6 October 2023

• Nobel Literature: Norwegian author Jon Fosse was named the 2023 Nobel Laureate in Literature for prose and plays "that give voice to the unsayable."
• Solar geo-engineering: scientists debated Stratospheric Aerosol Injection and Marine Cloud Brightening as emergency climate tools; global governance gaps flagged.
• Amphibian crisis: a global assessment found 41 per cent of the world's 8,011 amphibian species are threatened with extinction, up from 39 per cent in 2004.
• Andhra Pradesh GPS: the Andhra Pradesh Guaranteed Pension System Bill, 2023 was passed, creating a hybrid pension model between the Old Pension Scheme and the National Pension System.

GS area: Arts and Culture, India and the World

The Swedish Academy awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature to Jon Olav Fosse (born 1959, Norway).

• Citation: "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable."
• Writing language: Norwegian Nynorsk, the less common of the two written Norwegian standards. Fosse uses a spare, repetitive style that the Academy called "his unique voice."
• Major works: Red, Black (1983, debut novel); Melancholy I (1995); the heptology Septology (2019-21); plays Someone Is Going to Come and The Name.
• First Nobel Literature laureate: Sully Prudhomme of France in 1901.
• Indian laureate: Rabindranath Tagore in 1913 for Gitanjali. He is the only Indian citizen to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 2022 laureate: Annie Ernaux of France "for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots of personal memory."
• Peace Prize connection: the Nobel Peace Prize alone is awarded by a Norwegian committee (the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo). All other Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden.

Why the Peace Prize goes to Norway. Alfred Nobel's 1895 will specified Norway for the peace prize. Possible reasons: Norway's tradition of mediation; Norway and Sweden were in a union when Nobel wrote the will (Norway joined reluctantly after a Swedish invasion in 1814); Nobel's personal connections to Norwegian figures.

Static linkage: World history, Indian literature and culture.

GS area: Science and Technology, Environment, International Relations

Scientific debate intensified around solar geo-engineering as a potential response to climate change.

• Definition: a set of approaches to reflect sunlight back to space to rapidly cool the Earth without reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI): injecting reflecting particles (such as sulphur dioxide) into the upper atmosphere. Each injection would spread globally. Cost: approximately USD 18 billion annually per degree Celsius of cooling achieved.
• Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB): spraying seawater into low marine clouds using water cannons to increase cloud reflectivity. Being tested over the Great Barrier Reef in Australia (2023) as a localised coral bleaching mitigation measure.
• Key risks: SAI cools the global mean but warms the poles; it could accelerate ice melt. Changing precipitation patterns could disrupt monsoons critical for Indian agriculture. "Termination shock" if injections stop suddenly causes rapid warming. Moral hazard: an apparent solution reduces political will to cut emissions.
• Unilateral action: a US startup called Make Sunsets released sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere without government approval. This triggered calls for international governance.
• Governance gap: no international body currently regulates stratospheric interventions. The UN Environment Assembly and the UNFCCC are the most relevant forums but have no binding mechanisms.

Static linkage: Science and technology, environment and climate change.

GS area: Environment, Biodiversity

A global assessment by more than 1,000 experts evaluated 8,011 amphibian species.

• Finding: 41 per cent of species are threatened with extinction. This is up from 39 per cent in 2004 and 31 per cent in 1980.
• Breakdown by order: salamanders and newts 60 per cent threatened; frogs and toads 39 per cent; caecilians 16 per cent.
• Comparison with other groups: amphibians 41 per cent; mammals 27 per cent; reptiles 21 per cent; birds 13 per cent. Amphibians are the second-most threatened vertebrate group after corals.
• Causes: climate change is now the biggest driver of amphibian decline, overtaking habitat destruction for the first time. Disease (chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) is a major factor, especially for salamanders.
• India: Dancing frogs (genus Micrixalus) are the most threatened genus in India. Night frogs (Nyctibatrachidae) in southern India have 83.9 per cent of species threatened.
• Significance of amphibians: bio-indicators of ecosystem health; they breathe through their permeable skin, making them extremely sensitive to water quality and atmospheric changes.

Static linkage: Biodiversity, environment.

GS area: Polity, Economy, Governance

The Andhra Pradesh state legislature passed the Andhra Pradesh Guaranteed Pension System Bill, 2023.

Old Pension Scheme (OPS) vs National Pension System (NPS) vs GPS:

• States moving toward OPS: Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Delhi had reverted to or announced moves toward OPS. These states argued that NPS left retirees exposed to market risk.
• Fiscal concern: OPS created unfunded pension liabilities that grew as lifespans increased. The 6th Pay Commission recommended NPS precisely to make pension costs predictable.
• GPS design: attempts to balance the certainty of OPS with the fiscal sustainability of NPS. If the NPS corpus is insufficient to pay 50 per cent of the last drawn basic salary, the state makes up the difference.

Static linkage: Economy, governance, social security.

GS area: Environment, Biodiversity

A study on the Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary showed signs of ecological stress from climate change.

• Location: within the Kali Tiger Reserve in Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka. The sanctuary is a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the Western Ghats listing.
• Problems documented: 100 grass species are declining; the invasive weed eupatorium has invaded cleared areas. Forest type is shifting from semi-evergreen toward moist deciduous. Uncontrolled wildfires are more frequent. Herbivore populations are declining due to grass loss, which in turn affects leopard and tiger prey availability.
• Fruit tree impact: altered flowering cycles of fig trees (Ficus spp.) are reducing food availability for the Malabar Pied Hornbill.
• British-era forest management: controlled burning (fire management) was banned during British rule as it was seen as destructive. Modern ecology recognises that periodic controlled burns remove dry fuel accumulations and prevent catastrophic wildfires.

Static linkage: Environment, biodiversity.

• NIIF-JBIC fund: the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund announced a USD 600 million bilateral fund with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). Government of India holds 49 per cent; JBIC holds 51 per cent. Focus: environmental sustainability and low-carbon investments. NIIF was established in 2015 and is classified as a quasi-sovereign wealth fund.
• Nanozyme NanoPtA: the Indian Institute of Science developed NanoPtA, a platinum-containing nanozyme that degrades phenols and industrial dyes in wastewater within 10 minutes at low concentrations. Nanozymes are nanomaterials with enzyme-like catalytic properties.