Prelim Bits 28-01-2023| UPSC Daily Current Affairs

AT1 Bonds

The Bombay High Court Friday quashed the write-off of Additional Tier-1 (AT1) bonds issued by Yes Bank Ltd.

• AT1 bonds, short for Additional Tier 1 bonds, are a class of bonds issued by banks.
• These bonds are typically used by banks to bolster their core or tier-1 capital to meet Basel III norms.
• AT1 bonds are subordinate to all other debt and except common equity.
• They offer higher returns but also carry a higher risk.
• Tenor - AT1 bonds are unsecured bonds that have perpetual tenor.
• These bonds have no maturity date but have a call option by which the banks buy these bonds back from investors.
• Risks - AT1 bonds, like other bonds, pay regular interest.
• If the bank issuing is making losses or at risk of falling short of capital need, it has the discretion to either reduce or completely skip their interest pay out.
• When a bank becomes non-viable, AT-1 bonds are either converted into equity or written off based on the direction of the RBI.

References

1. Business Line - What the Yes Bank AT1 bonds fiasco is all about
2. IE - Additional Tier-1 bonds, and the case against Yes Bank

Kelp Forests

Kelp forests are declining because of climate change, showed a new study.

• Kelp forests are underwater ecosystems formed in shallow water by the dense growth of several different species known as kelps.
• Kelps are actually extremely large brown algae, although they look like plants.
• Kelp attaches to the seafloor and eventually grows to the water’s surface and relies on sunlight to generate food and energy.
• They thrive in cold, nutrient-rich waters.
• Kelp can sometimes persist at lower latitudes, aided by cool water upwelling or in deep-water refugia where they are protected by thermocline.
• Significance - Kelp forests have great ecological and economic value.
• They provide underwater habitats to hundreds of species of invertebrates, fishes, and other algae.
• Loss of kelp forests will also lead to a decline of the unique biodiversity that they support.
• The rear-edge populations (populations in warm, low-latitudes) of kelp may contain unique adaptive or evolutionary genetic diversity.
• Kelp populations at equatorward-range edges are particularly vulnerable to climate change and their unique trait is under threat.

Ecklonia radiate is a dominant and most widely distributed Laminarian kelp in the southern hemisphere which rapidly succumb to warmer temperatures (more than 27 °C).

References

1. Down To Earth - Kelp forests losing unique traits due to climate change

National Mission for a Green India

India is lagging behind in the targets to increase the number and quality of tree- and forest-cover plantations set in the Green India Mission.

• National Mission for a Green India (GIM) is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.
• It aims at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s forest cover and responding to climate change.
• Improving tree cover is critical to sequester carbon and bolster India’s carbon stocks as part of its international commitments to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
• Target - The target under the Mission is 10 million hectares (Mha) on forest and non-forest lands for increasing the forest/tree cover and to improve the quality of existing forest.
• From 2015-16 to 2021-22, the Centre had approved a target of increasing tree/forest cover by 53,377 hectares and improving the quality of degraded forest by 1,66,656 ha in 17 districts.
• Achievement - From a RTI, it is known that the 17 States had increased tree/forest cover by 26,287 hectares and forest quality improved in only 1,02,096 hectares as of December 31, 2022.
• States with significant shortfall in tree cover include

• Punjab, committed to 629 ha but having delivered 1,082 ha.
• As per the India State of Forest Report-2021 , forest and tree cover in the country increased by 2,261 square kilometre since the last assessment in 2019.
• However critics have pointed out that the increase in green cover was almost entirely via commercial plantations.

References

1. The Hindu - States fall short of targets to improve forest cover
2. Vikaspedia - National Action Plan on Climate change

Earth's Inner Core

A new research suggested that the Earth's inner core has stopped spinning faster than the planet's surface and might now be rotating slower than it.

• The Earth’s inner structure consists of 4 major layers:
  1. The outermost crust.
  2. The viscous but solid mantle below it.
  3. The liquid iron-nickel outer core.
  4. The solid iron inner core.
• Earth’s inner core is a hot iron ball in the size of Pluto, hence known as "planet within the planet".
• It is roughly 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) below the crust.
• Reason for rotation - Inner core can spin independently because it floats in the liquid metal outer core.
• The spin of the inner core is driven by the magnetic field generated in the outer core and balanced by the gravitational effects of the mantle.
• The rotation of the inner core is studied through various seismic records.
• Oscillation Cycle - The inner core rotates, relative to the Earth's surface, back and forth, like a swing and 1 cycle of the swing is about 7 decades.

• The core is always rotating in the same direction that the entire planet rotates (eastward).
• Sometimes it rotates faster than the outer layers, other times it rotates slower, and there are times when the rotations match up.

• A new research suggested that the inner core's cycle is every 20 to 30 years, rather than the 70 proposed in the latest study.
• The changes rotation timeline is said to slightly impact the "length of day".

References

1. The Hindu - Earth's inner core rotating slower than surface
2. The Print - Earth’s inner core now spinning slower than planet?

Nitrate Radicals

A new study found that parts of China and India are night-time hotspots for the production of nitrate radicals, which makes air pollution worse.

• Nitrate radical is an oxide of nitrogen that consists of three oxygen atoms bound to a nitrogen atom.
• Nitrate radicals could increase the amount of unhealthy ozone and PM2.5 fine particulate matter in the atmosphere.
• Nitrate radicals will oxidise gas pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
• VOCs will then generate ozone and secondary organic aerosol, both deteriorates air quality.
• Ozone is an air pollutant that affects human health and crop yield.
• Secondary organic aerosol is an important component of PM2.5
• Reducing the emissions of VOCs could reduce this night-time oxidation in India and China.

References

1. IE - 'Nitrate radicals’ are likely making air pollution worse
2. Times Now - Nitrate Radicals: Making India, China air poisonous