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GS Paper: GS3

  • Operation Trident and its significance

    Every year, India celebrates December 4 as Navy Day to commemorate Operation Trident – a key offensive during the 1971 India-Pakistan War. This year, it is the 50th anniversary of the victory in the 1971 War.

    This newscard is crucial for the CAPF aspirants. It hardly holds any importance for CS prelims. But the grit, glory and honour of our armed forces is a matter of pride that every CS aspirants should know.

    Operation Trident

    • The India-Pakistan War of 1971 had begun on December 3, when the Pakistan Air Force launched pre-emptive strikes on airfields in Western India.
    • Following the Battle of Longewala, the Indian Navy inflicted heavy damage on Pakistani vessels in Karachi harbour.
    • India responded by formally declaring war in the wee hours of December 4.
    • On December 4, under Operation Trident, the Indian Navy sank three vessels near the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
    • The Indian Air Force also played a crucial role, when Karachi’s Kemari oil tanks were strafed by the IAF on the same day in an independent operation which it did not claim.

  • In farmers’ protests, the core is procurement

     

    Context

    • Farmers’ protests have erupted once again in north India, their main worry is about a possible withdrawal of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and a dismantling of the public procurement of grains.

    Why farmers in Punjab and Haryana are protesting

    • Farmers in Punjab and Haryana are heavily dependent on public procurement and assured price through MSP.
    • Nearly 88% of the paddy production and 70% of the wheat production in Punjab and Haryana (in 2017-18 and 2018-19) has been absorbed through public procurement [Food Grains Bulletin and Agricultural Statistics at a Glance, Government of India].
    • In contrast, in the other major paddy States such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, only 44% of the rice production is procured by public agencies.
    •  In the major wheat States of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, only 23% of the production is procured by public agencies.

    Government needs to continue procurement

    • If farmers of Punjab and Haryana need the procurement system, the government needs it even more.
    • This is because of its obligations under the PDS and the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
    • Support under the NFSA is a legal and rights-based entitlement.
    • There are nearly 80 crore NFSA beneficiaries and an additional eight crore migrants who need to be supported under the PDS.
    • In the last three years, nearly 40% of the total paddy production in the country and 32% of wheat production has been procured by public agencies to supply the PDS.
    • Thus, the government has little option but to continue its procurement from these States in the foreseeable future.

    Way forward

    • Therefore, it is imperative that the government reaches out to the farmer groups and assures them of the indispensability of MSP-procurement system.
    • The government needs to start this initiative immediately to allay their legitimate concerns.
    • Two of the major limitations in the laws that need to be addressed immediately:
    • 1) The absence of a regulatory mechanism to ensure fair play by private players vis-Ă -vis farmers.
    • 2) The lack of transparency in trade area transactions.

    Conclusion

    The severe trust deficit that resulted from the way the Farm Bills have been rushed through needs to be addressed by adopting a conciliatory approach towards farmers and the States.

  • Trade-offs for growth revival: Why India’s policymakers need a new roadmap

    The article weighs in the policy options with the Indian policymakers to revive the India economy. This leads to the trilemma of managing the exchange rate, controlling the inflation and maintaining the capital account open all at the same time.

    A brief overview of 1991 economic reforms

    • The crisis in 1991 was centred on the balance-of-payments.
    • Allowing the Indian rupee to fall from an artificially high level  was a key part of the solution.
    • Since the reforms, the Indian rupee has steadily depreciated, roughly according to a market-determined equilibrium.
    • Extraordinarily high tariff barriers were reduced, allowing for welfare gains from greater international trade.
    • Reforms of the domestic economy that increased market orientation was, in some sense, opportunistically combined with these externally-oriented measures.

    What should be India’s foreign economic policy

    • In terms of connections to the rest of the world, however, it is less clear what the right policy mix should be.
    • We can think of three types of international flows: labour, goods and services, and capital.

    1) Internation flow of Indian labour

    • India has benefited from being able to send workers with a variety of skills to different types of economies: construction workers and nurses in the Persian Gulf, software engineers in the US, and so on.
    • Direct benefits came from large remittances back to India.
    • The pandemic and US immigration policy, have had some major impacts on this international connectivity, but new vaccines and a change in the US president are likely to reverse these shocks.
    • In any case, there is not much that Indian policymakers can do or need to do on this front.

    2) Trade in Goods and Service

    • India has been able to grow its exports, both in a variety of agricultural and manufactured commodities and in services, from software services to tourism.
    • It has been reasonably competitive in a range of goods and services.
    • It was only in the last few years, even before the pandemic, have Indian exports struggled to register growth.
    • Whereas the export powerhouses of East Asia consistently ran surpluses on the current account of the balance of payments, India has mostly run deficits, albeit manageable ones.

    3) Capital Flow: Area where policymakers have option

    • Current account deficits have to be covered somehow, though various forms of foreign capital.
    • Whereas economic theory and economic policymakers mostly agree on the benefits of international trade in goods and services there is less of a consensus on the benefits of international capital flows.
    • Capital flows can raise fears of instability if they are reversed, or make exports less competitive if they push up the value of the rupee. 
    • The country is a relatively attractive destination for foreign capital, both FDI and portfolio investment.
    • But, these flows can make Indian exports less competitive if the rupee appreciates too much, requiring domestic demand to do more of the work of absorbing increased output.

    Lesson from Japan

    • Right now, India is trying to build its manufacturing capacity by raising tariffs, in an old-style push for import substitution.
    • It is also providing direct incentives, such as the new scheme rewarding increases in production.
    • Arguably, this did work in Japan in the 1960s, but it is not clear if India is well-off enough to sustain that domestic strategy.
    • In addition, the lack of competitive discipline exporting can hinder the achievement of acceptable quality levels.

    Way forward

    • Capital controls to some extent can help mitigate the risk in this situation.
    • The Reserve Bank of India do more to keep the rupee at competitive levels, by accumulating foreign exchange reserves.

    Consider the question “In terms of links with the rest of the global economy, it is less clear what the right policy mix should be. Do you agree with the view that focus on simultaneously managing the exchange rate and domestic inflation while maintaining an open capital account would help in the revival of India’s economic growth

    Conclusion

    Lurking under the surface of these issues is the trilemma of being unable to simultaneously manage the exchange rate and domestic inflation while maintaining an open capital account, although foreign exchange reserves provide a way of softening the trade-offs. These are not new challenges, but they will need to be a focus for India’s policymakers as they seek renewed economic growth.

    Source:-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/trade-offs-for-growth-revival-why-indias-policymakers-need-a-new-roadmap/2142900/

  • Lottery, gambling, betting taxable under GST Act

    The Supreme Court has held that lottery, gambling and betting are taxable under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act.

    Try this question from CSP 2018:

    Q.Consider the following items:

    1. Cereal grains hulled
    2. Chicken eggs cooked
    3. Fish processed and canned
    4. Newspapers containing advertising material

    Which of the above items is/are exempt under GST (Goods and Services Tax)?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1, 2 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

    What did the court say?

    • A three-judge Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan said the levy of GST on lotteries does not amount to “hostile discrimination”.
    • The court held that lottery, betting and gambling are “actionable claims” and come within the definition of ‘goods’ under Section 2(52) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
    • Lottery, betting and gambling are well known concepts and have been in practice in this country since before Independence and were regulated and taxed by different legislations.

    Parliament to decide

    • The court said that the Parliament had an absolute power to go for an “inclusive definition” of the term ‘goods’ to include actionable claims like lottery, gambling and betting.
    • The court accepted the government’s stand that the Parliament has the competence to levy GST on lotteries under Article 246A (inserted after GST Act) of the Constitution.
    • The power to make laws as conferred by Article 246A fully empowers the Parliament to make laws with respect to GST and expansive definition of goods given in Section 2(52).

    Must read:

    Goods and Services Tax

  • Surveyor-2 Spacecraft

    NASA has confirmed that the Near-Earth Object called 2020 SO is the rocket booster that helped lift the space agency’s Surveyor spacecraft toward the Moon in 1966.

    Try this PYQ:

    Consider the following phenomena:

    1. Size of the sun at dusk
    2. Colour of the sun at dawn
    3. Moon being visible at dawn
    4. Twinkle of stars in the sky
    5. Polestar being visible in the sky

    Which of the above are optical illusions?

    (a) 1, 2 and 3

    (b) 3, 4 and 5

    (c) 1, 2 and 4

    (d) 2, 3 and 5

    What is Surveyor-2?

    • The Surveyor-2 spacecraft was supposed to make a soft landing on the Moon’s surface in September 1966, during which time one of the three thrusters failed to ignite.
    • As a result of this the spacecraft started spinning and crashed on the surface.
    • The aim of the mission was to reconnoiter the lunar surface ahead of the Apollo missions that led to the first lunar landing in 1969.
    • While the spacecraft crashed into the Moon’s surface, the rocket booster disappeared into an unknown orbit around the Sun.

    How was the object determined to be the rocket booster?

    • Astronomers track asteroids using telescope to determine if there are potentially hazardous asteroids that pose a threat to the planet.
    • Therefore, it is also important for them to be able to distinguish between natural and artificial objects that orbit around the Sun.
    • The rocket booster has come “somewhat close” to the Earth in the past few decades.
    • One approach to the Earth in late 1966 was so close that the object was thought to have originated from Earth.
    • In September, the NASA-funded telescope detected it.

  • Arecibo Radio Telescope

    A massive radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory — one of the world’s largest — collapsed on after sustaining severe damage, following 57 years of astronomical discoveries.

    Try this PYQ:

    Which of the following is/are cited by the scientists as evidence/evidence for the continued expansion of the universe?

    1. Detection of microwaves in space
    2. Observation of redshirt phenomenon in space
    3. Movement of asteroids in space
    4. Occurrence of supernova explosions in space

    Codes:

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 1, 3 and 4

    (d) None of the above can be cited as evidence.

    Arecibo Telescope

    • The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), was an observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
    • It was the world’s largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, surpassed in July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China.
    • The second-largest single-dish radio telescope in the world, it had withstood many hurricanes and earthquakes since it was first built in 1963.

    Its contributions

    • Being the most powerful radar, scientists employed Arecibo to observe planets, asteroids and the ionosphere.
    • It made several discoveries over the decades, including finding prebiotic molecules in distant galaxies, the first exoplanets, and the first millisecond pulsar.
    • In 1967, Arecibo was able to discover that the planet Mercury rotates in 59 days and not 88 days as had been originally thought.
    • In the following decades, it also served as a hub in the search for extraterrestrial life, and would look for radio signals from alien civilizations.
    • In 1993, scientists Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on the observatory in monitoring a binary pulsar.
    • It provided a strict test of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and the first evidence for the existence of gravitational waves.

  • Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)

    A powerful new telescope ASKAP, in Australia has mapped vast areas of the universe in record-breaking time, revealing a million new galaxies and opening the way to new discoveries.

    Note all important telescopes in news and their features. Some of them are – Thirty Meter Telescope, Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, Spitzer, Chandra etc.

    What is ASKAP?

    • ASKAP is a telescope designed over a decade ago and located about 800 km north of Perth.
    • It became fully operational in February 2019 and is currently conducting pilot surveys of the sky before it can begin large-scale projects from 2021 onward.
    • ASKAP surveys are designed to map the structure and evolution of the Universe, which it does by observing galaxies and the hydrogen gas that they contain.
    • One of its most important features is its wide field of view, because of which it has been able to take panoramic pictures of the sky in great detail.
    • The telescope uses novel technology developed by CSIRO- the Australian space agency, which is a kind of a “radio camera” to achieve high survey speeds and consists of 36 dish antennas, which are each 12m in diameter.
    • The survey team has been able to observe over 83 per cent of the sky visible from ASKAP’s site in Western Australia.

    Significance of the results

    • The present Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) taken by the ASKAP telescope is like a “Google map” of the Universe.
    • Mapping the Universe on such a scale enables astronomers to study the formation of stars and how galaxies and their supermassive black holes evolve and interact with each other.
    • Significantly, the images the telescope has taken are on average deeper and have better spatial resolution compared to those taken during other surveys of the sky.
    • The aim of the RACS survey is to generate images that will aid future surveys undertaken using the telescope.

  • Looming heath crisis in the form of antimicrobial resistance

    Rapidly rising antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses the threat of the next health crisis if not addressed with urgency. The article examines the severity of the issue.

    The severity of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

    • Globally, about 35% of common human infections have become resistant to available medicines.
    • About 700,000 people die every year because available antimicrobial drugs — antibiotics, antivirals, antiparasitic and antifungals — have become less effective at combating pathogens.
    • Resistance to second- and third-line antibiotics — the last lines of defence against some common diseases — are projected to almost double between 2005 and 2030.
    • In India, the largest consumer of antibiotics in the world, this is a serious problem.

    Responsible factors

    •  Microorganisms develop resistance to antimicrobial agents as a natural defence mechanism.
    • Human activity has significantly accelerated the process.
    • The misuse and overuse of antimicrobials for humans.
    • Livestock and agriculture but other factors also contribute.

    Research points  to role of environment and pollution

    • Once consumed, up to 80% of antibiotic drugs are excreted un-metabolised, along with resistant bacteria.
    • Their release in effluents from households and health and pharmaceutical facilities, and agricultural run-off, is propagating resistant microorganisms.
    • Wastewater treatment facilities are unable to remove all antibiotics and resistant bacteria.
    • In India, there is capacity to treat only about 37% of the sewage generated annually.
    • Water, then, may be a major mode for the spread of AMR, especially in places with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene.
    • Wildlife that comes into contact with discharge containing antimicrobials can also become colonised with drug-resistant organisms.

    Initiative to tackle the AMR

    • The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) identified antimicrobial resistance as one of six emerging issues of environmental concern in its 2017 Frontiers Report.
    • UN agencies are working together to develop the One Health AMR Global Action Plan (GAP) that addresses the issue in human, animal, and plant health and food and environment sectors.
    • The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) issued draft standards which set limits for residues of 121 antibiotics in treated effluents from drug production units.
    • The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and MoEF&CC constituted the inter-ministerial Steering Committee on Environment and Health, with representation from WHO and UNEP.

    Way forward

    • The Centre and State governments in India can strengthen the environmental dimensions of their plans to tackle antimicrobial resistance.
    • It is important to promote measures that address known hotspots such as hospitals and manufacturing and waste treatment facilities.

    Consider the question “Being the largest consumer of antibiotics in the world, India faces a grave threat from growing anti-microbial resistance. What are the factors responsible for it? Suggest the ways to deal with it.”

    Conclusion

    We saw how quickly a pandemic can spread if we are not ready. This is an opportunity to get ahead of the next one.

  • Honey Adulteration in India

    10 out of 13 popular honey brands failed a key test of purity, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has claimed in an investigation.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following kinds of organisms:

    1. Bat
    2. Bee
    3. Bird

    Which of the above is/are pollinating agent/agents?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    Adulteration in honey

    • The CSE has resorted to the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) testing to ascertain the composition of a product at the molecular level.
    • The NMR test is not required by Indian law for honey that is being marketed locally but is needed for export.
    • Current regulations specify around 18 parameters that honey must comply with for producers to label it ‘pure honey.
    • Among the tests employed as per Indian regulations is one to check whether the honey is adulterated with C4 sugar (cane sugar) or C3 sugar (rice sugar).
    • Most samples cleared these tests but failed another test called the Trace Marker for Rice test, to test for rice syrup adulteration.

    Significance of the CSE study

    • Adulteration of honey is a global problem with several countries, including India, devising regulations and new tests to check it.
    • It also destroys the livelihoods of bee-keepers who found it unprofitable to make pure honey because sugar-syrup honey was often available at half the price.
    • Some Indian companies in the honey business were importing synthetic sugar syrups from China to adulterate honey.
    • This shows how the business of adulteration has evolved so that it can pass the stipulated tests in India.

    Back2Basics: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)

    • NMR spectroscopy is a crucial analytical tool for organic chemists.
    • It is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are perturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a frequency characteristic of the magnetic field at the nucleus.
    • It is widely used to determine the structure of organic molecules in solution and study molecular physics and crystals as well as non-crystalline materials.
    • It is also routinely used in advanced medical imaging techniques, such as in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

  • Jadav Payeng: The Forest Man of India

    Jadav Payeng, known as ‘The Forest Man of India’, takes us through his journey of grit that saw a desert turning into a forest. His story is been depicted through an upcoming trilingual film.

    We knew about the mountain man in India. We have also had the Forest Man of India who is also a living inspiration for successful afforestation. We can quote such examples in essays very well.

    Who is Jadav Payeng?

    • Jadav “Molai” Payeng (born 1963) is an environmental activist and forestry worker from Majuli Island popularly known as the Forest Man of India.
    • He was born in the indigenous Mising tribe of Assam.
    • Over the course of several decades, he has planted and tended trees on a sandbar of the river Brahmaputra turning it into a forest reserve.
    • The forest, called Molai forest after him is located near Kokilamukh of Jorhat, Assam, India and encompasses an area of about 1,360 acres / 550 hectares.
    • In 2015, he was honoured with Padmashri, the fourth highest civilian award in India.

    His work

    • The forest, which came to be known as Molai forest, now houses Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, and over 100 deer and rabbits.
    • Molai forest is also home to elephants and several varieties of birds, including a large number of vultures.
    • Bamboo covers an area of over 300 hectares.