Prelims Nuggets

NISAR satellite to map Himalayas’ seismic zones

Context: NISAR satellite jointly developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will map the most earthquake-prone regions in the Himalayas. The data generated can potentially give an advance warning of land subsidence, as recently observed in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, and point places that are at greatest risk from earthquakes.

About NISAR:

NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) is an Earth-observation satellite expected to be launched in January 2024 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh into a sun-synchronous orbit.
The 2,800 kilograms satellite consists of both L-band and S-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instruments, which makes it a dual-frequencyimaging radar satellite. SAR is capable of penetrating clouds and can collect data day and night regardless of the weather conditions.
- L-band SAR operates at a frequency of around 1 to 2 GHz. The lower frequency (higher wavelength) of L-band SAR allows it to penetrate through vegetation and soil, making it useful for monitoring changes in forest cover, soil moisture etc.
- S-band SAR operates at a frequency of around 2 to 4 GHz. S-band SAR has a higher resolution than L-band SAR and is typically used for applications where higher detail is required, such as monitoring changes in urban areas or coastal zones.
The spacecraft will orbit the Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit of 747 Km with a 12-day repeat cycle.

Overview | Observatory – NASA-ISRO SAR Mission (NISAR)

Significance:

The NISAR satellite with two frequency bands: L-band and S-band will image the seismically active Himalayan region that will create a “deformation map” every 12 days and provide high-resolution, all-weather data.
- While satellite imagery to study deformation in land is already employed in India, the frequency at which observations are taken and the clarity of the images is critical.
- With a frequency of 12 days and the ability to be able to provide images even under cloudy conditions, NISAR would be a valuable tool to study deformation patterns, such as in Joshimath.

Other Applications:

Study Earth’s dynamic land and ice surfaces in greater detail and observe subtle changes in Earth’s surfaces. E.g., Track flow rates of glaciers and ice sheets, landslide-prone areas and changes in the coastline etc.
Spot warning signs of natural disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides.
Measure groundwater levels, agricultural mapping, natural resource mapping and monitor Earth’s forest and agricultural regions to improve understanding of carbon exchange.

Indelible ink for elections

Context: The election commission of India recently placed an order with Mysore Paints & Varnish Ltd. to produce indelible ink for the Karnataka assembly election. Every single election in India has a link with Mysuru, the city of palaces in Karnataka, as Mysore Paints & Varnish Ltd.

About Mysore Paints & Varnish Ltd.

It is the only company authorised to produce the indelible ink used in general elections in the country.
It was established by Maharaja of Mysore, Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar in 1937 with the name of, Mysore Lac & Paint Works Ltd. which manufactured lac used for the manufacture of sealing waxes, and paints.
The unit was converted into a public limited company in 1947,
In 1962, it was selected to manufacture the indelible ink, which was first used in the country’s third general election.
From then till now, the company has supplied the ink for every Lok Sabha, Assembly and local body election across India.
It has also exported the ink to more than 30 countries.
The Election Commission of India places orders during polls.
The ink is made of chemicals (the primary chemical is silver nitrate) formulated in a laboratory and the entire process of its mixing, bottling, sealing, packing and transportation is carried out in a well-secured area.
Each vial containing 10 ml of ink would suffice for the fingers of 700 voters.

Large Hadron Collider

Context: The third season of operations for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started on 22 April 2022. The LHC is set to run for close to four years at a record energy of 13.6 trillion electronvolts (TeV).

What are Hadrons?

Hadrons are defined as subatomic particles which are composed of two or three fundamental particles known as quarks, which are held together by strong interaction (strong Nuclear force). E.g., Protons, Neutrons.
- Sub-atomic particles are the smallest known units of matter and the building blocks of all things.

Large Hadron Collider

Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) built LHC between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists from hundreds of universities and laboratories.
It lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres in circumference and as deep as 175 metres beneath the France-Switzerland border near Geneva.
Inside LHC, two high-energy particle beams of protons are directed at each other at nearly the speed of light and made to collide in the 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets.
- They are guided around the accelerator ring by a strong magnetic field maintained by superconducting electromagnets.
- The magnetic field created by the superconducting electromagnets keeps the protons in a tight beam and guides them along the way as they travel through beam pipes.
These collisions generate new particles and using detectors scientists study their properties and interactions, providing insights into the fundamental laws of the universe.
- CERN’s DATA Centre stores more than 30 petabytes of data per year from LHC experiments which are used to study fundamental particles, dark matter, dark energy and laws of Physics.
- The ATLAS and CMS detectors helped discover the Higgs boson in 2012 and confirmed their findings in 2013.

big bang machine in search for smallest particle

Issues

LHC has not been able to find — ‘new physics’, the collective name for particles or processes that can explain the nature of dark matter or why gravity is such a weak force, among other mysteries.
The LHC has tested some of the predictions of theories that try to explain what the Standard Model can not and has found them inadequate/ incomplete.

Future goals

It is being planned to improve the LHC’s luminosity (a measure of the machine’s ability to produce particle interactions of interest) by 10x by 2027 through upgrades.
Also, it is envisioned to build a bigger version of the LHC, based on the hypothesis that such a machine will be able to find ‘new physics’ at even higher energies.

Navigating Uncertainty

Context: In its World Economic Outlook report, International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered India’s economic growth projection for the current fiscal to 5.9 per cent from 6.1 per cent earlier.

More on news

IMF has forecast India's economic growth to be 5.9% for the fiscal year 2023-24, lower than the Reserve Bank of India's projection of 7%. Despite the drop in growth rate projections, India remains the fastest-growing economy in the world, according to the IMF's World Economic Outlook figures. Meanwhile, China's growth rate is projected to be 5.2% in 2023 and 4.5% in 2024, against a growth rate of 3% in 2022. The global economy is expected to recover gradually from the pandemic, with global growth projected to bottom out at 2.8% this year before rising modestly to 3% in 2024.

About International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The IMF was established in 1944 in the aftermath of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Today, its membership embraces 190 countries, with staff drawn from 150 nations.
The IMF is governed by and accountable to those 190 countries that make up its near-global membership.
It works to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity for all of its 190 member countries. It does so by supporting economic policies that promote financial stability and monetary cooperation, which are essential to increase productivity, job creation, and economic well-being.
The IMF has three critical missions furthering international monetary cooperation, encouraging the expansion of trade and economic growth, and discouraging policies that would harm prosperity.
The IMF's resources mainly come from the money that countries pay as their capital subscription (quotas) when they become members. Each member of the IMF is assigned a quota, based broadly on its relative position in the world economy. Countries can then borrow from this pool when they fall into financial difficulty.

Publications of IMF

World Economic Outlook
Global Financial Stability Report
Fiscal Monitor

The rapid rail between Delhi and Meerut will be called RapidX

Context: India's first semi high-speed regional rapid transit system (RRTS), which will connect Delhi with NCR, including Meerut, Alwar and Panipat, will now be called RAPIDX.

About name RAPIDX

India’s National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) has named its first semi-high-speed regional rail services as ‘RAPIDX’.

The X in the name denotes next generation technology and new-age mobility solution.
The leaf symbol is the “highlight of the brand’s commitment towards decarbonization” by not only decongesting NCR and reducing the number of vehicles on road but also by the use of green energy.

About Rapid Rail Transit Services (RRTS) corridor

The NCRTC which works under the administrative control of Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and is executing the RRTS project is a joint venture of the Government of India (50 per cent) and state governments of Haryana (12.5 per cent), NCT Delhi (12.5 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (12.5 per cent) and Rajasthan (12.5 per cent).
In the first phase of the project, three corridors, namely, Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-SNB (Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behror Urban Complex)-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat are under implementation.
The 82-km long Delhi-Meerut corridor is one of the three priority corridors of Phase-1 planned in the NCR and is expected to be operational by 2025.
NCRTC is targeting to commission a 17km priority section between Sahibabad and Duhai of the 84km Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor, in 2023, before the scheduled time, and the entire first RAPIDX corridor by 2025.
In the next phase(s), five additional RAPIDX lines will be developed. These are Delhi–Faridabad–Ballabgarh-Palwal, Ghaziabad–Khurja, Delhi- Bahadurgarh-Rohtak, Ghaziabad-Hapur and Delhi-Shahdara-Baraut.

What is Rapid Rail Transit Services (RRTS)?

It is a dedicated, high speed and high-capacity rail-based commuter service that will connect different regions in the national capital region (NCR).
It will offer high-frequency, point-to-point travel at an average speed of 160 kmph.
It will provide a "multi-modal integration" connecting the Railway Stations, Bus Depots, airports, and Metro stations.

How is it different from Delhi Metro?

The distance travelled on Delhi Metro is usually short and has several stops in between. The RRTS, on the other hand, will be used for relatively longer transits and will have fewer stops.
RRTS will also be faster as compared to the DMRC's train. The operational speed of RRTS will be 160 kmph, but for Delhi Metro, it is usually around 80 kmph.

About RRTS- The Journey

In 2005, Niti Aayog, then known as the Planning Commission, formed a task force in 2005 under the chairmanship of the secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) to develop a multi-modal transit system for Delhi NCR.
The main objective was to reduce the dependence of commuters on road-based transportation and this was included in NCRPB's Integrated Transport Plan (ITP) for NCR 2032.
The Task Force also identified 8 corridors and prioritised three corridors, Delhi-Meerut, Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-Alwar, for implementation.
NCRTC was made the project's nodal agency, and it was formed as a joint venture of the Centre and the states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Benefits of Rapid Rail Transit Systems (RRTS)

Reduced travel time due to high speeds, easing congestion and increasing productivity.
Improved connectivity with seamless integration with other modes of transportation.
Environmentally friendly with reduced carbon emissions and air pollution.
Economic benefits through job creation and regional development.
Enhanced safety and comfort with modern technologies and amenities.
Promotes sustainable urban development with transit-oriented development (TOD) principles.
Reduces dependence on private vehicles, contributing to a more sustainable transportation system.

Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala tops 5th cycle of Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE)

Context: According to the 5th cycle of Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) carried out by the Centre alongside the Tiger Census, the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala is the best-maintained of all tiger reserves in the country, followed closely by the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, Bandipur in Karnataka and Nagarhole in Karnataka.

More facts about MEE Report

The government has been using the Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) to assess tiger reserves across the country since its inception in 2006.
The MEE exercise, adopted from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' (IUCN's) World Commission on Protected Areas.
Periyar reserve has obtained an MEE score of 94.3%
Of these 53 tiger reserves, however, only 51, were evaluated as two newly declared tiger reserves, Ramgarh Visdhari(Rajasthan) and Ranipur(Uttar Pradesh), have not been included in the current cycle of MEE.
In the 5th cycle, there are 12 Tiger Reserves that have scored 90% in the new category of ‘Excellent’, followed by 20 in the ‘Very Good’ category, 14 in the ‘Good’ category, and 5 in the ‘Fair’ category. None of the country’s tiger reserves was graded as ‘Poor’.
The report, however, points out that the headline indicator — ‘carbon capture and climate change’ — has received the lowest score in the current cycle, as there is no mandate for it in Tiger Conservation Plans.

About Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary

It is a protected area located in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta in Kerala, India.
The park is located high in the Cardamom Hills and Pandalam Hills of the south Western Ghats along the border with Tamil Nadu.
It forms the major watershed of two important rivers of Kerala: The Periyar and the Pamba. (Pamba River is the third longest river in the Kerala after Periyar and Bharathappuzha).
One of the main attractions is the Periyar Lake, which was formed by the Mullaperiyar Dam across the Periyar River.
It is notable as an elephant reserve and a tiger reserve.
Fauna: It is valuable for Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, and a few white tigers. Other mammals include the gaur, sambar, wild pig, Indian giant squirrel, Travancore flying squirrel, jungle cat, Dhole, sloth bear, Nilgiri tahr and Nilgiri marten.
Flora: The vegetal cover is tropical evergreen and deciduous, with patches of dense forest including jackfruit, teak, and kokam (tropical evergreen [Garcinia indica]) trees that produce a dark purple, plumlike fruit). Most of the grassland is now planted with eucalyptus.

About Periyar River

Periyar is the longest river and the river with the largest discharge potential in the Indian state of Kerala.
It originates from Sivagiri hills of Western Ghats and flows through the Periyar National Park.
It flows into Vembanad Lake and finally into Arabian Sea.
The main tributaries of Periyar are Muthirapuzha, Mullayar, Cheruthoni, Perinjankutti.

Read: Tiger reserve in India

SC ruling on Agnipath scheme: What does promissory estoppel under contract law mean?

Context: Advocate Prashant Bhushan argued that instead of implementing the new recruitment scheme, the government should complete the old process and cited the doctrine of promissory estoppel.

What was the case?

Advocate Prashant Bhushan who appeared for some of these candidates told the apex court that their names appeared in a provisional list for recruitment to Air Force but the recruitment process was cancelled when the Agnipath scheme was notified.
He argued that the government must be directed to complete the old process citing the doctrine of promissory estoppel.
Bhushan argued that there was a written exam, physical test, and medical exam conducted under the old recruitment process after which a provisional selection list was published with the ranks.
Thereafter for more than one year, every three months they kept saying that appointment letters were going to be issued, however, they were postponed due to Covid-19, etc.
In the meantime, they did recruitment rallies for the same posts claiming it was for fast-track recruitments to address the demographic imbalance to recruit tribal people, etc.
He added that these candidates had got jobs in BSF and other paramilitary organisations, but had refused as they were told that Air Force recruitment letters will be issued.

What is the doctrine of promissory estoppel?

Promissory estoppel is a concept developed in contractual laws.
A valid contract under law requires an agreement to be made with sufficient consideration.
A claim of the doctrine of promissory estoppel essentially prevents a “promisor” from backing out of an agreement because there is no “consideration.”
The doctrine is invoked in court by a plaintiff (the party moving court in a civil action) against the defendant to ensure the execution of a contract or seek compensation for failure to perform the contract.
In a 1981 decision in Chhaganlal Keshavalal Mehta v. Patel Narandas Haribhai, the SC lists out a checklist for when the doctrine can be applied.
First, there must be an unambiguous promise.
Second, the plaintiff must have acted relying reasonably on that promise.
Third, the plaintiff must have suffered a loss.

How does it relate to the Agnipath case?

Bhushan’s argument invoking the doctrine essentially means that the government’s actions of putting up a shortlist etc would be a “promise” made by it.
The other party here — the candidates acted based on that promise — they refused other jobs in CRPF, BSF etc and now must be compensated for their loss.
However, the judges quickly refused this argument. CJI DY Chandrachud pointed out that “promissory estoppel is always subject to the overarching public interest”.
Justice PS Narasimha added that “this is not a contract matter where promissory estoppel in public law was applied, it is a public employment” and that “the question of applying this principle will not arise in this case”.

U.S. aviation watchdog retains India’s safety category after review

Context: Recently the aviation safety regulator of the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has retained the “Category 1” status for India’s aviation safety oversight following a review, the agency informed the country’s watchdog on Wednesday.

About FAA

The International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme of the FAA determines whether a country’s oversight of its airlines that operate or wish to operate to the U.S. or enter into codeshare partnerships with U.S. carriers comply with safety standards established by the UN aviation watchdog, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The IASA programme focuses on three broad areas, which include
Personnel licensing, operation of aircraft and
Airworthiness of aircraft.

The FAA conducted the programme over a one-year period which included physical audits and a review.

Performance of India

In the recent ICAO audit in November last year, India scored an Effective Implementation (EI) of 85.65% from the previous EI of 69.95%.

About ICAO

It is UN specialised body for the global aviation sector
ICAO is funded and directed by 193 national governments to support their diplomacy and cooperation in air transport as signatory states to the Chicago Convention (1944).
Industry and civil society groups, and other concerned regional and international organizations, also participate in the exploration and development of new standards at ICAO in their capacity as ‘Invited Organizations’.
The ICAO secretariat convenes panels, task forces, conferences and seminars to explore their technical, political, socio-economic and other aspects.
ICAO also serves as a critical coordination platform in civil aviation through its seven Regional Offices.
It also conducts educational outreach, develops coalitions, and conducts auditing, training, and capacity-building activities worldwide per the needs and priorities governments identify and formalize.
Note- ICAO is not an international aviation regulator, just as INTERPOL is not an international police force

Its core function is

to maintain an administrative and expert bureaucracy
to research new air transport policy
to standardize innovations

Programming language Rust

About Rust:

Rust is a modern computer programming language developed by Mozilla in 2010. It was initially developed to build high-programming applications without the issue of invalid memory access that developers were facing while using C and C++.
The main purpose of using Rust is enhanced speed, improved memory safety, and concurrency, or the ability to run multiple computations parallelly.

Applications: Used to develop gaming engines, operating systems, and browsers that demand scalability.

Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Mission (JUICE)

Context: The JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission is scheduled to lift off on Europe's most powerful rocket - the Ariane-5.

Juice Mission:

Juice is on an eight-year-long voyage to make detailed observations on Jupiter and three of its ocean-bearing moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
The objective is to explore the moons in search of signs of life and to explore if it is possible to live around giants or for habitability.
During its voyage, the spacecraft will complete fly-bys of Venus, Earth, and the Earth-Moon system to arrive at its destination in 2031.
The mission has instruments including a remote sensing package with spectral imaging capabilities, a laser altimeter (GALA), a radar sounder (RIME) for exploring the moon’s surface and subsurface, instruments to study the particle environment (PEP), a magnetometer (J-MAG), and a radio and plasma wave instrument (RPWI).
JUICE Mission will orbit Ganymede and end its life there.
Operations of JUICE Mission will overlap with NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission.

About Jupiter:

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.
It is a gas giant primarily composed of hydrogen, followed by helium.
It is the third brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky after the Moon and Venus.
Jupiter is surrounded by a faint planetary ring system and has a powerful magnetosphere. The Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm (anticyclone) that is about twice as wide as Earth, circling the planet in its southern hemisphere.
Jupiter has the highest number of moons in our Solar System (95 known moons till date) including Ganymede which is the largest (larger than the planet Mercury).

About Ganymede

Largest moon in our solar system. It is even bigger than planet Mercury.
There is strong evidence that Ganymede has underground saltwater ocean that may hold more water than all the water on Earth’s surface.
It is the only moon known have its own magnetic field – typically only found on planets like Earth.
Ganymede has a faint oxygen atmosphere; however, it is far too thin to breathe.

About Callisto

Jupiter’s second largest moon and third largest moon in our solar system.
Surface of Callisto is heavily cratered created of ice and rock.
Scientists believe that Callisto may have an underground salty ocean making it a potential habitat for life.

About Europa

Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and barely one-quarter the diameter of Earth itself.
Surface of Europa is composed of solid water ice and it has extremely thin oxygen atmosphere.
Europa is believed to be most promising place in our solar system to have environment suitable for life.
Beneath the icy surface of Europa is a salty-water ocean thought to contain twice as much water as Earth’s oceans combined.

Centre Tightens Fund Flow Rulebook For CSS Schemes; Brings Penal Interest Clause

Context: The Centre has tightened the fund flow rulebook on Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) even further and for the first time has also brought in a ‘penal interest’ clause for delays in fund transfers by states.

New rules

States have been asked to ensure that their share of funds are transferred to the Single Nodal Agency (SNA) for CSS scheme within 30 days of receiving central funding instead of 40 days, as allowed earlier.
Any delay beyond 30 days would attract a ‘penal interest’ of 7% per annum. This ‘penal interest’ by a state that delays prescribed fund flow will be transferred to the Consolidated Fund of India.

Centrally sponsored scheme

The Union government supports several developmental initiatives at the state level. The category of centrally sponsored schemes comprises programmes that have a national character or a regional character. Earlier, there were nearly 67 centrally sponsored schemes, but many of them were phased out after the suggestions of the 14th Finance Commission were implemented.

Centrally Sponsored Scheme Vs Central Sector Scheme

The central welfare schemes at the state level fall into two broad categories.

The first category is centrally sponsored schemes, and the second is the central sector schemes.
While the Union government fully funds the central sector schemes, centrally sponsored schemes are jointly funded by the Centre and states.
While centrally sponsored scheme are implemented by states, central sector schemes are implemented by centre directly.
The Centre Sector Schemes are mainly formulated to cover subjects which are under the Union List or the Concurrent List whereas centrally sponsored schemes covers items that are listed in state list.

Funding pattern of Centrally Sponsored Scheme

There are several models of funding of centrally sponsored schemes, but a large part of the funding comes from the Centre.
In most of the cases, the Union government and the states fund these schemes at a 60:40 ratio.
Ratio of funding could vary , the funding ratio could be 50:50, 60:40, 70:30 or 75:25. In the case of north-eastern states, 90 per cent of the funds come from the central government.
Union government spends nearly 12% of its annual budget on centrally sponsored schemes.

Categorisation of Centrally Sponsored Scheme

i) Core of the Core Schemes: Those schemes which are for social protection and social inclusion should form the core of core and be the first charge on available funds for the National Development Agenda.

The six core of the core schemes are:

MGNREGA or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Umbrella Scheme for Development of Scheduled Castes
Umbrella Programme for Development of Scheduled Tribes
Umbrella Scheme for Development of Minorities
Umbrella Scheme for Development of Other Vulnerable Groups

ii) Core schemes: Focus of CSSs should be on schemes that comprise the National Development Agenda where the Centre and States will work together in the spirit of Team India.

iii) Optional Schemes: The Schemes where States would be free to choose the ones they wish to implement. Funds for these schemes would be allocated to States by the Ministry of Finance as a lump sum.

The two optional schemes are:

Border Area Development Programme
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission

What is a normal Monsoon and what factors lead to the weakening of the Monsoon?

Context: According to the private weather forecasting agency Skymet, India is likely to get "below normal" monsoon rains in 2023 with an increased likelihood of El Nino, which typically brings dry weather to Asia.

About Normal Monsoon

The IMD predicts a “normal”, “below normal”, or “above normal” monsoon in relation to a benchmark “long period average” (LPA).
According to the IMD, the “LPA of rainfall is the rainfall recorded over a particular region for a given interval (like month or season) average over a long period like 30 years, 50 years, etc”.
The IMD’s prediction of a normal monsoon was based on the LPA of the 1971-2020 period, during which India received 87 cm of rain for the entire country on average.
The IMD maintains five rainfall distribution categories on an all-India scale. These are:
- * Normal or near normal, when the percentage departure of actual rainfall is +/-10% of LPA, that is, between 96-104% of LPA;
- * Below normal, when departure of actual rainfall is less than 10% of LPA, that is 90-96% of LPA;
- * Above normal, when actual rainfall is 104-110% of LPA;
- * Deficient, when departure of actual rainfall is less than 90% of LPA; and
- * Excess, when the departure of actual rainfall is more than 110% of LPA.

Factors which affect the Monsoon

El Niño

The warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean because of El Niño weakens the southeast trade winds flowing to the intertropical convergence zone over India.
Since these winds are the main driving force of the Indian summer monsoon, El Niño events are associated with weak monsoons and lower than average rainfall.
The location of the El Niño event also influences its effects on the Indian monsoon – warming in the central Pacific Ocean affects the Indian monsoon more than if the warming is in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

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La Niña

The La Niña has the opposite effect to the El Niño and is responsible for stronger monsoons and above-average rainfall.

Equatorial Indian Ocean Oscillation (EQUINOO):
It is thought to arise as an effect of the Indian Ocean Dipole(IOD) and refers to increased and decreased cloud formation between the western and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean.

Although the IOD was discovered only in 1999, and the EQUINOO in 2002, both have been recognised as important modulators of the Indian summer monsoon. Positive Indian Ocean Dipole(IOD) and EQUINOO events are associated with more rainfall as these events increase moisture transport from the southeastern parts of the Indian Ocean.

Indian Ocean Dipole(IOD):

IOD measures differences in sea surface temperatures between the western and eastern parts of the Indian Ocean.
Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is basically similar to the El Nino weather system that develops in the Pacific Ocean. It is characterized by an irregular oscillation of sea-surface temperatures in the eastern and western Indian Ocean

Atlantic sea surface temperature(SST) variability

The Atlantic SST variability affects the Indian summer monsoon in the same way that the ENSO does.
A warming of the surface of the Atlantic Ocean weakens the monsoon, just as cooling of the ocean’s surface has the opposite effect.
The effects of this phenomenon, also known as the Atlantic Niño on the Indian summer monsoon is thought to be mediated through perturbations in the jet streams above India.

Mascarene High

The Mascarene High is a semi-permanent high-pressure zone in the south Indian Ocean, about 4,000 km from India, near the Mascarene Islands.
The Mascarene High begins developing in mid-April and is a major factor in driving the circulation between the northern and southern hemispheres that powers the summer monsoon winds towards the Indian subcontinent from the Indian Ocean.

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Irrigation

One of the rather surprising local factors that affects the Indian monsoon, is irrigation.
According to a 2019 study in the journal Climate Dynamics, the trend of decreasing rainfall over the Indo-Gangetic plains could be due to the extensive irrigation in this area.
This is likely because irrigation affects soil moisture levels and temperature simultaneously, which affects atmospheric stability. Since the irrigation is over vast tracts of land, these changes shift the moisture convergence zone to the south, during the active phase of the monsoon.
The study finds that winter irrigation (November-March) actually strengthens the monsoon rains over the region for the following year and also reduces intra-seasonal variations in rainfall.
However, with year-round irrigation, there is a noticeable decrease in the summer monsoon rainfall (June-September).

Aerosols and dust

Aerosols and dust are other local factors that have been shown to affect the monsoon rainfall in India.
In a recent study in 2022, researchers at IIT Bhubaneswar have shown that dust transported to the Arabian sea from the Middle-Eastern deserts (the Sahara and the Sinai) could increase rainfall in India and south Asia over short time scales of one or two weeks.
In a similar study in 2014, scientists showed that dust aerosols likely heat up the atmosphere over north Africa and west Asia, which increases the flow of moisture over India. This results in rainfall, usually within a week of the event, over central India.

Monsoon Impact

The monsoon is critical for a healthy rural economy as 51% of the country’s farmed area, accounting for 40% of production, is rain-fed, according to the agriculture ministry.
As much as 47% of the country’s population is dependent on agriculture, one of the mainstays of India’s economy, for livelihood, according to Economic Survey 2022-23.
It spurs farm produce and improves rural spending besides impacting inflation, jobs, and industrial demand, for ex. Good farm output keeps food inflation under check and ample harvests raise rural incomes and help inject demand into the economy.