Technical Analysis of FAME II

The NITI Aayog and the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) released a report on opportunities for the automobile sector and government under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles II (FAME II) scheme.

• The technical report titled ‘India’s Electric Mobility Transformation: Progress to Date and Future Opportunities’, quantifies the direct oil and carbon savings and it also quantifies the catalytic effect that FAME II and other measures could have on the overall Electric Vehicle(EV) market.

Key Highlights

• If FAME II and other measures are successful, India could realize EV sales penetration of 30% of private cars, 70% of commercial cars, 40% of buses and 80% of two and three-wheelers by 2030.
• Effects of FAME II will go beyond the vehicles that are eligible under the FAME II.
• There is considerable energy and CO₂ savings associated with the vehicles and buses covered by FAME II over their lifetime.
  • Vehicles eligible under FAME II scheme can cumulatively save 5.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent over their lifetime worth Rs 17.2 thousand crores.
• In order to capture the potential opportunity in 2030, batteries must remain a key focal point as the key cost driver of EVs.

Recommendations

• India needs auto industry's active participation to ease electric mobility transition. The auto and battery industries could collaborate to enhance customer awareness, promote domestic manufacturing, promote new business models, conduct R&D for EVs and components, consider new business models to promote EVs.
  • Government should focus on a phased manufacturing plan to promote EVs, provide fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for phased manufacturing of EVs and batteries.
  • Different government departments can consider a bouquet of potential policies, such as congestion pricing, low emission/exclusion zones, parking policies, etc. to drive adoption of EVs.

Way Forward

• India’s electric vehicle market is poised for growth with a blend of policies, such as FAME II, and the automotive industry’s willingness to provide new mobility solutions to the citizens of the country. Such a transformation will create enormous economic, social and environmental benefits for the citizens of India.

Habrocestum Longispinum

Recently arachnologists (those who study spiders and other arachnids) have spotted a group of spiders in Illithodu forests of Ernakulam district of Kerala.

• This is relevant because these spiders have been spotted in India for the first time and they mostly occur in Eurasia and Africa.

Arachnids

• Arachnids include a diverse group of invertebrates: spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, etc. There are over 100,000 species of arachnids.
• The name Arachnida derives from the Greek aráchnē, which means spider. The vast majority of arachnids are spiders.
• Most arachnids are carnivorous, typically preying on insects, and terrestrial, living on land. They lack both wings and antennae.
• Their mouthparts often have narrow openings, which restricts them to eating liquefied prey.
• They help in keeping insect populations under control.

• Habrocestum Longispinum (after Latin ‘longe’ meaning long and ‘spinae’ for spine) belong to the genus Habrocestum that has been recorded mostly in Eurasia and Africa.
• It can be said that the species is not only new to India, but also science.
• The discovery lends support to the continental drift theory that suggests that the world’s continents were one large, contiguous landmass where these creatures thrived many millions of years ago.

Continental Drift Theory

• Set forth in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, a geophysicist and meteorologist, continental drift theory explains the present position of continents on the earth’s surface.
• Wegner assumed existence of the earth’s three layers- outer layers of ‘Sial’, intermediate layer of ‘Sima’ and lower layer of ‘Nife’.
  • Sial: Silicon + Aluminium,
  • Sima: Silicon + Magnesium
  • Nife: Nickel + Iron
• Continents or the sialic masses were assumed to be floating on sima without any resistance.
• The united continent landmass was named as Pangaea and the water body surrounding it was named Panthalassa.
• Owing to the gravitational force and tidal force of both sun and moon, the Pangaea began to drift apart in westward and equatorward directions and finally broke into Angaraland (northern part) and Gondwanaland (southern part).
• Water body named Tethys Sea filled up the intervening space between the two landmasses, while drifting .
• The jigsaw fit of the African and South American coasts, similarity in the fossils, species (Astrobatrachus Kurichiyana Frog) and vegetation remains on South Africa, Australia, India and Africa and evidences of carboniferous glaciation of Brazil, Falkland, Peninsular India and Antarctica were arguments given in favor of the theory.
• Although Wegener's "continental drift" theory was discarded, it did introduce the idea of moving continents to geoscience.

Traditional New Year

The President of India has greeted the people on the eve of Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Cheti Chand, Navreh and Sajibu Cheiraoba.

• These festivals mark the beginning of the traditional New Year in India.

Gudi Padwa and Ugadi

• Ugadi and Gudi Padwa are the festivals, to celebrate the New Year, in the month of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada as per the Hindu Lunar Calendar, and is celebrated by the people in the Deccan region including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
• The common practice in the celebrations of both the festivals is the festive food that is prepared with a mix of sweet and bitter.
  • A famous concoction served is jaggery (sweet) and neem (bitter), called bevu-bella in South, signifying that life brings both happiness and sorrows.
• Gudi, which means a doll is prepared in Maharashtrian homes. A bamboo stick is adorned with green or red brocade to make the gudi. This gudi is placed prominently in the house or outside a window/ door for all to see.
• For Ugadi, doors in homes are adorned with mango leaf decorations called toranalu or Torana in Kannada.

Cheti Chand

• Sindhis celebrate the new year as Cheti Chand. Chaitra month is called 'Chet' in Sindhi.
• The day commemorates the birth anniversary of Ishta Deva Uderolal, Jhulelal, the patron saint of Sindhis and is celebrated with great pompous and gaiety.

Navreh

• It is the lunar New Year that is celebrated in Kashmir. It is the Sanskrit word ‘Nav Varsha’ from where the word ‘Navreh’ has been derived.
• It actually falls on the very first day of the Chaitra Navratras.
• On this day, Kashmiri Pandits deliberately, first of all, look at a bowl of rice, considered as a symbol of riches and fertility. A special ‘Thali’ is also prepared.

Sajibu Cheiraoba

• It is the great ritual festival of Meiteis (an ethnic group in Manipur) which is observed on the first day of Manipur lunar month Shajibu, which falls in the month of April every year.
• On the day of the festival, people arrange a joint family feast in which traditional cuisines are offered to local deities at the entrance gates of the houses.

Chaitra Shukla Pratipada

• It is the first day during the waxing phase of moon in the Chaitra Month.
• It marks the beginning of the New Year of Vikram Samvat or better known as Vedic [Hindu] Calendar.
• This Hindu new year is known by different names in India such as Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Ugadi in Telugu.
• The famous Vikram Samvat is based on the day when the emperor Vikramaditya defeated Sakas and invaded Ujjain. He, then, called for a new era.
  • Under his supervision, astronomers formed new calendar based on luni-solar system that is still followed in the Northern regions of India.

Meities

• The Meiteis, one of the most eminent ethnic groups of Manipur hail from the Manipur Valley and are an industrious lot.
• They speak Tibeto-Burman language and most of the people belonging to the group, follow Hindu customs.

Important Facts For Prelims (6th April 2019)

Konyak Dance

• Around 4,700 Konyak Naga women, in their colourful traditional attire came together on April 5, 2019, in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the “Largest Traditional Konyak Dance”.
  • In their attempt, Konyak people danced to the beats of traditional instruments and sang a ceremonial song for five minutes and one second.
  • The official declaration on the record to be announced by the Guinness authorities is expected within the five days.
  • Guinness World Records is a global brand, with offices in London, New York, China, Japan and UAE and with brand ambassadors on the ground around the world.
• The programme was organised at Mon (Nagaland) during the Aoleang Monyu festival of the Konyak tribe which is celebrated every year in the first week of April to welcome the spring.
• Konyak is one of the 16 Naga tribes and people of this community live mainly in the Mon district of Nagaland.

New World Bank President

• David Malpass, a top U.S. Treasury official in Trump administration has been unanimously selected as the new President of the World Bank.
• He will be the 13th President and will start his five year term from April 9, 2019.
• He will succeed Jim Yong-kim, who stepped down on February 1, 2019. Kristalina Georgieva, chief executive officer of the bank, is acting as the interim President.
• Since the bank’s creation, all of its Presidents have been from America.
• The World Bank President is Chair of Boards of Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA).
• The President is also ex officio Chair of Boards of Directors of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Asteroid Ryugu

• The Japan’s space agency, JAXA has announced that its Hayabusa 2 spacecraft released an explosive onto the asteroid Ryugu to make a crater on its surface and collect underground samples to find possible clues to the origin of the solar system.
• Earlier, JAXA had announced that a group of scientists participating in the Hayabusa 2 mission had detected hydroxyl-bearing minerals on the asteroid by analyzing near-infrared spectrometer readings by the spacecraft.
  • This could help explain where the Earth's water came from.

Chytridiomycosis Disease

• Deadliest disease of all times till now has wiped out 90 species of frogs and toads.
• Chytridiomycosis is caused by a fungus—Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis—that attacks the skin of frogs, toads and other amphibians.
  • As the creatures use their skin to breathe and regulate their bodies’ water levels, the damage caused by the disease eventually leads to heart failure and death.
  • It spreads through contact and water.
• The rapid global spread of the fungus is due to a lack of animal trade rules and airport surveillance, which allows wildlife to be imported without examination.
  • The fungus originated in Asia and gradually became pandemic in Latin America and Australia owing to trade (import and export of amphibians as pets) with Asia.
  • This can be termed as a negative externality of Globalisation on the wildlife.
• Moreover, a genetic mutation of the fungus may have made it more dangerous.
• Other factors leading to amphibians decline are:
  • Climate change,
  • Habitat destruction,
  • Draining of wetlands and
  • Changes to terrestrial ecosystems.
• Importance of Amphibians:
  • Amphibians play a major role in maintaining aquatic environmental quality. They also feed on mosquitoes, which carry human diseases such as malaria and the Zika virus.
• Governments and other agencies must focus on regulation and need to start taking biosecurity and the illegal wildlife trade far more seriously to prevent the spread of diseases.