Daily News Digest 11 April 2024

Table of content

• A time standard for Moon's surface
• World trade to rebound in 2024, grow 2.6%: WTO
• Defence Attachés in multiple missions in Africa
• National One Health Mission

A time standard for Moon's surface

Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins

Why in news?

Last week, the US White House tasked NASA with creating a time standard specifically for the Moon. This will allow international bodies and private companies to coordinate their activities on the lunar surface more effectively.

How does Earth’s time standard work

• Most of the clocks and time zones — a geographical region which uses the same standard time — of the world are based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is set by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris, France.
  • UTC is essentially an internationally agreed upon standard for world time.
• It is tracked by a weighted average of more than 400 atomic clocks placed in different parts of the globe. Atomic clocks measure time in terms of the resonant frequencies — the natural frequency of an object where it tends to vibrate at a higher amplitude — of atoms such as cesium-133.
  • In atomic time, a second is defined as the period in which a caesium atom vibrates 9,192,631,770 times. As the vibration rates at which atoms absorb energy are highly stable and ultra-accurate, atomic clocks make for an excellent device for gauging the passage of time.
• To obtain their local time, countries need to subtract or add a certain number of hours from UTC depending on how many time zones they are away from 0 degree longitude meridian, also known as the Greenwich meridian.
  • If a country lies on the west of the Greenwich meridian, it has to subtract from the UTC, and if a country is located on the east of the meridian.

Why do we need a time standard for the Moon?

• UTC, however, cannot be used to determine time on the Moon. That is because time on the Moon flows differently than it does on the Earth.
  • A fundamental aspect of nature in the Universe is that time is not absolute. That seems crazy to us on Earth as our experience of time is that it just constantly ticks by. But if you travelled to the Moon, your clock would be ticking slightly faster than if you had stayed on the Earth.
• In other words, for someone on the Moon, an Earth-based clock will appear to lose on average 58.7 microseconds per Earth day with “additional periodic variations”, according to the OSTP memo.
• The discrepancy may seem small but it can create problems for situations such as a spacecraft seeking to dock on the Moon, data transferring at a specific time, communication, and navigation.

How will a lunar time standard be established?

• The specifics for creating a time standard for the Moon are not clear yet.
  • An OSTP official, however, told Reuters that like on the Earth, atomic clocks can be deployed on the lunar surface to set a time standard.
• According to a 2023 report by the journal Nature, there will be a need to place at least three atomic clocks on the lunar surface that will tick at the Moon’s natural pace, and whose output will be combined by an algorithm to generate a more accurate virtual timepiece.
  • These clocks have to be placed on the Moon at different locations since the Moon’s rotation and even local lumps of mass, called mascons, beneath the crust of the Moon affect the flow of time ever so slightly.

World trade to rebound in 2024, grow 2.6%: WTO

Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins

Why in news?

The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently revised downwards its projection for merchandise trade volume growth to 2.6 per cent for 2024 from 3.3 per cent estimated in October.

More detail about news

• However, the multilateral trade body, in its latest bi-annual ‘Global Trade Outlook and Statistics’, said after a contraction of 1.2 per cent in 2023, demand for traded goods will rebound in 2024 as inflationary pressures ease and real household incomes improve.
• In October last year, it had projected merchandise trade volume to grow 0.8 per cent in 2023.
• India’s merchandise exports in value terms are expected to contract by 1-1.5 per cent in 2023-24 after two consecutive years of growth, according to initial trade data estimates.

Key highlight of the report

• According to the WTO, there is a high degree of uncertainty associated with the current forecast due to the large number of risk factors present in the global economy. These include regional conflicts, geopolitical tensions and rising protectionism.
• Trade volume growth in 2024 could be as high as 5.8 per cent or as low as -1.6 per cent.
• Conflict in the Middle East has diverted sea shipments between Europe and Asia while tensions elsewhere could lead to trade fragmentation.
• Rising protectionism is another risk that could undermine the recovery of trade in 2024 and 2025.
• According to the report, India’s rank among leading merchandise exporters (excluding intra-EU trade) improved by a notch to 13 in 2023 from the preceding year, though its share remained unchanged at 2.2 per cent. Similarly, its rank among major merchandise importers (excluding intra-EU trade) rose a notch to 6, while its share remained the same at 3.4 per cent.

• India’s rank among leading exporters of commercial services (excluding intra-EU trade) remained unchanged at 5 in 2023 from the preceding year, with its share remaining the same at 5.4 per cent.
• However, India’s rank dropped a notch to 6 among major importers of commercial services (excluding intra-EU trade). Its share declined to 4.2 per cent from 4.8 per cent in the preceding year.
• The dollar value of world merchandise trade fell 5 per cent in 2023 to $24.01 trillion but this decline was mostly offset by a strong increase in commercial services trade, which rose 9 per cent to $7.54 trillion.

The decline in merchandise exports

• The decline in merchandise exports was partly due to falling prices for commodities, such as oil and gas. Meanwhile, commercial services trade was lifted by recovering international travel and surging digitally-delivered services.
• Decline on the export side in 2023 was led by the Russian Federation, whose exports plunged 28 per cent, as well as by manufacturing-oriented Asian economies, including China (-5 per cent), Japan (-4 per cent) and the Republic of Korea (-8 per cent).
• Other major economies saw smaller declines or even modest increases, including the United States (-2 per cent), Germany (+1 per cent), and Mexico (+3 per cent).
• Taken as a whole, the European Union’s exports to the rest of the world were up 2 per cent while intra-EU trade was down 1 per cent, leaving total exports flat in dollar terms.
• Meanwhile, merchandise imports were down in most economies, partly due to falling prices of commodities such as natural gas, the price of which fell 63 per cent on an average in 2023.
• All major economies saw a decline except a few large-energy exporters, including the United Arab Emirates (+7 per cent), the Russian Federation (+10 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (+11 per cent).

Defence Attachés in multiple missions in Africa

Time to Read :🕑 7 Mins

Why in news?

India, in a move to expand its focus on military diplomacy, will deploy Defence Attachés (DAs) to several African missions for the first time.

About

• The move is part of a larger adjustment of the DA in Indian missions scattered across continents and regions and is being implemented as India deals with dynamic situations in Indo-Pacific, Red Sea-Indian Ocean and Eurasia.
• A source privy to the internal discussion informed that out of all the continents, it is Africa that is expected to get four new DA.
  • Out of that one DA is likely to be sent to the Francophone western Africa, and three others are expected to be sent to three countries in eastern and southeastern Africa.
• Indian missions in countries such as Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Djibouti are being discussed as part of the process.
• In the meanwhile, a number of DA posted to Indian missions abroad underwent a three-day pre-deployment training programme at the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service this week.
• Apart from the four countries in Africa, the Indian embassy in Poland is scheduled to get a new DA. At present the DA in the Indian embassy in the Czech Republic concurrently serves for the Indian mission in Warsaw.

DA in multiple regions

• The readjustment in the post of DA in multiple regions is part of India’s evolving requirements that stretch from defence production and cooperation, to dealing with crisis situations that hinge on urgent mobilisation.
• The crises in Gaza and Ukraine have both highlighted the need for finding a more effective management of the DA in East Europe and Eurasia and in the East African region that is crucial for guarding Indian interests in the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean.
• In March, Indian marine commandos captured 35 Somalian pirates who had hijacked a bulk carrier and taken hostages. The pirates were brought to Mumbai in INS Kolkata.
• The operation took place in the backdrop of continued attacks on western ships by the Houthi rebels of Yemen which has increased the necessity of maintaining a ready defence posture in and around the Red Sea-western Indian Ocean region for safeguarding Indian assets and manpower.

New Role of the DA Significance

• The new role of the DA in the Indian embassy in the Philippines has to be seen in the context of Manila’s interest in the Indian military hardware because of its dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea.
  • In January, the Philippines inked a deal worth $375 million with Brahmos Aerospace Pvt Ltd for the purchase of shore-based anti-ship variant of the Brahmos missile systems.
• Armenia too has emerged as a new destination for Indian military hardware as Yerevan has purchased the PINAKA multi barrel rocket launchers (MBRLs), anti-tank missiles, rockets and anti-drone systems from India.
• The Indian weapons supplied to Yerevan have to be seen in the context of Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, and India’s cold relation with Azerbaijan that has often raised the Kashmir issue in the past.

National One Health Mission

Time to Read :🕑 7 Mins

Why in news?

Recently, the Indian government has initiated the 'National One Health Mission' to address the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health.

About National One Health Mission

• In July 2022, the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) endorsed the setting up of the ‘National One Health Mission’.
• Since then, 13 Ministries and Departments as well as science funding agencies — this includes the Department Of Science and Technology, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Department of Pharmaceuticals, and AYUSH, or Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy — the Ministries of Health, Animal Husbandry and Environment as well as Defence came together to shape the mission, taking one of the most holistic approaches to one health and pandemic preparedness in the world.
• There was consensus among the leadership of these Ministries to have a National Institute for One Health.
• Based in Nagpur, it is to be the anchor in coordinating activities nationally, and the nodal agency to coordinate international activities across the space of one health.
• The foundation stone of this institute was laid by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 11, 2022.

The goals and strategies of the National One Health Mission

• Disease surveillance:- The goals of the ‘National One Health Mission’ are to develop strategies for integrated disease surveillance, joint outbreak response, coordinated research and development (R&D) and ensure seamless information sharing for better control of routine diseases as well as those of a pandemic nature.
• Disease Outbreak:- Diseases that affect humans such as COVID-19 are well known, and diseases that affect animals such as foot and mouth disease or lumpy skin disease can hit productivity and trade. Similarly, these and other diseases such as canine distemper affect wild animals and their conservation. Only a coordinated approach will ensure that we are better prepared for such diseases as well as those that can cause the next pandemic such as avian influenza or Nipah.
• Pandemic preparedness is incomplete without there being a focus on strong R&D:- Focused R&D can ensure that we are better prepared for emerging diseases through the development of tools such as vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, that is critical for India and the world.
• Department Coordination:- This is where all the participating departments such as the DBT, CSIR, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Department of Pharmaceuticals will play a role.
  • It is not just government departments but also our academic centres and the private sector that will be the critical stakeholders in making this a reality.

All these efforts can become effective only when there is close coordination between the Centre and States. Therefore, working with States will not only help them in introducing this approach in a much better way at the ground level, but the lessons also learned in the process of implementation will help in evolving an effective strategy — the approach to One Health is more a journey than a destination.

A network of Laboratories Network and Technological Integration

• High-risk pathogen lab:- Under the mission, a national network of high-risk pathogen (Biosafety level or BSL 3 and BSL 4) laboratories has been created.
• Collaboration with departments:- Bringing such laboratories that are managed by different departments together will serve to address the disease outbreak response better regardless of human, animal and environmental sectors.
• Resource utilization:- There will be better resource utilization of expensive but much-needed infrastructure but also good linking from across sectors better to tackle diseases such as Nipah that involve bats, pigs, and humans, for example. India has to augment its epidemiology and data analytic capability.
• AI Application:- Under the mission, efforts are being made to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning and disease modelling to address these issues and coordinate capacity building in epidemiology across sectors.
  • Emerging approaches such as genomic surveillance from wastewater showed promise during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • This will be expanded to other sentinels such as places where animals (livestock or wildlife) congregate for a broader set of diseases to be taken up so that we mainstream these approaches to be a part of routine surveillance across human, livestock and environmental sectors.

A Global prespective and One Health

• ‘One Health’ is a global topic and it was started during India’s presidency of the G-20.
• This approach was highlighted and widely endorsed by all the members to work together in specific areas such as building better surveillance capacity.
• One Health extends capability and setting up an international network of ‘One Health’ institutes.

Conclusion

• ‘One Health’ is not just limited to diseases. It concerns wider aspects such as antimicrobial resistance, food safety, plant diseases and the impact of climate change on all of these.
• Intersectoral topics such as ‘One Health’ require close engagement of not just different governmental agencies but also non-governmental organisations, academia, the private sector and also citizens.
• Such an approach focused on an actionable framework will further the goal of moving closer to the clarion call of ‘One Earth, One Health’ and ‘Health for All’.