Daily Prelims 20th February 2024

PRELIMS BOOSTER

1. Disinflation :

• • Disinflation is a decrease in inflation rates. 
  • In simple terms, a decline in the rate of increase in the general price level of goods and services in the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country over time is called disinflation. 
  • Unlike inflation and deflation, which refer to the direction of prices, disinflation refers to the rate of change in the rate of inflation. 
  • Disinflation is not considered problematic because prices do not actually drop, and disinflation does not usually signal the onset of a slowing economy. 
  • A healthy amount of disinflation is necessary since it represents economic contraction and prevents the economy from overheating. 
  • Disinflation is considered the opposite of reflation, which occurs when a government stimulates an economy by increasing the money supply. 

• Causes of Disinflation: 

• • If a central bank wants to enforce a tighter monetary policy and the government starts selling off some of its assets, the supply of money in the economy could be limited, causing a disinflationary effect. 
  • Similarly, disinflation can also be caused by a contraction in the business cycle of recession. For instance, companies may choose not to raise prices to gain a more significant market share, leading to disinflation. 

2. Char Area :

• The riverine areas (island) of the river Brahmaputra, locally known as “Char/ Chapori”. 
• The chars follow a peculiar pattern of migration. 
• They are subjected to erosion on their upstream and deposition on the downstream, due to which they migrate downstream. 
• This affects the geometry and location of the chars during floods almost every year. 

• Issues with the Char area: 

• • The physical, sociological and institutional constraints on the development of Char Areas are many and complex. 
  • Such as the virtual absence of all-weather communication with the main banks, reliable means of intra- and inter-char mobility, inadequate growth of transport and basic infrastructure like surface roads, health and drinking water, delivery systems for farm inputs, marketing, agro-services electricity and education. 
  • The problems in the Char Areas are unique in nature, due to the constant threat from flood and erosion during the rainy season. 

• • The land mass is segregated and cut off from each other, making it very difficult to take any major scheme for road communication, irrigation, Power supply or set of educational institutions. 

3. Central Asian Flyway:

• It covers a large continental area of Eurasia between the Arctic and Indian Oceans and the associated island chains. 
• A flyway is a geographical region within which a single or group of migratory species completes its annual cycle — breeding, moulting, staging and non-breeding. 
• There are nine flyways in the world. 
• Geographically the flyway region covers 30 countries of North, Central and South Asia and Trans-Caucasus. 
• There is an overlap between the CAF and the area of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), which was concluded in 1995, at the Hague, the Netherlands. 
• Sixteen out of the thirty countries encompassed by the CAF are located in the AEWA Agreement Area. 
• CAF migration routes include the steppes and cold deserts of Central Eurasia, and much of the Himalayan chain, where unique, high-altitude migrations such as those of the Bar-headed Goose, Anser indicus, take place. 
• India’s Initiative: The 14 species which will be listed in CMS appendices include 

• Eurasian Lynx, Peruvian Pelican, Pallas’s Cat, Guanaco, Laulao Catfish, Balkan Lynx, Lahille’s Bottlenose Dolphin, Harbour Porpoise, Magellanic Plover, Bearded Vulture, Blackchin Guitarfish, Bull Ray, Lusitanian Cownose Ray and Gilded Catfish. 
• The adopted initiative includes the establishment of a coordinating unit in India with financial support from the Indian Government. 

4. Rip Currents :

• These are a strong flow of water running from a beach back to the Open Ocean, sea, or lake. 
• These are one of the most well-known coastal hazards on beaches around the world.  
• Formation: 
  • They are formed by a beach topography.  
  • They can occur in areas with hard-bottom (rocky) or soft-bottom (sand or silt) beach topography. 
  • A beach’s topography includes the area outside the water, such as dunes or marshes.  
  • Beach topography also includes the area within the water, like sandbars, piers, and reefs. Rip currents often form around these parts of a beach’s topography. 
  • They can form in a gap between sandbars, piers, or parts of a reef. 
  • Such underwater obstacles block waves from washing directly back to sea. 
  • The water from these waves, called feeder waves, runs along the shore until it finds an opening around the obstacle. 
  • Contrary to popular belief, a rip cannot pull a person down and hold him/her under the water. 
  • It simply carries floating objects, including people, out to just beyond the zone of the breaking waves. 

Places In News

1. Melghat Tiger Reserve :

• • Location: 

• • • It is located in the Amaravati district of Maharashtra. 
    • It is located on the southern offshoot of the Satpura Hill Range in Central India, called Gawilgarh Hill.  

• It was established as a wildlife sanctuary in 1967 and was declared a tiger reserve in 1974.  
• It was the first tiger reserve in Maharashtra. 
• It was among the first nine tiger reserves notified in 1973-74 under Project Tiger. 
• The name ‘Melghat’ means the confluence of various ’ghats’ or valleys, as is typical of the landscape of this Tiger Reserve. 
• Vegetation: The forest is tropical dry deciduous in nature, and dominated by teak. 
• Rivers: The reserve is a catchment area for five major rivers: the Khandu, Khapra, Sipna, Gadga, and Dolar, all of which are tributaries of the river Tapti. 

• The Tapti River and the Gawilgarh ridge of the Satpura Range form the boundaries of the reserve. 
• Tribes: The Korkus are the largest tribal community in Melghat. Other communities include the Gawli community, the Gond tribe, and several other smaller tribal communities. 
• Flora: Some of the common species are teak, Lagerstroemia Parviflora, Terminalia Tomentosa, Ougeinia Oojeinensis, Emblica Officinalis, Bamboo, etc. 

• Fauna: 

• • Apart from Tigers the other prominent animals are Sloth Bear, Indian Gaur, Sambar deer, Leopard, Nilgais, dhole, hyena, jungle cat, langur, etc.  
  • It is considered a stronghold of the critically endangered forest owlet.