1. CONFLICT BETWEEN IRAN AND AFGHANISTAN OVER RIVER HELMAND
TAG: PLACES IN NEWS; GS 2: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
CONTEXT: Iran and Afghanistan are locked in a long-standing dispute over the sharing of water from the Helmand River. Clashes broke out recently along the border.
EXPLANATION:
Current Issue:
- Iran and the Taliban exchanged heavy gunfire on the Islamic Republic’s border with Afghanistan, killing and wounding troops while sharply intensifying rising tensions between the countries.
- The clash came amid an escalating dispute between Kabul and Tehran over the Helmand River, which is a vital source of water for both sides, supporting agriculture, livelihoods and ecosystems in the region.
Helmand river:
- The Helmand is Afghanistan’s longest river. It originates near Kabul in the western Hindu Kush mountain range and flows in a southwesterly direction through desert areas for a total of about 1,150 kilometers (715 miles) before emptying into Lake Hamun, which straddles the Afghanistan-Iran border.
- Lake Hamun is the largest freshwater lake in Iran and It used to be one of the world’s largest wetlands, straddling 4,000 square kilometers (1,600 square miles) between Iran and Afghanistan, fed by the Helmand. But it has since dried up, a trend experts blame on drought and the impact of dams and water controls.
Background:
- Afghanistan and Iran signed an agreement the Helmand River Treaty in 1973 to regulate the allocation of river water. But the accord was neither ratified nor fully implemented, causing disagreements and tensions to persist.
- Iran has accused Afghanistan of violating its water rights for years, arguing that far less water than the amount agreed to in the 1973 treaty flows into Iran.
- Afghanistan has rejected Iran’s accusations, underlining that climatic factors like a shortage of rainfall, resulting in reduced river water volumes, are to blame for the situation.
- A major source of concern for Iran is Afghanistan’s construction of dams, reservoirs and irrigation systems along the Helmand River. Tehran fears that these projects reduce water flow into Iran
- But Kabul argues that it is within its rights to expand water storage and irrigation capacities within Afghanistan.
What’s the state of Tehran-Taliban ties?
- Iran and Afghanistan share a 950-kilometer land border. Both countries have no major territorial disputes
- Tehran had cultivated good ties with the Taliban before the Islamic fundamentalist group captured Kabul in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their pullout from Afghanistan.
- Both sides were united in their opposition to the US’s presence in the region
2. VIOLENCE IN KOSOVO
TAG: PLACES IN NEWS; GS 2: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
CONTEXT: After winning a match against Hungary’s Márton Fucsovics at the ongoing French Open tennis championship, Serbian great Novak Djokovic wrote on a camera lens in Serbian: “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence.” Djokovic, was referring to this week’s violence in the Kosovan town of Zvecan where Serbian protesters clashed with NATO peacekeepers, leading to more than 60 injuries the worst violence in the region in more than a decade.
EXPLANATION:
Current issue:
- The current round of violence took place after ethnic Serbs who are a minority in Kosovo but are in a majority in northern Kosovo tried to prevent Albanian mayors taking charge in local councils.
- The Albanians took control of the councils after Serbs boycotted local elections in Kosovo’s north in April. Results of the elections, which saw a turnout of less that 3.5%, were rejected by the Serbs as a sham.
- Northern Kosovo has seen frequent tensions that have their roots in the larger ethnic and political divide between the ethnic Serbs and the Albanians.
Location of Serbia and Kosovo:
- Serbia, a landlocked country in eastern Europe that shares borders with, among other countries, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
- Kosovo is a region that lies to Serbia’s southwest, sharing borders with North Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia does not recognise Kosovo’s statehood.
What was the Kosovo conflict about?
- Serbs and Albanians are ethnicities who have been living in this region for centuries.
- Serbs are Eastern Orthodox Christians, while the Albanians in Kosovo are majority Muslims. Other ethnic groups, such as the Bosnians and the Turks, are minority populations. Serbs are in the majority in Serbia while Albanians are in the majority in the Kosovo region.
- For many Serbians, the Kosovo region, is the “heart” of its national and religious identity and home to numerous cherished mediaeval Serb Orthodox Christian monasteries.
- Serbian nationalists view the 1389 Battle of Kosovo between the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic and the Ottoman Sultan Murad Hudavendigar as a defining moment in their national struggle.
- On the other hand, Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians view Kosovo as belonging to them, and accuse Serbia of occupation and repression.
Background:
- From 1945, after the end of World War II, until 1992, the area in the Balkans comprising present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, was one country, officially known as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), or simply Yugoslavia, with its capital at Belgrade, which is now the capital of Serbia.
- As part of Yugoslavia, the republic of Serbia included the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Within Serbia, Kosovo and Vojvodina held the status of autonomous provinces.
- In the early 1990s, as the USSR collapsed, Yugoslavia followed and each of these republics broke away to become independent countries, beginning with Slovenia in 1991.
- The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a United Nations court of law that dealt with war crimes committed during this time, noted that coinciding with the collapse of communism and resurgent nationalism in Eastern Europe during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Yugoslavia experienced a period of intense political and economic crisis.
- Central government weakened while militant nationalism grew apace. Political leaders used nationalist rhetoric to erode a common Yugoslav identity and fuel fear and mistrust among different ethnic groups.
- Ethnic Albanian rebels launched a rebellion under the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1998 to rid the country of Serbian rule. Serbia’s brutal response under President Slobodan Milošević prompted an intervention by NATO in 1999, which forced Serbia to cede control to international peacekeepers.
- NATO then carried out a 78-day-long campaign of air strikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia. In response, Serb forces further intensified the persecution of the Kosovo Albanian civilians, having accused them earlier of changing the demography of their nation.
- Ultimately, Milošević agreed to withdraw his troops and police from the province of Kosovo. Some 750,000 Albanian refugees came back home, and about 100,000 Serbs — roughly half the province’s Serb population fled in fear of reprisals.
- In June 1999, Serbia agreed to the international administration of Kosovo with the final status of the province still unresolved. Several Serb leaders, including Milošević, were indicted by the UN’s war crimes tribunal for their role in the war
What has been the status of Kosovo since then?
- While Kosovo declared independence in 2008, Serbia still considers it to be an integral part of Serbian territory. Countries such as India, China, and Russia do not recognise Kosovo as a separate country, while the US, the majority of EU countries, Japan and Australia do so.
3. CYBER SECURITY FOR PAYMENT SYSTEM OPERATORS
TAG: GS 3: ECONOMY
CONTEXT: The Reserve Bank of India has released the draft Master Directions on Cyber Resilience and Digital Payment Security Controls for Payment System Operators.
EXPLANATION:
- The draft covers governance mechanism for identification, assessment, monitoring and management of cyber security risks including information security risks and vulnerabilities, and specify baseline security measures for ensuring safe and secure digital payment transactions.
- The directions are being issued to ensure that the authorised non-bank Payment System Operators (PSOs) are resilient to traditional and emerging information systems and cyber security risks,
- The Directions will also cover baseline security measures for ensuring system resiliency as well as safe and secure digital payment transactions.
- However, they will endeavour to migrate to the latest security standards. The existing instructions on security and risk mitigation measures for payments done using cards, Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) and mobile banking continue to be applicable hitherto.
PAYMENT SYSTEM OPERATORS:
- The payment System Operator is an authorized party that is registered under the Companies Act, 1956 or the Companies Act, 2013 that undertakes the operation of payment systems. They provide services and operate on a certain model and mainly deal in payment and settlement-related activities.
- PSOs in India include Clearing Corporation of India, National Payments Corporation of India, Cards Payment Networks, Cross border Money Transfer, ATM networks, Prepaid Payment Instruments, White Label ATM Operators, Instant Money Transfer, and Trade Receivables Discounting System, Bharat Bill Payment System.
4. 9TH ANNIVERSARY OF TELANGANA’S STATEHOOD
TAG: GS 2: POLITY
CONTEXT: With assembly elections just months away, political parties across the board are celebrating the 9th anniversary of Telangana’s statehood on June 2, 2023.
EXPLANATION:
- Telangana, the newest state of India, has a complex history. Pre-Independence, it was a part of the princely state of Hyderabad. While there were talks of statehood in the 1950s, the region was eventually merged with the adjoining Andhra State to form Andhra Pradesh.
- Finally, in 2014, after decades of struggle, Telangana was carved out of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
PART I: Princely State of Hyderabad, post-independence Hyderabad State:
- Present-day Telangana comprised the south and south-east Telugu-speaking regions of the Princely State of Hyderabad. The city of Hyderabad itself lay at the heart of the region, but unlike the areas around it, was dominated by the Urdu-speaking Muslim elite. Ruled by Nizam Osman Ali Khan, Hyderabad was among the largest and most prosperous princely states in the country.
- In 1945, a communist-supported rebellion broke out in Telangana against the prevailing jagirdari (land-revenue) system. The Nizam’s response was brutal, unleashing a local militia, known as the Razakars, on the protesting peasants.
- After Independence and the Partition in 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad was unwilling to accede to India. In the meantime, the Razakars under Kasim Razvi, terrorised the population, lest any attempts to overthrow the Nizam be made.
- In order to usher in a modicum of stability in the state, India signed the Standstill Agreement with Hyderabad in November 1947, which stated that all administrative agreements that were in place between the Nizam and the British Crown would continue between the Nizam and India.
- However, almost instantly, the terms of the agreement were violated by the Nizam. Not only did he let the Razakars run amok, he also restricted exports of precious metals to India, began negotiating with Pakistan, and stopped accepting the Indian rupee as legal tender. The Razakars even began carrying out “border raids” in neighbouring states.
- As the state started falling into anarchy, India intervened militarily, launching “Operation Polo” in September 1948. Within a week, India had taken control of Hyderabad’s administration.
- On January 26, 1951, when India became a republic, Hyderabad was accorded the status of a Part-B state, with the Nizam as the Rajpramukh and an elected chief minister.
PART II: Linguistic reorganisation and the creation of Andhra Pradesh
- The erstwhile Madras state was huge, covering areas which spoke all the major languages of South India. In 1952, Potti Sriramalu went on a fast-unto-death demanding a separate Telugu state. He died after 56 days, triggering unrest across the region and eventually leading to the formation of the Andhra State out of the north and north eastern regions of the Madras state in 1953
- Moreover, Sriramalu’s death made the government seriously reconsider its position on linguistic states. The States Reorganisation Committee came into existence in 1953 and submitted its report two years later. Notably, it recommended that Hyderabad be reorganised linguistically the Marathi-dominant Marathwada would be integrated into the bilingual Bombay state and south western Kannada-dominant districts would be integrated into the Mysore state.
- The status of the Telugu-dominant Telangana region was contentious. While Andhra wanted to merge with Telangana to create a united Vishalandhra, the SRC itself did not favour this, instead recommending Telangana be a separate state till at least 1961, when it would be given the opportunity to voluntarily merge with Andhra.
- But the States Reorganisation Act passed in 1956 ignored this recommendation, merging Andhra State and Telangana into a single state called Andhra Pradesh, with Hyderabad as the capital. For some, like KCR, this was the point where a struggle for a separate Telangana state began.
PART III: The struggle for Telangana and the creation Telangana State
- However, the sense of Telangana as a separate entity predated even Independence. Under the rule of the Nizam, the Telangana region had in force Mulki Rules domicile rules which ensured that only native residents were able to get government jobs in the region
- Since Independence, protests regularly broke out in Telangana demanding the strict adherence to these rules, the first one being in 1952. However, it was in January 1969, after the creation of Andhra Pradesh, that the region witnessed its most widespread protests yet.
- While the government sprung to action, promising to “transfer all non-Telangana employees holding posts reserved for Telangana domiciles”, the issue refused to die down. The protests gave birth to the Telangana Praja Samiti, which called for a separate Telangana state. Over the next few years, Mulki Rules were at the centre of protests as well as legal cases.
- Finally, in September of 1973, Indira Gandhi initiated the 32nd Amendment to the Constitution, which declared that Andhra Pradesh would be divided into 6 zones, with reservation for jobs being decided on the basis of zones. As a result, the original Mulki Rules Act was repealed, and the movement for Telangana lost some steam.
- It would finally be revived by KCR in 2001. A member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), he resigned and established his own political party – the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) with the singular aim of creating a new state of Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital.
- While his performances in polls were underwhelming, the sudden death of Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister Y S Rajsekhara Reddy of the Congress in 2009, presented an opportunity to KCR. Reddy was the tallest leader of Andhra Pradesh at the time and post his death, political turmoil ensued. On November 29, 2009, KCR began a fast-unto-death demanding statehood. The Congress, which at the time was also under pressure nationally, relented within 10 days promising the creation of the state of Telangana.
- After extensive discussion on the specifics of the state boundary and the choice of capital (for the new Andhra State), Telangana came into existence around four and a half years later, in 2014. KCR was the first chief minister and Hyderabad was chosen the joint capital of both Andhra and Telangana for a period of ten years, after which Andhra would have to shift its capital elsewhere.
5. STRATEGIC OIL RESERVES IN INDIA
TAG: PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE
CONTEXT: Government-owned engineering consultancy firm Engineers India (EIL) is studying the prospects and feasibility of developing salt cavern-based strategic oil reserves in Rajasthan, in line with the government’s objective of increasing the country’s strategic oil storage capacity. India could get its first salt cavern-based oil storage facility if this become successful.
EXPLANATION:
Strategic Oil Reserves in India:
- Countries build strategic crude oil reserves to mitigate major supply disruptions in the global supply chain.
- India is the world’s third-largest consumer of crude, depends on imports for more than 85% of its requirement and strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) could help ensure energy security and availability during global supply shocks and other emergencies.
- India has three existing strategic oil storage facilities at Mangaluru and Padur in Karnataka, and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh are made up of excavated rock caverns.
- India currently has an SPR capacity of 5.33 million tonnes, or around 39 million barrels of crude, that can meet around 9.5 days of demand.
- The country is in the process of expanding its SPR capacity by a cumulative 6.5 million tonnes at two locations Chandikhol in Odisha (4 million tonnes) and Padur (2.5 million tonnes).
- India’s strategic oil reserves come under the Petroleum Ministry’s special purpose vehicle Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve (ISPRL).
Strategic petroleum reserves programme: Background
- India’s strategic oil reserves are part of the effort to build sufficient emergency stockpiles on the lines of the reserves that the US and its Western allies set up after the first oil crisis of the 1970s. The three existing rock cavern-based facilities were built during the first phase of the programme.
- Crude oil from the reserves are to be released by an empowered committee set up by the government, in the event of supply disruptions due to a natural calamity or an unforeseen global event leading to an abnormal increase in prices.
- The International Energy Agency (IEA), a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation in which India is an ‘Association’ country, recommends that all countries should hold an emergency oil stockpile sufficient to provide 90 days of import protection.
- In India, apart from the SPR that are sufficient to meet 9.5 days of oil requirement, the oil marketing companies (OMCs) have storage facilities for crude oil and petroleum products for 64.5 days which means there is sufficient storage to meet around 74 days of the country’s petroleum demand.
Salt cavern-based reserves v. rock cavern-based reserves:
- Salt cavern-based storage, which is considered cheaper and less labour- and cost-intensive than rock caverns.
- Unlike underground rock caverns, which are developed through excavation, salt caverns are developed by the process of solution mining, which involves pumping water into geological formations with large salt deposits to dissolve the salt.
- After the brine (water with dissolved salt) is pumped out of the formation, the space can be used to store crude oil. The process is simpler, faster, and less cost-intensive than developing excavated rock caverns.
- Salt cavern-based oil storage facilities are also naturally well-sealed, and engineered for rapid injection and extraction of oil. This makes them a more attractive option than storing oil in other geological formations, according to a report by the Environmental Solutions Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
- The salt that lines the inside of these caverns has extremely low oil absorbency, which creates a natural impermeable barrier against liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, making the caverns apt for storage.
- Also, unlike rock caverns, salt cavern-based storages can be created and operated almost entirely from the surface.
- Salt caverns are also used to store liquid fuels and natural gas in various parts of the world. They are also considered suitable for storing compressed air and hydrogen.
- The entire SPR programme of the United States has so far been based on salt cavern-based storage facilities. The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the world’s largest emergency oil storage, consists of four sites with deep underground storage caverns created in salt domes along the Gulf of Mexico coast in Texas and Louisiana. The US strategic oil reserves have a cumulative capacity of around 727 million barrels.
