Prelim Bits 08-09-2023 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs

Nataraja Sculpture

The World’s tallest 27-foot Nataraja sculpture has been installed at Bharat Mandapam, venue of the G20 Leaders' Summit.

• Metal - The Bharat Mandapam Nataraja statue is an ashtadhatu (8-metal alloy) piece of art.
• The eight metals – Copper, zinc and lead with traces of tin, silver, gold and mercury, with iron.
• Lord Shiva - The God Shiva evolved from the Vedic deity Rudra.
• Patronage by Cholas - Although Shiva was first portrayed in sculpture as Nataraja in the 5^th century AD, its present form evolved under the Cholas.
• The design draws inspiration from 3 revered Nataraja idols
  1. The Thillai Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram,
  2. The Uma Maheswarar Temple in Konerirajapuram, and
  3. The Brihadeeswara (Big) Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Thanjavur.

• All 3 temples the Bharat Mandapam Nataraja statue is inspired from were originally constructed by the Cholas.

Cholas were peak around the 9th-11th centuries AD, ruled over much of peninsular India.

• Technique - The crafting process adopted was the traditional ‘lost-wax’ casting method, indigenous to the Chola era.
• Lost wax method - First, a detailed wax model is made. Then it is covered with a paste made of alluvial soil found on the banks of the Cauvery River.
• After this coating, applied multiple times, has dried, the figure is be exposed to high heat, causing the wax to burn away, leaving a hollow, intricately carved mould.
• This is ultimately filled by molten metal to produce the sculpture.

References

1. The Indian Express | The Lord of Dance
2. The Times of India | Nataraja statue graces Bharat Mandapam

XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission)

A powerful X-ray observatory is launched along with Japan's SLIM mission.

• Aim - To investigate celestial X-ray objects in the Universe with high-throughput imaging and high-resolution spectroscopy.
• These observations will enable in determining the flows of mass and energy, revealing the composition and evolution of celestial objects.
• This mission acts as a semi-replacement for the Hitomi (Astro-H) X-ray observatory, launched in 2016.

Hitomi was a high-energy astrophysics space observatory, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in collaboration with institutions in Japan, the US, Canada, and Europe.

• Launch Vehicle - The H-IIA rocket that launched the SLIM Japan’s moon mission also carried the XRISM.
• Agency - NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

References

1. The Indian Express | X-ray telescope
2. NASA | XRISM
3. JAXA | XRISM
4. Sky and Telescope | XRISM

Central Empowered Committee (CEC)

The Supreme Court recently hands over its green watchdog committee, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to the Environment Ministry.

• Setup - It was set up in 2002, and reconstituted in 2008 by the Supreme Court.
• It served as a watchdog for issues pertaining to environmental conservation and compliance.
• Recent notification - Instead of an ad hoc body, CEC should be instituted as a permanent statutory body on environmental issues under the administrative control of the Environmental ministry.
• The notification completely removes non-governmental members from the committee.

The current CEC is chaired by retired IAS officer and includes retired Forest service officers and lawyer and naturalist.

• In the revised structure all (chairperson, a member secretary and three expert members) will now be civil servants appointed by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
• The chairperson
  • A minimum of 25 years of experience in environmental, forestry, or wildlife fields or substantial administrative expertise in government.
  • Term - 3 years.
• The member secretary
  • He must hold a rank not lower than deputy inspector general or director in the government and
  • Possess at least 12 years of experience in environmental, forestry, or wildlife matters.
• The 3 expert members - One each from the environment, forest, and wildlife sectors, should have a minimum of 20 years of expertise.
• The committee will report to the ministry, instead of the SC.
• The ministry will fund the committee;
• The provision of having 2 NGOs in the committee has been done away with

References

1. The Indian Express | Central Empowered Committee
2. The Hindustan Times | Govt to nominate all members of top panel
3. The Times of India | Environment ministry sets up new panel

Dark Patterns

Department of Consumer Affairs seeks public comments on Draft Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns recently.

• A dark pattern is a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying overpriced insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills.
• Dark patterns are also known as Deceptive Patterns.
• Dark patterns in turn benefit the company or platform employing the designs.
• Examples - Sponsored video ads scattered between reels and stories in Instagram that users originally opted to view, pop-ups and thumbnails of other videos in the final seconds of a video in YouTube.
• By using them, digital platforms take away a user’s right to full information about the services they are using, and reduce their control over their browsing experience.

Types of dark patterns

References

1. PIB | Draft Guidelines for Prevention of Dark Patterns
2. The Hindu | Centre to stop sites from weaving ‘dark patterns’

Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VELC)

Aditya-L1 has been successfully launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Research Centre in Sriharikota recently carried the VELC payload.

• The Aditya-L1 mission (first Sun mission from India) carried by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C57 rocket is equipped with seven payloads.
• Among these, the Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VELC) is the primary payload that Aditya-L1 will use to focus on the Sun's Corona.
• Landing Point - Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (L1), which is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in the direction of the Sun.
• Aim – It will create a total solar eclipse continuously since it will be positioned at L1, providing an unobstructed view of the Sun.
• Built by – Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA).

Coronagraph of Aditya-L1 will send 1,440 images of sun a day.

• VELC has the capability to capture images of the solar corona closer to the Sun's disc than any other solar space observatory.
• This allows it to observe the Sun as if it were a solar eclipse, enabling the study of the corona and its characteristics, including its origin and the source of coronal mass ejections.

References

1. The Hindustan Times | What is the purpose of VELC?
2. IIA | VELC
3. The Hindu | Coronagraph of Aditya-L1