Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various waterfalls mentioned in the newscard
Mains level: NA
The Kerala government recently gave the go-ahead for the proposed 163-megawatt (MW) Athirappally Hydroelectric Project.
Information about some of India’s tallest waterfalls is provided in the B2b section. Kindly pen them down along with their respective states. They can be asked in the match the pair type question.
Athirappally Waterfalls
- The famous Athirappally Waterfalls is located on the Chalakudy River in Thrissur district of Kerala.
- It originates from the upper reaches of the Western Ghats at the entrance to the Sholayar ranges.
- It is the largest waterfall in Kerala, which stands tall at 80 feet and is nicknamed “The Niagara of India”.
- Controversy about a state-proposed hydroelectric dam on the Chalakudy River above the waterfalls began in the 1990s and continued through 2021.
Issues with the Hydel project
- A number of families belonging to the Kadar tribal group are facing displacement here.
- The dam will also affect irrigation and tourism possibilities in the downstream parts of the Chalakudy River.
- The falls and its surroundings are part of a crucial biodiversity-rich region coming under the Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 of the Western Ghats.
- The Ghats themselves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and are one of the eight “hottest hot-spots” of biological diversity in the world.
Back2Basics: Waterfalls in India
- Vajrai Falls (560m): Satara, Maharashtra
- Kunchikal Falls (455m): Shimoga, Karnataka
- Barehipani Falls (390m): Odisha
- Nohkalikai Falls (340m): East Khasi, Meghalaya
- Dudhsagar Falls (310m): Karnataka, Goa
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Galwan river, Shyok River
Mains level: Paper 2- India-China relations
This article calibrates the changes our future engagement with China will experience following the Galwan incident. The first casualty has been the trust between the two countries. And next could be strategic communications between the two countries. So, India’s response to the incident should be based on these changes.
What explains China’s aggression
- Hubris, internal insecurities in China, the COVID-19 pandemic and the complex and confused external environment explains it.
- Challenge posed by India from the ideological, strategic and economic points of view can be the other factor.
Violation of many agreements
- China’s recent military actions in Ladakh clearly violate the signed agreements of 1993, 1996, 2005, etc on maintaining peace and tranquillity along the LAC.
- These actions are in violation also of other signed agreements, including at the highest level.
- It also contradict positions taken by Xi himself at the informal Wuhan and Chennai summits in 2018 and 2019.
- In 2003, two countries signed a Declaration on Principles for Relations and Constructive Cooperation between our two countries.
- The third principle states: “The two countries are not a threat to each other. Neither side shall use or threaten to use force against the other.”
- This was more than reiterated in the agreement signed in April 2005 on the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for settlement of the India China boundary question.
- . Article 1 states, inter alia: “Neither side shall use or threaten to use force against the other by any means.”
Doklam and informal summits
- .A qualitative change though occurred in Chinese perceptions after the Doklam face-off.
- That necessitated the first informal summit at Wuhan in April 2018.
- One important outcome of that summit was the agreement to continue to meet at the highest level and to enhance trust and strengthen strategic communication.
- The second informal summit took place between Xi and Narendra Modi in Chennai in October 2019.
- It was in the aftermath of the revocation of Article 370 by India and China’s unnecessary and unsuccessful attempt to raise the issue in the UN Security Council.
- By then, many other developments — both internal and external — had added pressure on China.
- At Chennai, the Chinese undoubtedly drew some red lines.
Which red lines does China feel India has crossed
- One fundamental red line is China’s long-held and strategic interest in parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
- Jammu and Kashmir border Xinjiang and Tibet and allow connectivity between the two.
- It is wrongly argued that it is Pakistan that is the issue in J&K.
- China is as big an issue but has quietly hidden behind Pakistan’s cover.
- That is no longer feasible as democratic India becomes economically and otherwise stronger.
Future of Special Representative process
- The Special Representatives process to address the boundary question seems stalemated and its usefulness needs review.
- The 2005 agreement contains the necessary parameters for a boundary settlement but there is obviously not adequate common ground.
- Some positivity can, however, be brought in if the LAC clarification process is revived and completed in a time-bound manner.
- But this is easier said than done in the prevailing circumstances.
- Patrolling procedures will need to be revised, preferably by mutual agreement.
Unsustainable economic partnership
- The current nature of the economic partnership between India and China is not sustainable.
- India’s annual trade deficit with China in recent years virtually finances a CPEC a year!
- China has still not fulfilled all its commitments to India on joining the WTO in 2001.
What should be our trade policy
- Indian business and industry must stop taking the easy option.
- Some costs will no doubt go up but there can be environmental advantages of switching to other sources of technology and equipment.
- There is more than one available source of financial investments in Indian ventures.
What will be the nature of bilateral dialogue
- Bilateral dialogue mechanisms will continue their desultory course.
- On issues of interest to India such as terrorism, we get no support from China.
- Cooperation on river waters has not evolved.
- On the global agenda, on issues such as climate change, dialogue and cooperation will continue in multilateral fora depending on mutual interest.
What should be the nature of governments response
- The response to China’s recent actions in Ladakh must be an all-of-government one, indeed an all-India one.
- It should be covering all sectors including heightened security and be coordinated, consistent.
- This is not a question of nationalism or patriotism but of self-esteem and self-respect.
Consider the question “What should be the basis of India’s evolving policy response to China’s new approach to the border dispute?”
Conclusion
Bilateral relations between India and China cannot progress unless there is peace on the borders and China recognises that India too has non-negotiable core concerns, aspirations and interests.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3-Northern border security issue
Two issues have been discussed in this article:change in strategy on northern border and the role of political leaders. Leveraging LAC for premeditated aggression has been part of China’s policy. This makes the change in our policy an imperative.
LAC as leverage against India
- India and China have had parleys since 1981, meetings of Joint Working Groups from 1988 to 2005 and 22 rounds of Special Representatives talks, in addition to many summit-level meetings.
- Despite nearly four decades of discussions delineation and demarcation of the boundary has not been possible.
- Throughout this period CMC/PLA had been at the helm of the defence and foreign policy decision-making,
- The intrusion at Finger 4/5 of Pangong Tso and the transgression up to LAC in Galwan are instructive.
- Out of the blue, most inexplicably and without any historical basis, the official Chinese statement came out seeking the “estuary” of Shyok and Galwan rivers.
- The Chinese have deliberately ensured that the nebulous nature of the LAC is retained as leverage against India.
Modernisation of PLA: So, was Galwan a testbed?
- The PLA is at the threshold of achieving its interim modernisation goals of informatised, integrated joint operations by 2021.
- It is well likely that the events of Eastern Ladakh of May-June 2020 are part of a larger testbed.
- Over the years, the face-offs have witnessed PLA’s jostling and pushing, posse of horses intruding, and scant disregard for the treaties with India.
- Pangong Tso and Galwan showed a new picture.
Need to strategise and revisit the rules of engagement
- For the Indian Army units and formations in Eastern Ladakh or elsewhere facing the PLA, there are limits to adherence to good faith and honour.
- The Indian Army has to strategise and should revisit its rules of engagement on the Northern Borders.
- It has to be mindful that troops in tactical situations cannot be shackled by past treaties, which the PLA deals with disdain.
- The Indian Army has to remain prepared to militarily handle the situations that will arise.
- PLA has always shown extraordinary interest in Eastern Ladakh, especially Daulat-Beg-Oldi, the Chip-Chap river, Track Junction and Karakoram Pass.
- The management practices for the Northern Borders have to be revisited, like placing the nearly division-sized force of ITBP in Eastern Ladakh under the army operationally.
- Real-time intelligence, surveillance equipment and satellite imageries must be available to field formations that need to act on it.
- This should not be delayed by the bureaucratic maze.
Role of political leadership
- At political level, there are representative forums like Parliament, the committees and regular briefings to seek clarifications, which is the right of politicians.
- On national security issues, there must be national unity.
- There ought to be faith in those at the helm that the issues of national security will not be sacrificed for political gains.
- Similarly, within the norms and constraints of national security, the establishment must keep the nation informed, to avoid an information vacuum.
Conclusion
We need to strategise for the future, including the modern manifestations of non-contact, non-kinetic warfare. We must avoid unnecessary nitpicking on semantics of statements made in a particular context.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: WW2 and related stories
Raksha Mantri is on a three-day trip to Russia to attend the 75th Victory Day. India has sent a tri-services contingent to participate in the Victory Day Parade.
Try these questions from CS Mains:
Q.To what extent can Germany be held responsible for causing the two World Wars? Discuss critically. (CSM 2015)
Q.The New Economic Policy – 1921 of Lenin had influenced the policies adopted by India soon after independence. Evaluate. (CSM 2014)
What is Victory Day?
- Victory Day marks the end of World War II and the victory of the Allied Forces in 1945.
- Adolf Hitler had shot himself on April 30. On May 7, German troops surrendered, which was formally accepted the next day and came into effect on May 9.
- In most European countries, it is celebrated on May 8 and is called the Victory in Europe Day.
Why does Russia not celebrate Victory Day on the same date?
- The erstwhile Soviet Union had not wanted the surrender to take place in the west and wanted that such a significant event should reflect the contribution of the Red Army and the Soviet population.
- According to historians, Joseph Stalin, premier of the Soviet Union, wanted Germany to also sign surrender in Berlin.
- Since crowds were already gathering in London to celebrate, Victory in Europe Day celebration in Britain would take place on 8 May, as they did in the United States.
- This did not convince Stalin, who argued that Soviet troops were still fighting the German forces in many areas.
- German soldiers did not surrender in East Prussia, Courland Peninsula, Czechoslovakia till later. Hence victory celebration could therefore not begin in the Soviet Union even after May 9.
If May 9 is Victory Day, why is it being celebrated on June 24?
- This year, the celebrations this year were pushed to June because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- After winning the war and having its own Victory Day on May 9, Stalin wanted to commemorate the victory with a military parade.
- On June 22, 1945, he ordered the commemoration of the victory over Germany to hold the victory parade on June 24, 1945, in Moscow’s Red Square.
- Hence the first Victory Day Parade took place on June 24 in Moscow. However, since then, the Parades have taken place on May 9.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tenth Schedule
Mains level: Issues over Speaker's discretion in Anti-defection
Manipur Speaker’s decision to disqualify some MLAs ahead of the Rajya Sabha election has raised questions once again on the Speaker’s powers to disqualify under the tenth schedule of our Constitution.
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Q.The Ninth Schedule was introduced in the Constitution of India during the prime-ministership of:
(a) Jawaharlal Nehru
(b) Lal Bahadur Shastri
(c) Indira Gandhi
(d) Morarji Desai
What is the Tenth Schedule?
- The anti-defection law, referred to as the Tenth Schedule, was added to the Constitution through the Fifty-Second (Amendment) Act, 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi was PM.
- It lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature based on a petition by any other member of the House.
- A legislator is deemed to have defected if he either voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or disobeys the directives of the party leadership on a vote.
- This implies that a legislator defying (abstaining or voting against) the party whip on any issue can lose his membership of the House.
- The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.
Exceptions under the law
- Legislators may change their party without the risk of disqualification in certain circumstances.
- The law allows a party to merge with or into another party provided that at least two-thirds of its legislators are in favour of the merger.
- In such a scenario, neither the members who decide to merge nor the ones who stay with the original party will face disqualification.
Is there any time limit to decide on the matter?
- The law does not specify a time period for the Presiding Officer to decide on a disqualification plea.
- Given that courts can intervene only after the Presiding Officer has decided on the matter, the petitioner seeking disqualification has no option but to wait for this decision to be made.
Under debate: Speaker’s power
- The power for this disqualification is vested in the Speaker, who is usually a nominee of the ruling party.
- Since no action was taken by the Speaker on the disqualification petitions, a writ petition was filed before the High Court of Manipur in Imphal seeking directions to decide on the petition.
- However, the court did not pass an order.
- It said that the larger issue of whether a High Court can direct a Speaker to decide a disqualification petition within a certain timeframe is pending before a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.
- The parties are left with the option to move the apex court or wait for the outcome of the cases pending before it.
The apex court’s reluctance to intervene
- In 2018, however, the High Court, refusing the preliminary objections of the Speaker, decided to hear the case on merits.
- It reasoned that since the remedy under Tenth Schedule is an alternative to moving courts.
- It said that if the remedy is found to be ineffective due to deliberate inaction or indecision on the part of the Speaker, the court will have jurisdiction.
- However, the High Court again did not pass orders since the larger issue is pending before the Supreme Court.
The apex court recommends-
- The apex court has expressed its displeasure with the Speaker’s lack of urgency in deciding the disqualification petitions.
- A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled that Speakers of assemblies and the Parliament must decide disqualification pleas within a period of three months except in extraordinary circumstances.
- This settled the law for situations where the timing of the disqualification is meddled to manipulate floor tests.
- The court also recommended that the Parliament consider taking a relook at the powers of the Speakers citing instances of partisanship.
- The court suggested independent tribunals to decide on disqualification.
Also read:
Explained: Anti-defection law and its evolution
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fiscal deficit
Mains level: Paper 3- Monetary and fiscal policy response to deal with the crisis.
The economic crisis in the wake of the pandemic is different from past crises. In the past, the financial crisis led to economic shock. This time its economic shock that that is causing the financial crisis. This also means that our response to this crisis should also be different. This article elaborates on the fiscal and monetary policy response to the crisis.
Pattern followed by economic crises
- There is a well-established pattern to economic crises in emerging markets (EMs).
- First, because of loose fiscal and monetary policies, the economy goes into a demand overdrive.
- Demand overdrive spikes inflation and widens the current account deficit (CAD).
- Then, CAD is financed by foreign capital chasing the promise of even higher growth and asset prices.
- At some point, the overdrive is perceived as unsustainable, which triggers a reassessment of growth, inflation, and financial stability.
- Domestic and foreign investors stop new investments, large capital outflows ensue.
- Banks stop giving new loans and rolling over old ones on fears of worsening credit quality.
- Growth collapses and a full-blown economic crisis follows.
- The 1995 Mexican, the 1997 Asian, the 1999 Russian, the 2008 sub-prime, and the 2013 Taper Tantrum are all examples of such crises.
- In the case of India, the 1981-82, the 1991-92, and the 2013 crises all had the same characteristics.
Pattern in response to such crises
- The first response is to restore confidence in policymaking.
- It means large increases in interest rates, massive withdrawal of liquidity, and deep cuts in fiscal deficit.
- Just before the crisis assets [which reflects in bank’s balance sheets] are severely overvalued on inflated views of growth, profits, and income prior to the crisis.
- So, the second step is to restart the economy by restructuring the tattered balance sheets of banks, firms, and households.
- This means debt restructuring and bank recapitalisation aided by privatisation, closures, and mergers.
- These measures often need to be bolstered by structural reforms.
- The economic crisis makes it easier to forge the political consensus for the reforms.
But the economic crisis caused by pandemic is different
- Why is it different?
- Because, before the COVID-19 outbreak far from overheating, Indian economy was slowing down.
- The financial system had virtually shut off the flow of credit as it wrestled with its bad debt burden.
- This is not an instance of a financial crisis turning into an economic shock weighed down by damaged balance sheets.
- Instead, this is an instance of an economic shock that could turn into a financial crisis if the damaged balance sheets are not repaired.
So, should the response also be different?
- Yes.
- Do the opposite of what is done in a typical EM crisis: Cut interest rates, increase liquidity support, and allow the fiscal deficit to widen.
- The RBI has done the first two generously, although with the coming disinflation, it needs to cut interest rates much more.
- But, what about the fiscal policy of the government?
Fiscal policy of the government: Doing not enough
- The government’s approach to fiscal policy, however, seems ambivalent.
- The overall fiscal support from the government will be limited to 2 per cent of the GDP.
- So all the revenue shortfall and the pandemic-related budgetary support must add up to 2 per cent of the GDP.
- If the revenue shortfall is more than 2 per cent of GDP, then total spending will need to be cut.
Why fiscal policy matters for balance sheets
- In this crisis, the causality of damage to balance sheets runs opposite.
- Balance sheets will be damaged not because of prior excesses but because of the collapse in incomes during the lockdown.
- Consequently, debt doesn’t need to be restructured to resume the flow of credit and get the recovery going.
- Instead, what is needed is adequate income support to households and firms.
- Such support will provide the needed time and space for the recovery to take hold.
- Which, in turn, would repair much of the damage to the balance sheets.
- But the fiscal response so far has been inexplicably restrained.
What should the government focus on
- What matters today is the assurance of medium-term growth and not a few higher or lower points in this year’s fiscal deficit.
- To do that, the government needs to allow the deficit to rise.
- This extra deficit should help accommodate the decline in revenue and also provide adequate income support.
- Some have argued that the government, instead, needs to offset the decline on private demand by increasing public spending.
- This is an odd argument.
- It would mean letting demand collapse and then compensating it with higher government spending.
- Instead, using the same resources to ensure that private demand did not decline was the more natural and efficient response.
What should be the RBI’s response
- The RBI, too, has a very large role to play.
- As elsewhere, it is now the only entity that has a strong enough balance sheet to provide any meaningful support.
- The RBI is keeping markets flush with liquidity and low interest rates.
- However, the RBI also needs to undertake extensive quantitative easing to keep bond yields from spiking given the likely large increase in deficit.
- Because of the depth of the growth shock, bad debt will rise.
- The natural instinct of banks is to cut back credit because of worsening credit quality.
- To prevent this from happening, the RBI will need to extend substantial regulatory forbearance on accounting norms, provisioning rules, and, if needed, even capital requirements.
- In addition, like the US Fed and the ECB, the RBI might also need to provide liquidity directly to corporates.
- As of now, banks are providing liquidity to corporates supported by government guarantees as proposed now.
Consider the question “The economic crisis brought by the corona crisis is not like the ones we faced before. This crisis is about an economic shock turning into the financial crisis. So, what should be fiscal and monetary policy interventions to tackle the crisis?”
Conclusion
This is not a crisis like the ones before. This time around, we need to weigh not the cost of taking these measures but the cost of not taking them.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Permafrost, Arctic Heatwave
Mains level: Impact of climate changes
The Arctic Circle has recorded temperatures reaching over 38 degrees Celsius in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk, likely an all-time high. The temperatures seem to have been 18 degree Celsius higher than normal in June a/c to the BBC.
Try this question from CS Mains 2017:
Q.How does the Cryosphere affect global climate?
What is happening in the Arctic?
- Since the past month, the most above-average temperatures were recorded in Siberia, where they were about 10 degrees Celsius above normal.
- Siberia has been recording higher-than-average surface air temperatures since January.
Are Arctic heatwaves common?
- This is not the first time that rising temperatures in the Arctic have created alarm.
- The rising temperatures are attributed to large-scale wind patterns that blasted the Arctic with heat, the absence of sea ice, and human-induced climate change, among other reasons.
- There has been an increase of heatwave occurrences over the terrestrial Arctic. These frequent occurrences have already started to threaten local vegetation, ecology, human health and economy.
A cause of worry for all
- Warming in the Arctic is leading to the thawing of once permanently frozen permafrost below ground.
- This is alarming scientists because as permafrost thaws, carbon dioxide and methane previously locked up below ground is released.
- These greenhouse gases can cause further warming, and further thawing of the permafrost, in a vicious cycle known as positive feedback.
- The higher temperatures also cause land ice in the Arctic to melt at a faster rate, leading to greater run-off into the ocean where it contributes to sea-level rise.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Seabed 2030 Project
Mains level: Ocean-floor study and its significance
The Seabed 2030 Project has finished mapping nearly one-fifth of the world’s ocean floor.
The ocean relief can be divided into various parts such as Continental Shelf, Continental Slope, Continental Rise or Foot, Deep Ocean basins, Abyssal plains & Abyssal Hills, Oceanic Trenches, Seamounts and Guyots.
Revise these ocean bottom relief features from your basic references.
Also revise India’s Deep Ocean Mission.
The Seabed 2030 Project
- The global initiative is a collaboration between Japan’s non-profit Nippon Foundation and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO).
- It is the only intergovernmental organisation with a mandate to map the entire ocean floor and traces its origins to the GEBCO chart series initiated in 1903 by Prince Albert I of Monaco.
- The project was launched at the UN Ocean Conference in 2017, and coordinates and oversees the sourcing and compilation of bathymetric data from different parts of the world’s ocean.
What’s so special about this project?
- In the past, satellites and planes carrying altimeter instruments have been able to provide large swathes of data about the ocean floor.
- The Seabed 2030 Project, however, aims to obtain higher quality information that has a minimum resolution of 100 m at all spots.
- It is using equipment such as deepwater hull-mounted sonar systems, and more advanced options such as Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).
- For this, the project aims to rope in governments, private companies, and international organisations to acquire data.
Progress of the project
- Since the launch of the project in 2017, the surveying of the ocean bed as per modern standards has gone up from around 6 per cent to 19 per cent.
- The project has added 1.45 crore square kilometres of new bathymetric data to its latest grid.
Why is the study of the ocean floor important?
- Ocean topography: The knowledge of bathymetry — the measurement of the shape and depth of the ocean floor, is instrumental in understanding several natural phenomena, including ocean circulation, tides, and biological hotspots.
- Navigation: It also provides key inputs for navigation, forecasting tsunamis, exploration for oil and gas projects, building offshore wind turbines, fishing resources, and for laying cables and pipelines. This data becomes highly valuable during disaster situations.
- Climate Change study: Importantly, the maps would also ensure a better understanding of climate change, since floor features including canyons and underwater volcanoes influence phenomena ocean currents. These ocean currents act as conveyor belts of warm and cold water, thus influencing the weather and climate.
- Marine conservation: A map of the entire global ocean floor would also help further achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine resources.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2012:
Q.Consider the following factors:
- Rotation of the Earth
- Air pressure and wind
- Density of ocean water
- Revolution of the Earth
Which of the above factors influence the ocean currents?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1, 2 and 3
(c) 1 and 4
(d) 2, 3 and 4
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Malabar Rebellion 1921
Mains level: Peasants revolts in the colonial period
With the 1921 Malabar Rebellion turning 100 next year, several movies have been announced back-to-back.
Try this question from CSP 2015:
Q. Which amongst the following provided a common factor for tribal insurrection in India in the 19th century?
(a.) Introduction of a new system of land revenue and taxation- of tribal products
(b.) Influence of foreign religious missionaries in tribal areas
(c.) Rise of a large number of money lenders, traders and revenue farmers as middlemen in tribal areas
(d.) The complete disruption of the old agrarian order of the tribal communities
What is the Malabar Rebellion?
- The Malabar Rebellion in 1921 started as resistance against the British colonial rule and the feudal system in southern Malabar but ended in communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.
- There were a series of clashes between Mappila peasantry and their landlords, supported by the British, throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
- It began as a reaction against a heavy-handed crackdown on the Khilafat Movement, a campaign in defence of the Ottoman Caliphate by the British authorities in the Eranad and Valluvanad taluks of Malabar.
- The Mappilas attacked and took control of police stations, British government offices, courts and government treasuries.
Also in news:
Variyankunna Kunjahammed Haji
- He was one of the leaders of the Malabar Rebellion of 1921.
- He raised 75000 natives, seized control of large territory from the British rule and set up a parallel government.
- In January 1922, under the guise of a treaty, the British betrayed Haji through his close friend Unyan Musaliyar, arresting him from his hideout and producing him before a British judge.
- He was sentenced to death along with his compatriots.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Senkaku Islands
Mains level: China's territorial expansion plans
A local council in southern Japan voted to rename an area covering the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands — known by Taiwan and China as the Diaoyus — from “Tonoshiro” to “Tonoshiro Senkaku”.
Try this:
Q. Recently, Senkaku Island was in the news. Where is it located?
a) South China Sea
b) Indian Ocean
c) East China sea
d) Red sea
Senkaku Island Dispute
- The Japanese-administered island chain, formed by five islets and three barren rocks, covers an area of 7 square km.
- It is located about 200km southwest of Japan’s Okinawa Island and a similar distance northeast of Taiwan.
- Japan annexed the archipelago following China’s defeat in the first Sino-Japanese war from 1894 to 1895.
- Yet the islands were left out of the Treaty of San Francisco at the end of the second world war that returned to China most of the territories previously occupied by Japan.
- Under the terms of Japan’s surrender, the island chain was controlled by the US until 1971, when it was returned to Japan along with Okinawa and other surrounding islands.
Why are the Islands so coveted?
- The region appears to have great promise as a future oil province of the world.
- Japan and China are among the world’s top importers of fossil fuels.
- Abundant fishing resources are found nearby, as can important shipping lanes used by Japan, South Korea and China for energy imports.
- The islands have also become a focal point of the broader rivalry between the two countries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-China realtions
This article tracks the faultline in India’s China policy that makes it an enduring tragedy. China never bought into India’s narratives of Asian unity and untied Asian front against the West. Instead, China cultivated its relations with the West and leveraged that for furthering its interests.
Enduring tragedy: India’s China policy
- That tragedy is rooted in persistent political fantasies.
- Refusal to learn from past mistakes.
- And the belief that the US and the West are at the source of India’s problems with China.
- The problem predates independence.
- Each generation has been reluctant to discard the illusions that India’s China policy has nurtured over the last century.
Historical background
- Tagore went to China in 1924 with the ambition of developing a shared Asian spiritual civilisation.
- He was accused by Chines of diverting Chins’s attention away from the imperatives of modernisation and, yes, westernisation.
- Jawaharlal Nehru approached China as a modernist and nationalist.
- He met a delegation of Chinese nationalists at Brussels in 1927.
- There he issued a ringing statement on defeating western imperialism and shaping a new Asian and global order.
- But in Second World War, Congress was unwilling to join hands with China in defeating Japanese imperialism.
- Indian and Chinese nationalists could not come together for they were fighting different imperial powers.
Relations after independence
- As India’s first PM, Nehru campaigned against the western attempt to isolate China.
- Afro-Asian conference in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955 was attended by both.
- Within five years war broke out in 1962.
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelled to China in February 1979 to re-engage Beijing.
- Before he could head home, Beijing had launched a war against a fellow communist regime in Vietnam.
- That was an end of hope for Asian solidarity.
- Rajiv Gandhi in 1988 sought to normalise relations with China while continuing to negotiate on the boundary dispute.
Other issues: Trade entanglement
- Amid border dispute, other issues have taken a life of their own.
- For example, the massive annual trade deficits.
- India’s hope that economic cooperation will improve mutual trust will help resolve other issues was also dashed.
- India’s massive trade deficit with China is now a little over half of its total trade deficit.
- India is finding it hard to disentangle the deep economic dependence on imports from China.
Story of political cooperation: From unipolar to bipolar world
- As the Cold War ended, India began political cooperation with China on global issues.
- It was hoped that such cooperation will provide the basis for better bilateral relations.
- It could not have been more wrong.
- P V Narasimha Rao and his successors joined China and Russia in promoting a “multipolar world” [remember the US dominance].
- Delhi is now struggling to cope with the emergence of a “unipolar Asia” — with Beijing as its dominant centre.
- China’s rapid rise has also paved the way for the potential emergence of a “bipolar world” dominated by Washington and Beijing.
Engagement with West
- China never worked with Indian on the ideas of building coalitions against the West.
- While India never stopped arguing with the West, China developed a sustained engagement with the US, Europe and Japan.
- Mao broke with Communist Russia to join forces with the US in the early 1970s.
- Deng Xiaoping promoted massive economic cooperation with the US to transform China and lay the foundations for its rise.
Will staying away from West lead to good relations with China
- China has leveraged the deep relationship with the West to elevate itself in the international system.
- Delhi continues to think that staying away from America is the answer for good relations with Beijing.
- Beijing sees the world through the lens of power.
- Delhi tends to resist that realist prism.
- India has consistently misread China’s interests and ambitions.
- The longer India takes to shed that strategic lassitude, the greater will be its China trouble.
Facts that India needs to come to terms with
- India must also recognise that China, like the great powers before it, wants to redeem its territorial claims.
- China also has the ambition to bend the neighbourhood to its will, reshape the global order to suit its interests.
- China has not hidden these goals and interests, but India has refused to see what is in plain sight.
Consider the question “Acknowledging Beijing’s rise, scale of challenge it presents, are first steps in crafting a new China policy” Comment.
Conclusion
Acknowledging China’s dramatic rise and recognising the scale of the challenge it presents is essential for Delhi in crafting a new China policy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Comparative advantage
Mains level: Paper 3- Globalisation and issues with it
Protectionism involves the use of one or more restrictions on free trade between countries. What are the main reasons why this should be avoided?
The main arguments against protectionism are outlined below:
Market Distortion and loss of Economic Efficiency
Protectionism can be an ineffective and costly means of sustaining jobs and supporting domestic economic growth:
Higher Prices for Consumers
Import tariffs in particular push up prices for consumers and insulate inefficient domestic sectors from genuine competition. They penalise foreign producers and encourage an inefficient allocation of resources both domestically and globally.
Reduction in Market Access for Producers
Export subsidies depress world prices and damage output, profits, investment and jobs in many lower and middle-income developing countries that rely heavily on exporting primary and manufactured goods for their growth.
Extra Costs for Exporters
For goods that are produced globally, high tariffs and other barriers on imports act as a tax on exports, damaging economies, and jobs, rather than protecting them. For example, a tariff on imported steel can lead to higher costs and lower profits for car manufacturers and the construction industry.
Adverse Effects on Poverty
Higher prices from tariffs tend to hit those on lower incomes hardest, because the tariffs (e.g. on foodstuffs, tobacco, and clothing) fall on products that lower income families spend a higher share of their income. Tariffs can therefore lead to a rise in relative poverty.
Retaliation & Trade Wars
There is the danger that one country imposing import controls will lead to retaliatory action by another.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various personalities that contributed to India's food reaserch
Mains level: Paper 3- Contributors to the India's agri-research
This article introduces us to the Indian winners of the prize that is considered as the Nobel for research in food. Their contribution has benefited agriculture immensely.Here, we’ll get a brief idea about their work.
Word Food Prize
- The World Food Prize is often described as the Nobel for research in food.
- It was set up by Ñorman Borlaug.
- Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1972 for his work on hybridisation of wheat and rice.
- His work led to the Green Revolution in the mid-1960s.
Indian winners of the award
- The awards to eight Indians of the total of 50 given so far are a tribute to the country’s agricultural university education and research system.
- The country should celebrate their achievements unabashedly when 7-10 million new productive jobs need to be created annually.
- And when it accounts for a third of global undernourished.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has made job creation and improved nutrition and health more urgent than ever.
Let’s look at the contributions made by these personalities
Rattan Lal
- Rattan Lal was awarded for developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increasing food production.
- This approach also restores and conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change.
- His research has shown that growing crops on healthy soils produces more food from less land area, less use of agrochemicals, less tillage, less water, and less energy.
M S Swaminathan
- Swaminathan’s vision transformed India from a “begging bowl” to a “breadbasket” almost overnight.
- His work helped bringing the total crop yield of wheat from 12 million tonnes to 23 million tonnes in four crop seasons.
- Which helped in ending India’s dependence on grain imports.
Verghese Kurien
- Kurien, received the prize in 1989 for India’s white revolution.
- Under his leadership, milk production increased from 23.3 million tonnes (1968-69) to 100.9 million tonnes (2006-07).
- And now it is projected to reach 187 million tonnes for 2019-20.
- This helped in bringing millions of small and marginal farmers, including women into the marketplace.
Ramlal Barwale
- Barwale, a small farmer and entrepreneur, received the award in 1996.
- He made selling seeds of okra and sorghum “hip” and founded the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company.
- The Crop Science Society of America has called him father of the seed industry in India.
- He introduced hybrid rice from China to India.
Surinder Vasal
- Vasal was given the prize in 2000 for developing quality protein maize (QPM).
- Integrating cereal chemistry and plant breeding techniques, Vasal and Villegas of Mexico collaborated to work on “opaque-2” maize variety using molecular biology techniques.
- In the mid-1980s, they produced a QPM germplasm with hard kernel characteristics and taste like that of the traditional grain.
- But it has much higher quality levels of lysine and tryptophan, thereby enhancing the nutrition value.
Mododugu Gupta
- Gupta received the award in 2005 for starting a blue revolution.
- He developed two exceptional approaches for increasing fish harvests among the very poor.
- This helped in increasing the protein and mineral content in the diets of over one million of the world’s most impoverished families.
- Gupta’s aquaculture technologies boosted Bangladesh’s fish yields from 304 kg per hectare to over 2,500 kg per hectare in less than a year — including 1,000 kg per hectare harvests in the dry season.
Sanjaya Rajaram
- Rajaram, who won the prize in 2014.
- He succeeded Borlaug in leading CIMMYT’s wheat breeding programme.
- There he went on to develop an astounding 480 varieties that have been widely adopted by both small and large-scale farmers.
- Rajaram was born near a small farming village in Uttar Pradesh and received his master’s degree from IARI.
Decreasing government support
- The awardees all come from the time of the green and rainbow revolutions (of dairy and aqua-culture).
- It was also the time when India invested heavily in agricultural science education and research and Indian scientists shone brightly in the global galaxy of science.
- Government support for state agricultural universities, and research conducted by the ICAR and the departments of science and technology and biotechnology has slipped in recent years.
- Today, not a single Indian university is counted among the top 100 in the world.
Consider the question asked by the UPSC in 2019 “How was India benefitted from the contributions of Sir M.Visvesvaraya and Dr M. S. Swaminathan in the fields of water engineering and agricultural science respectively?”
Conclusion
Students and faculty at ICAR and state agricultural universities can follow in their footsteps and achieve scientific excellence, if they receive the resources and their work is supported with incentives.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RIC
Mains level: India-China border skirmishes and its de-escalation
Russia has emerged, all of a sudden, as a key diplomatic player amid the tension between India and China. It is set to host the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting.
Practice question for mains:
Q. In pursuit of a ‘Special Strategic Partnership’ with the US, India has compromised its ties with Russia. Discuss.
Raksha Mantri stepping in at RIC
- Tensions being at the peak, India will discuss supply and purchase of new defence systems — like the S-400 missile defence system — with the Russian top brass in the military and government.
- India has made this decision to reach out to Russia not just out of choice, but also out of necessity.
- Moscow has leverage and influence to shape and change Beijing’s hard stance on the border issue.
Russia: A mediator for both
- While India and China have been talking at each other — and not to each other — the outreach to Moscow is noteworthy.
- It is widely known that Russia and China have grown their relationship in the past few years.
- The Moscow-Beijing axis is crucial, especially since Washington has been at loggerheads with China in recent months and Russia much more calibrated, even in its response on the Covid-19 outbreak.
Sino-Russian ties: A response to US
- Russia and China have had a rocky start to their relationship after Mao Zedong founded the People’s Republic of China.
- When Mao made his first visit to Moscow after winning control of China, in 1949, he was made to wait for weeks for a meeting with the Soviet leader.
- During the Cold War, China and the USSR were rivals after the Sino-Soviet split in 1961, competing for control of the worldwide Communist movement.
- There was a serious possibility of a major war in the early 1960s and a brief border war took place in 1969.
- This enmity began to reduce following Mao’s death in 1976, but relations were not very good until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
India and Russia
- India has a historical relationship with Russia, spanning over seven decades.
- While the relationship has grown in some areas and atrophied in some others, the strongest pillar of the strategic partnership is of the defence basket.
- Although New Delhi has consciously diversified its new purchases from other countries, the bulk of its defence equipment is from Russia.
- Estimates say 60 to 70 per cent of India’s supplies are from Russia, and New Delhi needs a regular and reliable supply of spare parts from the Russian defence industry.
- In fact, Prime Minister Modi has held informal summits with only two leaders — Xi and Putin.
Russia position: then & now
- During the Doklam crisis in 2017, Russian diplomats in Beijing were among the few briefed by the Chinese government.
- While Russia’s position during the 1962 war was not particularly supportive of India, New Delhi takes comfort in Moscow’s support during the 1971 war.
- On the events in Galwan, Moscow responded in a much-calibrated manner.
- Kremlin has expressed its concerns over a clash between the military on the border between China and India but believes that the two countries could resolve this conflict themselves.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Galwan valley, Shyok River
Mains level: Mountain warfare preparedness of India
The violent standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley of Ladakh region has thrown the spotlight on high-altitude warfare and the challenges that troops face, particularly when advantageous positions on the heights are occupied by the other side.
In the clouds of war, one may recall the huge amount of casualties faced by the Indian Army compared to the Pakistani side (being at advantageous positions) during the Kargil War.
Try this question for mains:
Q. Discuss why high-altitude warfare is challenging. Also discuss about India’s preparedness for a long-term war.
How is high-altitude warfare fought?
- High-altitude warfare is fought keeping the terrain and weather in mind.
- The kind of infrastructure and training that the troops require for high-altitude warfare are key factors.
- The evolution of such warfare goes back a long way: European countries had mountain brigades in view of the kind of terrain prevalent in those countries.
- The harshness of the terrain calls for a specialised kind of training to prepare soldiers in terms of mindset and acclimatization.
How is India equipped in such warfare?
- Generally, India is considered a hub of mountain warfare skills since most of the country’s north and northeast requires such skills.
- Ladakh Scouts are considered the best in this kind of warfare.
- Mountain chop, a tactic involved in such warfare, evolved in India where the mountainous terrain is very difficult to scale.
- To begin with, the troops are imparted training in basic and advance training in mountaineering to make them equipped for mountain warfare.
Actual tactics involved
- The mindsets of the enemy sitting above are assessed. Taking stock of the entire situation, one needs to find out the easiest approaches.
- Especially when there are vertical cliffs, it is generally perceived that the enemy that has taken defensive positions will be less guarded from the side of difficult approaches.
- Basically, the most difficult approaches where the enemy is likely to give the least resistance need to be used efficiently.
What are the challenges involved in warfare in a high-altitude place like Galwan Valley?
- A big factor is who has taken defensive positions and who is sitting on higher ground.
- Once troops are sitting on high ground, it becomes very difficult to dislodge them from there.
- In a place like Galwan Valley, which is absolutely barren, there is not much hiding place.
- The soldier on high ground is absolutely stationary, which makes those on lower terrain easy targets; the enemy can pick them up one by one.
- Normally in mountain warfare, troops on lower ground use a combat ratio of 1:6, but in circumstances as in Galwan, it may go up to 1:10.
How to approach such situations?
- Generally, mountain warfare is fought using the period of darkness to reach the opposing army, engage and overpower them before the first light of day.
- In case troops do not have the capabilities, fitness or strategies to do so before dawn, then it is a lost cause.
- But without adequate trained troops who are well-versed with the terrain and are properly acclimatized, it is not an easy game.
What are the other challenges faced by soldiers in high altitudes?
- The first major factor is acclimatization since the oxygen supply reduces drastically.
- Next, the load-carrying capacity of individuals reduces drastically.
- Things move very slowly in the mountains and mobilization of troops consumes time.
- Thus, time and place need to be kept on top priority when deciding where the troops have to be stationed and how they have to be mobilized.
What are the logistical challenges in this kind of warfare?
- One major challenge is that weapons jam, particularly in high-altitude areas.
- When a soldier is at a height of 17,000 ft or above, it is very cold, and he needs to grease the weapons and clean the barrels at least once a week to ensure they function efficiently.
- But at the time of combat, this becomes difficult.
- Vehicles do not start when fuel jams. If the fuel is diesel, it won’t ignite unless it is mixed with thinners or other chemicals to make them thin enough to fire the engine.
Ensuring proper reinforcement
- In Galwan, which is an extremely tactical area and strategically important, reinforcement plays a vital role, particularly when the Indian troops are not in a position of advantage.
- For communication equipment, troops need to carry more batteries because they drain very quickly at high altitude.
- While a battery tends to last for 24 hours in the plains, it will drain in 1-2 hours in these severely cold areas.
- Transport animals such as mules need to be used to maintain adequate supplies, which is not an easy task. Weather constraints play a major factor.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IPO
Mains level: LIC disinviestment
The government has started the process to launch the initial public offer (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) within this year.
Read the complete thread here at:
[Burning Issue] Divestment of LIC
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Q.In India, which of the following review the independent regulators in sectors like telecommunications, insurance, electricity, etc.?
- Ad Hoc Committees set up by the Parliament
- Parliamentary Department Related Standing Committees
- Finance Commission
- Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission
- NITI Aayog
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2
(b) 1, 3 and 4
(c) 3, 4 and 5
(d) 2 and 5
About LIC
- LIC is an state-owned insurance group and investment corporation owned by the Government of India.
- It was founded in 1956 when the Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance of India Act that nationalized the insurance industry in India.
- Over 245 insurance companies and provident societies were merged to create the state-owned LIC.
Why LIC IPO?
- LIC is the largest investor in government securities and stock markets every year.
- On an average, LIC invests Rs 55,000 crore to Rs 65,000 crore in stock markets every year and emerges as the largest investor in Indian stocks.
- LIC also has huge investments in debentures and bonds besides providing funding for many infrastructure projects according to its Annual Report for 2017-18.
Biggest IPO in Indian markets
- The finance ministry has invited bids from transaction advisors, including consulting firms, investment bankers, and financial institutions, for assisting the government in the preparatory processes leading to the IPO.
- The IPO is expected to be the biggest in the Indian capital markets given the size and scale of LIC, the country’s oldest and largest life insurer.
What is the size and position of LIC in the insurance market?
- Even if the government decides to sell 5-10 per cent of its equity in LIC through an IPO, the share sale of LIC, which was set up in 1956, is expected to be the largest.
- The insurer’s total assets had touched an all-time high of Rs 31.11 lakh crore in 2018-19, an increase of 9.4 per cent.
- The Corporation realized a profit of Rs 23,621 crore from its equity investment during 2018-19, down 7.89 per cent from Rs 25,646 crore in the previous year.
- LIC would have at least one transaction of IPO of a size of at least Rs 5,000 crore, or a capital market transaction of at least Rs 15,000 crore.
How does LIC fit into the overall disinvestment roadmap?
- In the Budget 2020-21, the finance ministry had announced plans for IPO of LIC and a proposal to sell the government’s equity in the stressed IDBI Bank.
- The government expects to raise Rs 90,000 crore through stake sale in LIC and IDBI Bank, and another Rs 1.2 lakh crore through other disinvestments.
- LIC is also a majority shareholder in IDBI Bank.
- The government had earlier listed the shares of General Insurance Corporation and New India Assurance through IPOs three years ago.
What benefits can be expected through the IPO?
- An IPO will certainly bring in transparency into affairs of LIC since it will be required to inform financial numbers and other market-related developments on time to the stock exchanges.
- Investors can benefit from picking up equity in the insurer, which has been making underwriting profit as well as profits on its investments.
- LIC’s investment in various equity and bond instruments will come under greater scrutiny after its lists on the exchanges.
Back2Basics: IPO
- IPO means Initial Public Offering. It is a process by which a privately held company becomes a publicly-traded company by offering its shares to the public for the first time.
- Offering an IPO is a money-making exercise. Every company needs money, it may be to expand, to improve their business, to better the infrastructure, to repay loans, etc.
- A private company, that has a handful of shareholders, shares the ownership by going public by trading its shares.
- Through the IPO, the company gets its name listed on the stock exchange.
Also read:
Disinvestment Policy in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UN Arms Trade Treay
Mains level: Arms Trade Treay and its significance
China will join a global pact to regulate arms sales that has been rejected by the United States.
The New START, INF, Open Skies and now the ATT …. Be clear about the differences of these treaties. For example- to check if their inception was during cold war era etc.
What is the Arms Trade Treaty?
- The Arms Trade Treaty is a multilateral treaty that regulates the international trade in conventional weapons. It entered into force on 4th December 2014.
- The ATT is an attempt to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons for the purpose of contributing to international and regional peace; reducing human suffering; and promoting co-operation, transparency, and responsible action by and among states.
- 105 states have ratified the treaty, and a further 32 states have signed but not ratified it.
- India has abstained from voting for this Treaty
Highlights of the treaty
ATT requires member countries to keep records of international transfers of weapons and to prohibit cross-border shipments that could be used in human rights violations or attacks on civilians. The treaty would ensure that no transfer is permitted if there is a substantial risk that it is likely to:
- be used in serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law, or acts of genocide or crimes against humanity;
- facilitate terrorist attacks, a pattern of gender-based violence, violent crime, or organized crime;
- violate UN Charter obligations, including UN arms embargoes;
- be diverted from its stated recipient;
- adversely affect regional security; or
- seriously impair poverty reduction or socioeconomic development.
China’s agenda at ATT
- Beijing saying it is committed to efforts to “enhance peace and stability” in the world.
- It comes after the US announced plans last year to pull the United States out of the agreement which entered into force in 2014.
- The US Senate never ratified the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty after former president Barack Obama endorsed it, and Trump has said he would revoke his predecessor’s signature.
Why has India abstained?
- From the beginning of the ATT process, India has maintained that such a treaty should make a real impact on illicit trafficking in conventional arms and their illicit use especially by terrorists and other unauthorized and unlawful non-state actors.
- India has also stressed consistently that the ATT should ensure a balance of obligations between exporting and importing states.
- However, the ATT is weak on terrorism and non-state actors (undoubtedly Pakistan) and these concerns find no mention in the specific prohibitions of the Treaty.
- Further, India cannot accept that the Treaty is used as an instrument in the hands of exporting states to take unilateral force majeure measures against importing states parties without consequences.
Also read:
U.S. set to exit the ‘Open Skies Treaty’ Copy
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ITF, OECD
Mains level: Policy measures for cleaner transportation
NITI Aayog in collaboration with International Transport Forum (ITF) is set to launch the “Decarbonising Transport in India” project with the intention to develop a pathway towards a low-carbon transport system for India.
Note the following things about ‘Decarbonising Transport in India (DTI)’ Project:
-
Associated international institution
-
Whether the institution is a UN body or not
-
If India is a member of that body
The DTI Project
- The India project is carried out in the wider context of the International Transport Forum’s “Decarbonising Transport” initiative.
- It is part of the “Decarbonising Transport in Emerging Economies” (DTEE) family of projects, which supports transport decarbonisation across different world regions.
- India, Argentina, Azerbaijan, and Morocco are current participants.
- The DTEE is a collaboration between the ITF and the Wuppertal Institute, supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment.
Objectives of the project
- The project will design a tailor-made transport emissions assessment framework for India.
- It will provide the government with a detailed understanding of current and future transport activity and the related CO2 emissions as a basis for their decision-making.
About International Transport Forum (ITF)
- The ITF is an inter-governmental organisation within the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) system.
- It is the only global body with a mandate for all modes of transport.
- It acts as a think tank for transport policy issues and organises the annual global summit of transport ministers.
- The ITF’s motto is “Global dialogue for better transport”.
- India has been a member of ITF since 2008.
Back2Basics: OCED
- The OECD is an international, intergovernmental economic organization of 36 countries.
- OECD was founded in the year 1961 to stimulate world trade and economic progress.
- OECD originated in 1948, as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).
- The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) was founded to govern the predominantly US-funded Marshall Plan for post-war reconstruction on the continent.
- The OEEC was instrumental in helping the European Economic Community (EEC). The EEC has evolved into the European Union (EU) to establish a European Free Trade Area.
- India is NOT a member of OECD.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Foldscope
Mains level: NA
Indian researchers have explored and validated the clinical utility of Foldscope in the diagnosis of diseases using various patient samples.
Though trivial, Foldscope is a significant invention with most crucial applications. It somehow offers an alternative to costly microscopes for some basic diagnosis.
What is Foldscope?
- Foldscope is an affordable origami-based microscopy device composed of a series of paper clippings.
- Upon assembly, the device can hold a specimen slide for observation, and this specimen can be viewed via a mobile phone camera attached to it.
How does it work?
- Foldscope can be assembled using paper clips and mounted on a cell phone using coupler and glue drops.
- To do the assessment, a patient sample like urine is smeared on a transparent glass slide and visualized under a Foldscope mounted on a cell phone.
- Sample images can be enlarged using the zoom function of the mobile, which can be stored on the mobile memory card for later reference/patient records.
- Foldscope visualizes calcium oxalate crystals, which are a major cause of kidney stones.
Utility of Foldscope
- Foldscope is particularly convenient to diagnose urinary tract infection (UTI) and monitor kidney stone.
- The study evaluated the use of Foldscope in the clinical diagnosis of oral and urinary tract infections.
- Using this tool, one can easily monitor own-kidney stone status at home with a simple glass-slide, a Foldscope and a phone in hand.
- Such monitoring could perhaps avoid kidney stone reaching a painful state or surgery in recurring cases.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Buffer stock limits
Mains level: Paper 3-PDS, food subsidy
At a time when the economy is going through the crisis, anything that could provide revenue to the government will be a real godsend. This article suggests two such areas to tap into. It also examines the effects of recently issued 3 ordinances related to agriculture.
Rs. 1,50,000 crore: Value of excessive grain stock
- There is one area which the government can tap to raise more than Rs 1,00,000 crore.
- As on June 1, FCI had unprecedented grain stocks of 97 million metric tonnes (MMT) in the Central Pool (see Figure).
- Even on July 1, when the procurement of rabi ends, FCI is likely to have grain stocks of about 91-92 MMT.
- This will be against a buffer stock norm of 41.12 MMT that are required for the Public Distribution system (PDS), and some strategic reserves.
- So, compared to this norm, on July 1, FCI will have “excess stocks” of at least 50 MMT.
- Even if one takes a conservative and lower ballpark figure of Rs 30,000/tonne as the combined economic cost of rice and wheat, the value of this “excessive stock”, beyond the buffer norm, is Rs 1,50,000 crore.
- This is unproductive capital locked-up in the Central pool of FCI.
- Unlock this by liquidating “excess stocks” through open market operations.
- It will not recover its full economic cost, as they are much higher than the prevailing market prices, but by not liquidating it.
- But FCI will keep incurring unnecessary interest costs of about Rs 8,000-10,000 crore per annum.
- This is simply not a good food policy.
How will amendment to ECA 1955 will help
- Amendment of the Essential Commodities Act, via the ordinance route, can instil confidence in the private sector for building large scale storage.
- Now, stocking limits will not be imposed on the private sector, except under exceptional circumstances.
- The government, however, delete the clause of “extraordinary price rise”.
- Removing it will lead to private sector building large and modern storage facilities (silos).
- It will propel investments in building more efficient food supply lines.
- The only condition could be to register large storage facilities under the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) to know how much stock is there with the private sector, and where.
How will amendment to APMC Act will help
- The ordinance on APMC creates multiple channels for farmers to sell their produce outside the APMC mandi system.
- It also helps towards an unrestricted all India market for agri-produce.
- Of course, it will be resisted by many states that are taking undue advantage of the APMC mandis’ virtual monopoly power.
- But if the central ordinance is implemented in its true spirit, it will be a game-changer.
How will the ordinance on contract farming will help
- It aims to encourage contract farming.
- The basic idea behind this is that farmers’ sowing decisions should be made in view of the expected prices of those crops at the time of harvest.
- It is forward looking and more aligned to the likely demand and supply situation.
- The current practice, where farmers’ sowing decisions are more influenced by last year’s price, often leads to the problem of boom and bust.
- Although honouring an assured price remains a challenge when actual market conditions differ widely at the time of the harvest.
Relook at food subsidy is needed
- In the Union budget of 2020-21, a sum of Rs 1,15,570 crore has been provisioned for food subsidy.
- This number is highly misleading as FCI has been asked to borrow from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF).
- As on March 31, 2020, borrowings from the NSSF were Rs 2,54,600 crore, on which FCI pays an interest rate of 8.4 to 8.8 per cent per annum.
- So, the real food subsidy bill for 2020-21 amounts to Rs 3,70,170 crore.
- The Economic Survey has suggested- 1) reducing the coverage under PDS; 2) linking issue price to at least half of the procurement price; 3) move gradually towards cash transfers.
- These steps will save a minimum of Rs 50,000 crore annually.
Consider the question “There was a mention of reforms related to agri-sector in the recently announced stimulus package. Examine the issues with segments of agri-sector which necessitated these reforms.”
Conclusion
Liquidating the excess grain stock and rationalising the PDS could provide the government with much needed resources at a time when it needs it the most. Also, reforms in the related to agriculture could remove the stumbling blocks in the way towards the prosperity of farmers.
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