UPSC Daily Current Affairs| Prelim Bits 14-05-2025

Pangenome for Asian Rice

Prelims: Current events of national and international importance| Sustainable Development

Why in news?

Recently scientists from China have assembled the first pangenome for Asian rice.

• Pangenome – It is a comprehensive genetic blueprint of a species that includes,
  • Core genes, which is common to all individuals in a species.
  • Accessory or unique genes present in some, but not all, varieties.
• It shows the complete genetic diversity within a species.
• First pangenome of Asian rice – It is created by analysing genomes from 144 varieties of wild and cultivated rice from Asia.
• Evolutionary Findings – The study reinforced the hypothesis that all Asian cultivated rice originated from a wild variety called Or-IIIa (ancestor of japonica).
• Asian cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) was domesticated from its wild progenitor O. rufipogon.
• About 20% of genes are unique to wild rice, which has traits that can improve resilience and yield.

Significance

• Crop Improvement - It enables development of new rice cultivars with Higher yield, Drought and heat resistance, Disease and pest tolerance.
• Climate Adaptation - It helps address climate-related risks such as reduced productivity due to rising temperatures and arsenic uptake in rice grains.
• It is essential in countries like India, which is already witnessing a 0.7°C rise in average temperature since 1901.
• Sustainable Agriculture – The wild rice genes can improve environmental adaptability, regeneration potential, and Genetic diversity in modern rice breeding programs.
• ICAR recently announced development of two genome-edited rice varieties (Samba Mahsuri and MTU 1010) with higher yields and better drought resistance.
• The pangenomic data will accelerate India’s efforts in crop biotechnology.

Reference

The Hindu| First Pangenome for Asian Rice

Asteroid YR4

Prelims: Current events of national and international importance| Indian Geography

Why in news?

Recently NASA announced that there was a 3.8% chance Asteroid YR4 could collide with the moon on December 22, 2032.

• Asteroid YR4 – It is a near-earth asteroid, an object orbiting the sun whose closest approach to the star is within 1.3-times the earth-sun distance.

Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are asteroids with orbits that bring them close to Earth, potentially crossing Earth's orbital path.

• Such asteroids are classified as potentially hazardous objects if their orbits cross the earth’s and they are more than 140 m wide.
• Discovery – It was discovered in December 2024 using ATLAS telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile.

The ATLAS telescope is a NASA-funded asteroid detection system that scans the entire night sky every 24 hours for near-Earth objects (NEOs) with four telescopes now operating in Hawaii, Chile, and South Africa.

• Physical characteristics – Infrared observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed a clearer picture of the asteroid’s size.
• It is now estimated to be 65 m wide, about the size of a 10-storey building.

• For comparison, dinosaur-extinction asteroid was 10 km wide.
• Earth Impact Assessment – NASA initially predicted that the asteroid has 3.1% chance of hitting Earth in 2032.
• Later revised assessment that the chance of hitting Earth is actually negligible.
• Moon Impact Possibility – NASA now predicts that there is 3.8% chance of colliding with moon on December 22, 2032.
• If impact occurs, would create 500-2,000-meter-wide crater.
• Impact explosion would be 340 times more powerful than Hiroshima bomb.

• Future monitoring - YR4 will pass by Earth again in 2028 and this will provide opportunity to collect more data after four-year gap.
• It will provoide opportunity to acquire more data, with refined models, and develop a better picture of whether the asteroid might strike the moon.

Reference

The Hindu| Asteroid YR4

BrahMos Missile

Prelims: Current events of national and international importance| Security Issues

Why in news?

Recently BrahMos missile was likely used in the precision strikes against Pakistan’s military bases during Operation Sindoor on May 10.

• BrahMos missile – It is an unmanned payload rocket, which is equipped with a propulsion system, guidance system and a warhead.

• Origin – BrahMos is a joint venture between India's DRDO and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM).
• It is named after the Brahmaputra (India) and Moskva (Russia) rivers.
• India holds 50.5% stake, Russia holds 49.5% stake and it is first successfully tested on June 12, 2001.

Technical Specifications

• It is a Supersonic cruise missile (3 times the speed of sound in cruise phase).
• It can take a trajectory from Low to high in a quick time period, and it is very difficult for any ship-based radar to detect.
• Two-stage missile - First stage is solid propellant booster engine which propels to supersonic speed, and it then gets separated.
• The second stage of the liquid ramjet then fires and thrusts the missile to three times the speed of sound in its cruise phase.

Liquid ramjet is an  air-breathing jet engine that uses liquid fuel, which is injected into high-speed airstream and ignited to produce thrust.

• Fire and forget - 'Fire and forget' missiles are guided weapons that require no further input or control after being launched.
• It can achieve cruising altitude of 15 kilometers and terminal altitude as low as 10 meters
• BrahMos is its extremely low radar cross-section (RCS) because of its compact design and use of special materials.

Low Radar Cross Section (RCS) refers to a design that minimizes an object's reflection ability, so that it cannot be detected by the Radars.

BrahMos variants

• Navy variant – It can be fired from moving/static naval platforms.
• Land variant – It can be launched from mobile autonomous launchers with 3 missiles per launcher.
• Air variant – It is carried by Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jets.
• Submarine variant – It can be launched from 50 meters below water surface.
• BrahMos-NG (Next Generation) – It is under development with reduced dimensions and enhanced stealth.
• Recently the BrahMos Aerospace facility was inaugurated in Lucknow to produce the BRAHMOS-NG variant.

Strategic Importance

• It is considered as a versatile "stand-off range weapon" because they can be launched from a safe distance, keeping the attacker out of enemy defence range.
• It is superior than subsonic cruise missiles (Nirbhay) with high speed, flight range, and more kinetic energy.

Reference

The Indian Express| BrahMos missile

Most Favoured Nation

Prelims: Economy| Current events of national and international importance.

Why in News?

Recently, US signed an executive order to lower the prices of prescription drugs to bring drug prices in the US.

• Most Favoured Nation – It implies preferential terms of trade with respect to tariffs and trade barriers.
• Legality – Under Article 1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), 1994, every member country of the World Trade Organization (WTO) must accord Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to all other member countries.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the successor of the erstwhile GATT, and is the world’s largest intergovernmental trading body. It has 166 member nations, and represents 98% of the world’s trade. Its stated goal is to open trade for the benefit of all.

• Regulation – Under the WTO agreements, countries following the MFN status cannot discriminate among their trading partners.
• They cannot grant one country “a special favour” such a lower customs duty on one of their products, without extending the same to other WTO members.

Between 1996 and 2019, India accorded the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan. This was revoked in February 2019 following Pakistan’s terror attack on Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir.

US MFN Drug Pricing Policy

• Need - US currently pays about three times more for the same drugs compared to other high-income nations.
• Aim - To bring drug prices in the US. at par with the “Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World.”
• Issues - Pharmaceutical companies have staunchly opposed this move and are lobbying for safeguards.
• They have expressed fear that the proposed price cuts would reduce their profits, which in turn would reduce funds for research on new medicines.

According to a Reuters report, the US accounts for nearly a third of India’s pharma exports, which rose 16% to about $9 billion last fiscal year (2024-25).

Reference

The Indian Express| US MFN Pharma Policy

Farmer’s Preferences for Rice and Wheat

Prelims:  Economic Geography of India | Agriculture

Why in News?

In last few decades times, both rice and wheat acreages across India was rising than other crops.

• Reason for preferences - The most primary reason for expansion in rice and wheat area is the government’s near-guaranteed purchases of the 2 crops at minimum support prices (MSP).
• This kind of government backstop does not exist for other crops, discouraging their cultivation.
  • For instance, Punjab’s cotton area has plunged from 3.4 lh in 2015-16 to one lh in 2024-25 and in Madhya Pradesh.
• They are being grown largely under irrigated conditions.
• They also receive priority with regard to public breeding and research support.
  • Cotton has seen no new breeding breakthroughs after the genetically modified (GM) Bt cotton hybrids commercialised during 2002-06.
  • Recently, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) unveiled a genetically-edited (GE) mutant line of a rice & wheat.
• Being non-lodging made them more responsive to fertiliser and water application.
• They both have relatively lesser yield risk than other crops.
  • For example, yields in most oilseeds, pulses and other field crops have been flat or registered modest increases

• The 1^st generation of Green Revolution wheat varieties such as Kalyan Sona and Sonalika, released in the late-1960s, yielded an average 3.8 tonnes of grain per hectare under normal growing conditions in farmers’ fields.
• These wheat varieties were bred for not only higher yields, but also for resistance against rust diseases (caused by fungal pathogens) and climate-smart traits.

The HD-3385 variety of wheat released in 2023, for example, yields an average of 6 tonnes per hectare and potential of over 7.3 tonnes. It is, moreover, resistant to all major rusts – yellow (stripe), black (stem) and brown (leaf).

Quick Facts

• Cytokinins - They are plant hormones that help increase the number of grains per panicle.
• DST (drought and salt tolerance) gene - It acts as a negative regulator, inhibiting the rice plant’s tolerance to abiotic stresses such as heat and salinity.

Reference

The Indian Express| Preference for Rice and Wheat Cropping in India