Background: SEBI is planning to regulate Algo Trading

Algorithmic Trading

• Algorithmic trading or Algo trading is computer assisted buying and selling of stocks.
• It is also known as automated or programmed trading since pre-programmed computer strategies execute buy and sell trades depending on set parameters, instructions or market pattern and conditions.
• Algo trading came to India in 2008 but only savvy traders were using it then.
• Retail traders have started using advanced algos for trading mainly in the past five years.

How does it work?

• The key purpose of algo trading is speed of order execution. It takes several seconds when humans punch buy and sell traders.
• But algos execute orders according to predefined market conditions even before humans can think of executing trades.
• Traders can deploy their preprogrammed algos by connecting them to a broker’s trading terminals, which are in turn linked to a stock exchange server.
• Before algos came into play, retail traders had to either call their brokers to execute trades or be physically present at the nearest broker’s office.
• Mobile trading is also a form of algo trading where orders are executed via Apps.
• Order execution without human intervention is an advanced form of algo trading.

Why is SEBI trying to regulate Algo Trading?

• SEBI and stock exchanges regulate and monitor broker terminals but the algo programmes deployed by traders did not require any exchange approvals so far as there were no rules.
• SEBI now believes that unregulated/unapproved algos pose a risk to the market and can be misused for systematic market manipulation as well to lure the retail investors by guaranteeing them higher returns.
• The potential loss in case of failed algo strategy is huge for the retail investors.

Indo-Saracenic Architecture

• The colonial architecture culminated into what is called the Indo-Saracenic architecture.
• The colonial architecture exhibited itself through institutional, civic and utilitarian buildings such as post offices, railway stations, rest houses and government buildings.

Indo-Saracenic movement

• At the end of the Victorian era, India entered the era of national awakening and movement.
• The architecture represented the character of the time, a combination of imperial and national urges. It was this urge that led to the movement of Indo-Saracenic.
• This movement drew elements from the indigenous and Indo-Islamic architecture and combined it with the Gothic revival and Neo-classical styles favored in Victorian England.

Salient Features

• Bulbous Domes
  • This is one of the most characteristic feature of Indo-Saracenic buildings.
  • The Bulbous dome is a hemispherical structure evolved from arch, usually forming a ceiling or roof.
  • The Dome is considered as a symbolic representation of the vault of the heaven.
  • Some of the examples with Bulbous Domes are Egmore Railway Station, Chennai Museum.
• Overhanging eaves (Chhajja)
  • It is a protruding structure which provides protection for the lower walls.
  • This feature was common in Mughal architecture. Ex: Tomb of Salim Chishti, Fatepur Sikri, India.
  • This feature became part of the Indo-Saracenic architecture during 19th and 20th Ex: Chhatrapathi Shivaji Terminus, Rashtrapati Bhavan.
• Vaulted roof
  • Vaulted Roofs are ceilings with intersecting arches.
  • These roofs can be seen in mausoleum which was built during the Islamic period.
  • However, this feature was adopted by the British into the monuments they built during their time in Ex: St.Matthias’ Church, Chennai.
• Chhatris
  • Chhatris are an elevated, dome-shaped pavilions used as an element in Indian architecture.
  • The word chhatri is also refer to the small pavilions that mark the corners, roof of entrance of a major building.
  • These pavilions are purely decorative and have no utility, but they are a classic folly which represents the status and wealth. Ex: Tomb of Humayun.
  • This feature can also be found in Indo-Saracenic style. Ex: Rashtrapati Bhavan.
• Minarets
  • It is a tall spire with a conical or onion-shaped crown.
  • Minarets are either free-standing or taller than associated support.
  • The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery.
  • In Chennai, the Senate house is the best example of Indo-Saracenic architecture with Minarets.
• Pavilion
  • Pavilion refers to the subsidiary building that is positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building.
  • Palaces or other large houses may have one or more subsidiary pavilions that are either freestanding or connected by covered walkways in the buildings of Mughal architecture.
  • These pavilions can be found in the forts, palaces of British architecture in Indo-Saracenic style.
• Cusped arches
  • The cusp in architecture is the intersections of lobed or scalloped forms, particularly in arches (cusped arches) and tracery (ornamental stone work).
  • The monumental cusped arch had become the standard Mughal style component by the end of 17th Century.
  • The British builders also used the cusped shape arch universally and frequently enriched it with representations of leaves, flowers, or even human heads at the tip. Ex: Chennai corporation building, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Chhatrapathi Shivaji Terminus.

Biology of Reindeer

Warmth

• Reindeer live in the Arctic, where temperatures on long winter nights often plummet below -30 degrees C.
• Unlike most mammals, which only have one layer of fur, reindeer have two: a dense underfur beneath a blanket of hollow guard hairs.
• Reindeer can have up to 2,000 hairs packed into a single square centimetre, making it ten times as dense as human hair.
• This double layer traps air and creates a cover of insulation that keeps reindeer from losing heat, and stops snow from reaching and cooling the skin.
• Reindeer possess something called a counter-current heat exchange which essentially allows them to recycle heat so that the heart doesn’t need to work as hard.

• The arteries and veins carrying blood to and from the heart are intertwined, allowing heat from warm arterial blood to pass to the cold venous blood.
• A lot of this heat exchange happens in the specialized nasal bones of the reindeer, where plenty of cold air is inhaled through the nostrils.
• The highly concentrated blood vessels in their nostrils often give reindeer a red nose, just like Rudolph.

Fitness

• Reindeer lichen — an organism that is formed from a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi — is the main thing reindeer eat during the winter.
• Lichens are the crusty looking things that you often see living on tree trunks and rocks.
• Lichens are plentiful in the Arctic — an ideal food source that reindeer can find wherever they go.
• This means reindeer don’t need to store body fat and unlike many other animals.
• Reindeer are actually the only mammals capable of digesting lichen, thanks to specialized bacteria in their gut.

Sight

• Reindeer eyes change colour from gold to blue in the winter, letting in more of the small amount of light available and improving their vision.
• Reindeer can even see in the ultraviolet.
• Although this amazing sense is common in birds and insects, reindeer are some of the only mammals to have evolved this ability.
• This means that objects that would blend into the background when seen through human eyes are much more visible to reindeer.

Steadiness

• To walk in snow without sinking or getting frostbite, reindeer have evolved wide, crescent-shaped hooves.
• These keep them stable, but they can also be used as shovels to dig down to find lichen under the snow.
• The hoof pads shrink and harden over winter, allowing the reindeer to walk on the sharp edges of their hooves.
• As well as reducing the area of the hoof exposed to the cold ground, the hoof rims cut into the ice and snow to prevent slipping.

Transport

• Reindeer are the only domesticated species of deer, and people have been using them to get around since the Stone Age.
• Reindeer migrate up to 5,000km a year — further than any other land mammal — and they regularly cover 55km in a day.
• They are surprisingly fast too, reaching speeds of up to 80km per hour.

Log4j Vulnerability

• A new vulnerability named Log4Shell is being touted as one of the worst cyber security flaws to have been discovered.
• The vulnerability is based on an open-source logging library used in most applications by enterprises and even government agencies.
• The exploits for this vulnerability are already being tested by hackers.
• The vulnerability is dubbed Log4Shell and is officially CVE-2021-44228 (CVE number is the unique number given to each vulnerability discovered across the world).
• The problem impacts Log4j 2 versions which is a very common logging library used by applications across the world.
• Logging lets developers see all the activity of an application.
• Tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google all rely on this open-source library, as do enterprise applications from CISCO, Netapp, CloudFare, Amazon and others.
• The vulnerability is serious because exploiting it could allow hackers to control java-based web servers and launch what are called ‘remote code execution’ (RCE) attacks.
• In simple words, the vulnerability could allow a hacker to take control of a system.

Background: The Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) designed for Indian Naval warships was successfully flight tested.

Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM)

• VL-SRSAM has been designed and developed jointly by three facilities of the Defence Research and Development Organisation for deployment of Indian Naval warships.
• The missile has the capability of neutralising various aerial threats at close ranges including sea-skimming targets.
• The tactic of sea skimming is used by various anti-ship missiles and some fighter jets to avoid being detected by the radars onboard warships.
• For this, these assets fly as close as possible to sea surface and thus are difficult to detect and neutralise.

Design of VL-SRSAM

• The missile has been designed to strike at the high-speed airborne targets at the range of 40 to 50 km and at an altitude of around 15 km.
• DRDO officials have said its design is based on Astra missile which is a Beyond Visual Range Air to Air missile.
• Two key features of the VL-SRSAM are cruciform wings and thrust vectoring.
• The cruciform wings are four small wings arranged like a cross on four sides and give the projective a stable aerodynamic posture.
• The thrust vectoring is an ability to change the direction of the thrust from its engine controls the angular velocity and the attitude of the missile.
• VL-SRSAM is a canisterised system, which means it is stored and operated from specially designed compartments.
• In the canister, the inside environment is controlled, thus making its transport and storage easier and improving the shelf life of weapons.