Content

1. The Importance of Pax Silica for India
2. Pax Silica and the Global Tech Economy: Continuities, Shifts, and India’s Choices
3. Reusable Rockets and the Commercial Space Revolution
4. Hate Speech as a Constitutional Tort: Constitutional Accountability and Democratic Integrity
5. Chagos Islands Dispute: Sovereignty, Security, and the Changing Global Order
6. Darwin’s Bark Spiders: Why Only Females Weave the Toughest Webs
7. Faster Warming, Faster Breeding: Climate Change and Antarctic Penguins

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The importance of Pax Silica for India

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Global Economic Context: Continuity and Change

Enduring Structural Continuities

• The North–South divide in per capita income, technological capability, and resource consumption continues to define the global economy despite decades of globalisation.
• Advanced economies still dominate high-value manufacturing, frontier technologies, and intellectual property, while developing countries remain resource suppliers or low-end manufacturers.

Structural Shifts in Growth Drivers

• Semiconductors and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have emerged as core drivers of economic power, productivity, and national security in the 21st century.
• Control over critical minerals, especially Rare Earth Elements (REEs), has become central to technological competitiveness and geopolitical influence.

Relevance

• GS 2: India’s foreign policy, minilateral groupings, strategic partnerships, and technology diplomacy.
• GS 3: Critical minerals, semiconductors, AI, supply-chain resilience, industrial policy, and economic security.

Pax Silica Summit 2025: Origins and Objectives

Background and Timing

• On 12 December 2025, the United States convened the inaugural Pax Silica Summit to secure supply chains for semiconductors, AI, and critical minerals.
• The term ‘Pax Silica’ symbolically links peace with silicon-based technologies, signalling that trusted technology supply chains are now integral to global stability.

Declared Objectives

• According to the Pax Silica Declaration, the initiative aims to:
  • Reduce coercive dependencies
  • Secure global semiconductor and AI supply chains
  • Build trusted digital and manufacturing infrastructure

Membership Composition: Strategic Logic

Core Members and Their Comparative Advantages

• United States & Japan: Global leaders in advanced technology, research, and semiconductor design ecosystems.
• Australia: Leading exporter of lithium and holder of significant REE reserves, critical for batteries and electronics.
• Netherlands: Home to ASML, the world’s sole supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines.
• South Korea: Global manufacturing leader in memory chips (DRAM, NAND).
• Singapore: Long-standing semiconductor manufacturing hub integrated with U.S. firms.
• Israel: Strength in AI software, defence technologies, and cybersecurity.
• United Kingdom: Hosts the third-largest AI market with a strong research and start-up ecosystem.
• Qatar and UAE: Possess large sovereign wealth funds and are investing heavily in AI and advanced technology ecosystems.

Observers and Potential Expansion

• Canada, EU, OECD, and Taiwan participated as observers, indicating scope for future expansion and institutionalisation.

Countering China: Strategic Rationale

China’s Dominance in REEs

• China controls a dominant share of global REE processing, giving it leverage over high-tech supply chains.
• In response to U.S. tariff measures, China suspended REE exports to the U.S. and others, weaponising resource dominance.

Impact on India

• India faced disruptions in rare-earth magnet imports, affecting automobile and electronics manufacturing.
• Supplies resumed only after Indian firms complied with stringent Chinese licensing conditions, including assurances against defence or dual-use applications.

Lessons from the Pandemic

• COVID-19 exposed vulnerabilities of single-country-dependent supply chains, accelerating diversification and “friend-shoring” strategies.

India and Supply Chain Resilience Efforts

Existing Initiatives

• Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) launched in 2021 with Japan and Australia.
• Quad Critical Minerals Initiative launched in 2025 to strengthen supply chains for emerging and critical technologies.

India’s Exclusion and Prospective Entry

• Despite participation in similar initiatives, India was not invited to the inaugural Pax Silica Summit.
• On 12 January 2026, the new U.S. Ambassador to India indicated that India will soon be invited to join Pax Silica.

What India Brings to Pax Silica ?

Strengths

• Strong digital public infrastructure and rapidly expanding AI adoption across enterprises.
• Launch of IndiaAI Mission and Semiconductor Mission with substantial public funding.
• Growing investments by Indian firms (e.g., Tata Group) and foreign players like Micron in semiconductor manufacturing.
• Expanding pipeline of AI start-ups and a large pool of Indian students trained in advanced STEM fields abroad.

Human Capital Advantage

• Large number of Indian graduates and PhDs in computer science and engineering trained in the U.S.
• Restrictive U.S. visa policies may trigger reverse brain gain, strengthening India’s domestic AI and semiconductor ecosystems.

Strategic Opportunities for India

Technology Ecosystem Scaling

• Participation in Pax Silica could help India scale collaborations with Japan, Singapore, Israel, and the U.S.
• Opportunity to integrate into trusted semiconductor and AI value chains beyond low-end manufacturing.

Long-Term Strategic Alignment

• Given historical India–West collaboration in IT services, India may naturally gravitate towards Pax Silica’s supply chain framework.

Challenges and Risks for India

Developmental and Strategic Asymmetry

• Pax Silica members are largely high-income U.S. allies, while India would be the first developing country and non-ally entrant.
• This may create an expectation gap on security alignment and policy convergence.

Strategic Autonomy Concerns

• India’s foreign policy responses may differ in nuance from U.S. allies, requiring careful balancing to avoid dilution of strategic autonomy.

Industrial Policy Tensions

• India will seek to protect its nascent ecosystems through subsidies, government procurement preferences, and calibrated import controls.
• Such policies may conflict with prevailing preferences in Washington and some Pax Silica economies.

The Road Ahead: Competing Supply Chain Blocs

Dual Supply Chain World

• China is likely to maintain and strengthen its REE export control regime to preserve dominance.
• Pax Silica may develop a parallel export regulation and supply chain framework.
• Over time, two major REE and tech supply chains—China-led and Pax Silica-led—may dominate the global economy.

India’s Strategic Choice

• Given strained India–China economic ties and longstanding collaboration with Western firms, India may tilt towards Pax Silica, while seeking policy space.
• India will need sustained dialogue to shape Pax Silica’s evolution in ways compatible with its developmental needs and strategic autonomy.

Strategic Assessment

• Pax Silica reflects the geopoliticisation of technology and supply chains, where economic efficiency is subordinated to security and trust.
• For India, participation offers technology access and resilience, but requires careful negotiation to avoid strategic and industrial policy constraints.

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Reusable Rockets and the Commercial Space Revolution

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Global Space Economy: Structural Shift

From State-led to Commercial-led Space

• After four decades of government-dominated space exploration, the 21st century marks a transition to private-sector-led space innovation and financing.
• The global space economy is projected to exceed USD 1 trillion by 2030, driven by satellite services, launch systems, human spaceflight, and deep-space missions.

Cost and Cadence Transformation

• Partial reusability of rockets has reduced cost per kg to orbit by 5–20 times compared to expendable launch vehicles.
• Reusability has significantly increased launch cadence, shifting spaceflight from episodic missions to routine operations.

Relevance

• GS 3: Science and technology, space technology, innovation ecosystem, private sector role, and strategic industries.

Economics of Space Missions

Human vs Satellite Missions

• Human space missions cost 3–5 times more than satellite launches due to life-support systems, safety redundancies, abort mechanisms, and stringent reliability requirements.
• Satellite missions are typically one-way, using simpler hardware and software architectures with lower safety margins.

Payload Efficiency Constraints

• Rockets face gravity losses and aerodynamic drag during ascent, requiring enormous energy to reach orbital velocity.
• The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation highlights a structural limitation: fuel mass increases exponentially with velocity requirements.
• Over 90% of a rocket’s launch mass consists of propellant and tankage, leaving less than 4% for payload.

Why Rockets Use Multiple Stages ?

Staging as an Engineering Solution

• Staging divides a rocket into sequential propulsion units that are discarded mid-flight to shed dead weight.
• This improves the propellant-to-mass ratio of the remaining vehicle, partially overcoming the Tsiolkovsky mass penalty.

Traditional Expendable Architecture

• Conventional rockets such as PSLV and LVM-3 use expendable stages that are discarded, usually falling into the ocean after use.
• While reliable, expendable systems incur high per-launch costs and low launch frequency.

Reusability: The Game-Changer

SpaceX’s Technological Breakthrough

• SpaceX introduced disruptive innovations such as vertical integration, modular design, 3D-printed components, and stage reusability.
• The Falcon 9 first stage returns to Earth using retro-propulsion and aerodynamic drag, dissipating kinetic energy during descent.

Demonstrated Success

• SpaceX has successfully recovered Falcon 9 first stages over 520 times, establishing operational reliability.
• Individual Falcon 9 boosters have been reused more than 30 times, demonstrating economic viability of reuse.

Towards Full Reusability

Next-generation Systems

• SpaceX is developing Starship, a fully reusable heavy-lift rocket capable of carrying crew and cargo to Earth orbit, Moon, and Mars.
• Fully reusable architecture aims to reduce launch costs to levels comparable with terrestrial transportation systems.

Global Developments

• Blue Origin (USA) has demonstrated vertical landing recovery for its New Glenn booster.
• China’s commercial space firms, such as LandSpace, are advancing reusable launch vehicles like Zhuque-3.
• More than a dozen private companies globally are working on reusable rockets, with at least three pursuing full reusability.

Limits to Reusability

Engineering Constraints

• Reusability is limited by material fatigue in engines and fuel tanks caused by thermal cycling, pressure loads, and g-forces.
• Cryogenic propellants and combustion heat create microfractures, increasing inspection complexity over time.

Economic Trade-offs

• Beyond a point, refurbishment costs and downtime outweigh savings from reuse.
• Practical reuse limits are determined by acceptable risk, inspection time, and cost-benefit balance, not engineering feasibility alone.

India’s Position in the Reusable Launch Ecosystem

 ISRO’s Ongoing Efforts

• ISRO is developing a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) programme featuring a winged spacecraft capable of runway landing.
• Another approach involves first-stage recovery using aerodynamic drag and retro-propulsion to land on barges or land.
• Technology demonstrations in these domains are currently underway.

Competitive Imperative

• In a market where reusability is becoming standard, cost reduction is essential for competitiveness in global launch services.
• Future Indian launch vehicles must treat stage recovery and reuse as non-negotiable design drivers.

Design Principles for Future Launch Vehicles

Fewer Stages, Higher Efficiency

• Advances in engine efficiency and propellant density allow two-stage systems to perform missions that earlier required three stages.
• Optimising energy distribution across stages is crucial for cost-effective design.

Integrated Design Approach

• Key considerations include:
  • High-performance, compact engines
  • Partial or full stage recovery
  • Rapid refurbishment cycles
  • Increased launch cadence
• These factors collectively determine economic sustainability of future launch systems.

Strategic Assessment

• Reusability has transformed spaceflight from a disposable launch model to a transportation paradigm.
• Countries failing to adopt reusable architectures risk technological obsolescence and loss of market share.
• For India, timely induction of disruptive launch technologies is essential to remain competitive in the trillion-dollar space economy.

Conclusion

• Reusable rockets are redefining access to space, and India’s competitiveness will depend on how decisively it integrates reusability into future launch vehicle design.

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Hate Speech as a Constitutional Tort: Constitutional Accountability and Democratic Integrity

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Context of the Case

• In January 2026, prominent activists, journalists, and religious leaders urged the Supreme Court of India to recognise hate speech as a “constitutional tort”, not merely a law-and-order issue.
• Petitioners highlighted the rise in hate speech incidents, particularly at religious congregations, and sought regulatory and accountability mechanisms.

Relevance

• GS 1: Social harmony, communal relations, and challenges to fraternity in a diverse society.
• GS 2: Fundamental Rights, Supreme Court jurisprudence, constitutional torts, governance and rule of law.
• GS 3: Internal security implications of hate speech and its linkage with communal violence.

What is a Constitutional Tort?

Conceptual Meaning

• A constitutional tort is a judicially evolved remedy where the State is held vicariously liable for actions or omissions of its agents that violate fundamental rights.
• It moves beyond criminal prosecution to public law compensation and accountability, rooted in Articles 14, 19, and 21.

Judicial Evolution in India

• Recognised through landmark cases such as:
  • Rudul Sah v. State of Bihar (1983)
  • Nilabati Behera v. State of Odisha (1993)
  • D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal (1997)
• Courts held that monetary compensation can be awarded for State failure to protect constitutional rights.

Why Hate Speech is Argued as a Constitutional Tort ?

 Discriminatory Character of Hate Speech

• Petitioners argued that hate speech is inherently discriminatory, targeting individuals or groups based on religion, caste, ethnicity, or identity.
• Such speech violates:
  • Article 14 (Equality before law)
  • Article 15 (Non-discrimination)
  • Article 21 (Dignity and life)

Beyond Law and Order Paradigm

• Treating hate speech as a routine policing issue reduces it to crowd control or preventive detention, ignoring its systemic and structural harm.
• Petitioners stressed that hate speech erodes constitutional morality, not just public order.

Failure of Existing Legal and Administrative Framework

Supreme Court’s 2022 Directions

• In October 21, 2022, the Supreme Court directed States to:
  • Register suo motu FIRs against hate speech that incites communal violence
  • Act irrespective of religion or political affiliation of offenders

Ground-Level Non-Compliance

• Petitioners cited persistent inaction by police despite prior knowledge of habitual offenders and recurring hate-speech events.
• Common administrative failures include:
  • Refusal to register FIRs
  • Invocation of weaker penal provisions
  • Delayed investigations

Hate Speech and Hate Crimes: Empirical Link

Causal Relationship

• Petitioners argued a direct correlation between hate speech and hate crimes, where incendiary public speeches often precede:
  • Mob violence
  • Communal riots
  • Targeted attacks 

Constitutional Implications

• Failure to prevent hate speech despite foreseeability constitutes State negligence, engaging vicarious liability under constitutional tort doctrine.

Governance and Federal Accountability Issues

Police as a State Subject

• Public order and police fall under the State List, but constitutional rights impose non-negotiable obligations on States.
• Repeated inaction suggests institutional complicity or abdication of constitutional duty.

Need for Judicial Oversight

• Petitioners urged continued Supreme Court monitoring, arguing that mere advisory directions lack enforceability.

Ethical and Democratic Dimensions

Impact on Constitutional Morality

• Hate speech undermines the values of fraternity, secularism, and dignity, enshrined in the Preamble.
• Normalisation of hate corrodes democratic discourse and legitimises exclusion.

Free Speech vs Harm Principle

• While Article 19(1)(a) protects free speech, Article 19(2) permits reasonable restrictions to prevent:
  • Public disorder
  • Incitement to violence
  • Harm to social harmony
• Hate speech falls squarely within constitutionally permissible restrictions.

Arguments Against Overreach (Counterview)

• Expanding constitutional tort doctrine may:
  • Increase judicial overreach into executive functions
  • Create chilling effects on legitimate speech
  • Raise concerns of subjective interpretation
• Hence, safeguards and clear doctrinal thresholds would be necessary.

Way Forward

Legal and Institutional Measures

• Develop clear judicial standards to identify hate speech triggering constitutional tort liability.
• Fix personal accountability of supervisory police officers for non-compliance with court directions.

Preventive and Structural Reforms

• Mandatory videography and prior permission for large religious congregations with history of hate speech.
• Independent monitoring mechanisms under State Human Rights Commissions.

Strengthening Constitutional Culture

• Training law enforcement in constitutional values and hate-crime sensitivity.
• Reaffirmation of fraternity and dignity as enforceable constitutional norms.

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Chagos Islands Dispute

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Context and Recent Trigger

• U.S. President Donald Trump criticised the UK’s decision to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, citing strategic and security concerns.
• The UK government has defended the move, stating that a deal is being finalised to transfer sovereignty to Mauritius by May 2026, while retaining the Diego Garcia military base on lease for at least 99 years.

Chagos Islands: Strategic and Historical Background

Geographic and Strategic Significance

• The Chagos Archipelago is located in the central Indian Ocean, astride major sea lanes connecting Africa, West Asia, and the Indo-Pacific.
• Diego Garcia, the largest island, hosts a U.S.–UK military base, critical for operations in the Middle East, Indo-Pacific, and Africa.

Colonial Legacy

• The UK separated Chagos from Mauritius in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence in 1968, creating the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).
• Between 1967–1973, over 1,500–2,000 Chagossians were forcibly evicted to enable the U.S. military base—raising serious human rights concerns.

Relevance

• GS 2: International law, ICJ opinions, UN system, sovereignty disputes, and India’s foreign policy principles.

Legal and Diplomatic Developments

International Court of Justice (ICJ) Opinion, 2019

• The ICJ (2019) held that:
  • The decolonisation of Mauritius was not lawfully completed.
  • The UK is under an obligation to end its administration of Chagos as rapidly as possible.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution

• Following the ICJ opinion, the UNGA voted overwhelmingly demanding that the UK withdraw from Chagos within six months.
• Though advisory, the opinion strengthened Mauritius’ diplomatic and legal position.

The UK–Mauritius Deal (Proposed)

Key Features

• Sovereignty over Chagos to be transferred to Mauritius.
• Diego Garcia base to remain under UK–US control via a long-term lease (≈99 years).
• Guarantees for continued military access for the U.S. and UK.

UK’s Rationale

• Aims to:
  • Comply with international legal obligations.
  • Reduce diplomatic isolation in the UN.
  • Secure long-term legitimacy of the Diego Garcia base.

Implications for India and the Indian Ocean Region

Decolonisation and Global South Solidarity

• The issue resonates with India’s long-standing support for decolonisation and territorial integrity, consistent with its stance at the UN.
• Strengthens Global South demands for post-colonial justice.

Indian Ocean Security Architecture

• Diego Garcia remains central to:
  • Indo-Pacific security.
  • Freedom of navigation.
  • Counter-terror and logistics operations.
• Stability in Chagos supports India’s interest in a stable, rules-based Indian Ocean Region.

Broader Global Order Implications

Rules vs Power

• The Chagos case illustrates tension between:
  • International law and decolonisation norms, and
  • Great-power security imperatives.

Precedent Setting

• Compliance with ICJ opinions reinforces international legal institutions.
• Defiance risks accelerating erosion of the rules-based order.

Way Forward

Balanced Resolution

• Sovereignty transfer with binding security guarantees offers a middle path reconciling law and strategy.

Human-Centric Approach

• Address Chagossian resettlement, compensation, and dignity as integral to any final settlement.

Multilateral Transparency

• Greater engagement with UN mechanisms and regional stakeholders to ensure long-term legitimacy.

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Darwin’s Bark Spiders (Caerostris darwini)

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Relevance

• GS 3: Biodiversity and adaptation in unique ecosystems.
• GS 3: Science and technology, evolutionary biology, biomaterials, and bio-inspired innovation.

• Species & Habitat: Darwin’s bark spider is endemic to Madagascar and is known for building the largest orb webs recorded, often spanning up to 25 metres across rivers and lakes.
• Record-breaking Silk: Its dragline silk has a tensile strength of ~1.6 GPa, making it the toughest biological material ever tested, around three times stronger than iron and tougher than steel.
• Key Scientific Finding: Only large adult females produce this ultra-tough silk; silk from males and juveniles is significantly weaker and mechanically indistinguishable across sexes and ages.
• Reason for Female-only Tough Silk:
  • Adult females are 3–5 times larger than males, facing stronger evolutionary pressure to support massive webs.
  • Tough silk evolved primarily to structurally support huge webs, not to catch specific prey.
• Energy–Efficiency Trade-off:
  • Producing high-performance silk is metabolically expensive, requiring costly proteins like proline.
  • Females therefore produce less silk overall, rebuild webs more slowly, and invest in quality over quantity.
• Web Architecture Strategy:
  • Female webs are sparser, with wider gaps and fewer threads, but each thread absorbs very high mechanical strain.
  • Males and juveniles spin denser webs using cheaper, weaker silk.
• Genetic vs Adaptive Traits:
  • Elasticity of silk is genetically conserved across all individuals.
  • Extreme toughness is selectively “switched on” in large females based on body size and ecological demand.
• Evolutionary Significance:
  • Demonstrates sex-specific adaptive evolution, where costly biological materials are produced only when they provide clear survival advantages.

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Faster Warming, Faster Breeding: Climate Change and Antarctic Penguins

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Context and Key Finding

• A recent study reports that three Antarctic penguin species are breeding about two weeks earlier compared to a decade ago.
• This phenological shift coincides with a ~3°C rise in Antarctic temperatures between 2012 and 2022, highlighting rapid climate impacts in polar ecosystems.
• The findings are based on remote-controlled photographic monitoring of penguin colonies from 2010–2021.

Relevance

• GS 1: Climate change impacts on polar regions and global environmental systems.
• GS 3: Climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem disruption, and environmental conservation.

Penguin Species Affected

Species Showing Early Breeding

• Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae)
• Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua)
• Chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus)
• These species showed a ~14-day advancement in breeding timing, one of the fastest documented shifts among vertebrates.

Why Timing Matters in Penguin Life Cycles ?

Dependence on Environmental Synchrony

• Penguins rely on precise alignment between:
  • Breeding timing
  • Food availability (krill, plankton, fish)
  • Ice conditions and sea productivity
• Breeding too early or too late can reduce chick survival, as food availability peaks are narrow and climate-sensitive.

 Comparison with Other Vertebrates

• Most vertebrates show similar phenological shifts over ~75 years, whereas Antarctic penguins have exhibited this shift in just 10 years.

Role of Antarctic Warming

Temperature Trends

• The Antarctic Peninsula is among the fastest-warming regions on Earth, with warming rates exceeding the global average.
• Western Antarctica has warmed significantly, altering:
  • Sea-ice duration
  • Snow melt timing
  • Marine productivity cycles

Differential Species Response

• Gentoo penguins are more adaptable and benefit from reduced ice and diversified diets.
• Adélie and Chinstrap penguins are more ice-dependent and specialised, making them more vulnerable to ecosystem shifts.

Food Web Changes and Competition

Krill and Plankton Dynamics

• Warming waters and changing ice conditions affect krill abundance, the primary food source for many penguin species.
• Climate-driven plankton changes have:
  • Increased food for some species (e.g., Gentoo)
  • Reduced predictability for specialist feeders (Adélie, Chinstrap)

Interspecies Competition

• Gentoo penguins have expanded southward and now:
  • Breed earlier
  • Compete aggressively for nesting sites
  • Displace Adélie penguins from traditional habitats

Observed Ecological Consequences

Population Trends

• Chinstrap penguin populations are declining globally, linked to food stress and habitat change.
• Adélie penguins show mixed trends—some colonies declining, others adapting locally.
• Gentoo penguins are increasing in number and range, benefiting from warmer conditions.

Chick Survival Risks

• Earlier breeding does not automatically imply higher success.
• If food availability shifts faster than breeding adaptation, phenological mismatch may reduce chick growth and survival.

Broader Climate Change Signals

Indicator Species

• Penguins act as sentinel species, reflecting broader changes in Antarctic marine ecosystems.
• Rapid breeding shifts indicate ecosystem-level stress, not isolated behavioural change.

Future Projections

• Climate models suggest continued acceleration of Antarctic warming, increasing risks of:
  • Further phenological disruption
  • Loss of ice-dependent species
  • Ecosystem restructuring

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