Current Affairs September 14

India and US green energy cooperation

 

  • The United States is to collaborate with India to work towards installing 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030.
  • US to partner with India in bringing finance, technology and other elements needed to achieve it,
  • Currently, India’s installed power capacity is projected to be 476 GW by 2021-22, and is expected to rise to at least 817 GW by 2030
  • S.-India collaboration, and would be based on three pillars.
  • One would be a “climate action pillar” which would have joint proposals looking at ways in emissions could be reduced in the next decade.
  • The second pillar would be setting out a roadmap to achieving the 450GW in transportation, buildings and industry.
  • The final pillar, or the ”Finance Pillar” would involve collaborating on attracting finance to deploy 450 GW of renewable energy and demonstrate at scale clean energy technologies
  • A key mission is to build global support for ‘Net Zero’, or carbon neutrality, which is when more carbon is sucked out from the atmosphere or prevented from being emitted than what a country emits and is critical to ensuring that the planet doesn’t heat up an additional half a degree by 2100.

THE HINDU

NCLT

 

Why in News?

  • The Supreme Court held that the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) cannot permit withdrawals or modifications of a successful resolution plan, once it has been submitted to it after due compliance with the procedural requirements and timelines, solely at the behest of the resolution applicant.
  • This would only create another tier of negotiations wholly unregulated by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)

 

About NCLAT

  • National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) was constituted under Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013 for hearing appeals against the orders of National Company Law Tribunal(s) (NCLT), with effect from 1st June, 2016.
  • NCLAT is also the Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by NCLT(s) under Section 61 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), with effect from 1st December, 2016.
  • NCLAT is also the Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India under Section 202 and Section 211 of IBC.

THE HINDU

Booster shots and immunity

 

  • An expert review published in medical journal The Lancet has recommended that booster doses for the general population are not appropriate at this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, weighing in on the global debate that calls for caution in administering booster dose.
  • vaccine efficacy against severe COVID is so high at this stage that boosters would not be appropriate, and not required
  • it goes on to explain: there could be risks if boosters are widely introduced too soon, or too frequently, especially with vaccines that can have immune-mediated side-effects.
  • even if antibody levels in vaccinated individuals wane, it did not necessarily mean reduction in the efficacy of vaccines against severe disease.
  • This could be because protection against severe disease is mediated not only by antibody responses, but also by long-lived memory responses and cell-mediated immunity

 

Cell mediated immunity

  • Cell mediated immunity (CMI) is that arm of the immune response that does not involve antibodies but rather incorporates the activation of macrophages and NK cells enabling them to destroy intracellular pathogens,
  • the production of antigen-specific CD8 cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs), and the release of various cytokines that influence the function of other cells involved in both the adaptive and innate immune responses in response to a non-self-antigen
  • Cell-mediated immunity is directed primarily at removing virus-infected cells, but is also a very important player in defending against fungi, protozoa, intracellular bacteria, and cancers.
  • It also plays a major role in transplant rejection

 

The innate immune system

  • The innate immune system encompasses physical barriers and chemical and cellular defences.
  • Physical barriers protect the body from invasion. These include things like the skin and eyelashes.
  • Chemical barriers are defence mechanisms that can destroy harmful agent. Examples include tears, mucous, and stomach acid.
  • Cellular defences of the innate immune response are non-specific. These cellular defences identify pathogens and substances that are potentially dangerous and takes steps to neutralize or destroy them.

 

Adaptive immunity

  • Adaptive immunity is an organism’s acquired immunity to a specific pathogen.
  • As such, it’s also referred to as acquired immunity. Adaptive immunity is not immediate, nor does it always last throughout an organism’s entire lifespan, although it can.
  • The adaptive immune response is marked by clonal expansion of T and B lymphocytes, releasing many antibody copies to neutralize or destroy their target antigen.
  • The first time the body encounters a novel disease agent its response is known as the primary immune response. When B lymphocytes, or B cells, encounter a novel antigen, they create antibodies specific to the antigen designed to destroy or neutralize it.
  • Simultaneously, B cells create memory cells, which are a type of B cell that survives for decades and can detect the pathogen during subsequent exposure.

Sepsis

 

  • Sepsis is defined as organ dysfunction resulting from the host’s deleterious response to infection.
  • One of the most common organs affected is the kidneys, resulting in sepsis associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI) that contributes to the morbidity and mortality of sepsis

THE HINDU

Asymmetric federalism

 

  • Asymmetric federalism or asymmetrical federalism is found in a federation in which different constituent states possess different powers: one or more of the substates has considerably more autonomy than the other substates, although they have the same constitutional status
  • Article 371 which, among others, gives expansive constitutional powers to Nagas over land and resources (Article 371A), and to Manipur’s Hill Areas Committee (Article 371C) over tribal identity, culture, development and local administration, are exemplars.
  • Driven by the argument that giving distinctive constitutional status to territorially concentrated minorities fosters centrifugal tendencies which over time inhibit national/ State integration, development, and peace,
  • integrationist approach resonates powerfully in two recent attempts by Manipur’s government to –
  • stall the introduction and passage of the Manipur (Hill Areas) Autonomous District Council (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and
  • induct nine Assembly members from the valley areas into the Hill Areas Committee
  • The Manipur (Hill Areas) Autonomous District Act, 1971 has undergone several amendments; however, the disproportionate level of development between the hills and valley of Manipur as witnessed today even after 50 years after the implementation of this Act is a clear testament to the inadequacies and deficiencies of the Act, it added.
  • It further stated that the proposed Manipur (Hill Areas) Autonomous District Councils Bill, 2021 apparently attempts at structural alignment between HAC(hill area committee), autonomous district council and village authority for a seamless flow of administration in the hill areas of the state.

 

THE HINDU

US Open

 

  • Daniil Medvedev shattered Novak Djokovic’s Grand Slam dream with a straight-set victory in the US Open
  • Russia’s second-ranked Medvedev dominated Djokovic 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to prevent the first calendar-year Grand Slam since 1969 and keep Djokovic level with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal atop the career Slam title list.

THE HINDU