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THE POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. U.S. SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ABORTION RIGHTS

THE CONTEXT: On 24^th June 2022 the US Supreme Court took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The conservative-dominated court overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v Wade” decision that enshrined a woman’s right to an abortion.
• The court said “the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives; abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views.
• The opinion shredded the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling by the nation’s highest court that said women had the right to abortion based on the constitutional right to privacy over their own bodies.
• The court’s ruling goes against an international trend of easing abortion laws, including in such countries as Ireland, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia where the Catholic Church continues to wield considerable influence.

VICTORY FOR RELIGIOUS RIGHT

• It represents a victory of 50 years of struggle against abortion by the religious right but the anti-abortion camp is expected to continue to push for an outright nationwide ban.
• 13 states have adopted so-called “trigger laws” that will ban abortion following the move by the Supreme Court.
• Ten others have pre-1973 laws that could go into force or legislation that would ban abortion after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

THE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

2. G-20 SUMMIT 2023

THE CONTEXT: Jammu and Kashmir will host the 2023 meetings of the G20, an influential group of the world’s major economies. J&K government has set up a five-member high-level committee for overall coordination of G20 meetings to be held in the Union Territory.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The summit is likely to be held in January 2023.
• This will be the first major international summit in Jammu and Kashmir after the erstwhile state’s special status guaranteed under Article 370 of the Constitution was withdrawn and divided into two union territories in August 2019.
• In September 2021, Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal was appointed India’s Sherpa for the G20.

INDIAN AND G-20

• Prime Minister Modi has led India’s representation at G20 summits since 2014.
• India has been a member of the G20 since its inception in 1999.
• According to the MEA, India will be part of the G20 Troika (preceding, current, and incoming G20 Presidencies) from December 1, 2021, till November 30, 2024.

ABOUT G 20

• The G20 brings together 19 of the world’s leading economies and the European Union, with its members accounting for more than 80 per cent of global GDP, 75 per cent of global trade and 60 per cent of the worldwide population, according to the MEA.
• The G20 member nations are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

3. CARD TOKENISATION DEADLINE INCREASES BY 3 MONTHS

THE CONTEXT: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended the timeline for tokenisation of debit and credit cards by three months till September 30, 2022 “to avoid disruption and inconvenience to cardholders”.

THE EXPLANATION:

• After September 30, no entity in the card transaction or payment chain, other than the card issuers and card networks, should store the CoF (Card-on-File data or storage of actual card data) and any such data stored previously will be purged.
• The central bank had earlier fixed the due date for card tokenisation on June 30, 2022.
• Currently, many entities, including merchants, involved in an online card transaction chain store card data like card number and expiry date Card-on-File (CoF) citing cardholder convenience and comfort for undertaking transactions in future.
• While this practice does render convenience, availability of card details with multiple entities increases the risk of card data being stolen or misused.

WHAT IS TOKENISATION?

• In September 2021, the RBI prohibited merchants from storing customer card details on their servers with effect from January 01, 2022, and mandated the adoption of card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation as an alternative to card storage. It applies to domestic, online purchases.
• Tokenisation refers to replacement of actual credit and debit card details with an alternate code called the “token”, which will be unique for a combination of card, token requestor and device.
• A tokenised card transaction is considered safer as the actual card details are not shared with the merchant during transaction processing.

WHAT IS THE SIZE OF THE INDUSTRY?

• India has an estimated 100 crore debit and credit cards, which are used for about 1.5 crore daily transactions worth Rs 4000 crore.
• The value of the Indian digital payments industry in 2020-21, as per RBI’s annual report, was Rs 14,14,85,173 crore.

THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

4. PROTEST AGAINST ECO-SENSITIVE ZONES IN KERALA

THE CONTEXT: Farmers in Kerala are protesting against the Supreme Court’s recent order to establish 1-km Eco-Sensitive Zones around all protected areas, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks.

THE EXPLANATION:

• On June 3, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court heard a PIL which sought to protect forest lands in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu but was later expanded to cover the entire country.
• In its judgment, the court while referring to the 2011 guidelines as “reasonable”, directed all states to have a mandatory 1-km ESZ from the demarcated boundaries of every protected forest land, national park and wildlife sanctuary.
• It stated that no new permanent structure or mining will be permitted within the ESZ.
• If the existing ESZ goes beyond 1-km buffer zone or if any statutory instrument prescribes a higher limit, then such extended boundary shall prevail, the court.
• Due to the high density of human population near the notified protected areas, farmer’s groups and political parties have been demanding that all human settlements be exempt from the ESZ ruling.

WHAT ARE ECO-SENSITIVE ZONES?

• As per the National Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016), issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, land within 10 km of the boundaries of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries is to be notified as eco-fragile zones or Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ).
• While the 10-km rule is implemented as a general principle, the extent of its application can vary. Areas beyond 10-km can also be notified by the Union government as ESZs, if they hold larger ecologically important “sensitive corridors.”

WHY ARE ECO-SENSITIVE ZONES CREATED?

• According to the guidelines issued by the Environment Ministry on February 9, 2011, ESZs are created as “shock absorbers” for the protected areas, to minimize the negative impact on the “fragile ecosystems” by certain human activities taking place nearby. Furthermore, these areas are meant to act as a transition zone from areas requiring higher protection to those requiring lesser protection.
• The guidelines also state that the ESZs are not meant to hamper the daily activities of people living in the vicinity but are meant to guard the protected areas and “refine the environment around them”.
• To do so, the guidelines list the activities prohibited in an ESZ, such as commercial mining, sawmills, commercial use of wood, etc., apart from regulated activities like felling of trees.

5. BIODIVERSITY LOSS AND INDIA’S BANKRUPTCY RISK

THE CONTEXT: Loss of biodiversity will downgrade the credit ratings of several countries, including India, increasing their bankruptcy risk.

THE EXPLANATION:

• A team of economists from University of Cambridge and others analysed the sovereign credit ratings of 26 countries, including India.
• Sovereign credit ratings are an independent assessment that determines the creditworthiness of a country.
• The team claimed that investors and corporations ignoring biodiversity loss from calculations could lead to market stability being undermined. They found that at least 58 per cent of the 26 countries would face a detrimental impact.
• China and Malaysia would be the worst-affected with downgrades of more than six notches.
• India, Indonesia, Ethiopia and Bangladesh can expect downgrades of four notches while a third of the countries studied would experience more than three.
• India will have a risk over 29 per cent while Bangladesh will suffer the most, with an estimated 41 per cent and Ethiopia by 38 per cent.
• As nature loss reduces economic performance, it will become harder for countries to service their debt, straining government budgets and forcing them to raise taxes, cut spending, or increase inflation. This will have grim consequences for ordinary people.

6. NET ZERO BY AFRICA

THE CONTEXT: Investment in energy sector will need to be doubled to achieve Africa’s energy and climate goals, including universal access by 2030.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Africa needs investment of over $190 billion each year from 2026 to 2030, with two-thirds going to clean energy
• In 2021, 43 per cent of the population of Africa around 600 million people still lacked access to electricity, the report mentioned. Around 590 million of them were in sub‐Saharan Africa.
• Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people without access in sub‐Saharan Africa is estimated to have increased by four per cent in 2021 relative to 2019.
• The pandemic has pushed more than 20 African countries into debt distress and reversed progress on expanding access to electricity, the report said. The pandemic has slowed the rate of both new grid and off‐grid connections.
• Achieving universal access to clean cooking fuels and technologies by 2030 requires shifting 130 million people away from dirty cooking fuels each year. At present, 970 million Africans lack access to clean cooking.
• Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is the leading solution in urban areas, but recent price spikes have made it unaffordable for 30 million people across Africa. This has pushed many to go back to using traditional fuels like biomass.
• Clean cooking requires around $2.5 billion per year of investment in clean cook-stoves and other end‐use equipment.
• Achieving full access to modern energy in Africa by 2030 will require investment of $25 billion per year, equal to around a quarter of total energy investment in Africa before the pandemic.
• Renewable sources of energy, including solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal, can account for over 80 per cent of the new power generation capacity in Africa by 2030.

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

7. VL-SRSAM MISSILE SYSTEM

THE CONTEXT: The indigenously developed shipborne weapon system, Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM), was successfully flight tested by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Navy off the coast of Chandipur in Odisha.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The VL-SRSAM system has been designed to strike at the high-speed airborne targets at the range of 40km to 50km and at an altitude of around 15km.
• Its design is based on Astra missile which is a Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air missile. Two key features of the VL-SRSAM are cruciform wings and thrust vectoring.
• VL-SRSAM is a canisterised system, which means it is stored and operated from specially designed compartments.
• In the canister, the inside environment is controlled, thus making its transport and storage easier and improving the shelf life of weapons.

THE MISCELLANEOUS

8. NEW CEO OF NITI AAYOG

THE CONTEXT: Parameswaran Iyer, a 1981-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre and a well-known sanitation specialist, has been appointed the chief executive officer of Niti Aayog, after Amitabh Kant retires on June 30.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Iyer’s initial tenure will be for two years, according to a notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training.
• Iyer took voluntary retirement from the IAS in 2009, after 17 years in service. In 2016, he returned to helm the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation as Secretary.

 9. NEW IB CHIEF

THE CONTEXT: The government on appointed Tapan Kumar Deka, a 1988 batch IPS officer and an intelligence operations expert, as the director of Intelligence Bureau.

THE EXPLANATION:

• He succeeds Aravind Kumar who completes his three-year tenure at the IB helm on June 30.
• In another decision, the government cleared a further one-year extension for RAWchief Samant Kumar Goel, a 1984 batch IPS officer. U

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION FOR 25^TH JUNE 2022

1. Which of the following are the guiding principles of NITI Aayog?

1. Governance
2. Federalism
3. Sustainability
4. People’s Participation
5. Democracy

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

      a) 1, 2 and 3 only

b) 1, 3 and 4 only

c) 1, 3, 4 and 5 only

d) All of them

ANSWER FOR 24^TH JUNE 2022

Answer: C

Explanation:

What is ONDC?

• it is a not-for-profit organisation that will offer a network to enable local digital commerce stores across industries to be discovered and engaged by any network-enabled applications.
• It is neither an aggregator application nor a hosting platform, and all existing digital commerce applications and platforms can voluntarily choose to adopt and be a part of the ONDC network.
• The ONDC aims to enable buying of products from all participating e-commerce platforms by consumers through a single platform.
• Under ONDC, it is envisaged that a buyer registered on one participating e-commerce site (for example, Amazon) may purchase goods from a seller on another participating e-commerce site (for example, Flipkart).
• ONDC model is trying to replicate success of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in field of digital payments. UPI allows people to send or receive money irrespective of the payment platforms they are registered on.
• The open network concept also extends beyond the retail sector, to any digital commerce domains including wholesale, mobility, food delivery, logistics, travel, urban services, etc.