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  • Festival in news: Harela Festival

    Villagers across Uttarakhand celebrated Harela, a festival of greenery, peace, prosperity and environmental conservation.

    Harela Festival

    • Harela means ‘day of green’ and is celebrated in the month of Shravan (the fifth month of the Hindu lunar calendar) to worship Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.
    • People across Uttarakhand, especially the Kumaun region, associate greenery with prosperity.
    • The seeds of five to seven types of crops —  maize, til (sesame), urad (black gram), mustard, oats —  are sown in donas (bowl made of leaves) or ringalare (hill bamboo baskets) nine days before the festival.
    • They are harvested on the ninth day and distributed to neighbours, friends and relatives.
    • The flourish of the crops symbolizes prosperity in the year ahead.
    • People make clay statues of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, known as Dikare, and worship them a day before the festival.
    • Harela is also linked to the Barahnaza system (12 types of crops), a crop diversification technique followed in the region.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following pairs:
    Tradition: State
    1. Chapchar Kut: festival Mizoram
    2. Khongjom Parba ballad: Manipur
    3. Thang Ta dance: Sikkim
    Which of the pairs given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only
    (b) 1 and 2
    (c) 3 only
    (d) 2 and 3

  • Explained: Conjugal rights before Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court is expected to begin hearing a fresh challenge to the provision allowing restitution of conjugal rights under Hindu personal laws.

    What is the provision under challenge?

    • Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which deals with restitution of conjugal rights.

    What are conjugal rights?

    • Conjugal rights are rights created by marriage, i.e. the right of the husband or the wife to the society of the other spouse.
    • The law recognizes these rights— both in personal laws dealing with marriage, divorce etc and in criminal law requiring payment of maintenance and alimony to a spouse.
    • The concept of restitution of conjugal rights is codified in Hindu personal law now, but has colonial origins and has genesis in ecclesiastical law.
    • Similar provisions exist in Muslim personal law as well as the Divorce Act, 1869, which governs Christian family law.
    • Incidentally, in 1970, the United Kingdom repealed the law on restitution of conjugal rights.

    How can a case under Section 9 be filed?

    • If a spouse refuses cohabitation, the other spouse can move the family court seeking a decree for cohabitation.
    • If the order of the court is not complied with, the court can attach property.
    • However, the decision can be appealed before a High Court and the Supreme Court.
    • Normally, when a spouse files for divorce unilaterally, the other spouse files for restitution of conjugal rights if he or she is not in agreement with the divorce.
    • The provision is seen to be an intervention through legislation to strike a conciliatory note between sparring spouses.

    Why has the law being challenged?

    • The law is being challenged now on the main grounds that is violative of the fundamental right to privacy.
    • The plea argues that court-mandated restitution of conjugal rights amounted to a “coercive action” on the part of the state, which violates one’s sexual and decisional autonomy, and right to privacy and dignity.
    • In 2019, a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right.
    • The verdict in the privacy case set the stage for potential challenges to several laws such as the criminalization of homosexuality, marital rape, restitution of conjugal rights, the two-finger test in rape investigations.

    Question over gender-neutrality

    • Although the law is ex-facie (‘on the face if it’) gender-neutral since it allows both wife and husband to seek restitution of conjugal rights, the provision disproportionately affects women.
    • Women are often called back to marital homes under the provision and given that marital rape is not a crime, leaves them susceptible to such coerced cohabitation.
    • It will also be argued whether the state can have such a compelling interest in protecting the institution of marriage that it allows legislation to enforce the cohabitation of spouses.

    What has the court said about the law earlier?

    Supreme Court:

    • In 1984, the Supreme Court had upheld Section 9 holding that the provision “serves a social purpose as an aid to the prevention of break-up of marriage”.
    • Leading up to the Supreme Court intervention, two High Courts — those of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi — had ruled differently on the issue.

    AP High Court:

    • In 1983, AP High Court had for the first time struck down the provision and declared it null and void. It cited the right to privacy among other reasons.
    • The court also held that in “a matter so intimately concerned the wife or the husband the parties are better left alone without state interference”.
    • The court had, most importantly, also recognised that compelling “sexual cohabitation” would be of “grave consequences for women”.

    Delhi High Court:

    • In the same year, a single-judge Bench of the Delhi High Court took a diametrically opposite view of the law and upheld the provision.
    • From the definitions of cohabitation and consortium, it appears that sexual intercourse is one of the elements that go to make up the marriage.
    • But it is not the summum bonum (the ultimate aim). As if marriage consists of nothing else except sex.

  • How the Moon ‘Wobble’ affects rising tides

    US coastlines will face increasing flooding in the mid-2030s due to a regular lunar cycle called the wobble effect that will magnify rising sea levels caused by climate change.

    What is the Moon Wobble?

    • The moon wobble is nothing but a regular swaying in the moon’s orbit.
    • It was first documented way back in 1728.
    • This wobble takes over an 18.6-year period to complete and continues in a cyclic fashion.

    How does this wobble occur?

    • High tides on this planet are caused mostly by the pull of the moon’s gravity on a spinning Earth. On most beaches, you would see two high tides every 24 hours.
    • The moon also revolves around the Earth about once a month, and that orbit is a little bit tilted.
    • moon’s orbital plane around the Earth is at an approximate 5-degree incline to the Earth’s orbital plane around the sun.
    • Because of that, the path of the moon’s orbit seems to fluctuate over time, completing a full cycle — sometimes referred to as a nodal cycle — every 18.6 years.
    • At certain points along the cycle, the moon’s gravitational pull comes from such an angle that it yanks one of the day’s two high tides a little bit higher, at the expense of the other.
    • This does not mean that the moon itself is wobbling, nor that its gravity is necessarily pulling at our oceans any more or less than usual.

    What impact does this wobble have on Earth?

    • Influences the ebb and flow of tides: The moon wobbles impacts the gravitational pull of the moon, and therefore, indirectly influences the ebb and flow of tides here on the Earth.
    • One half of the 18.6-year cycle suppresses the tides, which means that the high tides get lower, while the low tides get higher than normal.
    • Once this cycle completes, the situation flips—in the subsequent cycle, the tides are amplified, with high tides getting higher and low tides, lower.
    • The lunar cycle is expected to shift again by mid-2030, and in the coming phase, the tides will amplify once again.

    Moon wobble and climate change

    • The upcoming changes in the lunar cycle will pose a serious threat, as the amplified high tides coupled with the rising sea levels will make the risk of flooding far greater across all coastal regions of the globe.
    • The study predicts that the high tide-associated floods—also known as nuisance floods or sunny day floods—may occur in clusters that could last for months or even for longer periods!
    • This surge will be closely associated with the position of the Moon, Earth and the Sun.
    • When the Moon and Earth line up in specific ways with each other and the Sun, the resulting gravitational pull and the ocean’s corresponding response may leave city-dwellers coping with floods every day or two.

  • Places in news: Great Barrier Reef

    Chinese official has said that political tensions between Beijing and Australia were not behind a UNESCO recommendation to place the Great Barrier Reef on its endangered list.

    Great Barrier Reef

    • The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands.
    • It is stretched for over 2,300 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres.
    • The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
    • It was world heritage listed in 1981 by UNESCO as the most extensive and spectacular coral reef ecosystem on the planet.

    Importance of Corals

    Coral reefs are some of the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth.

    • They support more species per unit area than any other marine environment, including about 4,000 species of fish, 800 species of hard corals and hundreds of other species.
    • This biodiversity is considered key to finding new medicines for the 21st century.
    • Medical use: Many drugs are now being developed from coral reef animals and plants as possible cures for cancer, arthritis, human bacterial infections, viruses, and other diseases.
    • Fisheries: Healthy coral reefs support commercial and subsistence fisheries as well as jobs and businesses through tourism and recreation.
    • Local economies receive billions of dollars from visitors to reefs through diving tours, recreational fishing trips, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses based near reef ecosystems.
    • Coral reef structures also buffer shorelines against 97 per cent of the energy from waves, storms, and floods, helping to prevent loss of life, property damage, and erosion.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following statements:

    1. Most of the world’s coral reefs are in tropical waters.
    2. More than one-third of the world’s coral reefs are located in the territories of Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
    3. Coral reefs host far more number of animal phyla than those hosted by tropical rainforests.

    Which of the above statements is/are correct?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1 and 3 only

    Back2Basisc: Coral Reef

    • Coral reefs are built by and made up of thousands of tiny animals—coral “polyps”—that are related to anemones and jellyfish.
    • Polyps are shallow-water organisms that have a soft body covered by a calcareous skeleton. The polyps extract calcium salts from seawater to form these hard skeletons.
    • The polyps live in colonies fastened to the rocky seafloor.
    • The tubular skeletons grow upwards and outwards as a cemented calcareous rocky mass collectively called corals.
    • When the coral polyps die, they shed their skeleton on which new polyps grow.
    • The cycle is repeated for millions of years leading to the accumulation of layers of corals shallow rock created by these depositions is called a reef.

  • When were Tilak and Gandhi tried under the Sedition Law?

    Recently, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana observed that the “colonial law” was used by the British to silence Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

    Must read:

    Sedition Law and its discontents

    Use of sedition law through history

    • According to the LOC blog, the first known instance of the application of the law was the trial of newspaper editor Jogendra Chandra Bose in 1891.
    • Other prominent examples of the application of the law include the trials of Tilak and Gandhi.
    • Apart from this, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar were also charged with sedition.

    When was sedition law used against Gandhi and Tilak?

    • In 1922, Gandhi was arrested on charges of sedition in Bombay for taking part in protests against the colonial government.
    • He was sentenced to six years in prison but was released after two years because of medical reasons.
    • Before Gandhi, Tilak faced three trials in cases related to sedition and was imprisoned twice.
    • He was charged with sedition in 1897 for writing an article in his weekly publication called Kesari and was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.
    • He has tried again in 1908 and was represented by MA Jinnah. But his application for bail was rejected and he was sentenced to six years.
    • The second time he was tried was also because of his writings, one of which referred to the murder of European women in Muzzafarpur when bombs were thrown by Bengali revolutionaries.
    • Interestingly, the judge who announced Tilak’s sentence in the second trial, Justice DD Davar, had represented him in his first trial in 1897.

  • Why the Amazon forests are no longer acting as a carbon sink

    The Amazon forests in South America, which are the largest tropical forests in the world, have started emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of absorbing carbon emissions.

    Note the countries bordered by the Amazon forests.

    Amazon forests

    • The Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America.
    • This basin encompasses 7,000,000 sq km of which 5,500,000 sq km are covered by the rainforest.
    • The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.
    • It represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

    Why in news?

    • A significant amount of deforestation in eastern and southeastern Brazil has turned the forest into a source of CO2 that has the ability to warm the planet.
    • Not only the Amazon rainforests, some forests in Southeast Asia have also turned into carbon sources in the last few years as a result of the formation of plantations and fires.

    What have the researchers found?

    • Over the years as fossil-fuel emissions across the world have increased, the Amazon forests have absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to moderate the global climate.
    • But researchers are not saying that because of significant levels of deforestation (over the course of 40 years) there has been a long-term decrease in rainfall and increase in temperatures during the dry season.
    • Because of these reasons the eastern Amazon forests are no longer carbon sinks, whereas the more intact and wetter forests in the central and western parts are neither carbon sinks nor are they emitters.
    • Another reason for the eastern region not being able to absorb as much CO2 as it did previously is the conversion of forests into agricultural land.

  • Kongu Nadu region of Tamil Nadu

    A list of new Union Cabinet ministers issued has triggered a debate in political circles in Tamil Nadu, as well as on social media, by referring to ‘Kongu Nadu’, the informal name for a region in the western part of the state.

    Where is Kongu Nadu?

    • ‘Kongu Nadu’ is neither a place with a PIN code nor a name given formally to any region.
    • It is a commonly used name for part of western Tamil Nadu.
    • In Tamil literature, it was referred to as one of the five regions of ancient Tamil Nadu.
    • There were mentions of ‘Kongu Nadu’ in Sangam literature as a separate territory.
    • The name derives from Kongu Vellala Gounder, an OBC community with a significant presence in these districts.
    • The region includes prominent businesses and industrial hubs at Namakkal, Salem, Tirupur and Coimbatore.

    Is there any ground for the allegations about a planned bifurcation?

    • Unlike Telangana or Uttarakhand, there has never been demand or discussions about a separate Kongu Nadu in the modern political history of Tamil Nadu.
    • The debate, therefore, lacks any political or social context.

    Back2Basics: Sangam Age

    • The ‘Sangam’ describes a period from the sixth century BC to the third century AD encompassing today’s Tamil Nadu, Kerala, the southern parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and northern Sri Lanka.
    • The Tamil Sangams or Cankams were assemblies of Tamil scholars and poets that, according to traditional Tamil accounts, occurred in the remote past.
    • It is named for scholarly congregations in and around the city of Madurai, located about 400 km southwest of Chennai.
    • It generally refers to a collection of poems, composed by Tamil poets, both men and women developed in the ancient Southern state of India.
    • It mostly deals with emotional and material topics such as love, war, governance, trade and bereavement.

  • Uttar Pradesh Population Policy 2021-2030

    On World Population Day, Uttar Pradesh CM has released the state’s new population policy, which aims to reduce its growth rate to 2.1 per cent over the next 10 years.

    Why UP needs such policy?

    • Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, has a population of around 220 million.
    • In Uttar Pradesh, there are limited ecological and economic resources at hand.
    • It was necessary that the provision of basic necessities of human life, economic/livelihood opportunities and a secure living is accessible to all citizens.

    Provisions of UP Population Policy

    The provision of this legislation shall apply to a married couple where the boy is not less than 21 years of age and the girl is not less than 18.

    [A] Contraception and Abortion

    • The state population policy will focus on efforts to increase the accessibility of contraceptive measures issued under the Family Planning Programme.
    • It would provide a proper system for safe abortion
    • Focus area to include reducing the newborns and maternal mortality rate.
    • Care of the elderly, and better management of education, health, and nutrition of adolescents between 11 to 19 years has also been ensured in the policy, according to the state government

    [B] Two-child policy

    Perks

    • The state government will give promotions, increments, concessions in housing schemes and others perks to employees who adhere to population control norms, and have two or less children
    • “Public servants who adopt the two-child norm will get two additional increments during the entire service, maternity or as the case may be.

    Paternity leaves

    •  There shall be paternity leave of 12 months, with full salary and allowances and three percent increase in the employer’s contribution fund under the National Pension Scheme.
    • Those who aren’t government employees and still adhere to two-child policy will get benefits in rebates in taxes on water, housing, home loans etc.
    • It also states that maternity centres will be set up at all primary health centres.

    Incentives for sterilization

    • As per the draft, several incentives have been provided to people, including public servants, if they adopt the norm by undergoing voluntary sterilization.
    • The incentives include a 3% increase in the employer’s contribution fund under national pension; two additional increments during the entire service; subsidy towards purchase of plot or house site or build house etc.
    • A couple living below the poverty line who have only one child and undergoes voluntary sterilisation, shall be eligible for payment of a one-time ₹80,000 if the single child is a boy and ₹1 lakh if it is a girl.

    Who will not benefit from the law?

    • According to the bill, people having more than two children in UP will be debarred from benefits of all government-sponsored welfare schemes, cannot contest local polls.
    • They shall be ineligible to apply for government jobs under the state or receiving any kind of subsidy, cannot get a promotion in a government job and his or her ration card would be limited to four members.

    How will the state implement measures?

    • The UP government plans to set up a state population fund to implement the measures.
    • The draft bill also asks the state government to introduce population control as a compulsory subject in all secondary schools.

    Back2Basics: Fertility Rate

    • Fertility rate may be defined as the number of children that would be born of a woman during her reproductive years.
    • For a country’s population to remain stable, it is the total fertility rate should be 2.1.
    • Studies suggest that India’s national fertility rate is 2.2 at the moment.

  • Places in news: Kesaria Buddhist Stupa

    The world-famous Kesaria Buddha stupa in east Champaran district of Bihar is waterlogged following floods in some parts of the district after heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of river Gandak in neighbouring Nepal.

    Kesaria Stupa

    • The Kesaria stupa, located about 110 km from the State capital Patna, has a circumference of almost 400 feet and stands at a height of about 104 feet.
    • The first construction of the nationally protected stupa is dated to the 3rd century BCE.
    • It is regarded as the largest Buddhist stupa in the world and has been drawing tourists from across several Buddhist countries.
    • The sputa’s exploration had started in the early 19th century after its discovery led by Colonel Mackenzie in 1814.
    • Later, it was excavated by General Cunningham in 1861-62 and in 1998 an ASI team led by archaeologist K.K. Muhammad had excavated the site properly.
    • The original Kesaria stupa is said to date back to the time of emperor Ashoka (circa 250 BCE) as the remains of an Ashokan pillar was discovered there.

    In the accounts of foreign travellers

    • The stupa mound may even have been inaugurated during the Buddha’s time, as it corresponds in many respects to the description of the stupa erected by the Licchavis of Vaishali to house the alms bowl the Buddha has given them.
    • Interestingly, Chinese travellers Fa-Hien (5th century CE) and Hiuen Tsang (7th century CE), who travelled to India, also mention this stupa and the legend of Buddha and the Licchavis, in their records.
    • While Fa-Hien talks of a pillar erected at the site, Hiuen Tsang mentions the stupa itself.

    Try answering this question from CS Mains 2016:

    Q.Early Buddhist Stupa-art, while depicting folk motifs and narratives successfully expounds Buddhist ideals. Elucidate.

  • Explained: Uniform Civil Code

    Favouring the introduction of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), the Delhi High Court has said the Indian youth need not be forced to struggle with issues arising due to conflicts in various personal laws in relation to marriage and divorce.

    Why did the HC promote this idea?

    • The modern Indian society was gradually becoming homogenous, the traditional barriers of religion, community and caste are slowly dissipating said the Delhi HC.
    • The youth of India is often forced to struggle with issues arising due to conflicts in various personal laws, especially in relation to marriage and divorce.

    Shah Bano reference

    • In the Shah Bano case, the apex court had said that a common civil code would help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws having conflicting ideologies.
    • It had also observed that the State was charged with the duty of securing UCC for the citizens of the country.

    What is a Uniform Civil Code?

    • A UCC is one that would provide for one law for the entire country, applicable to all religious communities in their personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption etc.
    • Article 44, one of the directive principles of the Constitution lays down that the state shall endeavour to secure a UCC for the citizens throughout the territory of India.
    • These, as defined in Article 37, are not justiciable (not enforceable by any court) but the principles laid down therein are fundamental in governance.

    Why need UCC?

    • UCC would provide equal status to all citizens
    • It would promote gender parity in Indian society.
    • UCC would accommodate the aspirations of the young population who imbibe liberal ideology.
    • Its implementation would thus support the national integration.

    Issues with UCC

    • There are practical difficulties due to religious and cultural diversity in India.
    • The UCC is often perceived by the minorities as an encroachment on religious freedom.
    • It is often regarded as interference of the state in personal matters of the minorities.
    • Experts often argue that the time is not ripe for Indian society to embrace such UCC.