals and convictions constituting 16.49%.
• As per data published by the National Crime Record Bureau in 2021, in 96% of the cases filed under the POCSO Act, 2012, the accused was a person known to the child victim – in 48.66% of cases, the accused is either a friend or a romantic partner of the victim.
• The study has found on average, it takes 509.78 days for a POCSO case to be disposed of – whereas it has been stipulated under the Act that such cases need to be disposed of within a year.
• Delhi has the highest number of POCSO trials in the country with 13.54 cases per 100,000 population in 2018 – which does not necessarily mean the number of incidents of sexual offences is higher, but that there is increasing awareness and reporting of cases.
• Time taken:
  • Chandigarh and West Bengal are the only states where the average time taken for convictions is within one year.
  • States like Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kerala, Sikkim, Chandigarh and the NCT of Delhi seem to have a much higher reporting of POCSO cases.
• Pendency:
  • Uttar Pradesh has the highest pendency with more than three-fourths (77.77%) of the total POCSO cases filed between November 2012 and February 2021 pending.
  • On the other hand, at 80.2%, Tamil Nadu has the highest disposal percentage.
• Support Persons:
  • According to the study, “support persons” are not being appointed in most POCSO cases.
  • The Supreme Court had also noted that in 96% of cases, a support person was not provided to the victim.
    • A support person may be a person or organisation working in the field of child rights or child protection, an official of a children’s home or a shelter home having custody of the child, or a person employed by the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), who hand holds the victim through the entire legal process.
• POCSO courts:
  • The analysis further notes POCSO courts have not been designated in all districts.
  • As of 2022, 408 POCSO courts have been set up in 28 States as part of the Government’s Fast Track Special Court’s Scheme.
  • There is a lack of Special Public Prosecutors appointed specifically to handle POCSO cases.

Rise and fall of crypto exchange FTX

• FTX is short for "Futures Exchange”.
• FTX is one of the biggest exchanges where trading those digital assets took place, and was touted by regulators and market watchers as one of the most transparent crypto operations.
• A crypto exchange is in the business of helping customers buy and sell cryptocurrencies.
• A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend.
• Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology - a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers.
• A distributed ledger is a database that is consensually shared and synchronized across multiple sites, institutions, or geographies, accessible by multiple people.
• It allows transactions to have public "witnesses".
• Any changes or additions made to the ledger are reflected and copied to all participants in a matter of seconds or minutes.
• A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

The features, capabilities of Hwasong-17, North Korea’s new ‘monster missile’

• The Hwasong-17 is nuclear-armed North Korea’s biggest missile yet.
• It is the largest road-mobile, liquid-fuelled ICBM in the world.
• Its diameter is estimated to be between 2.4 and 2.5 metres, and its total mass, when fully fuelled, is likely somewhere between 80,000 and 110,000 kg.
• Unlike North Korea’s earlier ICBMs, the Hwasong-17 is launched directly from a transporter, erector, launcher (TEL) vehicle with 11 axles.

The story of the Battle of Rezang La, one of the few bright spots from the 1962 war with China

• The Battle of RezangLa is an epic battle Indian Army ever fought in hostile conditions in eastern Ladakh region.
• RezangLa showed sheer tenacity and valour of the soldiers of ‘Charlie Company of 13 Kumaon Regiment of the Indian Army.
• Sixty years ago on the morning of November 18th, fierce fight broke when over Five thousand Chinese with heavy artillery support have attacked Charlie Company, protecting the airfield of Chushul.
• 120 brave soldiers of Charlie Company of 13 Kumaon Regiment led by commanding officer Major Shaitan Singh had delivered the heaviest blow to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, by killing over thousand Chinese soldiers in the fight.
• As many as 114 soldiers of C company died fighting.
• The bravery of Indian soldiers in this battle forced China to declared ceasefire.

MEA staffer ''honey trapped''

• The practice of ‘honey trapping’ refers to the use of romantic or sexual relationships to get information out of a target.
• The information can be used for monetary advancement or to achieve political ends, such as in the case of state espionage.
• Sometimes, honey traps are also laid for extortion or blackmail purposes.
• According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term first entered the English language through Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the 1974 spy novel by John le Carré.
• One of the most famous cases of honey trapping is the Mata Hari case from World War I.
• In India, K V Unnikrishnan, a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer was allegedly honey trapped in the 1980s.

Govt''s draft Data Protection Bill proposes hefty fine for violation

The first draft of the Bill was presented by an expert panel headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna in July 2018.

Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022:

• • The new Bill now being called the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, has provisions on ‘purpose limitations’ around data collection, grounds for collecting and processing personal data, relaxation on cross-border data flows, and imposes significant penalties on businesses for violating provisions of the Bill.
  • Cross-border data flows: The proposed legislation offers significant concessions on cross-border data flows, in a departure from the previous Bill’s contentious requirement of local storage of data within India’s geography.
    • According to the new draft, the Centre will notify regions to which data of Indians can be transferred.
  • Penalties: The draft also proposes to impose significant penalties on businesses that undergo data breaches or fail to notify users when breaches happen.
    • Entities that fail to take “reasonable security safeguards” to prevent personal data breaches will be fined as high as Rs 250 crore.
    • If an entity fails to notify users about a data breach, the fine could go as high as Rs 200 crore.
  • Data localisation: The new Bill would relax data localisation requirements and allow data flows to trusted geographies.
  • Exemptions:
    • National security-related exemptions have been kept intact in the new Bill.
    • The Centre has been empowered to notify such exemptions in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, maintenance of public order or preventing incitement to any cognisable offence relating to any of these.
    • The government could also exempt certain businesses from adhering to provisions of the Bill on the basis of number of users and the volume of personal data processed by the entity.
    • This has been done keeping in mind startups of the country who had complained that the previous version of the Bill was too “compliance intensive”.
  • Data Protection Board: The Bill also proposes to set up a Data Protection Board to ensure compliance with the Bill.
    • It can impose a penalty of up to ₹500 crore if non-compliance by a person is found to be significant.