Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Space weather preparedness
The article suggests the need for space weather preparedness to protect the satellite constellations in the future.
Satellite constellations
- By 2030, the global space industry could add almost 50,000 new commercial satellites to the existing 5,000.
- These would include earth-observation satellites selling commercial imagery, telecom orbiters providing 5G and next-in-line 6G data services, and meteorological ones selling weather-forecasts and datasets.
- The increasing dependence of the digital economy on satellite constellations is spurring investment in this area.
Risks involved
- The most important threat to the constellation of satellites will be the collisions between satellites.
- Such collision could result in massive free-floating space debris.
- A 2020 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report estimates that protecting satellites from space debris could cost 5-10% more per space mission.
- Another threat to satellite constellations is that of extreme space weather events, and this cannot be addressed by space and digital players alone.
- It demands the attention of governments.
Improving space weather forecasting ability
- Last October, the US Congress passed an Act that directs civilian and military agencies to reinforce national space weather forecasting abilities.
- China transferred its meteorological, hydrological and space weather command from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) general staff department to the PLA strategic support force, the latter being its new branch for cyber, space and e-warfare.
Lessons for India
- India’s economy is expected to become increasingly dependent on space- and ground-based commercial, civilian and military assets.
- These will be vulnerable to extreme space weather events.
- India is progressing with its capital-intensive planetary exploration and human space-flight projects.
- we must deploy across-the-board space-weather monitoring, forecasting and response systems designed to safeguard deep-space assets and protect our gaganauts.
- Consequently, it is imperative for the government to develop and adopt space weather forecasts before initiating outer space activities.
- India, therefore, needs legislation like America’s to issues cross-ministerial directions.
- The Indian scientific community operates numerous ground-based ‘sun observing’ telescopes across India, and is well connected with its international peers.
- In the coming months India is expected to launch Aditya-L1, a space-based solar observatory, with assistance from the Indian Space Research Organisation.
- The data generated by it will be crucial for India’s space weather monitoring ambitions.
- But without a national policy backed by legislation, the scientific community would find it difficult to meet the strategic demands of the conjoined space and digital economies.
Consider the question “The increasing dependence of the digital economy on satellite constellations is spurring investment in this area. But it is not risk-free. In light of this, examine the risks involved and suggest the measures to deal with the risks.”
Conclusion
The enactment of a space weather law could help the country protect its digital and telecom systems that extend to outer space from destructive solar storms and intense solar and galactic radiation whiplashes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Election of the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha
Mains level: Paper 2- Deterioration in functioning of the Parliament and way forward
The article highlight the deterioration in the function of Parliament and its implications.
Declining seating of houses of Parliament
- The current Budget session of Parliament ended on Thursday, two weeks ahead of the original plan.
- This follows the trend of the last few sessions:
- The Budget session of 2020 was curtailed ahead of the lockdown.
- A short 18-day monsoon session ended after 10 days as several Members of Parliament and Parliament staff got affected by COVID-19.
- The winter session was cancelled.
- As a result, the fiscal year 2020-21 saw the Lok Sabha sitting for 34 days (and the Rajya Sabha for 33), the lowest ever.
- This has implications for the proper legislative scrutiny of proposed legislation as well as government functioning and finances.
- There is no reason why Parliament could not adopt remote working and technological solutions, as several other countries did.
Passage of important bills without scrutiny
- During this session, 13 Bills were introduced, and not even one of them was referred to a parliamentary committee for examination.
- The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed by the Parliament.
- This bill shifts governance from the legislature and the Chief Minister to the Lieutenant Governor.
- The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2021, amends the Mines and Minerals Act, 1957 to remove end-use restrictions on mines and ease conditions for captive mines.
- This Bill was passed by both Houses within a week.
- The National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) Bill, 2021 — to create a new government infrastructure finance institution and permit private ones in this sector was passed within three days of introduction.
- The Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which increases FDI in insurance companies from 49% to 74% also took just a week between introduction and passing by both Houses.
- In all, 13 Bills were introduced in this session, and eight of them were passed within the session.
- This quick work should be read as a sign of abdication by Parliament of its duty to scrutinise Bills, rather than as a sign of efficiency.
- Also, the percentage of Bills referred to committees declined from 60% and 71% in the 14th Lok Sabha (2004-09) and the 15th Lok Sabha, respectively, to 27% in the 16th Lok Sabha and just 11% in the current one.
Money Bill classification issue
- The Finance Bills, over the last few years, have contained several unconnected items such as restructuring of tribunals, introduction of electoral bonds, and amendments to the foreign contribution act.
- Some of the earlier Acts, including the Aadhaar Act and Finance Act, have been referred to a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.
- It would be useful if the Court can give a clear interpretation of the definition of Money Bills and provide guide rails within which Bills have to stay to be termed as such.
Passage of Budget without discussion
- The Constitution requires the Lok Sabha to approve the expenditure Budget of each department and Ministry.
- The Lok Sabha had listed the budget of just five Ministries for detailed discussion and discussed only three of these; 76% of the total Budget was approved without any discussion.
- This behaviour was in line with the trend of the last 15 years.
No Deputy Speaker
- Article 93 of the Constitution states that “… The House of the People shall, as soon as may be, choose two members of the House to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker….”
- A striking feature of the current Lok Sabha is the absence of a Deputy Speaker.
- By the time of the next session of Parliament, two years would have elapsed without the election of a Deputy Speaker.
Way forward
- In order to fulfil its constitutional mandate, it is imperative that Parliament functions effectively.
- This will require making and following processes:
- 1) Creating a system of research support to Members of Parliament.
- 2) Providing sufficient time for MPs to examine issues.
- 3 )Requiring that all Bills and budgets are examined by committees and public feedback is taken.
Consider the question “Parliament as a representative body is expected to examine all legislative proposals, understand their nuances and implications and decide on the appropriate way forward. Yet, more and more Bills are passed without enough deliberations. What are the implications of it? Suggest the measures to deal with it.”
Conclusion
In sum, Parliament needs to ensure sufficient scrutiny over the proposals and actions of the government.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Teesta River
Mains level: Teesta dispute
PM while on his tour of Bangladesh assured his best to ink the long-awaited deal over the Teesta and other common rivers. On at least two occasions—2011 and 2017—Bangladesh and India came close to signing a deal on the Teesta.
Teesta River
- Teesta River is a 315 km long river that rises in the eastern Himalayas, flows through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal through Bangladesh and enters the Bay of Bengal.
- It is a tributary of the Brahmaputra (known as Jamuna in Bangladesh), flowing through India and Bangladesh.
- It originates in the Himalayas near Chunthang, Sikkim and flows to the south through West Bengal before entering Bangladesh.
- Originally, it continued southward to empty directly into the Padma River but around 1787 the river changed its course to flow eastward to join the Jamuna river.
- The Teesta Barrage dam helps to provide irrigation for the plains between the upper Padma and the Jamuna.
What is the dispute about?
- The point of contention between India and Bangladesh is mainly the lean season flow in the Teesta draining into Bangladesh.
- The river covers nearly the entire floodplains of Sikkim while draining 2,800 sq km of Bangladesh, governing the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
- For West Bengal, Teesta is equally important, considered the lifeline of half-a-dozen districts in North Bengal.
- Bangladesh has sought an “equitable” distribution of Teesta waters from India, on the lines of the Ganga Water Treaty of 1996, but to no avail.
- The failure to ink a deal had its fallout on the country’s politics, putting the ruling party of PM Sheikh Hasina in a spot.
The hydrological linkages between India and Bangladesh are a product of geography and a matter of shared history. Discuss this statement in line with the Teesta water sharing dispute.
The deal
- Following a half-hearted deal in 1983, when a nearly equal division of water was proposed, the countries hit a roadblock. The transient agreement could not be implemented.
- Talks resumed after the Awami League returned to power in 2008 and the former Indian PM Manmohan Singh visited Dhaka in 2011.
- In 2015, PM Modi’s visit to Dhaka generated more ebullient lines: deliberations were underway involving all the stakeholders to conclude the agreement as soon as possible.
Issues from the Indian side
- It remains an unfinished project and one of the key stakeholders — West Bengal CM is yet to endorse the deal.
- Her objection is connected to “global warming. Many of the glaciers on the Teesta basin have retreated.
- The importance of the flow and the seasonal variation of this river is felt during the lean season (from October to April/May) as the average flow is about 500 million cubic metres (MCM) per month.
- The CM opposed an arrangement in 2011, by which India would get 42.5% and Bangladesh 37.5% of the water during the lean season, and the plan was shelved.
Why does it matter?
- India witnessed a surge in the insurgency in the northeast during the rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from 2001 to 2005.
- Bangladesh allegedly sheltered insurgents engaged in anti-India activities, and nearly all the Home Ministry-level talks ended without agreement, and India had to increase the security budget for the northeast.
- In a couple of years of assuming office in 2008, the Awami League targeted insurgent camps and handed over the rebels to India.
- As India’s security establishment heaved a sigh of relief, the relationship improved on multiple fronts.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Concurrent List
Mains level: India's healthcare
Health should be shifted to the Concurrent list under the Constitution, and a developmental finance institution (DFI) dedicated to healthcare investments set up, Fifteenth Finance Commission Chairman N.K. Singh has said.
Other key recommendations
- Bringing health into the Concurrent list would give the Centre greater flexibility to enact regulatory changes and reinforce the obligation of all stakeholders towards providing better healthcare.
- He has urged the government spending to enhance expenditure on health to 2.5% of GDP by 2025.
- He said primary healthcare should be a fundamental commitment of all States in particular and should be allocated at least two-thirds of such spending.
The Concurrent List or List-III (of Seventh Schedule) is a list of 52 items (though the last subjects are numbered 47) given in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India.
What is the Seventh Schedule?
- This Schedule of the Indian Constitution deals with the division of powers between the Union government and State governments.
- It defines and specifies the allocation of powers and functions between Union & States. It contains three lists; i.e. 1) Union List, 2) State List and 3) Concurrent List.
The Union List
- It is a list of 98 (Originally 97) numbered items as provided in the Seventh Schedule.
- The Union Government or Parliament of India has exclusive power to legislate on matters relating to these items.
The State List
- It is a list of 59 (Originally 66) items.
- The respective state governments have exclusive power to legislate on matters relating to these items.
The Concurrent List
- There are 52 (Originally 47) items currently in the list.
- This includes items which are under the joint domain of the Union as well as the respective States.
Must read
[Burning Issue] India’s Ailing Health Sector and Coronavirus
Healthcare in India
- The Indian Constitution has incorporated the responsibility of the state in ensuring basic nutrition, basic standard of living, public health, protection of workers, special provisions for disabled persons, and other health standards, which were described under Articles 39, 41, 42, and 47 in the DPSP.
- Article 21 of the Constitution of India provides for the right to life and personal liberty and is a fundamental right.
- Public Health comes under the state list.
- India’s expenditure on healthcare has shot up substantially in the past few years; it is still very low in comparison to the peer nations (at approx. 1.28% of GDP).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Chilika Lake
Mains level: Ramsar wetlands in India
The Chilika Lake in Odisha, Asia’s largest brackish water lake, was once part of the Bay of Bengal, a study by the marine archaeology department of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, has found.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- In India, the Himalayas are spread over five States only.
- Western Ghats are spread over five States only.
- Pulicat Lake is spread over two States only.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1 and 3 only
Chilika Lake
- Chilika Lake is a brackish water lagoon, spread over the Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Odisha.
- It is located at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal, covering an area of over 1,100 km2.
- It is the largest coastal lagoon in India and the largest brackish water lagoon in the world after The New Caledonian barrier reef.
- It has been listed Ramsar Site as well as a tentative UNESCO World Heritage site.
Its formation
- The process of the formation of the Chilika might have begun in the latter part of the Pleistocene epoch, around 20,000 years ago.
- India’s peninsular river Mahanadi carried a heavy load of silt and dumped part of it at its delta.
- As the sediment-laden river met the Bay of Bengal, sand bars were formed near its mouth.
- These created a backflow of the seawater into the sluggish fresh water at the estuary, resulting in the huge brackish water lake.
- Marine archaeological studies on the Odisha coast clearly show that the Chilika once acted as a safe harbour for cargo ships bound for Southeast Asia and other parts of the world.
Historical accounts on Chilika
The lake has been a useful centre for maritime activities since the third millennium before the Common Era (CE).
- Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemy (150 CE) described Palur as an important port of Kalinga and referred to it as ‘Paloura’.
- This port was situated close to the ‘point of departure’ located outside the southern tip of the lake at Kantiagarh, from where ships used to sail directly for Southeast Asia.
- Stone anchors and hero stones from Manikapatna, Palur and the adjoining onshore regions of the Chilika suggest that the present brackish water lagoon was in fact a part of the Bay of Bengal.
- Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (7th century CE) recorded ‘Che-li-ta-lo-Ching’ as a flourishing port.
- This port was located at Chhatargarh on the banks of the Chilika.
- The Brahmanda Purana (10th century CE approximately) says the Chilika was an important centre of trade and commerce, with ships sailing to Java, Malaya and Ceylon.
- The famous Sanskrit poet Kalidas called the king of Kalinga ‘Madhodhipati’ or ‘Lord of the Ocean’.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Genetics and climate change
Mains level: Impacts of climate change on plant dynamics
Changing climate has transformed the time spring unfolds in front of us.
Early bud-break
- Bud-break — which is when trees leaf out — has undergone a change.
- Several trees initiate bud-break too early or too late, which affects the harvest.
- Spring, for example, arrived earlier than usual in Kashmir this year due to higher temperatures in February and March.
- Gul-tour, a spring-flowering herb started blooming in mid-February in Kashmir. Its yellow flowers would usually blossom in March, heralding Spring.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Other than resistance to pests, what are the prospects for which genetically engineered plants have been created?
- To enable them to withstand drought
- To increase the nutritive value of the produce
- To enable them to grow and do photosynthesis in spaceships and space stations
- To increase their shelf life
Select the correct answer using the code given below
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 and 4 only
(c) 1, 2 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer: (d)
What causes early bud-break?
- This is why understanding the genetics of bud-break helps scientists modify or select crop varieties that can be more resilient to the climate threat.
- The properties of transcription factors are genes that regulate other genes by binding to deoxyribonucleic acid and giving activation instructions.
- It helps scientists determine what other genes might be involved in a process such as a bud-break.
EBB genes
- Researchers of the study had earlier identified transcription factors for early bud-break 1 (EBB1) and short vegetative phase (SVL), which directly interact to control bud-break.
- EBB1 is a positive regulator of bud-break, whereas SVL is a negative regulator of bud-break.
- Now, the research team has identified and characterized the early bud-break 3 (EBB3) gene.
Identified mechanism of Bud-break
- EBB3 is a temperature-responsive, positive regulator of bud-break that provides a direct link to activation of the cell cycle during bud-break.
- EBB3 provides a direct link through the signalling pathway for how these cells divide.
- The analysis reveals how particular genes activate through the season or in response to specific environmental factors.
Significance of the study
- New approaches for accelerated tree adaptation to climate change helps ensure bud-break happens at the right time each spring.
- Using their understanding of the genetic pathways that control bud-break, scientists hope to genetically modify crops to adapt to warmer winters and unpredictable frosts.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Whether or not India should consider net zero emission target by 2050?
There are several issues with the adoption of net zero-emission targets. One of the most important being the lack of equity. This article deals with this issue.
About net-zero emission targets
- The “net zero” idea is inspired by an IPCC report that calls for global net emissions – GHG emissions minus removal of GHGs through various means to reach zero by mid-century.
- This builds on a clause in the Paris Climate Agreement, calling for a balance between sources and sinks of emissions by the second half of the century.
- It is worth underscoring that none of this implies that each country has to reach net-zero by 2050.
- Net-zero announcements signals a progressive direction of travel and has the apparent merit of presenting a simple and singular benchmark for assessing the performance of a country.
3 Issues with net zero targets
- First, it potentially allows countries to keep emitting today while relying on yet-to-be-developed and costly technologies to absorb emissions tomorrow.
- Second, its focus on long-term targets displaces attention from meaningful short-term actions that are credible and accountable.
- Third., it calls into question concerns of equity and fairness.
Balancing the concerns of developing and developed countries
- The Paris Agreement, while urging global peaking as soon as possible, explicitly recognises that peaking will take longer for developing countries.
- The Paris Agreement calls for achieving balance in developing and developed nation “on the basis of equity” and in the context of “sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty”.
- Therefore, the Paris Agreement does not advocate uptake of net-zero targets across developed and developing countries, as currently being advocated by many countries.
- Rather, the emphasis in the agreement on equity, sustainable development and poverty eradication suggests a thoughtful balancing of responsibilities between developed and developing countries.
Factors India should consider before taking zero-emission target
- Our first nationally determined contribution (NDC) submitted under the Paris Agreement has been rated by observers as compatible with a 2 degrees Celsius trajectory.
- We are ahead of schedule in meeting our contribution.
- Now, India will need to decide whether to join a growing number of countries (over 120 at last count) that have pledged to reach “net zero” emissions by 2050.
- But it is not clear that enhancing mitigation action can definitively deliver net-zero emissions by 2050, given that our emissions are still rising, and our development needs are considerable.
- There is a possibility that a not fully thought-through mid-century net-zero target would compromise sustainable development.
- Moreover, such a major shift in our negotiating position will have implications for the future, including our ability to leverage additional finance and technology to help shift to low-carbon development pathways.
- Our 2 degrees Celsius compatible NDC, bolstered by the Prime Minister’s announcement in 2019 that we would achieve 450 GW of renewables by 2030, could be strengthened.
- Building on this track record suggests an alternate and equally, if not more, compelling, way to indicate climate ambition in the future than uncritically taking on a net-zero target.
Way forward
- We would benefit from taking stock of our actions and focusing on near-term transitions.
- This will allow us to meet and even over-comply with our 2030 target while also ensuring concomitant developmental benefits, such as developing a vibrant renewable industry.
- We can start putting in place the policies and institutions necessary to move us in the right direction for the longer-term and also better understand the implications of net-zero scenarios before making a net-zero pledge.
- It would also be in India’s interest to link any future pledge to the achievement of near-term action by industrialised countries.
- That would be fair and consistent with the principles of the UNFCCC.
Consider the question “Growing number of countries have been setting net-zero emission target. In light of this, examine the issues India should consider before setting itself the net zero emission targets.”
Conclusion
India, like others, have a responsibility to the international community, we also have a responsibility to our citizens to be deliberate and thoughtful about a decision as consequential as India’s climate pledge.
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