THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. INDIA REITERATES SUPPORT TO ARGENTINA FOR RESUMPTION OF TALKS ON THE MALVINAS ISSUE
THE CONTEXT: India reiterated support for international negotiations regarding a territorial matter between Argentina and the United Kingdom in the Southern Atlantic Ocean.
THE EXPLANATION:
• Visiting Buenos Aires as part of his three-country tour in Latin America, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar held official discussions on a wide range of topics including the decades old Malvinas or the Falklands territorial issue
• He expressed India’s interest in exploring payment through local currencies.
• The two sides also held talks for enhancing military exchanges and trade in the strategic sectors.
• During his visit to India, Mr. Cafiero had launched the ‘Commission for the Dialogue on the Question of the Malvinas Islands in India’.
IMPORTANCE OF INDIA’S SUPPORT
• The ongoing bilateral visits and exchanges are significant as these are taking place on the fortieth anniversary of the 1982 Falklands war between Argentina and the United Kingdom.
• Argentina maintains that the issue of sovereignty of the islands was not settled by the war that led to the strengthening of UK’s control over the region.
• India has traditionally supported a negotiated settlement of the territorial issue that Argentina is expected to highlight in the coming multilateral events including at the United Nations.
MORE ABOUT THE VISIT AND OUTCOMES
• Both sides also planned to promote exchange of visits between the armed forces, enhance defence training and “collaboration for joint production of defence related equipment”.
• India acknowledged Argentina’s interest in the “Made in India TEJAS fighter aircraft for Argentine Air Force”.
• The delegations also reviewed the ongoing bilateral projects in the sectors like defence, nuclear energy, and space.
• The official discussion covered the area of cooperation between the two countries including the Human Rights Council (HRC) where Argentina is the chair for 2022.
• The exchange over the HRC is well-timed for India as the country will face the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) next winter.
• During the interactions with the senior Indian minister, the Argentine side expressed “strong support” to India’s campaign for membership at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
2. RUSSIA BLOCKS FINAL DOCUMENT AT U.N. NUCLEAR TREATY CONFERENCE
THE CONTEXT: Russia late Friday blocked agreement on the final document of a four-week review of the U. N. treaty considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament which criticised its military takeover of Europe’s largest nuclear plant soon after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, an act that has raised fears of a nuclear disaster.
THE EXPLANATION:
• Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, told the delayed final meeting of the conference reviewing the 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that “unfortunately there is no consensus on this document.”
• He insisted that many countries not just Russia didn’t agree with “a whole host of issues” in the 36-page last draft.
• The final document needed approval of all countries at the conference that are parties to the treaty aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately achieving a world without them.
SECOND FAILURE
• The NPT review conference is supposed to be held every five years but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• This marked the second failure of its 191 state parties to produce an outcome document.
• The last review conference in 2015 ended without an agreement because of serious differences over establishing a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction.
GLOBAL FEARS OF NUCLEAR EMERGENCY
• The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine as well as the takeover of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, renewed global fears of another nuclear emergency.
• The four references in the draft final document to the Zaporizhzhia plant, where Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling, would have had the parties to the NPT express “grave concern for the military activities” at or near the facility and other nuclear plants.
• It also would have recognised Ukraine’s loss of control and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inability to ensure the plant’s nuclear material is safeguarded. It supported IAEA efforts to visit Zaporizhzhia to ensure there is no diversion of its nuclear materials, a trip the agency’s director is hoping to organize in the coming days.
CONCERN OVER ZAPORIZHZHIA AND OTHER NUCLEAR FACILITIES IN UKRAINE
• The draft also expressed “grave concern” at the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, in particular Zaporizhzhia, and stressed “the paramount importance of ensuring control by Ukraine’s competent authorities.”
• After the conference’s failure to adopt the document, dozens of countries took the floor to express their views.
• The countries expressed deep concern that Russia is undermining international peace and the objectives of the NPT “by waging its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
WHAT WAS THE PROMISES?
• Under the NPT’s provisions, the five original nuclear powers — the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain and France — agreed to negotiate toward eliminating their arsenals someday and nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them in exchange for a guarantee to be able to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
• The draft final document would have expressed deep concern “that the threat of nuclear weapons use today is higher than at any time since the heights of the Cold War and at the deteriorated international security environment.”
THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
3. SUBSIDISED FERTILISER UNDER ‘BHARAT’ BRAND FROM OCTOBER: MANDAVIYA
THE CONTEXT: All subsidised fertilisers, including Urea and DAP (Diammonium phosphate), will be sold from October under a single brand name — “Bharat” — as part of the Centre’s ‘One Nation, One Fertiliser’ initiative.
THE EXPLANATION:
• The initiative is aimed at ensuring timely supply of fertiliser to farmers, bringing uniformity in supply, and reducing subsidy burden in terms of higher freight charges.
• As of now, there is a crisscross movement of fertiliser due to brand preference in different parts of the country.
• As of now, Fertiliser manufactured by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) and Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO) in Uttar Pradesh are sent to Rajasthan, while nutrients made by Chambal Fertilisers are sold in UP.
• Similarly, IFFCO/KRIBHCO fertiliser from UP are sold in Madhya Pradesh, and those manufactured by National Fertilizers Limited in MP are sold in UP.
WHAT WILL CHANGE AFTER ‘ONE NATION, ONE FERTILISER’ INITIATIVE?
• “One Nation, One Fertiliser will stop crisscross movement of fertiliser for longer distances. It will reduce logistics cost and also ensure availability throughout the year.
• It also results in higher “average lead” (distance of a fertiliser bag from source to destination), which the government aims to bring down.
• This will save freight subsidy.
ABOUT ONE NATION, ONE FERTILISER INITIATIVE
• The One Nation, One Fertiliser initiative is part of the Centre’s fertiliser subsidy scheme Pradhan mantri Bhartiya Janurvarak Pariyojna (PMBJP).
• As part of this, the government also plans to set up Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samridhi Kendra (PMKSK), which will serve as a one-stop centre for farmers to access services such as soil health tests.
THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
4.KAZIRANGA WILDLIFE REHAB CENTRE COMPLETES 20 YEARS
THE CONTEXT: The Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) at Panbari near the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has completed 20 years of providing emergency care, treatment and rehabilitation to indigenous wild animals displaced due to various reasons.
ABOUT KAZIRANGA WILDLIFE REHAB CENTRE
• A joint initiative of the Assam Forest Department, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the centre was established on August 28, 2002.
• The CWRC continues to be the only facility of its kind in India to have successfully addressed the welfare and conservation of 357 species including elephant, leopard, rhino, tiger, clouded leopard, black bear, wild buffalo, hog deer, muntjac, wild boar and monkeys.
• It has so far handled 7,397 animals out of which 4,490 (65%) could be sent back to the wild after proper care and treatment.
RHINO, ELEPHANT CALVES
• The CWRC has been rehabilitating rescued rhino and elephant calves in Assam, helping Manas National Back get back its rhinos after the entire population of the herbivore was wiped out by extremists in the late 1990s.
• The first rhino calf was translocated to Manas from the CWRC in 2006 under a repopulation programme. Twenty more rhino calves were shifted to Manas from the CWRC over the next two decades and 11 caves were born to these rehabilitated ungulates.
• The rhino rehabilitation component of the CWRC thus proved to be one of the most successful programmes for orphan animals and a critical conservation success.
• Of the 29 elephant calves rescued and hand-reared at the CWRC, 12 were sent back to the wild.
• Apart from rewilding rescued Asiatic black bear cubs, the CWRC rehabilitated clouded leopard cubs – the first such case in the world.
• The CWRC currently has two satellite facilities called mobile veterinary services. These are located in eastern Assam at Guijan in Tinsukia district (Dibru Saikhowa National Park) and in western Assam at Charaikhola (Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary).
ABOUT KAZIRANGA
• Kaziranga National Park is a protected area in the northeast Indian state of Assam.
• Spread across the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River, its forests, wetlands and grasslands are home to tigers, elephants and the world’s largest population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses.
• Ganges River dolphins swim in the park’s waters. It’s visited by many rare migratory birds, and gray pelicans roost near Kaziranga village.
5.EXPLAINED: PAKISTAN’S MONSTER MONSOON
THE CONTEXT: While Europe, China and some other regions of the world are experiencing a severe drought, Pakistan is facing one of the worst floods in its recent history. Reports say about 110 of the 150 districts in the country are affected by the flooding.
THE EXPLANATION:
• Nearly 33 million people, about 15% of the country’s population, had been affected by the floods. That makes this a more widespread flooding event than the one in 2010, described as a ‘superflood’ in which about 20 million people were affected.
• More than half of Pakistan is currently under water, andat least half a million people had been evacuated and shifted to safer places.
• The Kabul river, which originates in Afghanistan and flows through the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province before joining a tributary of the Indus river not very far from Islamabad, was in a “very high flood level” and the Indus was flowing at “high flood level” near Chashma town in Punjab and Sukkur in Sindh province.
RAINFALL PATTERN IN PAKISTAN
• The current flood is a direct result of an extremely wet monsoon season this year.
• The same southwest monsoon that brings the bulk of India’s annual rainfall causes rain in Pakistan as well.
• The monsoon season in Pakistan, however, is a little shorter than in India.
• That is because the rain-bearing monsoon winds take time to travel northward from India into Pakistan.
• The official monsoon season in Pakistan begins on July 1 and extends until September, although most of the rainfall happens during the months of July and August.
• The active rainfall season is only one and a half months.
• The normal rainfall for Pakistan as a whole during this three-month monsoon season is 140 mm. But because the season is quite short, there is a wide variation in the monsoon rainfall every year.
• The country saw plenty of rain from late June itself. But August has been exceptionally wet. August had produced two and a half times its normal rainfall — 176.8 mm against the expected 50.4 mm.
Different situation in India
• The rainfall situation in Pakistan has been quite different from that of India so far, though incidents of extreme rainfall and flooding have happened here as well.
• In August, India has received rainfall that is barely 6 per cent more than the normal. For the entire season so far, the country has received 7 per cent more than normal rainfall.
THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
6.IARI: NEW VIRUS BEHIND MYSTERY DWARFING OF RICE
THE CONTEXT: THE INDIAN Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has confirmed that the mysterious disease resulting in “dwarfing” of rice plants, reported mainly from Punjab and Haryana, has been caused by the Southern Rice Black-Streaked Dwarf Virus (SRBSDV). The virus is spread by the white-backed plant hopper, an insect pest, which injects it while sucking the sap from mostly young plants.
THE EXPLANATION:
• An IARI team surveyed a total of 24 fields in Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala and Yamunanagar districts of Haryana.
• In the fields where the disease was recorded, the infected plants varied from 2 to 10 per cent. In a severely-affected field in Panipat, up to 20 per cent incidence was recorded.
• The IARI investigation has revealed the infection in as many as 12 rice varieties, both basmati (Pusa-1962, 1718, 1121, 1509, 1847 and CSR-30) and non-basmati (PR-114, 130, 131, 136, Pioneer Hybrid and Arize Swift Gold).
• Given that the virus is exclusively transmitted by the white-backed plant hopper, the IARI has advised farmers to monitor the fields every week for the presence of the insect. The pest can be managed by spraying recommended dosages of ‘buprofezin’, ‘acetamiprid’, ‘dinotefuran’ or ‘flonicamid’ insecticides at 15-day intervals.
