THE HEALTH ISSUES

1. EBOLA REARS HEAD AGAIN IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

THE CONTEXT: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported a fresh outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD).

THE EXPLANATION:

The Ministry of Health of the DRC declared an outbreak of EVD on April 22, 2022, after a casualty was confirmed in the country, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

• The WHO warned of the virus spreading within healthcare workers since the IPC measures were not good enough. “The exposure of the first case remains unknown and therefore, it is difficult to assess the extent of the outbreak at this stage,” the global body noted.
• “Some of the improvements achieved by establishing capacities such as IPC measures in health facilities during previous outbreaks have not been maintained over time to tackle the current outbreak.
• “There is a need to support the province’s health professionals to conduct an effective response. In addition, logistical support is needed to reactivate the health infrastructure that was put in place during previous epidemics,” it added.
• EVD is endemic in the country so these cases are not a surprise. Nevertheless, the WHO has assessed the risk to be moderate at the regional level and low at the global level.

VALUE ADDITION:

What is Ebola Virus Disease?

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a deadly disease with occasional outbreaks that occur mostly on the African continent. EVD most commonly affects people and nonhuman primates (such as monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees). It is caused by an infection with a group of viruses within the genus Ebolavirus:

• Ebola virus (species Zaire ebolavirus)
• Sudan virus (species Sudan ebolavirus)
• Taï Forest virus (species Taï Forest ebolavirus, formerly Côte d’Ivoire ebolavirus)
• Bundibugyo virus (species Bundibugyo ebolavirus)
• Reston virus (species Reston ebolavirus)
• Bombali virus (species Bombali ebolavirus)

Of these, only four (Ebola, Sudan, Taï Forest, and Bundibugyo viruses) have caused disease in people. Reston virus can cause disease in nonhuman primates and pigs, but there have not been cases in people. Bombali virus was first identified in bats in 2018, and experts do not know yet if it causes disease in either animals or people.

When was the first instance?

• Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then, the virus has been infecting people from time to time, leading to outbreaks in several African countries.

Vaccines:

• An experimental Ebola vaccine, called rVSV-ZEBOV proved highly protective against EVD in a major trial in Guinea in 2015.
• The rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine is being used in the ongoing 2018-2019 Ebola outbreak in DRC. Pregnant and breastfeeding women should have access to the vaccine under the same conditions as for the general population.
• The public mistrust and militia attacks have prevented health workers from reaching some hard-hit areas for administering the vaccines.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2. OVER 60 COUNTRIES JOIN HANDS FOR OPEN, FREE AND SECURE GLOBAL INTERNET

THE CONTEXT: The US, all the European Union (EU) member states and 32 non-EU countries have signed a “Declaration for the Future of the Internet” that calls for an “open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, and secure” internet.

THE EXPLANATION:

• India is not among the 60 countries that have signed a global declaration to keep the Internet open, free, and neutral. The countries that have signed the declaration include the US, European Union, United Kingdom, Canada and France. Called the ‘Declaration for the Future of the Internet’, the document is an agreement to prevent digital authoritarianism.
• According to a White House statement, “Globally, we are witnessing a trend of rising digital authoritarianism where some states act to repress freedom of expression, censor independent news sites, interfere with elections, promote disinformation, and deny their citizens other human rights. At the same time, millions of people still face barriers to access and cyber security risks and threats undermine the trust and reliability of networks”.
• India, China and Russia are among the large nations that are not part of this declaration.
• The Declaration’s principles include commitments to protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, promote a global Internet that advances the free flow of information, advancing “inclusive and affordable” connectivity, promote trust in the global digital ecosystem, including through protection of privacy and protecting and strengthening the multi stakeholder approach to governance that keeps the Internet running for the benefit of all.

3. MISSION SAGAR IX

THE CONTEXT: With the overarching aim of providing critical medical aid to Sri Lanka during the ongoing crisis, INS Gharial as part of Mission SAGAR IX arrived at Colombo on 29 Apr 22 and delivered over 760 kgs of 107 types of critical lifesaving medicines

THE EXPLANATION:

• In line with GoI’s vision of SAGAR – Security and Growth for All in the Region – the Indian Navy undertakes several deployments titled ‘Mission SAGAR’ to assist friendly IOR littorals. Since May 2020, Indian Navy has successfully concluded eight such missions, deploying ten ships to 18 Friendly Foreign Countries.
• With a steadfast intent of delivering a high quantum of humanitarian assistance to our neighbors, personnel from ships and shore organizations of Indian Navy have invested close to a million man-hours to bring succor to our friends, overseas.

Value Addition:

Mission SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region)

• SAGAR is a term coined by Prime Minister in 2015 during his Mauritius visit with a focus on the blue economy.
• It is a maritime initiative which gives priority to the Indian Ocean region for ensuring peace, stability and prosperity of India in the Indian Ocean region.
• The goal is to seek a climate of trust and transparency; respect for international maritime rules and norms by all countries; sensitivity to each other`s interests; peaceful resolution of maritime issues; and increase in maritime cooperation.
• It is in line with the principles of the Indian Ocean Rim Association.

 THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

4. NABARD PLANS FARMER DISTRESS INDEX

THE CONTEXT: With small and marginal farmers getting a raw deal in farm loan waivers, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is planning to formulate a farmer distress index (FDI) to track, identify and support the real needy and distressed farmers.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to a study jointly conducted by NABARD and Bharat Krishak Samaj (BKS), a farmers producers’ organization, in Punjab, more than 60 percent of the ‘very high’ and ‘high’ distress small and marginal farmers (SMFs) did not receive farm loan waiver (FLW) benefits. The exclusion rate was also 60 percent for the medium distress category SMFs.
• In Maharashtra, SMFs that were relatively better off as they were categorized as ‘low’ distress received the maximum FLW benefits. Close to 42 percent of the SMF whose distress category was ‘very high’ did not receive FLW benefits.
• In UP, 47 percent of the ‘very high distress’ category, and 45 percent of the ‘high distress’ category SMF did not receive FLW benefits. In the three states together, more than 40 percent of the ‘very high distress’ farmers did not receive any FLW benefits.
• NABARD study says this farmer distress index can integrate the available high-frequency data on key agricultural variables like deviation of monsoon rains, excessive rainfall, drought and dry spells, variations in temperature and soil moisture, yield of major crops in the district, proportion of area under irrigation, depth of underground water, unusual frost, marketing opportunities available to the farmer that may include the proportion of wheat, paddy, chana, tur, groundnut, soybean etc. produced and procured at MSP.
• NABARD also noted that “Use of weather data derived from remote sensing technology, automatic weather stations, mobile telephony and artificial intelligence can help in identifying the distressed villages”.
• “Use of data of claims received for crop insurance is also likely to help in identification of distressed regions. These can be tracked on a real-time basis and be used to monitor and predict the level of farmer distress,” the study said.
• Technology breakthroughs like use of space technology, AI and block chain in agriculture can be harnessed to bring dynamism and credibility to the system.
• Further, depending on the kind and severity of distress, the support can be given as a combination of unconditional grants, loan restructuring and/or a complete debt waiver. The assistance to individual farmers can be based on a combination of district index and individual farmers’ distress captured via irrigation status of his land, income from crops grown by him, average productivity of the district and the average price in APMC markets of this district as compared to the average price of the state.

VALUE ADDTION:

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)

• NABARD is a development bank focusing primarily on the rural sector of the country. It is the apex banking institution to provide finance for Agriculture and rural development. It headquarter is located in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital.
• It is responsible for the development of the small industries, cottage industries, and any other such village or rural projects.
• It is a statutory body established in 1982 under Parliamentary act-National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981.

NABARD and RBI

• Reserve Bank of India is the central bank of the country with sole right to regulate the banking industry and supervise the various institutions/banks
• This also include NABARD defined under Banking Regulation Act of 1949.
• RBI provides 3 directors to NABARD’s Board of Directors.
• NABARD provides recommendations to Reserve Bank of India on issue of licenses to Cooperative Banks, opening of new branches by State Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs).

5. CORE INDUSTRIES GROW BY 10.4% DURING FY 2021-22

THE CONTEXT: According to DPIIT, cumulative growth rate of Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) during April-March 2021-22 was 10.4% (provisional) as compared to the corresponding period of last Financial Year. The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 157.3 in March 2022, which increased by 4.3 per cent (provisional) as compared to the Index of March 2021.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Final growth rate of Index of Eight Core Industries for December 2021 is revised to 4.1% from its provisional level 8%.
• The Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade released the Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) for the Month of March 2022. ICI measures combined and individual performance of production in selected eight core industries viz. Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity. The Eight Core Industries comprise 27 percent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). Details of yearly and monthly indices and growth rates are provided at Annex I & II respectively.
• The production of Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity industries increased in March 2022 over the corresponding period of last year (2021).

The summary of the Index of Eight Core Industries is given below:

1. Coal – Coal production (weight: 10.33 per cent) declined by 0.1 percent in March, 2022 over March, 2021.
2. Crude Oil – Crude Oil production (weight: 8.98 per cent) declined by 3.4 per cent in March, 2022 over March, 2021.
3. Natural Gas – Natural Gas production (weight: 6.88 per cent) increased by 7.6 per cent in March, 2022 over March, 2021.
4. Petroleum Refinery Products – Petroleum Refinery production (weight: 28.04 per cent) increased by 6.2 per cent in March, 2022 over March, 2021.
5. Fertilizers – Fertilizers production (weight: 2.63 per cent) increased by 15.3 per cent in March, 2022 over March, 2021.
6. Steel – Steel production (weight: 17.92 per cent) increased by 3.7 per cent in March, 2022 over March, 2021.
7. Cement – Cement production (weight: 5.37 per cent) increased by 8.8 per cent in March, 2022 over March, 2021.
8. Electricity – Electricity generation (weight: 19.85 per cent) increased by 4.9 per cent in March, 2022 over March, 2021.

VALUE ADDITION:

• The eight industries have a combined share of 27 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which gives the growth rates of different industry groups in a specified period.

Eight core industries weightage

• The eight Core Industries in decreasing order of their weightage: Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilizers.

THE GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND INITIATIVES IN NEWS

6. GOOGLE SIGNS MOU WITH TELANGANA GOVERNMENT

THE CONTEXT: Technology giant Google signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Telangana government to bring benefits of digital economy to youth and women entrepreneurs.

THE EXPLANATION:

• As part of the partnership, Google will collaborate with the State through its various arms to extend scholarships for Google Career Certificates to Telangana’s youth, support women entrepreneurs through digital, business and financial skills training, and strengthen the government’s school modernization efforts with digital teaching and learning tools and solutions.
• As part of the joint effort, Google will also support the Telangana government’s efforts to improve public transportation and use of digital technologies in agriculture.

Expanding presence in Telangana

• The company also unveiled the design of its ground-up development at the 7.3-acre site it acquired in Gachibowli in 2019. Upon commissioning, the three million square foot building will offer a highly skilled tech workforce a healthy, collaborative workplace that is both resilient and adaptable, designed to serve the city for years to come.

Components of the MoU

Google will collaborate with the Telangana government to:

• Provide Google Career Certificate Scholarships to undeserved youth: Google will collaborate with Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge to provide scholarships and wrap-around training for pursuing Google Career Certificates in high demand fields like IT Support, IT Automation, UX Design, Data Analytics, and Project Management.
• Roll out Women Will programme to equip women with training and tools for their entrepreneurship journeys: Together with WE-Hub, Google will roll out its Women Will programme to deliver digital, business and financial skills to nano, micro and small women-led businesses and entrepreneurs across Telangana.
• Empower public schools with digital education through Google for Education’s shareable devices and collaborative tools: Google for Education will partner in the State’s education modernization efforts through needs assessment, impact demonstrations, and student and educator training on the use of e-Learning technologies for improved learning outcomes.

 THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Q1. Which of the following statements is correct?

a) The chief justice is appointed by the President after consultation with the chief justice of India and the governor of the state concerned.

b) Constitution has prescribed minimum age for appointment as a judge of a high court.

c) Constitution prescribes a fixed tenure of a judge of a high court.

d) Constitution prescribes the procedure relating to the removal of a judge of a high court by the process of impeachment.

ANSWER FOR 29TH APRIL 2022

Q1. Answer: D

Explanation:

• Odissi dance uses Jayadeva’s ‘Gita Govinda’ extensively.

Q2. Answer: B

Explanation:

• Giddha, Sammi, and Kikli are folk dances from Punjab state.

THE CONTEXT: The Nepal Prime Minister visited India in the first week of April 2022. After taking charge as a Prime Minister, this was the first bilateral abroad visit by the Prime Minister of Nepal. The outcome of the visit might appear modest but what is significant is that India and Nepal effectively managed to steer clear of divisive issues. This article analyses the recent developments in India- Nepal relations.

THE VISIT

PROJECTS LAUNCHED:

• Launch and operationalization of 35 km long cross border rail link from Jaynagar in Bihar to Kurtha in Nepal.
• Inauguration of the 90 km long 132 KV Solu Corridor transmission line built with Indian Line of Credit for INR 200 crore.
• Launch of RuPay Card in Nepal.
• Witnessing a video clip on the progress in the construction of the 132 Health facilities in Nepal, undertaken with US$ 50 million in post-earthquake reconstruction grant.

DOCUMENTS EXCHANGED:

• International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement handover by Nepal.
• Exchange of MoU on enhancing Technical Cooperation in the Railway Sector.
• Exchange of Agreement on Supply of Petroleum Products between IOC (India Oil Corporation) and NOC (Nepal Oil Corporation).
• Exchange of Agreement for sharing of Technical Expertise between IOC and NOC.

INDIA-NEPAL JOINT VISION STATEMENT ON POWER SECTOR COOPERATION:

• Apart from these, India and Nepal issued a joint vision statement on power sector cooperation. According to the statement:
• Joint development of power generation projects in Nepal.
• Development of cross-border transmission infrastructure.
• Bi-directional power trade with appropriate access to electricity markets in both countries based on mutual benefits, market demand and applicable domestic regulations of each country.
• Coordinated operation of the national grids.
• Institutional cooperation in sharing the latest operational information, technology, and know-how.

IMPORTANCE OF THE VISIT:

• At a time when the Russia-Ukraine war is going on, India is facing west criticism for not condemning Russia. This time India needs to improve its relations with neighbouring countries.
• The relations between India-Nepal are as healthy as expected, so the visit shows hope for enhancing the relations.
• It was his first foreign visit as Prime Minister that abiding interest in strengthening ties with India.
• In the recent past, after strong Indian opposition to the Constitution, many Nepali held India responsible for the three-month-long “great blockade” and Madhesi groups’ protest; the visit was the opportunity to repair the India-Nepal relationship.
• The BIMSTEC summit recently concluded that if India wants to minimize the ongoing war impacts, it should have good ties with neighbouring countries.

SUCCESS OF THE VISIT:

• The visit shows many successes in the different sectors. Moreover, it raised confidence in the relations of both countries.
• Cross border projects like technical cooperation in the railway sector, Nepal’s induction into the International Solar Alliance, and between Indian Oil Corporation, Nepal Oil Corporation on ensuring regular supplies of petroleum products were also signed, and a joint vision statement on power sector cooperation provide opportunities for joint development and cooperation.

THE CHALLENGES FACING INDIA-NEPAL TIES

THE OPEN: An important issue is an open border between two countries.

BORDER ISSUE: The open is used for illegal trafficking to India.

FLOOD DUE TO PLAIN: The Nepal plains suffer from massive floods that have also affected downstream areas across the border.

KOSI BARRAGE: The Kosi Barrage and attendant embankments have the possibility of wreaking havoc because the siltation of six decades has raised the riverbed within the levees far above the outlying tracts. The Indian politician is to demand a high dam in the hills of Nepal even as alternatives are not studied, which effected the waters of the Kosi in Bihar.

IMPORT OF ELECTRICITY FROM NEPAL: Nepal has long planned to sell electricity to India, but the completion of the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line was supposed to facilitate that. Indian government directive that it will not allow the import of electricity other than from power companies with more than 51% Indian equity.

ARBITRARY BLOCKAGES AT BORDER POINTS: The arbitrary blockages and go-slow at Indian Customs at border points, the selective use of quarantine for the export of Nepali agricultural produce, the increasing high-handedness of the Sashastra Seema Bal (India’s frontier force in this sector) in dealing with Nepalis crossing over are some of the challenges on the bilateral plane.

2020 BORDER DISPUTE: The Nepalese government issued a new political map placing the disputed territory of Kalapani within its borders. This came as a response to the inauguration of a Jeep track through Lipu Lek by the Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

COVID-19: Because of the lock-down in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of poor Nepalese migrant labour working in Indian cities returned home in 2020. This caused a massive spread of the pandemic inside Nepal. This created a negative image of India.

MAOIST: India played a valued role in ending the Maoist insurgency in 2006, but the period after that was marked by escalating micro-meddling in Nepal’s internal affairs.

NEW CONSTITUTION: There were attempts to define the new provincial boundaries according to Indian dictates in Constitution-writing. India criticized it for not addressing the concerns of Madheshis and other marginalized sections.

HUMAN RIGHT ISSUE: India criticized Nepal’s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, especially in dealing with the Madhesi agitation.

BLOCKADE BY MADHESI: It has halted oil and other essential supplies, which created a humanitarian crisis in Nepal. The Nepal government blames India for this blockade.

RESULT OF THESE ISSUES: CHINESE PRESENCE IN NEPAL

The Great Blockade forced the Kathmandu political leadership to reach out to Beijing, and the result was: 

• India’s relations with Nepal have had both ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ in recent years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often spoken of the “neighbourhood first” policy. After that, both countries’ relations took a nosedive, and China made a strong presence in Nepal.
• Nepal is today connected by air to Chinese cities than to India.
• Nepal is also part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
• In 2016, Mr Oli visited Beijing to negotiate an Agreement on Transit Transportation.
• The first-ever visit of the Chinese Defence Minister took place in March 2017, followed by joint military exercises a month later. Three years later, a Protocol was concluded with China providing access to four seaports and three land ports. A military grant of $32 million was also announced.
• Rather than compete with China, India needs to up its own game. China has overtaken India as the largest source of foreign direct investment. In 2019, China’s President Xi Jinping visited Kathmandu. Annual development assistance has been hiked to $120 million. China is also engaged with airport expansion projects at Pokhara and Lumbini.
• The growing Chinese presence means that India cannot afford to let issues linger but reach out actively to find a resolution.

WHAT CAN BE THE IMPACT OF A VISIT?

WHAT SHOULD BE THE WAY FORWARD?

IMPROVE BILATERAL TRADE WITH NEIGHBOURS:

• India will have to focus on connectivity as leverage to increase its strategic influence in the neighbourhood.
• The trilateral India-Nepal-China corridor offers an interesting opportunity for collaboration to test Beijing’s flexibility and, at the same time, get Kathmandu on board.

BALANCE DEALING WITH SMALL NEIGHBOURS: 

• India will have to abandon the archaic principle of the right of first refusal and invest in expanding its capacity of first delivery.
• Delhi will have to get used to Kathmandu’s new “first-come, first-served” principle. Indian delays and low-quality resources will no longer be tolerated.
• By reviving the Gujral doctrine and India’s willingness to provide non-reciprocal, unilateral, and preferential benefits to its smaller neighbours.

TO CURB CHINA IMPACT:

• Beijing’s current promises of support for Nepal will thus also come with a price.
• New Delhi will have to communicate such expectations more clearly.
• History shows that India will often assume that the Nepalese government is deliberately acting against its advice when, in fact, New Delhi never communicated such concerns in the first place or did not articulate them forcefully enough.

CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE: 

• In 2015, New Delhi may as well have failed on clear communication and used inadequate forms of pressure that were resented in Nepal.
• A permanent bilateral mechanism is required to save the plains population of Nepal from suffering, which can be possible at the present.
•  It has always been our wish to seek peace and prosperity in Nepal because stability in Nepal is in the best interests of India [and] democracy in Nepal is the best guarantee of such stability.

OTHERS: 

• More than defining what Nepal should not do, India will have to grow a thicker skin against Nepalese nationalist rallying cries against India.
• To most Nepalese, the Chinese grass across the Himalayas will naturally look greener than that on India’s Gangetic plains.
• Especially while in opposition, political leaders in Kathmandu will keep tapping into anti-India feelings to mobilize electoral support, a behaviour that India must understand and endure.

CONCLUSION: PM Deuba’s visit has infused new trust and confidence in the relationship and it should be hoped that shared historical, cultural, economic security and other linkages will help the two countries further boost their bilateral ties.

QUESTIONS

1. ‘The Nepal Prime Minister’s visit sparks hope that bilateral ties will find a new equilibrium. Critically discuss.
2. ‘China will emerge as an occasional irritant in Indo-Nepalese relations, tempting Nepal to play the ‘Beijing card’ against India”. In the light of the statement, discuss how India can prevent it?

THE INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

EXPLAINED: WHAT ARE THE RULES FOR THE RESIGNATION AND REINSTATEMENT OF AN IAS OFFICER?

THE CONTEXT: An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Kashmir, who resigned from the service in protest against the “unabated” killings in Kashmir in 2019, has been reinstated.

THE EXPLANATION:

• A “resignation” is a formal intimation in writing by an officer of their intention to leave the IAS. Guidelines of the Department of Personnel, the cadre controlling Department for the IAS, say that a resignation has to be clear and unconditional
• The resignation of an officer of any of the three All-India Services (IAS, Indian Police Service, and Indian Forest Service) is governed by Rule 5(1) and 5(1)(a) of the All India Services (Death-cum-retirement benefits) Rules, 1958. There are similar rules for other central services as well.

To whom does an officer submit his/her resignation?

• An officer serving in a cadre (state) must submit his/her resignation to the chief secretary of the state. An officer who is on central deputation is required to submit his/her resignation to the secretary of the concerned Ministry or Department.
• The Ministry/Department forwards the officer’s resignation to the concerned state cadre, with its comments/recommendations.
• A resignation can be rejected. In mid-2020, a principal secretary to the Punjab government resigned, but it was rejected by then Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh.

What happens after the resignation is submitted?

• The state checks to see if any dues are outstanding against the officer, as well as the vigilance status of the officer. The concerned state government is supposed to send, along with its recommendation, information on these two matters to the central government.
• The resignation of the officer is considered by the competent authority, i.e., the central government, only after the recommendation of the concerned cadre has been received.
• The competent authorities are the Minister of State at the Department of Personnel & Training in respect of the IAS, the Minister for Home Affairs in respect of IPS, and the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change in respect of the Forest Service.

Under what circumstances is a resignation accepted?

• The guidelines say that it is not in the interest of the government to retain an unwilling officer. As per the guidelines, resignations are accepted under normal circumstances.
• However, according to the guidelines, where an officer who is under suspension, submits a resignation, the competent authority should examine, with reference to the merit of the disciplinary case pending against the officer, whether it would be in the public interest to accept the resignation.
• In some cases, resignations have been rejected because disciplinary cases were pending against officers. In such cases, the concurrence of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is obtained.
• The government also checks whether the concerned officer had executed any bond for serving the government for a specified number of years on account of being given specialized training, a fellowship, or a scholarship for studies.

Can an officer withdraw his/her resignation?

• Following an amendment in the Rules in 2013, officers have the opportunity to withdraw a resignation within 90 days of it being accepted. Rule 5(1A)(i) says the central government may permit an officer to withdraw his/her resignation “in the public interest”.
• However, “Request for withdrawal of resignation shall not be accepted by the Central Government where a member of the Service resigns from his/her service or post with a view to be associated with any political parties or any organisation which takes part in politics, or to take part in, or subscribe in aid of, or assist in any other manner, any political movement or political activity or to canvass or otherwise interfere with, or use his/her influence in connection with, or take part in, an election to any legislature or local authority.”

HATTIS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH & THEIR DEMAND FOR SCHEDULED TRIBE STATUS

THE CONTEXT: The Union Home Ministry assured that the Centre would consider favorably the state government’s request for inclusion of the Hatti community in the list of Scheduled Tribes in the state and that the state government would complete all the formalities required for getting tribal status for the 3 lakh-strong community.

THE EXPLANATION:

Who are the Hattis?

• The Hattisare a close-knit community that got their name from their tradition of selling homegrown vegetables, crops, meat, and wool at small markets called ‘haat’ in towns.

• The Hatti community, whose men generally don a distinctive white headgear during ceremonies, is cut off from Sirmaur by two rivers called Giri and Tons. Tons divides it from the JaunsarBawar area of Uttarakhand. The Hattis who live in the trans-Giri area and JaunsarBawar in Uttarakhand were once part of the royal estate of Sirmaur until JaunsarBawar’s separation in 1815.
• Due to topographical disadvantages, the Hattis living in the Kamrau, Sangrah, and Shilliai areas lag behind in education and employment.
• The Hattisare governed by a traditional council called Khumbli, which like the khaps of Haryana, decides community matters. The Khumbli’s power has remained unchallenged despite the establishment of the Panchayati raj system.

What are the benefits of being accorded as a Scheduled Tribe?

The Indian Constitution ensures certain protection for communities deemed as having Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. However, which groups should be accorded that status has been contentious. Getting ST status means that members of the group have access to highly desired tangible benefits such as political representation, reserved seats in schools, and government jobs.

Who has the power to declare a community/Tribes as Scheduled Tribe?

• The Indian Constitution only states that STs are specified by the President after consultation with the Governor; it does not specify specific criteria.
• According to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the criterion—while not spelled out in legislation—“is well established,” and includes an indication of “primitive” traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, “shyness of connecting” with the community at large, and “backwardness.” These general standards were established following the definitions of the 1931 Census, the reports of the First Backward Classes Commission 1955, Kalelkar Advisory Committee, and the Revision of SC/ST list by the Lokur Committee. However, more than a half-century later, these broad criteria leave a lot of discretion.

THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE

LARGE SHARE OF INDIA’S THREATENED ENDEMIC SPECIES IN KERALA, TAMIL NADU, AND KARNATAKA: STUDY

THE CONTEXT: According to a study published in Environmental Research 2022 the three states account for 51 percent of the country’s species threat abatement and restoration (STAR) score. A higher STAR score indicates the greater presence of threatened species.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The study noted that the top 20 percent of all 36 states contributed 80 percent to the national STAR score. These include Kerala (20 percent), Tamil Nadu (18 percent), Karnataka (13 percent), Arunachal Pradesh (6 percent), Assam (5 percent), Maharashtra (5 percent), and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean (12 percent).
• The score is a measure of the contribution that investments can make to reduce species extinction risk. It can help national and subnational governments, cities, and other entities target their investments and activities to achieve conservation outcomes, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• India’s total national STAR score was 41,817, of which 11,585 were for mammals, 10,843 for birds, and 19,389 for amphibians.
• The global STAR score for the three species groups combined was 1,223,500. India’s national STAR score represented 3.4 percent of the global STAR; it was 3.7 percent for mammals, 2.9 percent for birds, and 3.6 percent for amphibians.

• Several bigger states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and Telangana, however, contributed less than 1 percent to the national STAR score.
• The high STAR scores of the top three states (51 percent combined) were primarily due to the presence of several endemic amphibian species that are critically endangered like Indiana phrynoderma (Kerala Indian frog), Fejervaryamurthii (Ghats wart frog), Indiranagundia (Gundia frog), Micrixaluskottigeharensis (Kottigehar dancing frog) and others, the report noted.
• The high scores of the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam were due to the presence of a high number of threatened birds and mammals such as Liocichlabugunorum and Biswamoyopterusbiswasi.

THE SECURITY AFFAIRS

REPORTING OF CYBER BREACHES MADE MANDATORY FOR ALL FIRMS

THE CONTEXT: The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has made it mandatory for all service providers, intermediaries, data center providers, corporates as well as government organizations to report cyber incidents within six hours of their detection.

THE EXPLANATION:

• To strengthen India’s overall cybersecurity position, the country’s nodal cybersecurity agency has also issued additional directions relating to synchronisation of ICT system clocks, maintenance of logs of ICT systems and subscriber/customer registration details by data centers, virtual private server (VPS) providers, VPN service providers, and cloud service providers.
• In a statement released by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, “To coordinate response activities as well as emergency measures with respect to cybersecurity incidents, CERT-In calls for information from service providers, intermediaries, data centers and body corporate.
• “During handling cyber incidents and interactions with the constituency, CERT-In has identified certain gaps causing hindrance in incident analysis,” it added.
• It said that to address the identified gaps and facilitate incident response measures, CERT-In had issued directions relating to information security practices, procedures, prevention, response, and reporting of cyber incidents. These directions will take effect after 60 days.
• It also noted, “Any service provider, intermediary, data center, body corporate and government organisation shall mandatorily report cyber incidents… to CERT-In within 6 hours of noticing such incidents or being brought to notice about such incidents”.

VALUE ADDITION:

• CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents as and when they occur. The constituency of CERT-In is the Indian Cyber Community.
• CERT-In was established in 2004 as a functional organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Functions:

• The Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 designated CERT-In to serve as the national agency to perform the following functions in the area of cyber security:
• Collection, analysis, and dissemination of information on cyber incidents.
• Forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents
• Emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents
• Coordination of cyber incident response activities.
• Issue guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes, and whitepapers relating to information
• security practices, procedures, prevention, response, and reporting of cyber incidents.
• Such other functions relating to cyber security as may be prescribed.

QUICK FACTS:

• Budapest Convention on Cybercrime: It is the first international treaty that seeks to address Internet and cybercrime by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations. It came into force in 2004. India is not a signatory to this convention.
• Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre(I4C): It was established in 2018 to combat cybercrime in India in a comprehensive and coordinated manner. It functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

THE NEWS IN NUMBERS

INTERNET FREEDOM

About 56 nations have now signed a political commitment to push rules for the internet that are underpinned by democratic values. This comes at a time when the U.S. has accused Russia of wielding internet disruptions as a part of its escalating attacks on Ukraine. The commitment called the “Declaration for the Future of the Internet”, protects human rights, promotes the free flow of information, protects user privacy, and sets rules for a growing global digital economy among steps to counter digital authoritarianism.

REPTILES AT RISK

• According to the first major global assessment about 21 percent of reptile species are at risk of extinction according to the world’s cold-blooded creatures. At least 1,829 species of reptiles are either vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered, including more than half of the turtles and crocodiles, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
• The researchers assessed 10,196 reptile species and evaluated them using criteria from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.

 MEASLES SURGE

According to United Nations, around an 80 percentage, of the surge in measles cases worldwide this year(2022), warning that the rise of the illness indicated that outbreaks of other diseases were likely on the way. The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted vaccination campaigns for non-COVID diseases around the world, creating a “perfect storm” that could put millions of children’s lives at risk, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said in a statement. More than 17,300 measles cases were reported globally in January and February 2022.

About Measles:

Measles is a contagious disease caused by a virus. It’s a contagious illness spread by mucus and saliva. The virus is released into the air when a measles-infected person sneezes or coughs. The measles virus can spread through the air. As a result, anyone in that area could be infected by the virus.

• It is caused by the Rubella virus, a member of the para myxovirus family.
• It is spread by droplets from an infected person’s nose, throat, or mouth.
• Respiratory droplets produced by coughing or sneezing spread the disease through the air.
• Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, the disease claimed the lives of over 2 million people each year.
• Despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine, lakhs of children worldwide die each year from measles.
• The majority of the victims are children under the age of five.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Q1. Which dance form uses Jayadeva’s ‘Gita Govinda’ extensively?

a) Sattriya

b) Kuchipudi

c) Bharatnatyam

d) Odissi

Q2. Giddha, Sammi, and Kikli are folk dances from which of the following states of India?

a) Rajasthan

b) Punjab

c) Haryana

d) Uttar Pradesh

ANSWER FOR 28TH APRIL 2022

Answer: B

Explanation:

A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the Prime Minister on 27th April 2022 approved an investment of ₹4,526.12 crores for the 540- megawatt Kwar hydroelectric project on the Chenab in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.

THE CONTEXT: India and Australia signed an Economic Co-operation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) with an eye on doubling bilateral trade to $50 billion in the next five years and easing the movement of people, goods, and services across borders. The negotiations for India-Australia ECTA were formally re-launched on 30 September 2021 (which were stalled since 2015) and concluded on a fast-track basis by the end of March 2022. This article analyzes different aspects of the deal and the significance of the bilateral trade for both countries.

THE ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND TRADE AGREEMENT (ECTA)

The Agreement encompasses cooperation across the entire gamut of bilateral economic and commercial relations between the two friendly countries and covers areas like:

• Trade-in Goods,
• Rules of Origin,
• Trade in Services,
• Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT),
• Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures,
• Dispute Settlement, Movement of Natural Persons,
• Telecom, Customs Procedures,
• Pharmaceutical products, and
• Cooperation in other Areas.

KEY FEATURES OF THE AGREEMENT

PREFERENTIAL MARKET ACCESS:

Australia’s PMA to India: India will benefit from preferential market access provided by Australia on 100% of its tariff lines. This includes all the labour-intensive sectors which are of interest to India such as Gems and Jewellery, Textiles, leather, footwear etc.

India’s PMA to Australia: India will be offering preferential access to Australia on over 70% of its tariff lines. This includes lines of export interest to Australia which are primarily raw materials and intermediaries such as coal, mineral ores and wines, etc.

Both sides have also agreed to a separate Annexure on Pharmaceutical products under this agreement. This will enable fast-track approval for patented, generic, and biosimilar medicines.

SERVICES TRADE:

As regards trade in services, some of the keys offers from Australia in the services space include Quota for chefs and yoga teachers; a Post-study work visa of 2-4 years for Indian students on a reciprocal basis; mutual recognition of Professional Services and Other licensed/regulated Occupations, etc.

India has offered market access to Australia in around 103 sub-sectors and the Most Favored Nation in 31 sub-sectors from the 11 broad service sectors. This includes ‘business services’, ‘communication services’, ‘construction and related engineering services, and so on.

EXCLUDED TARIFF LINES:

India has kept many sensitive products in the exclusion category (29.8% of tariff lines) without offering any concession. These products include milk and dairy, chickpeas, walnut, pistachio nuts, wheat, rice, bajra, apple, sunflowers seed oil, etc.

The agreement also includes strict rules of origin to prevent any routing of products from other countries and provides for a safeguard mechanism to address any sudden surges in imports of a product.

SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIA AUSTRALIA TRADE AGREEMENT

AN ANALYSIS OF THE IND-AUS TRADE AGREEMENT

• Both India and Australia share a vision of a free, open, inclusive, and rules-based Indo-Pacific region, as well as cooperative use of the seas based on international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and peaceful dispute resolution rather than unilateral or coercive actions.
• The India-Australia ECTA will strengthen the two countries’ already deep, close, and strategic relations by significantly increasing bilateral trade in goods and services, creating new job opportunities, raising living standards, and improving the general welfare of the two peoples.
• The India-Australia comprehensive interim free trade agreement is well-timed for both partners and will ensure an uninterrupted supply of key inputs to Indian industries, with Australian businesses gaining access to a more reliable alternative to China, which is resorting to sanctions against the Canberra.
• A special review mechanism is also envisaged for compulsory review after 15 years for certain aspects of the agreement in a time-bound manner. The review, if requested, is compulsory and has to be completed in six months. This is something new in bilateral trade relations which gives confidence in having a long-term cordial and collaborative relations wherein changes can be incorporated on mutually agreeable terms.
• India and Australia are members of the QUAD grouping, which also includes the United States and Japan, and bilateral ties will help strengthen cooperation and develop partnerships on several issues of common strategic concerns.

THE WAY FORWARD

• The government has successfully negotiated an excellent trade deal for businesses. However, Australia has 16 FTAs under operation which means accessing the Australian market wouldn’t be a cakewalk. India would have to work on improving its competitiveness, as in most trade sectors, it would be competing with China, ASEAN, Chile, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand, which have already-functional FTAs with Australia.
• Active diplomatic engagement would be required to make Australia fulfill its promise to amend its domestic tax law in order to stop taxation of the offshore income of Indian firms providing technical services to Australia. Once the amendment is made, the Indian tech companies would no longer be required to pay taxes on offshore revenues in Australia. This would enhance their competitiveness in the international market.
• India signed an FTA with the UAE in February 2022 and now an FTA has been negotiated with Australia. The success shall be used in negotiating its future FTA deals with Israel, Canada, the UK, and the EU.
• The India-Australia trade pact is the second big trade agreement signed by New Delhi in the recent past. It is in sharp contrast to India’s stand at the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest trade agreement involving China and 14 other Asia-Pacific nations where India defended its stand by raising concerns about Chinese goods flooding the Indian market. India will have to forge several similar alliances, like the one with Australia, to make up for not being a part of RCEP. Furthermore, India needs to play this on the front foot and rise above political considerations and think in purely economic terms.

THE CONCLUSION: This agreement opens a big door into the world’s fastest-growing major economy for Australian farmers, manufacturers, producers and so many more. The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) is a key step in enhancing bilateral economic ties between the two major Indian Ocean littoral states and reflects the growing strategic alignment between New Delhi and Canberra. While India’s strongest ties with Australia had hitherto largely centered around their common colonial legacy of cricket, best exemplified in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a more contemporary shared vision has emerged around the mutual need to strengthen their strategic and trade engagement.

Mains Practice Questions:

1. Elaborate on how the growing India-Australia economic and commercial relations can contribute to the stability in the Indo-pacific region?
2. India has recently had bilateral trade deals with UAE and Australia and is in talks with other countries also. How will the bilateral trade agreements help India in realizing the $5T economy dream? Substantiate.

ADD TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE

India Australia Bilateral Relations

HISTORICAL TIES:

• India and Australia established diplomatic relations in the pre-Independence period, with the establishment of the India Trade Office in Sydney in 1941.
• India and Australia bilateral relations have undergone transformational evolution in recent years, developing along a positive track, into a friendly partnership.
• This is a special partnership characterised by shared values of pluralistic, parliamentary democracies, Commonwealth traditions, expanding economic engagement, long-standing people-to-people ties and increasing high-level interaction.

STRATEGIC:

• The India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership initiated during the India-Australia Leaders’ Virtual Summit on 04 June 2020 is the cornerstone of our multifaceted bilateral relations.
• Both countries also held first India-Australia 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi in September 2021 with focus on open, free, prosperous and rules-based Indo-Pacific region.

ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS:

• India and Australia have been each other’s, important trading partners and bilateral economic and commercial relations have continued to enhance and deepen over time.
• Growing India-Australia economic and commercial relations contribute to the stability and strength of a rapidly diversifying and deepening bilateral relationship between the two countries.
• Australia is the 17th largest trading partner of India and India is Australia’s 9th largest trading partner.
• India-Australia bilateral trade for both merchandise and services is valued at US$ 27.5 billion in 2021.
• India’s merchandise exports to Australia grew 135% between 2019 and 2021.
• India’s exports consist primarily of a broad-based basket largely of finished products and were US$ 6.9 billion in 2021.
• India’s merchandise imports from Australia were US$ 15.1 billion in 2021, consisting largely of raw materials, minerals and intermediate goods.

DEFENCE:

• In 2014, both sides decided to extend defence cooperation to cover research, development and industry engagement.
• The first-ever Bilateral Maritime Exercise, AUSINDEX, was conducted in Visakhapatnam (Bay of Bengal) in September 2015. The most recent one was conducted in September 2021.
• In 2018, the Indian Air Force participated for the first time in Exercise Pitch Black in Australia.
• INS Sahyadri participated in Kakadu, the biennial exercise of the Australian Navy held in 2018, in which 27 nations participated.
• The 4th edition of AUSTRAHIND (Special Forces of Army Exercise) was held in September 2019.

MULTILATERAL ENGAGEMENT:

• Both countries have close cooperation in multilateral platforms like Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and G20.
• The Quadrilateral Framework (QUAD) of India and Australia along with the US and Japan emphasize the collective resolve to maintain a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.
• Australia was also included in Malabar Exercise in 2020, which now is an annual Naval exercise of the QUAD nations.

THE GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND INTERVENTION

1. CABINET APPROVES NUTRIENT BASED SUBSIDY (NBS) RATES FOR PHOSPHATIC AND POTASSIC (P&K) FERTILIZERS FOR KHARIF SEASON

THE CONTEXT: The Union Cabinet chaired has approved the proposal of the Department of Fertilizers for Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) rates for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilizers for Kharif Season – 2022.

THE EXPLANATION:

Financial Implications:

Subsidy approved by Cabinet for the NBS Kharif-2022 will be Rs. 60,939.23 Crores including support for indigenous fertilizer (SSP) through freight subsidy and additional support for indigenous manufacturing and imports of DAP.

Benefits:

• The increase in the international prices of Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and its raw materials have been primarily absorbed by the Union Government. The Union Government has decided to provide subsidy of Rs. 2501 per bag on DAP instead of existing subsidy of Rs.1650 per bag which is a 50% increase over the last year’s subsidy rates (2021).
• The increase in the prices of DAP & its raw material is in the range of approx. 80%. It will help farmers to receive notified P&K fertilizers on subsidized, affordable and reasonable rates and support the agriculture sector.

Implementation Strategy and targets:

The subsidy on P&K fertilizers will be provided based on the NBS rates for Kharif season -2022 to ensure smooth availability of these fertilizers to the farmers at affordable prices.

Background:

• Government is making available fertilizers, namely Urea and 25 grades of P&K fertilizers to farmers at subsidized prices through fertilizer manufacturers/ importers. The subsidy on P&K fertilizers is being governed by NBS Scheme w.e.f 01.04.2010.
• In accordance with its farmer friendly approach, the Govt. is committed to ensure the availability of P&K fertilizers to the farmers at affordable prices. In view of steep increase in the international prices of fertilizers & inputs i.e. Urea, DAP, MOP and Sulphur, Government has decided to absorb the increased prices by increasing subsidy on P&K fertilizers including DAP.
• The subsidy would be released to fertilizer companies as per approved rates so that they can make available fertilizers to farmers at an affordable price than it would have been otherwise.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2. INDIA’S DESIGNATION BY THE USCIRF

THE CONTEXT: The 2022 Annual report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that India be designated a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC), i.e., the category of governments performing most poorly on religious freedom criteria.

THE EXPLANATION:

• It has also called for “targeted sanctions” on individuals and entities responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ or entities’ assets and/or barring their entry” into the U.S.

What is the USCIRF?

• The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan body created by the International Religious Freedom Act, 1998 (IRFA) with a mandate to monitor religious freedom violations globally and make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress. It is a congressionally created entity and not an NGO or advocacy organisation.
• It is led by nine part-time commissioners appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the House and the Senate.

What does a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC) designation mean?

• IRFA requires the USCIRF to annually identify countries that merit a CPC designation. As per IRFA, CPCs are countries whose governments either engage in or tolerate “particularly severe violations” of religious freedom, which are defined as “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of the internationally recognized right to freedom of religion”.
• The other designation, for less serious violations, is Special Watch List (SWL).

Which other countries have been designated as CPCs?

• For 2022, based on religious freedom conditions in 2021, a total of 15 countries have been recommended for the CPC designation. They include India, Pakistan, Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria and Vietnam.
• Countries recommended for an SWL designation include Algeria, Cuba, Nicaragua, Azerbaijan, Central African Republic, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.

Why does USCIRF want India to be designated as a CPC?

• The USCIRF, in its annual report, states that in 2021, “religious freedom conditions in India significantly worsened.”
• Noting that the “Indian government escalated its promotion and enforcement of policies —including those promoting a Hindu-nationalist agenda — that negatively affect Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and other religious minorities,” the report observed that “the government continued to systemise its ideological vision of a Hindu state at both the national and State levels through the use of both existing and new laws and structural changes hostile to the country’s religious minorities.”
• It highlighted the use of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against those documenting religious persecution and violence, detailed the creation of “hurdles against the licensure and receipt of international funding” by religious and charitable NGOs, and observed that “numerous attacks were made on religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians, and their neighborhoods, businesses, homes, and houses of worship”. It also criticized the spate of fresh anti-conversion legislation’s, noting that “national, State and local governments demonized and attacked the conversion of Hindus to Christianity or Islam.”
• Taking into account all these aspects, it concluded that India met the criteria of “systematic, ongoing, egregious” violations of religious freedom and therefore deserved a CPC designation.

3. INDIA APPROVES NEW EMBASSY IN LITHUANIA

THE CONTEXT: The Union Cabinet approved a proposal to open a new Indian embassy in Lithuania, the first full-fledged embassy in the Baltic region, currently at the forefront of forging a more aggressive European position against Russia over the Ukraine war. Lithuania is also at the centre of a diplomatic spat with China over the opening of a de-facto embassy by Taiwan.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The Indian government said the opening of the mission in Lithuania would help India expand its political, strategic and economic engagements with that country.
• “Opening of the Indian mission in Lithuania will help expand India’s diplomatic footprint, deepen political relations and strategic cooperation, enable the growth of bilateral trade, investment and economic engagements and facilitate stronger people-to-people contacts”.
• The government said setting up the mission will provide more sustained political outreach and help garner support for India’s foreign policy objectives.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

4. INDONESIA’S PALM OIL EXPORT BAN

THE CONTEXT: Indonesia began imposing a complete ban on palm oil exports as the world’s largest producer of the commodity risked destabilising a global vegetable oil market already hitting peak prices.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The archipelago nation is facing a shortage of domestic supplies of cooking oil and soaring prices, with consumers in several cities having to wait for hours in front of distribution centres to buy the essential commodity at subsidised rates.
• Authorities in Southeast Asia’s most populous country fear the scarcity and rising costs could provoke social tensions and have moved to secure supplies of the product, which is used in a range of goods such as chocolate spreads and cosmetics.

How important is palm oil to global supply chains?

• Palm oil is the world’s most widely used vegetable oil with its global production in the year 2020 being over 73 million tonnes (MT), according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
• It is estimated to be 77 million tonnes for the current year. Made from the African oil palm, it is used as cooking oil, and in everything from cosmetics, processed foods, cakes, chocolates, spreads, soaps, shampoo, and cleaning products to bio fuel.
• Indonesia and Malaysia together account for almost 90% of the global palm oil production, with Indonesia producing the largest quantity at over 45 million tonnes in 2021.

According to data, palm oil makes up 40% of the global supply of the four most widely used edible oils: palm, soybean, rapeseed (canola), and sunflower oil. Indonesia is responsible for 60% of the global supply of palm oil. India is the biggest importer of palm oil.

• The months-long shortage has been exacerbated by poor regulation and producers who are reluctant to sell at home because high international prices have made exports more profitable.
• Jakarta plans to resume exports when the price of bulk cooking oil in local markets has fallen to 14,000 rupiah (97 cents) per litre, having rocketed 70 percent in recent weeks to 26,000 rupiah ($1.80).
• Vegetable oils are among a number of staple food items that have seen prices hit record highs in recent weeks, following Russia’s invasion of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

How will it impact India?

• India is the biggest importer of palm oil, which makes up 40% of its vegetable oil consumption, as per the USDA. India meets half of its annual need for 8.3 million tonnes of palm oil from Indonesia. In 2021, the Centre also unveiled its plan to boost India’s domestic palm oil production.
• Already grappling with record-high wholesale inflation, the late January (2021) export controls exercised by Indonesia had led to a 38% rise in the landed cost of CPO in India. The price of soybean oil, most consumed after palm, rose by 29% in the country this year; while sunflower oil, 90% of which India gets from Russia and Ukraine, stopped coming in almost completely.

THE GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND INITIATIVES IN THE NEWS

5. J&K HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT APPROVED

THE CONTEXT: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the investment of Rs 4,526.12 crore for the 540 MW Kwar Hydro-electric project located on Chenab River in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kishtwar district.

THE EXPLANATION:

• This is part of the Indus basin and would be one of the at least four projects coming up in the district, including the 1,000 MWs PakalDul hydroelectric project and 624 MWs run-of-the-river Kiru hydroelectric project.
• Under the 1960 vintage Indus Water Treaty (IWT) between India and Pakistan, the two countries share the waters of six rivers in the Indus basin that flow through India towards Pakistan. Of these, India has complete rights over three eastern rivers – Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, while Pakistan has rights over the western rivers – Chenab, Jhelum, and Indus.
• India can, however, build run-of-the-river projects on the western rivers. Over the last five years, the government has been on an approval and construction spree to fully tap the potential in the Indian side of the Indus basin.
• The Kwar hydropower project will be implemented by Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Ltd (CVPPL), a joint venture company between NHPC Ltd and Jammu & Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC) with equity contributions of 51 percent and 49 percent respectively. The project shall generate 1,975.54 million units in a 90 percent dependable year.

 VALUE ADDITION:

THE NEWS IN NUMBERS

6. REAL ESTATE GROWTH

Around 65,000 crore, the expected growth of Indian real estate (RE) by 2040, according to a report by consultancy firm CIRIL. By 2025, the sector is expected to contribute 13% of the country’s GDP (Gross domestic product). In 2019, the size of the RE market was ₹12,000 crore. Despite fears related to the Omicron crisis, the market in 2022 looked bullish while demand is accelerating across all categories, the report added.

7. DIGITAL ADVANCEMENT

20 million of women certified to be digitally literate in India under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) programme dedicated to digital literacy, according to Union Ministry of Women and Child Development of India and it aims to empower people in rural areas by training them to operate computers or digital access devices (like tablets, smartphones, etc.), send and receive e-mails, browse the internet, access government services, and undertake digital payment, among others

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Q1. The government of India recently approved the construction of Kwar hydro-electric project across which of the following rivers?

1. Jhelum river
2. Chenab river
3. Beas river
4. Ravi river

ANSWER FOR 27TH APRIL 2022

Answer: D

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is incorrect: After rising in 2020 for the first time since 2015, total coal power capacity under development slid last year to a record low of 457 gigawatts(GW), from 525 gigawatts.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: China-led global coal power expansion in 2021, with about 25,000 MW of new plants, followed by India with about 6,100 MW, re- ported the Global Energy Monitor which conducts an annual survey of coal power capacity under development or deployment.

1. Digital Services Act: A historic agreement READ MORE
2. SC must take a strong line on hate speech READ MORE
3. The Higher Judiciary’s Increasing Role in Protecting Interfaith Couples READ MORE

1. Is it Possible to Make India Poverty-Free by 2047? READ MORE  
2. The fragility of contemporary capitalism READ MORE

1. Climate Change Putting 4% Of Global GDP at Risk, New Study Estimates READ MORE
2. Land the size of South America will be degraded if current trends continue: UN Report READ MORE

1. Permanent bliss lies beyond our senses READ MORE
2. Bollywood industry and tobacco READ MORE
3. Roots Of Rage~II READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. Cabinet clears higher subsidy for non-urea fertilisers READ MORE
2. J&K hydroelectric project approved READ MORE
3. Large share of India’s threatened endemic species in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka: Study READ MORE
4. 540 MW Kwar hydropower project in J&K READ MORE
5. India Approves New Embassy in Lithuania READ MORE
6. Russia withdraws from UN tourism body: UNWTO READ MORE
7. Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 completes four years READ MORE

Main Exam

GS Paper- 1

1. Is it Possible to Make India Poverty-Free by 2047? READ MORE  
2. The fragility of contemporary capitalism READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Digital Services Act: A historic agreement READ MORE
2. SC must take a strong line on hate speech READ MORE
3. The Higher Judiciary’s Increasing Role in Protecting Interfaith Couples READ MORE

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Building back to avert a learning catastrophe: Governments and schools must focus on the most important priority in school education — learning recovery READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. Ride between East & West: India can play a vital global role as West’s Russia boycott disrupts key bodies like G20 READ MORE
2. India stepping up efforts READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Energy independence through hydrogen: It can help lay the foundation of a new India which aims to be a global climate leader READ MORE
2. Explained: State of (un)employment in India READ MORE
3. Tackling the inflation hydra READ MORE
4. Contrasting rules for farm, corporate loans READ MORE
5. MSME Sector needs major reforms to resolve job crisis READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY 

1. Climate Change Putting 4% Of Global GDP at Risk, New Study Estimates READ MORE
2. Land the size of South America will be degraded if current trends continue: UN Report READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Permanent bliss lies beyond our senses READ MORE
2. Bollywood industry and tobacco READ MORE
3. Roots Of Rage~II READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. Hydrogen has potential to transform India’s energy ecosystem by making India net energy exporter. Examine.
2. How far do you agree with this view that to solve the unemployment crisis, India needs to think rethink of its economic model, from macroeconomic policy to industrial policy to strengthening small enterprises? Justify your view.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• As a leader your every action has a consequence, make sure it is one you intend.
• The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
• Creating a hydrogen economy is a chicken and egg problem as consumers seek lower costs which could be possible with scalability and large investments, but for those, producers seek assured demand.
• The online business model today hinges on surveillance of user behaviour to maximise the accuracy of advertisements, the main source of revenue.
• Agriculture is passing through severe distress and banks must realise that coercion is not the way to recover unpaid dues.
• Easing the regulatory environment is a pre-condition to encouraging entrepreneurial instincts of the youth.
• The long-term solution to unemployment has to involve a rethink of the economic model, from macroeconomic policy to industrial policy to strengthening small enterprises.
• To tackle any problem, one needs to both acknowledge it and estimate it accurately.
• With many states enacting laws to make conversion of religion by marriage unlawful, the Special Marriage Act may indeed prove to be a blessing-in-disguise for the interfaith couple.

50-WORD TALK

• PM Modi targeting non-BJP states for high fuel taxes at a Covid review meeting is unfortunate. Fuel taxes have been used by all sides to bolster revenues. Union government is also guilty of managing fuel prices for electoral reasons. A national consensus is needed on fuel taxes, not public finger-pointing.
• Realising the challenges posed by the pandemic, the Government needs to take every necessary step to bring school education back on track and develop a road map for learning recovery. Governments, parents, communities and schools need to work together. It is our moral and social responsibility towards the future of this nation.

Things to Remember:

• For prelims-related news try to understand the context of the news and relate with its concepts so that it will be easier for you to answer (or eliminate) from given options.
• Whenever any international place will be in news, you should do map work (marking those areas in maps and exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers, etc. same applies to the national places.)
• For economy-related news (banking, agriculture, etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related to various economic aspects, for example, if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing price rises, shortage of essential supplies, banking rates, etc.
• For main exam-related topics, you should focus on the various dimensions of the given topic, the most important topics which occur frequently and are important from the mains point of view will be covered in ED.
• Try to use the given content in your answer. Regular use of this content will bring more enrichment to your writing.

THE CONTEXT: Sri Lanka is going through an economic meltdown of a scale unseen since the country’s financial crisis of 1948. India also experienced a similar type of crisis in 1990, which it successfully managed. This article will undertake an economic comparison of both countries with special reference to the economic crisis.

WHAT IS THE SRI LANKAN ECONOMIC CRISIS?

The country’s crumbling economy is facing a shortage of foreign currency, which has led to a massive reduction in imports of essential items. Sri Lanka relies heavily on its imports. It imports petroleum, food, paper, sugar, lentils, medicines, and transportation equipment, among other essential items. The lack of foreign currency means the country does not have the money to buy (import) these commodities. Imports are so essential that the government had to cancel examinations for millions of school students because they ran out of printing paper. The situation in Sri Lanka is so critical that the government had to suspend operations at its only fuel refinery because it ran out of crude oil stocks. The economy is plagued by inflation, which hit 15.1 percent. Government data shows that food inflation has risen to 25.7 percent. According to the data available on IMF, Sri Lanka’s gross debt as a percentage of GDP accounted for 79.02% in 2016 and this has risen to 111.42% in 2022. This implies what the country owes is more than what it produces. The twin-deficit problem emerged. There is a continued protest going on in Sri Lanka demanding the resignation of the President and the Prime Minister.

A TIMELINE OF THE SRI LANKAN ECONOMIC CRISIS

NOVEMBER 2019: 

• After winning Sri Lanka’s presidential election and months ahead of a parliamentary ballot, Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced sweeping tax cuts.
• The Cabinet cut the value-added tax to eight percent from 15 percent and also abolished seven other taxes, including a two percent nation-building tax paid by businesses.
• The sweeping tax cuts led to a credit rating downgrade in 2020, leading to Sri Lanka losing access to international financial markets.
• Sri Lanka started dipping into its foreign reserves to meet its debt obligations. This resulted in foreign reserves plummeting from a healthy level of $8,864 million in June 2019 to $2,361 million in January 2022. (See Figure 1)

2020:

• The COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 made the situation worse. Tourist inflows and tourism revenues fell further; exports of tea and rubber declined due to lower demand; and remittances, another booster to the foreign exchange reserves, also fell as Lankans across the globe lost jobs.
• The GDP declined by 3.5 percent, the Current Account Deficit touched 7.9 percent of GDP, and the fiscal deficit climbed to 11.1 percent.

APRIL 2021:

• The Lankan government on 29 April 2021 decided to ban the import of chemical fertilizers and any other agrochemicals to make the Indian Ocean nation the first in the world to practice “organic-only” agriculture. The move was aimed at reducing pressure on forex reserves.
• Agriculture experts strongly criticized the move as “ill-advised” and “unscientific”. The farming community expressed fears that such a drastic policy shift could result in a steep drop in yield.

NOVEMBER 2021:

• Facing protests and seeing a drop in agricultural output, the government said that it would partially lift the ban.
• However, the damage was done. The ban had led to a reduction in yield, which went down by 25 percent.
• Tea cultivation, which is one of the mainstays of the economy, was also badly hit. The output of pepper, cinnamon, and vegetables went down by 30 percent.
• This forced the government to rely on rice and other staples even more from foreign countries.

MARCH 2022:

• The situation became even direr by the end of March as a critical lack of foreign currency left the island nation unable to pay for vital imports, leading to dire shortages in everything from life-saving medicines to cement.
• On 30 March, the island nation announced 13-hour daily power cuts nationwide. The country had been under severe electricity rationing since the start of the month.

APRIL 2022:

• The plunge into darkness and the severe food shortages led to people getting furious and that anger spilled onto the streets on 1 April when demonstrators tried to storm the president’s home.
• The crowd turned violent, setting two military buses, a police jeep, two patrol motorcycles, and a three-wheeler ablaze. They also threw bricks at officers. Following the violence, a 36-hour curfew was imposed.
• A state of emergency was declared, giving security forces sweeping powers.
• The crisis deepened after Sri Lanka’s Cabinet resigned en masse from their positions.
• Trading on Sri Lanka’s stock exchange is being shut down. Additionally, Sri Lanka’s central bank governor announced his resignation.
• The embattled president loses his parliamentary majority as former allies urge him to quit. He lifts the state of emergency.
• The country’s central bank hiked interest rates by a record 700 basis points in a bid to halt the free fall of the Sri Lankan rupee, which has plunged more than 35 percent in a month.
• The country announces it is defaulting on its entire external debt of $51bn as a “last resort” after running out of foreign exchange to import desperately needed goods.

SRI LANKA’S FOREIGN DEBT

AN ANALYSIS OF THE SRI LANKAN ECONOMIC CRISIS?

Sri Lanka has suffered a serious balance of payments (BOP) crisis since early 2020. With the global spread of COVID19, Sri Lanka has lost about US $ 4 billion in annual foreign currency inflows from the tourism industry. Even before it, the Easter Day bombing had already subdued the tourist arrivals. The country’s credit rating is steadily declining due to the negative effects of COVID19 on the economy, reckless changes in economic policies such as tax cuts, and the government’s stubborn stance of not seeking support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Due to these developments, Sri Lanka was unable to borrow from the international capital markets through the issuance of international government bonds (ISBs). Since April 2019, this country has not issued a single ISB

Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange inflows have declined significantly. In 2020, the government imposed strict import restrictions, including the suspension of car imports, to curb the outflow of foreign currency. The outflow of foreign exchange to imports has decreased, but the obligation to repay external debt remains unchanged. This means that Sri Lanka’s external funding gap (lack of foreign currency inflows to cover foreign currency outflows) continued to widen without the opportunity to issue an ISB. In the absence of sufficient foreign exchange inflows, the government continued to deplete its foreign exchange reserves to pay off existing loans. The Sri Lankan government also tinkered with the exchange rate which led to the black marketing of this scarce resource. The usual response to this kind of serious BOP crisis is to seek the help of the IMF. In fact, the very reason the IMF was created was to help countries deal with the BOP crisis. However, the Sri Lankan government has stubbornly refused to seek the help of the IMF or restructure its debt and instead is looking to China and India. Sri Lanka also announced a default on all of its $51 billion external debt as a last resort.

HOW INDIA HAS RESPONDED TO THE SRI LANKAN ECONOMIC CRISIS?

WHAT WAS INDIA’S BALANCE OF PAYMENT CRISIS?

The BOP problem began to surface in the last years of the Rajiv Gandhi administration, where fiscal expansion led to an increase in the current account deficit. Successive governments could not take decisive actions. The situation was in jeopardy when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and oil prices soared. The market has lost confidence in the government’s ability to deal with the situation. Foreign banks stopped making new loans while claiming to repay the old ones. The influx of NRI funds has become negative. Negotiations were not very successful, as the IMF lends only to countries that are willing to make the difficult decisions needed to balance the BOP. Foreign exchange reserves were plummeting and India was at risk of defaulting. The inflation was also skyrocketing. The import cover was only sufficient to last for two weeks. The country was going through a twin-deficit crisis.

WHAT WAS INDIA’S RESPONSE TO THE CRISIS?

POLITICAL INITIATIVES:

• A Congress-led coalition under P.V. Narasimha Rao was sworn in and its first priority was to deal with the BOP crisis.
• It took strong action, including devaluation and reducing the fiscal deficit, but did not limit itself to dealing with the BOP. It also took up the other challenge of slow growth.

NEGOTIATION WITH IMF:

• The new government, with Manmohan Singh as finance minister, continued negotiations with the IMF to get loans that would tide over the immediate problem.
• The bank recommended and pushed through reforms focused on five key areas of investment and trade regimes, the financial sector, taxation, and public enterprises.
• They effectively ended four decades of central planning, significantly shifted resource allocation decisions from the public sector to the private sector and markets, and started integrating the country into the world economy.

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT:

• It began with a devaluation of the rupee in two stages, on 1 July and 3 July 1991. This was accompanied by a major liberalization of trade policy.
• Almost all intermediate and capital goods, which earlier needed an import licence, were allowed to be freely imported against Exim scrips issued to exporters at 30-40% of export earnings.
• The Exim scrips were freely tradable and the premium on them was an additional incentive for exporters.
• This introduced a market mechanism for limiting imports to a sustainable level.
• Tax reforms covering both direct and indirect taxes laid out by the Chelliah committee were implemented over three years.
• Foreign capital inflows in the form of portfolio flows were liberalized in steps so is the approach toward a floating exchange rate.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN SRI LANKAN AND INDIAN ECONOMIC CRISIS

There are many similarities between both countries with respect to the nature and causes of the crisis although they differ in their response mechanisms: Let us discuss them in detail.

IS INDIA LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE A CRISIS SIMILAR TO THAT OF SRI LANKA?

In light of the recent Sri Lankan economic crisis, there are views that India’s debt to GDP ratio figures is in line with that of Sri Lanka and that a similar economic crisis awaits India. Sri Lanka’s total debt to GDP is certainly high, over 100%, but India’s total debt to GDP is not as high as Sri Lanka. From 2016-17 to 2020-21, India’s total public debt accounted for approximately 50% of GDP. The country’s debt position is much lower than Sri Lanka’s. But including all state debt, the debt position does not provide for a rosy picture (See Figure 2). Unlike Sri Lanka, where half of the debt is external, India’s total external debt to GDP is just under 3%, significantly lower than Sri Lanka. Also, the foreign exchange reserve totaling around $600 Billion provides a cushion to external and internal shocks.

DEBT POSITIONS OF INDIA AND SRI LANKA

ARE THERE ANY ECONOMIC LESSONS FOR INDIA FROM THE SRI LANKAN CRISIS?

SRI LANKA AND INDIA COMPARISON

THE WAY FORWARD

THE CONCLUSION: Sri Lanka is encountering an unprecedented economic crisis, and the country’s relations with China and India have also taken an interesting turn. So far, Sri Lanka has been trying to balance both countries and reap benefits from the geopolitical interests of China and India, as both countries have strategic interests in Sri Lanka. This was Sri Lanka’s strategy to avoid seeking IMF assistance and carry out economic reforms. However, this is a dangerous game to play for a country that is facing a severe economic crisis. In situations like these, vulnerable countries, Sri Lanka in this case, do not have much bargaining power. Thus, Lanka can learn from the Indian experience of the 1990s and it needs to approach the IMF for assistance and undertake much-needed economic reforms as India did without sacrificing national interest.

Questions:

1. Critically analyze the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka. What according to you can be the possible strategies to overcome it?
2. “Although there are similarities between the ongoing Sri Lankan economic crisis and the Balance of Payment crisis India experienced in 1990, what differentiates them is the effectiveness of the response mechanisms of both the countries” Explain.

GEOGRAPHY: NATURAL RESOURCES

1. GLOBAL COAL PLANT CAPACITY DIPS IN 2021

THE CONTEXT: According to a report by the Global Energy Monitor, Global coal-plant capacity under development declined in 2021, which conducts an annual survey of coal power capacity under development or deployment. China leads in coal power expansion, with about 25,000 MW in new coal plants, followed by India with around 6,100 MW.

THE EXPLANATION:

After rising in 2020 for the first time since 2015, total coal power capacity under development declined 13% last year, from 525 gigawatts (GW) to 457 GW, a record low. 1 GW is 1,000 MW.

• Thirty-four countries have new coal plants under consideration, down from 41 countries in January 2021. China, South Korea, and Japan have pledged to stop funding new coal plants in other countries, but China continued to lead all countries in domestic development of new coal plants, commissioning more coal capacity than the rest of the world combined.
• In all, 45,000 MW of global coal power capacity — a little over half of which was from China — was commissioned in 2021 while 26,8000 MW was retired, causing a net increase in the global coal fleet of 18,200 MW. In 2020, the net increase was 11,500 MW, which was the result of 56,800 MW in new capacity and 45,300 MW of global retirements.
• The report comes on the back of an influential report earlier this month from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which showed there was no carbon budget left to accommodate new coal plants, and that coal use needed to fall by 75% by 2030 (from 2019 levels) to limit global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius, in line with the Paris Agreement.

Watershed year

• 2021 was a significant year in the continued global shift away from new coal power, with multiple countries making significant public commitments to pivot their energy futures and swathes of pre-construction coal capacity cancelled.
• In all, 65 countries have made commitments not to build new plants — up from 36 in January 2021. This is almost a doubling of the number of countries turning away from new coal in just a single year. Many countries have now scrapped their proposed coal projects and several others have indicated their intent to do the same.
• The European Union’s 27 member states retired a record 12.9 GW in 2021, with the most retirements in Germany (5.8 GW), Spain (1.7 GW), and Portugal (1.9 GW). Portugal became coal free in November 2021, nine years before its targeted 2030 phase-out date.
• There has been a 77% fall in coal plant capacity in pre-construction since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015.

 On track in India

• However, India has also insisted that its right to use coal be recognised in the context of principles of climate justice. From 2015 to 2021, pre-construction coal power capacity in the country decreased nearly 90%, from approximately 238.6 GW in 2015, to 36.6 GW in 2020 — and down an additional 12.7 GW in 2021, to 23.8 GW. 1 GW is 1000 MW.
• Despite the phase-down of new coal, more than 23.8 GW of planned capacity remains, with more than half (12.6 GW or 52%) permitted; 31.3 GW under construction; and few if any plants with firm retirement dates. The Environment Ministry has introduced more stringent pollution standards for coal plants in 2015, but the deadline to comply with the standards has been repeatedly delayed.

2. RETHINK SAND USE, MOVE TO CIRCULAR ECONOMY: UNEP

THE CONTEXT: The report released by UNEP’s Global Resource Information Database-Geneva team provides necessary guidance gathered from world experts to switch to improved practices for the extraction and management of soil.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The world needs to rethink the extraction and use of sand, the second-most used resource globally, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted in a new report.
• Extracting sand where it plays an active role, such as rivers and coastal or marine ecosystems, can cause a series of damages to the environment, according to Sand and Sustainability: 10 strategic recommendations to avert a crisis. The damages include
• Erosion
• Salination of aquifers
• Loss of protection against storm surges
• Impacts on biodiversity

These challenges pose a threat to livelihoods through water supply, food production, fisheries, or to the tourism industry, the report said.

• Around 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel is used every year, which is enough to build a wall 27 metres wide and 27 metres high around Earth, according to UNEP. Sand is being used faster than it can be naturally replenished, so its responsible management is crucial, it added.
• Sand must be recognised as a strategic resource, not only as a material for construction, but also for its multiple roles in the environment, said the authors of the report.
• They stressed that governments, industries and consumers should price sand in a way that recognises its true social and environmental value.
• Extraction of sand from beaches should be banned due to its importance for coastal resilience, the environment and the economy, the report recommended. It is the “most cost-effective strategy for adapting to climate change due to how it protects against storm surges and impacts from sea level rise”, the body observed.
• An international standard on how sand is extracted from the marine environment should be developed, UNEP proposed in the report. This can bring about dramatic improvements as most marine dredging is done through public tenders open to international companies.
• The need for new institutional and legal structures for better governance of the resource and involvement of stakeholders and need for “place-based approaches” for better management of the resource, the report underlined.
• Sand provides “breeding grounds for diverse flora and fauna, and it also plays a vital function in supporting biodiversity, including marine plants that act as carbon sinks or filter water”, the report said, stressing why sand is important for sustaining life on earth.
• Solutions exist for moving towards a circular economy for sand, such as banning the landfilling of mineral waste and encouraging sand to be reused in public procurement contracts, the report highlighted.
• Alternatives to sand like crushed rock or recycled construction and demolition material, as well as ‘ore-sand’ from mine-tailings can also help in the transition.

THE HEALTH ISSUES

3. CHINA REPORTS FIRST HUMAN CASE OF H3N8 BIRD FLU

THE CONTEXT: According to the country’s health authority, China has recorded the first human infection with the H3N8 strain of bird flu, but the risk of it spreading among people was low.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the country’s health authority, the H3N8 variant has previously been detected elsewhere in the world in horses, dogs, birds and seals but no human cases of H3N8 have been reported.
• China has huge populations of both farmed and wild birds of many species, creating an ideal environment for avian viruses to mix and mutate.
• Avian influenza occurs mainly in wild birds and poultry. Cases of transmission between humans are extremely rare.

Background:

• The H5N1 and H7N9 strains of bird flu, detected in 1997 and 2013, respectively, have been responsible for most cases of human illness from avian influenza, according to the US Centres for Disease Control.
• Human infections of zoonotic, or animal-borne, influenzas are “primarily acquired through direct contact with infected animals or contaminated environments, but do not result in efficient transmission of these viruses between people”, according to the World Health Organisation.
• In 2012, H3N8 was blamed for the deaths of more than 160 seals off the north-eastern coast of the United States after it caused deadly pneumonia in the animals.

 Value Addition:

What is avian influenza?

• Avian Influenza is a highly contagious viral disease that affects both domestic and wild birds. Avian Influenza viruses have also been isolated, although less frequently, from mammalian species, including rats, mice, weasels, ferrets, pigs, cats, tigers, dogs and horses, as well as from humans.
• Circulation of avian influenza viruses is not a new phenomenon. There are many descriptions of historical outbreaks of avian influenza disseminating within domestic poultry flocks in the literature. AI occurs worldwide and different strains are more prevalent in certain areas of the world than others.
• Avian influenza (AI) is a highly contagious viral disease affecting several species of food-producing birds (chickens, turkeys, quails, guinea fowl, etc.), as well as pet birds and wild birds. Occasionally mammals, including humans, may contract avian influenza. There are many AI virus strains, which are usually classified into two categories, low pathogenic (LPAI) strains, which typically cause few or no clinical signs in poultry and highly pathogenic (HPAI) strains, which can cause severe clinical signs and potentially high mortality rates among poultry

There are 4 types of influenza:

• Influenza A viruses infect humans and many different animals. The emergence of a new and very different influenza A virus with the ability to infect people and have sustained human-to-human transmission can cause an influenza pandemic.
• Influenza B viruses circulate among humans and cause seasonal epidemics. Recent data showed seals also can be infected.
• Influenza C viruses can infect both humans and pigs but infections are generally mild and are rarely reported.
• Influenza D viruses primarily affect cattle and are not known to infect or cause illness in people.

THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE

4. EXPLAINED: WHY IS MAHARASHTRA EXPERIENCING A HEATWAVE AGAIN?

THE CONTEXT: A heatwave has gripped the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra. This is the fourth heatwave in the last two months and the second in April 2022.

THE EXPLANATION:

The state’s highest maximum temperatures (in degrees Celsius) were recorded at Brahmapuri (44.7), followed by Akola (44.5), Chandrapur and Wardha (44.4 each), Gondiya (43.5), Amravati (43.2), Nagpur, Washim and Parbhani (43 each), Ahmednagar (42.3) and Solapur (41.4).

What is a heatwave?

• A region is under the grip of a heatwave if the maximum temperature reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius or more in the plains and at least 30 degrees Celsius or more in hilly regions. When the maximum temperature departure ranges between 4.5 and 6 degrees, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) declares a heatwave.
• A severe heatwave is declared when the recorded maximum temperature of a locality departure from normal is over 6.4 degrees Celsius. Also, if an area records over 45 degrees and 47 degrees Celsius on any given day, then the IMD declares heatwave and severe heatwave conditions, respectively.

Lack of pre-monsoon showers

Except for the southern peninsula and northeast regions, the weather has remained dry across the rest of the country. Once, in the last week, parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi reported light to moderate rainfall. The lack of pre-monsoon showers has also led to an increase in the overall maximum temperature. Maharashtra recorded 63 per cent deficient rainfall from March 1 to April 26, 2022.

What’s the weather forecast for Maharashtra?

• The IMD has said heatwave conditions are very likely to prevail in isolated pockets of Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada and parts of Vidarbha. Maximum temperatures will remain above normal to appreciably above normal during this season.

5. WORLD WILL FACE AT LEAST 560 CLIMATE DISASTERS EVERY YEAR BY 2030, WARNS UN

THE CONTEXT: According to a new report released by United Nations, the world will face around 560 disasters every year by 2030.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The world has experienced 350-500 medium- to large-scale disasters every year over the last 20 years, said the report published March 26, 2022. This is five times higher than the previous three decades, the Global Assessment Report (GAR 2022) released by the United Nations.
• The rapid rise in the disaster frequency can be attributed to climate change and inadequate risk management, according to the intergovernmental organisation. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) released the report ahead of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in May, 2022.

• Poor governance and risk management systems are fundamentally underestimating true global risk and putting all our socio-economic gains in danger, it noted.
• As the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework is underway, this report should be a wake-up call that countries need to accelerate action across the Framework’s four priorities to stop the spiral of increasing disasters.

Poverty burden will increase

• The frequent disasters will add to the poverty burden of the world, the report said. An additional 37.6 million people are estimated to be living in conditions of extreme poverty due to the impacts of climate change and disasters by 2030, it noted.
• A “worst case” scenario of climate change and disasters will push an additional 100.7 million into poverty by 2030, according to UN.
• The poorest are most vulnerable and will bear the brunt of the disasters, the analysis noted citing the INFORM Natural Hazard Risk Index. 
• A majority of countries that face a high disaster risk are also among those with the highest share of population living under the national poverty line, it said.
• These include the Philippines, Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam from the Asia-Pacific region.

Around 90 per cent of the countries which are at a high risk according to the INFORM Natural Hazard Risk Index are middle- and lower-income countries, with an average national poverty rate of 34 per cent.

• In comparison, the countries which are supposedly under “low risk” have a poverty rate of less than one per cent.
• The poor are affected the most because of their high dependency on outdoor work like in agriculture or reliability on natural capital, both of which are vulnerable to a changing climate.
• With inadequate financial means to adapt, the poorest are most vulnerable in both the developing and developed nations, the UN report said.

Developing nations most vulnerable, not insured 

• Annual direct economic loss from disasters has more than doubled over the past three decades. It increased to over $170 billion in the 2010s from an average of around $70 billion in the 1990s.
• Just 40 per cent of all disaster-related losses were insured between 1980 and 2018.
• This means, 60 per cent of all disaster-related losses were not insured. Once again, there exists a wide inequality between the developed and developing nations.

Direct economic loss

• Global warming reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius in the near-term will cause unavoidable increases in multiple climate hazards and present multiple risks to ecosystems and humans, said the IPCC report Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.
• Around $170 billion per year has been the average cost of the natural disasters over the last decade, according to UN. Low-income and lower-middle income lose, on average, one per cent of their national GDP to disasters every year, compared to 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent in high-income countries and upper middle-income countries respectively.
• Of these, the greatest share of economic loss is borne by countries in the Asia and Pacific region, where the countries lose on average 1.6 per cent of GDP to disasters each year.
• Africa is the second-most affected region, losing an average of 0.6 per cent of GDP to disasters, the UN estimated. 
• The first four months of 2022 have been devastating for Africa, which faced at least six major climate-led disasters, including the recent floods in South Africa, the body noted.

The damaging floods in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa followed three tropical cyclones and two tropical storms that hit South-East Africa in just six weeks of the year.

Building back better

• A range of sectors, including the financial, governmental, development, insurance and risk management sectors, can stop this spiral of self-destruction and safeguard the future of the planet amid rising risks, the report suggested.
• Insurance is a key tool to adapt for building back from disasters, reminded the report. It is a wake-up call to adapt to “climate emergency” by estimating the disaster losses better, and insuring them.
• The recommendations in the report were built on the Glasgow Pact of the 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that called for doubling of finance to support developing countries in adapting to the impacts of climate change and building resilience.
• ‘Climate action failure’ has been identified as the number one global risk with potentially the most severe impact over the next decade, according to the World Economic Forum.
• Lack of data will be a major obstacle to addressing the risks which are not measured well, the UN report flagged. “The basic data-collection systems of most countries are not yet able to fully track the extent of disaster damage and loss, the organisation noted.
• According to UN, there is also the need for governments and the financial industry to improve accounting of the financial assets at risk under various future climate change scenarios. Financial systems, including insurance, must be reworked to account for the real costs of risk, particularly long-term risks.

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

6. CARBON DATING FINDS ASURGARH IS ODISHA’S OLDEST FORTIFIED SETTLEMENT

THE CONTEXT: The Asurgarh fortified settlement, which was excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in Odisha’s Kalahandi district, has been ascertained to be the oldest among the major fortified settlements in the State. It dates back to the ninth century BC.

THE EXPLANATION:

• To determine the age of the ancient settlement, archaeologists deployed the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon technique, which established the Asurgarh era as spanning over three cultural phases from ninth century BC to second-third century AD.
• The Asurgarh era has been compared with early historic sites in Odisha such as Sisupalgarh (near Bhubaneswar); Jaugarh, a fortified settlement on the Rushikulya valley (Ganjam); Manamunda (Boudh); Khalkattapatna (Puri); the port site of Manikpatna (Puri); Radhanagar (Jajpur); Kharligarh (Balangir) and Budhigarh (Kalahandi). Excavations were carried out by scholars to find parallels with early civilisations such as the Harappan Civilisation.
• Modern carbon dating methods have not been used to determine age in any of the other excavation sites.
• The analysis of artifacts and materials suggest that local inhabitants might have started to carve out a rural settlement in the landscape around ninth century BC.
• Subsequently, the settlement might have expanded along with development of iron metallurgy between fourth century BC to second century AD. This era was contemporary to the Mauryan period. During second century AD to third-fourth century AD, the fortified settlement is believed to have lost steam. “It might have declined due to the territorial expansion of a neighbouring State like the Satavahana and early Gupta dynasties, or due to ecological changes.
• According to Archaeologist, a total number of 417 antiquities have been retrieved from the site. Beads of coral, lapis lazuli, carnelian, glass, jasper, garnet, shell, agate, milky quartz, terracotta, kaolin, and soft stone, and circular discs made out of potsherds and stone, form the richest collection among the antiquities.
• Apart from charcoal samples being tested by the AMS radiocarbon technique, there were relative dated objects such as a silver punch-marked coin of imperial variety, and bricks and terracotta roof tiles found at the site.

 VALUE ADDITION:

What is Carbon Dating?

Radiocarbon dating or carbon dating or carbon-14 dating is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. Unstable carbon-14 gradually decays to carbon-12 at a steady rate

How does it work?

• Radiocarbon dating works by comparing the three different isotopes of carbon. Isotopes of a particular element have the same number of protons in their nucleus but different numbers of neutrons. This means that although they are very similar chemically, they have different masses.

The total mass of the isotope is indicated by the numerical superscript. While the lighter isotopes 12C and 13C are stable, the heaviest isotope 14C (radiocarbon) is radioactive. This means its nucleus is so large that it is unstable.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Q1. Consider the following statements about coal-based power plants in world:

1. Coal-plant capacity under development declined continuously in last five years.
2. In 2021, India had largest expansion of coal power followed by China.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1 only

b) 2 only

c) Both 1 and 2

d) Neither 1 nor 2

ANSWER FOR 26TH APR 2022

1. Answer: D

Explanation:

• Cost disease also known as Baumol’s cost disease, refers to the increase in the wages of certain labourers even though their productivity or skill level has not risen commensurately.
• This happens because there is competition between various industries for the limited supply of labour. So, even if the productivity of their employees has not risen significantly, employers in many cases have no choice but to pay higher wages in order to prevent the movement of labourers to other higher-paying industries.
• Let’s take the case of an agricultural economy where wages are at a certain level. Now suppose that a manufacturing industry suddenly crops up and bids labour away from the agricultural sector. This will raise the wages of labourers and employers in the agricultural sector will have no choice but to pay higher wages to prevent all their labour from moving into the manufacturing industry.

2. ANSWER: A

EXPLANATION:

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2. UN adopts resolution requiring UNSC permanent members to justify veto use READ MORE
3. China reports first human case of H3N8 bird flu READ MORE
4. Explained: Why is Maharashtra experiencing a heatwave again? READ MORE
5. World will face at least 560 climate disasters every year by 2030, warns UN READ MORE
6. Rethink sand use, move to circular economy: UNEP READ MORE
7. Centre cancels foreign fund licence of NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative READ MORE

Main Exam

GS Paper- 1

1. Climate change affects women, girls READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. A splintered ‘nerve centre’: Services of urban local bodies have to be integrated with the ICCC for improving amenities for people READ MORE
2. Standing up to America: India refuses to take criticism on violation of rights lying down READ MORE
3. Gaming industry: India needs rational regulations to become global leader READ MORE

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

1. The right age: Parents must to first see that their child is fit for school, mentally and physically READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. India’s designation by the USCIRF READ MORE
2. India and Europe, a continental shift READ MORE
3. Important to learn from S Asia’s mistakes READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Data-dependent policy: Consumption survey will fill important gaps READ MORE
2. A year of hunger: How the Russia-Ukraine war is worsening climate-linked food shortages READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY 

1. Synergy and collaboration are key drivers in fighting forest fires and heatwaves READ MORE
2. Conservation of Endangered Great Indian Bustard Encounters Birdhit READ MORE

SECURITY

1. Common values, shared threats in India-Australia cyber security ties READ MORE

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

1. Increase in disasters leads to spike in intentional homicides of women: UN Report READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Learn from mistakes READ MORE
2. Of genes, samskaras and the reality without READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. ‘Long-term community engagement, incentive mechanisms, and shared ownership can be a silver bullet in the management of forest fires’. Comment on the statement.
2. Discuss the importance of climate justice, and gender and social equity for sustainable development.
3. ‘Change in climate is making all sections of society vulnerable for risks but women are that section, which could be most impacted section of the society by this phenomenon’. Justify the statement, in the light of recent IPPC report.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• Today’s human rights violations are the causes of tomorrow’s conflicts.
• Services of urban local bodies have to be integrated with the ICCC for improving amenities for people.
• Deepening cooperation can develop avenues for mutual learning and create complementary markets in cyber tools and technologies, boosting bilateral business and strategic commitments on both continents.
• The Russia-Ukraine conflict has shown how cyber threat actors, both state and non-state, have become significant players in hybrid or “unrestricted” warfare.
• Technology-led disinflation will not shelter us from a storm of fast rising prices amid economic slowdowns.
• Given the uncertain geopolitical situation which has led to supply chain disruptions and inflation, investors will be in a ‘wait and watch’ mode this year.
• Long-term community engagement, incentive mechanisms, and shared ownership can be a silver bullet in the management of forest fires.
• The EU and India bring complementary advantages to the partnership while structural and attitudinal similarities provide learning opportunities.
• The recent IPCC report reiterated India’s need for climate justice, and gender and social equity, importantly for sustainable development.
• Climate justice is a utopian concept given our historic baggage of social, cultural, economic, and gender inequities.
• It is imperative for all women to have the absolute right to their bodies and easy access to health services for their sexual and reproductive well-being. For them to be empowered, they need to be educated, to be able to take decisions, particularly with regard to reproductive rights.

50-WORD TALK

• EAM Jaishankar’s call to Europe to look beyond Ukraine and recall how Afghanistan was thrown under the bus is a sobering reminder of geopolitical realities. Europe has much to reflect upon: From its Russian energy purchases to economic bonding with China. India is right to hold the mirror to Europe.

Things to Remember:

• For prelims-related news try to understand the context of the news and relate with its concepts so that it will be easier for you to answer (or eliminate) from given options.
• Whenever any international place will be in news, you should do map work (marking those areas in maps and exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers, etc. same applies to the national places.)
• For economy-related news (banking, agriculture, etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related to various economic aspects, for example, if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing price rises, shortage of essential supplies, banking rates, etc.
• For main exam-related topics, you should focus on the various dimensions of the given topic, the most important topics which occur frequently and are important from the mains point of view will be covered in ED.
• Try to use the given content in your answer. Regular use of this content will bring more enrichment to your writing.

[WpProQuiz 101]

THE GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

1. OLD PENSION SCHEME VS NEW PENSION SCHEME

THE CONTEXT: Recently, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh announced the restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS) for government employees for the year 2022-2023.

THE EXPLANATION:

NPS vs OPS: The old pension scheme was done away with in December 2003 by the BJP-led central government when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was prime minister. Its substitute, the National Pension Scheme (NPS), took effect from April 1, 2004.

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority:

• It is the statutory Authority established by an enactment of the Parliament, to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the National Pension System (NPS).
• It works under the Department of Financial Services under the Ministry of Finance.
• It performs the function of appointing various intermediate agencies like Pension Fund Managers, Central Record Keeping Agency (CRA) etc.
• It develops, promotes and regulates the pension industry under the NPS and also administers the Atal Pension Yojana.

2. ‘LABOUR PARTICIPATION DIPS TO 40% FROM 46% IN SIX YEARS’

THE CONTEXT: According to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, Only 40% of Indians of legal working age were employed or were looking for jobs in 2021-22. In comparison, the labour force participation rate was above 46% in 2016-17.

THE EXPLANATION:

• In absolute terms, India’s labour force has shrunk from about 445 million to 435 million in the six years. Currently, about 1,085 million Indians are aged 15 or above and can be legally employed.
• Labour force participation among women, which was already in low double digits, has declined further. In 2016-17, about 15% women were employed or looking for jobs. This metric dipped to 9.2% in 2021-22.
• Among men, the participation rate declined to 67%, from more than 74%. The dip in the participation rate was higher in the urban areas.
• The rate slid to 37.5% from 44.7% in urban areas — a more than seven percentage-point drop. The rate in rural areas fell to 41.4% from 46.9%. Of the 24 States with data, 23 saw participation rates decline in March 2022 compared with March 2016.
• The rate dropped in all the States, except in Rajasthan. The slide was more pronounced in two southern States, which had a high participation rate to start with.
• Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had participation rates of 54% and 56%, respectively, in March 2016, and witnessed the sharpest declines. Between 2016 and 2022, participation rates fell 20 percentage points and 17 percentage points for Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh respectively.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

3. THE QUARREL OVER KURIL ISLANDS

THE CONTEXT: Recently, Japan’s Diplomatic Bluebook for 2022 described the Kuril Islands (which Japan calls the Northern Territories and Russia as the South Kurils) as being under Russia’s “illegal occupation”.

THE EXPLANATION:

This is the first time in about two decades that Japan has used this phrase to describe the dispute over the Kuril Islands. Japan had been using softer language since 2003, saying that the dispute over the islands was the greatest concern in Russia-Japan bilateral ties.

What are the Kuril Islands/ Northern Territories?

• These are a set of four islands situated between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean near the north of Japan’s northernmost prefecture, Hokkaido. Both Moscow and Tokyo claim sovereignty over them though the islands have been under Russian control since the end of World War II.
• The Soviet Union had seized the islands at the end of World War II and by 1949 had expelled its Japanese residents. Tokyo claims that the disputed islands have been part of Japan since the early 19th century.

What lies behind the dispute?

• According to Tokyo, Japan’s sovereignty over the islands is confirmed by several treaties like the Shimoda Treaty of 1855, the 1875 Treaty for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands (Treaty of St. Petersburg), and the Portsmouth Treaty of 1905 signed after the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05 which Japan had won.
• Russia, on the other hand, claims the Yalta Agreement (1945) and the Potsdam Declaration (1945) as proof of its sovereignty and argues that the San Francisco Treaty of 1951 is legal evidence that Japan had acknowledged Russian sovereignty over the islands. Under Article 2 of the treaty, Japan had “renounced all right, title and claim to the Kuril Islands.”
• However, Japan argues that the San Francisco Treaty cannot be used here as the Soviet Union never signed the peace treaty. Japan also refuses to concede that the four disputed islands were in fact part of the Kuril chain.

Have there been attempts at resolution?

• Since 1991, there have been many attempts to resolve the dispute and sign a peace treaty. The most recent attempt was under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when joint economic development of the disputed islands was explored. In fact, both countries had agreed to have bilateral negotiations based on the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration.
• Russia was even willing to give back two islands, the Shikotan Island and the Habomai islets, to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty as per the 1956 declaration.
• Japan’s attempt to improve ties with Russia was driven by its need to diversify energy sources and Russia by its need to diversify its basket of buyers and bring in foreign investments. But nationalist sentiments on both sides prevented resolution of the dispute.

What next?

• Soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Japan made its unhappiness with Russia clear with its Foreign Minister Hideki Uyama, saying that Russia had “occupied” the southern part of the Kuril Islands, thereby violating international law.
• Japan has been among the most steadfast of Western allies in denouncing Russian aggression and punishing it with sanctions.
• The recent statement in its Diplomatic Bluebook will further damage relations between the two countries. Japan has probably been spurred by its fears of a Russia-China alliance as Japan itself has territorial disputes and an uneasy history with China.
• Secondly, Japan might have felt that this is a good opportunity to further isolate Russia and paint it as a “habitual offender” of international law.
• Finally, Tokyo might have been prompted to take this position as it feels that the invasion of Ukraine proves that getting back the Kuril Islands is a lost cause. Japan’s policy shift on the Kuril Islands will only embitter bilateral relations with Russia while advancing the possibility of its two neighbours, China and Russia, coming together against it.

 THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

4. FOREST FIRES CAN BE AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN REDUCING SOLAR POWER PRODUCTION IN INDIA

THE CONTEXT: A new study has found that forest fires which plague different parts of India, especially during the summer season play a major role in reducing solar power production in India.

THE EXPLANATION:

Analysis of the energy and financial losses due to the direct and indirect effects of forest fires on the production of solar plants can help grid operators to plan and schedule power generation, as also the distribution, supply, security, and overall stability of power production.

• Recently, solar energy generation has been widely used in developing countries such as India which has sufficient solar resources. However, several factors like clouds, aerosols, and pollution generated from various sources limit the solar irradiance causing performance issues in the photovoltaic and concentrated solar power plant installations. Large-scale development of a solar energy system requires proper planning, and there is a need to estimate the solar potential.
• Keeping this in mind, a group of researchers at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital an autonomous research institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Govt. of India, and the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), Greece tried to trace the factors that reduce solar energy production. They found that apart from clouds and aerosols, forest fires play a very crucial role in reducing solar energy production.
• The study published in the international peer-reviewed journal Remote Sensing shows that the aerosol optical depth values were up to 1.8 during the study period (January to April 2021), during which massive forest fire events led to attenuation of total solar radiation incident on a horizontal surface (global horizontal irradiance- GHI ) and solar radiation received from the sun without having been scattered (beam horizontal irradiance –BHI) by 0 to 45%. During this period the air masses were renewed quickly mitigating the smoke contribution to the total aerosol loads and were dominated by continental pollution.
• The scientists used remote sensing data for the research and studied the impact of aerosols and clouds on the solar energy potential over the Indian region with extensive analysis and model simulations. They also provided an analytical financial analysis in terms of revenue and losses due to clouds and aerosols.
• The findings of the present study will drastically increase the awareness among decision-makers about the effect of forest fires on energy management and planning at a country level. In addition, this research can support the mitigation processes and policies for climate change and its direct and indirect impacts on sustainable development.

Financial analysis of the aerosol, dust, and cloud impacts on the produced solar energy during January to April 2021. The impact was quantified in terms of daily mean and total energy losses, financial losses, and solar energy potential.

NEWS IN NUMBERS

5. ENABLING RURAL WOMEN

10 crores of women connected by Self-Help Groups (SHGs) who set the target of “Mission ₹1 lakh”, aimed at raising the annual income of women under self-help groups and boosting economic activity in rural areas across India. According to the Ministry for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj called upon the panchayats to ensure public welfare through empowerment, public participation, transparency and use of technology. Mission ₹1 lakh is an initiative aimed at enabling rural SHG women.

6. INCREASE IN INDIA’S MILITARY EXPENDITURE

• There is an 0.9 percentage, the increase in India’s military expenditure to $76.6 billion in 2021 when compared to 2020, according to a report released by defence think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

• China, the world’s second-largest spender, allocated an estimated $293 billion to its military in 2021, an increase of 4.7%from 2020 and 72% from 2012, the report added. The militaries of India and China have been in a border standoff in eastern Ladakh for the last 23 months.

7. NATURAL FARMING

According to Agricultural Ministry, 4 lakh hectares, the land brought under natural farming so far as part of a sub-scheme of the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, and it was the need of the hour to do farming that works in harmony with nature, reduces the cost of production, and ensures good-quality produce and profits to farmers. Noted that Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, parts of Haryana and Gujarat were gradually adapting to natural farming.

8. TIGER DEATHS

The 17 tigers to have died in Madhya Pradesh in the last 107 days, including three due to poaching, according to an official. A tigress cub was found dead in the buffer zone of Bandhavgarh Reserve in what may have been the handiwork of an adult tiger. Between January and December 2021, the State had lost 42 tigers, the biggest chunk of the 127 deaths nationwide reported by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Q1. In the field of economy, which of the following best explains meaning of term ‘cost disease’?

a) Increase in the cost of goods and services even if there is no increase in demand.

b) Selling of goods at low cost due to weak demand.

c) Increase in the cost of goods due to hoarding by traders.

d) Increase in the wages of certain laborer’s even though their productivity or skill level has not risen commensurately.

Q2. Kuril Islands, recently seen in news, are situated between

a) The Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean

b)The Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean

c) The Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan

d) The Sea of Japan and the East China Sea

ANSWER FOR 25TH APRIL 2022

Answer: D

Explanation:

The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation carries out an all-India survey on household consumption expenditure.

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