GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, and it continues to plummet, beating its own staggeringly low record year after year. The rate fell by another 8% in 2023 to 0.72.

How grim is this situation?

• Globally, developed countries are seeing birth rates fall, but none in such an extreme way as South Korea.
• In 50 years time, the number of working age people will have halved, the pool eligible to take part in the country's mandatory military service will have shrunk by 58%, and nearly half the population will be older than 65.
• This bodes so badly for the country's economy, pension pot, and security that politicians have declared it "a national emergency".
• What South Korean government is doing to solve the problem?
  • Financial incentives: Couples who have children are showered with cash, from monthly handouts to subsidised housing and free taxis. Hospital bills and even IVF treatments are covered, though only for those who are married.
  • Creative solutions: hiring nannies from South East Asia and paying them below minimum wage, and exempting men from serving in the military service if they have three children before turning 30.

Why South Koreans aren’t having Babies?

• Career vs family: Korean women are the most highly educated of those in OECD countries, and yet the country has the worst gender pay gap and a higher-than-average proportion of women out of work compared to men. They are being presented with a trade-off - have a career or have a family. Increasingly, they are choosing a career.
• Discrimination at workplace: Discrimination against working mothers by employers is also absurdly common.
• Huge pressure of earning: More than half the population live in or around the capital Seoul, which is where the vast majority of opportunities are, creating huge pressure on apartments and resources.
• High cost of private education: From the age of four, children are sent to an array of expensive extra-curricular classes - from math and English, to music and Taekwondo. This has made it the most expensive country in the world to raise a child.
• Ambitions over role of mother: Over the past 50 years, Korea's economy has developed at break-neck speed, propelling women into higher education and the workforce, and expanding their ambitions, but the roles of wife and mother have not evolved at nearly the same pace.
• IVF, not an option: Same-sex marriage is illegal in South Korea, and unmarried women are not generally permitted to use sperm donors to conceive.

Gender, rather than race or age or immigration status, has become the country’s sharpest social fault line.

What are going to be the long-term impacts?

• Aging populations and shrinking workforces: The drop in fertility rates has left countries facing a future of aging populations and shrinking workforces.
• Burdening economy: It will make it harder for governments to care for older people as they continue to make up a larger share of the population.
• Slower economic growth: Fewer young adults working means slower economic growth.

Way forward (Finding the right balance)

• While falling fertility rates have become the norm in most developed countries, there are still important lessons to take from nations that have managed to avoid dramatic declines.
  • France boasts the highest fertility rate in the European Union at 1.8, while Denmark continues to see fertility rates more than double that of Korea at 1.67.

Group Captains Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan and Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla carry on their shoulders the aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians as preparations for the country’s first manned space mission gather steam.

About Gaganyaan Mission

• Gaganyaan literally means ‘celestial vehicle’.
• The spacecraft will carry the IAF pilots to an orbit of 400 km on a three-day mission before bringing them back safely with a landing in the Indian seawaters.

• The Gaganyaan mission aims to demonstrate the capability to launch human beings (three crew members) to low earth orbit (LEO) and bring them back safely to earth by landing them in either the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea.
• Launch Vehicles: The Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3)is the launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission.
  • All systems in the LVM3 launch vehicle are reconfigured to meet human rating requirements and named Human Rated LVM3 (HLVM3).
    • HLVM3 consists of Crew Escape System (CES) powered by a set of quick acting, high burn rate solid motors which ensures that Crew Module along with the crew is taken to a safe distance in case of any emergency either at launch pad or during ascent phase.

How this mission will be conducted?

The mission consists of four test flights, including two uncrewed flights and one flight with a humanoid robot, before the final crewed flight.

• Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1): The first test flight, called Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), was successfully launched in October 2023, to demonstrate the crew escape system that can protect the astronauts in case of a rocket malfunction.
• Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-2 (TV-D2): The second test flight, called Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-2 (TV-D2), will be launched in 2024 to test the orbital module and re-entry technologies.

• Vyommitra: The third test flight, called Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-3 (TV-D3), will be launched in 2024 with a humanoid robot named Vyommitra that will simulate human functions and communicate with the ground station.
• Astronauts: The fourth and final test flight, called Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-4 (TV-D4), will be launched in 2025 with three astronauts on board.

What is the role of Gaganyaan Mission?

Gaganyaan mission is not only a scientific and technological endeavor, but also a national and global aspiration. The mission has a significant role to play in various aspects, such as:

• Enhancing India’s Scientific and Technological Capabilities: Gaganyaan mission will provide valuable data and insights on various phenomena such as microgravity, radiation, human physiology, etc.
• Inspiring Young Generations: Gaganyaan mission will inspire young generations to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
• Contributing to Global Space Cooperation: The mission will demonstrate India’s commitment and capability to participate in international space endeavors such as the International Space Station (ISS), the Artemis program, the Lunar Gateway, etc.
• Boosting India’s Prestige and Soft Power: Gaganyaan mission will boost India’s prestige and soft power in the international arena as a space-faring nation. It will also enhance India’s image and influence in global affairs.
• Generating Social and Economic Benefits: It will generate social and economic benefits for India, such as creating jobs, improving education, health care, agriculture, disaster management, and environmental protection.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) officially announced the completion of the ‘10,000 genome’ project — an attempt to create a reference database of whole-genome sequences out of India. 

Distinct variations in Indian Population

• The Indian population of 1.3 billion consists of over 4,600 population groups, and many of them are endogamous.
• These factors have contributed to the genetic diversity of the current population.
• Thus, the Indian population harbours distinct variations and often many disease-causing mutations are amplified within some of these groups.

What is Genome Sequencing?

• Genome sequencing involves revealing the order of bases present in the entire genome of an organism. 
• While the sequence or order of base pairs is identical in all humans, there are differences in the genome of every human being that makes them unique. 
• The process of deciphering the order of base pairs, to decode the genetic fingerprint of a human is called genome sequencing.

Why it matters?

• A complete human genome makes it easier to study genetic variationbetween individuals or between populations.
• A genome refers to all of the genetic material in an organism.
• The human genome is mostly the same in all people, but a very small part of the DNA does vary between one individual and another.
• It can help identify differences from the average human genome that are often associated with disorders and disease but can also be associated with other factors like disease resistance or sensitivity to an environmental perturbation like sunlight or exercise.
• Genome sequencing has been used to evaluate rare disorders, preconditions for disorders, even cancer from the viewpoint of genetics, rather than as diseases of certain organs. Nearly 10,000 diseases — including cystic fibrosis and thalassemia — are known to be the result of a single gene malfunctioning.

The quest for sustainable agriculture and energy solutions has ushered in an era of innovation, with companies worldwide striving to produce green ammonia. 

What is green ammonia and how is it produced?

• It is also known as renewable ammonia.
• To produce green ammonia, green hydrogen must first be obtained through a process of water electrolysis.
• That is, water is decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen, using electrical energy generated from renewable sources.
• The hydrogen is then combined with atmospheric nitrogen through a process known as Haber-Bosch synthesis, which allows hydrogen and nitrogen to react at high pressure and temperature in the presence of a catalyst to form ammonia.
• The end result is the production of green ammonia using green hydrogen and atmospheric nitrogen. 
• Main uses of green ammonia
  • It is used in production of agricultural fertilisers
  • It is also used as a raw material in the production of a variety of chemical products, such as nitric acid, synthetic fibres, explosives, dyes and pharmaceuticals. 
  • Other potential usage: as a fuel for ships, as a fuel in boilers, turbines or enginesto generate heat and electricity

Challenges

• High cost: The cost of making green ammonia is very high today compared to brown ammonia due to two major cost-components: a) electrolyzer and b) green power.
• Storage issues: Storage of hydrogen, separated using electrolysis of water, is also a challenge today leading to disruption of a continuous supply of feedstock to the ammonia plants.

How is it an opportunity for India?

• In 2023, India is about 60 MMTPA fertilizer consumption nation. This will grow to about 135 MMTPA by 2050.
  • The concomitant requirement of ammonia will also balloon.
• The demand, therefore, is massive. The opportunity to reduce the carbon-footprint is enormous.
• India is gearing up to establish about 5.8 million tonnes of green ammonia manufacturing across various regions.

A new study in Advancing Earth and Space Science unveils a concerning reality - Mexico City is gradually sinking 30 centimetres every year.

What’s at ‘stake’?

• Mexico Cityis one of the largest metropolises globally. It is the home to over 21 million people.
• This subsidence, which has persisted for over a century, has intensified in recent years, reaching a staggering half a metre annually.
• The potential for an additional descent of 30 metres is a looming threat, contingent on the absence of a severe water crisis.

Who is the culprit?

• Extensive extraction of water: The primary culprit behind this phenomenon is the extensive extraction of underground water, with 70 percent of the city's drinking water sourced from aquifers located in a

• Destruction of protective walls: The city's history plays a significant role in this subsidence. Originally established on the Aztec city Tenochtitlán and Lake Texcoco, the Spanish arrival in the 16th century led to the destruction of protective walls that prevented flooding.
• Climate change: Years of abnormally low rainfall, longer dry periods and high temperatures have added stress to a water system already straining to cope with increased demand.

Can this sinking get reversed?

• The damage is almost irreversible due to the weight of the city and its shallow foundations causing soil compaction.
• Unless water levels rise significantly, the subsidence is likely to persist.

Science & Technology (GS-III)

TATA discovers tablet to treat Cancer

The Tata Institute in Mumbai, a premier cancer research and treatment facility in India, has claimed to have discovered a treatment that can prevent the resurgence of cancer the second time.

R+Cu

• The developed tablet is claimed to prevent the occurrence of cancer for the second time in patients and will also reduce the side effects of treatments like radiation and chemotherapy by 50 per cent.
• The 'R+Cu' when taken orally, generate Oxygen radicals in the stomach which are quickly absorbed to enter blood circulation.
• The oxygen radicals destroy cfChPs released in circulation and prevent 'Metastases' - The movement of cancer cells from one part of the body to another.
• The researchers claimed that prevents Chemotherapy toxicity.
• The researchers in their presentation called it the "Magic of R+Cu".

All Odisha Tiger Estimation (AOTE) report 2023-24

The tiger population in Odisha has increased. At present, there are 30 tigers and eight cubs — all below one year old, revealed the first All Odisha Tiger Estimation (AOTE) report 2023-24.

The numbers

• As per the report, of the 30 tigers, a total of 27 unique adult tigers were camera-trapped in Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) other forest ranges.
  • Simlipal National Park is a national park and a tiger reserve in the Mayurbhanj district in the Indian state of Odisha 
  • Simplipal was designated a tiger reserve in 1956 and in May 1973 the essential part of the Project Tiger in May 1973.
  • Since 2009, it has been part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserve.
• Apart from the STR, Keonjhar Territorial and Keonjhar Wildlife, Paralakhemundi Territorial and Hirakud Wildlife have one tiger each.