💥Join UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (August Batch) + XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Archives: News

  • The convergence and lag in Indo-US partnership

    Context

    As the Indian leadership reviews US ties this week with the visiting Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, a paradox stands out.

    Deepening Indo-US ties

    • India and the US have come a long way since the 1990s.
    • There is growing political and security cooperation, expanding economic engagement, widening interface between the two societies, and the intensifying footprint of the Indian diaspora in the US.
    • Convergence of interests: That ambition, in turn, is based on the unprecedented convergence of Indian and American national interests.
    • Agenda for cooperation: The two countries have already agreed on an ambitious agenda for bilateral, regional and global cooperation.

    Debate in India over Indo-US relation: A paradox

    • The discourse within India’s strategic community continues to be anxious.
    • Some of the questions that animate the media and political classes have not changed since the 1990s.
    • Issues in the debate: Debate focuses on US’s stand on the Kashmir issue, democracy and human rights and its impact on India-US relations.
    • Contradictory fears: There are also contradictory fears such as whether the US extend full support in coping with China.
    • While we expect the US to give guarantees on supporting us, we insist that India will never enter into an alliance with the US.
    • Small state syndrome in India: As India’s relative weight in the international system continues to grow, it creates much room for give and take between India and the US.
    • Yet, a small state syndrome continues to grip the foreign policy elite.
    • The situation is similar on the economic front.
    • Although India is now the sixth-largest economy in the world, there is unending concern about the US imposing globalisation on India.
    • Even as India’s salience for solutions to climate change has increased, India’s debate remains deeply defensive.

    Factors responsible paradox

    • Missing the big picture: The narrow focus on the bilateral precludes an assessment of the larger forces shaping American domestic and international politics.
    • That, in turn, limits the appreciation of new possibilities for the bilateral relationship.
    • Underinvestment in American studies: The problem is reinforced by India’s under-investment in public understanding of American society.
    • Russia and China have put large resources in American studies at their universities and think tanks.
    • The Indian government and private sector will hopefully address this gap in the not-too-distant future.

    Policy shifts unfolding in the US

    • Domestic economic policies: If the economic policy drift in the last four decades was to the right, Biden is moving left on the relationship between the state and the market — on raising taxes, increasing public spending and addressing the problem of sharp economic inequality.
    • Economic policy and globalisation: Biden has also joined Trump in questioning America’s uncritical economic globalisation of the past.
    • If Trump talked of putting America First, Biden wants to make sure that America’s foreign and economic policies serve the US middle class.
    • Foreign policy: Biden has concluded that four decades of America’s uncritical engagement with China must be reconstituted into a policy that faces up to the many challenges that Beijing presents to the US.
    •  Biden is also focused on renewing the traditional US alliances to present a united front against China.
    • He is also seeking to overcome Washington’s hostility to Russia by resetting ties with Moscow.

    Question of democracy and human rights

    • Democracy is very much part of America’s founding ideology.
    • But living up to that ideal at home and abroad has not been easy for the United States over the last two centuries.
    • Delhi and Washington will also have much to discuss on the challenges that new surveillance technologies and big tech monopolies pose to democratic governance.
    • The exclusive American focus on democracy promotion has been rare, costly and unsuccessful.
    • India’s own experience at spreading democracy in its neighbourhood is quite similar.
    • But that discussion is only one part of the expansive new agenda — from Afghanistan to Indo-Pacific, reforming global economic institutions to addressing climate change, and vaccine diplomacy to governing new technologies that beckon India and the United States.

    Conclusion

    As they intensify the bilateral cooperation, the two sides will hopefully turn the Indo-US partnership from a perennial curiosity to a quotidian affair.

  • Assam-Mizoram Boundary Dispute

    Five Assam police personnel were killed in an exchange of fire with the Mizoram Police after the protracted border row between the two northeastern States took a violent turn.

    Assam-Mizoram Boundary Dispute

    • At the heart of the dispute over the 165-km Assam-Mizoram boundary are two border demarcations that go back to the days of British colonial rule, and disagreement over which demarcation to follow.
    • British tea plantations surfaced in the Cachar plains – the Barak Valley that now comprises the districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj — during the mid-19th century.
    • Their expansion led to problems with the Mizos whose home was the Lushai Hills.
    • In August 1875, the southern boundary of Cachar district was issued in the Assam Gazette.
    • The Mizos say this was the fifth time the British had drawn the boundary between the Lushai Hills and the Cachar plains, and the only time when it was done in consultation with Mizo chiefs.

    Creation of new states

    • But in 1933, the boundary between Lushai Hills and the then princely state of Manipur was demarcated – it said the Manipur boundary began from the trijunction of Lushai Hills, Cachar district of Assam and Manipur state.
    • The Mizos do not accept this demarcation, and point to the 1875 boundary which was drawn in consultation with their chiefs.
    • In the decades after Independence, states and UTs were carved out of Assam – Nagaland (1963), Arunachal Pradesh (UT 1972, formerly NEFA), Meghalaya (UT 1972), Mizoram (UT 1972).

    A matter of perception

    • Mizoram says Assam has been pushing its people 10-12 km inside their territory.
    • Mizoram’s official stand is that the boundary should be demarcated on the basis of notification in 1875 that distinguished the Lushai Hills (erstwhile district of Assam that became Mizoram) from the plains of Cachar.
    • The notification is based on the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act, 1873, which makes it obligatory for Indians beyond to possess a travel document to enter Mizoram.
    • Assam also has border disputes with Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.

  • Russia’s Nauka Module for ISS

    Pirs, a Russian module on the International Space Station (ISS) used as a docking port for spacecraft and as a door for cosmonauts to go out on spacewalks. In its place, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos will be attaching a significantly larger module called Nauka.

    What does Russia’s new Nauka module do?

    • Nauka, which is 42 feet long and weighs 20 tonnes, was supposed to be launched as early as 2007, as per the ISS’s original plan.
    • Nauka — meaning “science” in Russian — is the biggest space laboratory Russia has launched to date, and will primarily serve as a research facility.
    • It is also bringing to the ISS another oxygen generator, a spare bed, another toilet, and a robotic cargo crane built by the European Space Agency (ESA).
    • The new module was sent into orbit using a Proton rocket — the most powerful in Russia’s space inventory — on July 21 and will take eight days to reach the ISS.

    What kind of research goes on at the International Space Station?

    • A space station is essentially a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time.
    • It is like a large laboratory in space and allows astronauts to come aboard and stay for weeks or months to carry out experiments in microgravity.
    • For over 20 years since its launch, humans have continuously lived and carried out scientific investigations on the $150 billion ISS under microgravity conditions, being able to make breakthroughs in research not possible on Earth.

    Back2Basics: International Space Station (ISS)

    • The International Space Station, which launched its first piece in 1998, is a large spacecraft that orbits around the Earth and is home to the astronauts.
    • The ISS is currently the only active space station in the earth’s orbit.
    • The first crew on the space station arrived on November 2, 2000.
    • The space station is home to a minimum of six astronauts, with two bathrooms, a gymnasium, and a big bay window.
    • It is a joint project between five participating space agencies -NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).

  • Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary proposed as Ramsar Site

    The Mumbai Metropolitan Region is likely to get its first Ramsar site at the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary.

    Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary

    • The Maharashtra Government has declared the area along the western bank of Thane Creek as the “Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary” since 2015.
    • It is Maharashtra’s second marine sanctuary after the Malvan sanctuary.
    • It is recognized as an “Important Bird Area” by the Bombay Natural History Society.

    About Ramsar Convention

    • The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (better known as the Ramsar Convention) is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
    • It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem.
    • The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
    • Traditionally viewed as a wasteland or breeding ground of disease, wetlands actually provide fresh water and food and serve as nature’s shock absorber.
    • Wetlands, critical for biodiversity, are disappearing rapidly, with recent estimates showing that 64% or more of the world’s wetlands have vanished since 1900.
    • Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals, and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.

    What does one mean by Ramsar Site?

    • A Ramsar Site is a wetland area designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
    • It provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

  • [pib] Gold Reserves in India

    The Minister of Mines and Coal has provided useful information regarding gold reserves in India.

    Gold Reserves in India

    • As per National Mineral Inventory data, the total reserves/resources of gold ore (primary) in the country have been estimated at 501.83 million tonnes as of 2015.
    • Out of these, 17.22 million tonnes were placed under the reserves category and the remaining 484.61 million tonnes were under the remaining resources category.
    • In India, the largest resources of gold ore (primary) are located in Bihar (44%) followed by Rajasthan (25%), Karnataka (21%), West Bengal (3%), Andhra Pradesh (3% ), Jharkhand (2 %).
    • The remaining 2% resources of ore are located in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.

    Who takes up their mapping?

    • Geological Survey of India (GSI) is actively engaged in geological mapping followed by mineral exploration (survey) for various mineral commodities including gold.
    • GSI aims to identify potential mineral-rich zones and establish resources.
    • Every year, as per the approved annual Field Season Program, GSI takes up mineral exploration projects in various parts of the country for augmenting mineral resources.
    • Recently, GoI has amended the MEMC Rules to allow auction of composite license at G4 level for deep-seated minerals including Gold.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Consider the following statements:

    1. In India, State Governments do not have the power to auction non -coal mines.
    2. Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand do not have goldmines.
    3. Rajasthan has iron ore mines.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 3 only

  • [pib] Exercise Cutlass Express 2021

    Indian Naval Ship Talwar is participating in Exercise Cutlass Express 2021, being conducted along the East Coast of Africa.

    Exercise Cutlass Express

    • The exercise is an annual maritime exercise conducted to promote national and regional maritime security in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean.
    • Indian Navy is participating in the exercise in a ‘trainer role’.

    The 2021 edition of the exercise involves the participation of:

    • 12 Eastern African countries, US, UK, India
    • Various international organizations like International Maritime Organization (IMO), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Interpol, European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR), Critical Maritime Routes Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO), and EUCAP Somalia

    Focus of the exercise

    • The exercise focuses on East Africa’s coastal regions.
    • It is designed to assess and improve combined maritime law enforcement capacity, promote national and regional security and increase interoperability between the regional navies.
    • As part of the exercise, the Indian Navy, together with other partners, shall undertake the training of contingents from various participating countries in various fields across the spectrum of maritime security operations.

    Must read:

    [Prelims Spotlight] Defence Exercises

  • Getting India’s military jointness formula right

    Context

    The Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat’s recent description of the Indian Air Force (IAF) as a supporting arm and the IAF chief Air Chief Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria’s rebuttal highlights turbulent journey marking the reorganisation process of the armed forces.

    Issues before IAF

    • The IAF is warning against splitting it into packets.
    • Reports suggest that counting even ageing aircraft, the IAF is 25% short on fighter squadrons.
    • A pan service shortage of about 400 pilots, almost 10% of their authorised strength, further aggravates this.
    • Therefore, the IAF has a point when it warns against splitting assets, for, there may be nothing much to split.

    Way forward

    • Confidence building: A common understanding of the nuances of military airpower is the key.
    • With the experience of operating almost every kind of aircraft the IAF operates, the naval leadership understands air power.
    • This applies to the Indian Army too, in its own way.
    • Confidence needs to be developed that rightly staffed apex joint organisations can draw up professional operational plans for air power.
    • Enhancing military education: Confidence building will need some effort in the short term towards enhancing professional military education though, at the staff level.
    • Analysis before implementation: Major reorganisations must strictly follow the sequence of written concepts, their refinement through consultation, simulation or table top war gaming, field evaluation and final analysis before implementation.
    • This would help address command and control, asset adequacy, individual service roles, operational planning under new circumstances and the adequacy of joint structures.
    • Who gets to lead what also matters.
    • The Western Command between the Indian Army and the IAF, the Northern Command with the Indian Army, Maritime Command with the Indian Navy and the Air Defence Command with the IAF may be an acceptable formula.

    Why jointness?

    • With dwindling budgets, a steadily deteriorating security situation and the march of technology, the armed forces understand the need to synergise.

    Challenges

    • Challenges in co-existence: Different services do not co-exist well where they are colocated.
    • Bitter fights over land, buildings, facilities, etc. harms optimal operational synergising.
    • Allocation challenge: Then there is the issue of giving each other the best, or of wanting to be with each other.
    • Lack of operational charter: The Andaman and Nicobar Command suffered from the lack of a substantial operational charter, and the services not positioning appropriate personnel or resources there.
    • Lack of interest in joint tenure: As a joint tenure did not benefit career, no one strove for it.
    • The U.S., when faced with the same problem, made joint tenures mandatory for promotions.

    Steps to be taken

    • Security strategy: We need a comprehensive National Security Strategy to guide the services develop capacities required in their respective domains.
    • Professional education: We need to transform professional education and inter-service employment to nurture genuine respect for others.
    • Mutual resolution of difference: The armed forces must resolve their differences among themselves, as the politicians or bureaucrats cannot do it.
    • Quality staff: Good quality staff, in adequate numbers, at apex joint organisations, will help to reassure individual services and those in the field that they are in safe hands.
    • Tailored approach: There is need for the acceptance of the fact that what works for other countries need not work for us.

    Conclusion

    We may need tailor-made solutions which may need more genuine thinking. For genuine military jointness, a genuine convergence of minds is critical.

  • Implications of EU’s new GHG emissions law for Indian industry

    Context

    On July 14, the European Union introduced new legislation, Fit for 55, to cut its GHG emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 and to net-zero by 2050.

    Implications of Fit for 55

    • Legal backing: It turns the EU’s announcement into law, protecting it from the winds of political change.
    • Opportunity for India: It opens new markets for Indian industry, for example for electric vehicles.
    • CBAM: However, it also introduces a potentially adverse policy called the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).
    • CBAM is meant to discourage consumers from buying carbon-intensive products and encourage producers to invest in cleaner technologies.

    What is CBAM?

    • The EU has had a carbon emission trading system since 2005.
    • With Fit for 55, the EU’s carbon price is likely to go up.
    • High carbon price will make the EU’s domestic products more expensive than imports from countries that do not have such rules.
    • The new CBAM is meant to level the playing field between domestic and imported products.
    • CBAM will require foreign producers to pay for the carbon emitted while manufacturing their products.
    • The adjustment will be applied to energy-intensive products that are widely traded by the EU, such as iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser, and electricity.

    Why CBAM is a cause for concern for India?

    • India is Europe’s third-largest trading partner, and it does not have its own carbon tax or cap.
    • So, CBAM should be a cause for concern for it.
    • A UNCTAD study predicts that India will lose $1-1.7 billion in exports of energy-intensive products such as steel and aluminium.
    • India’s goods trade with the EU was $74 billion in 2020.

    Way forward for Indian Industry

    • Clean technology partnerships: Indian Industry should enter clean technology partnerships with European industry.
    • Invest in renewables:  Indian companies should invest in more renewable electricity and energy efficiency.
    • Incentivise low-carbon choices: They can adopt science-based targets for emission reduction and internal carbon pricing to incentivise low-carbon choices.
    • Schemes and Government financing: The government can extend the perform-achieve-trade scheme to more industries and provide finance to MSMEs to upgrade to clean technologies.
    • WRI India’s analysis shows that carbon dioxide emissions from the iron and steel industry can be reduced from 900 million tonnes to 500 million tonnes in 2035 through greater electrification, green hydrogen, energy efficiency, and material efficiency.
    • Diversify export: India can try to diversify its exports to other markets and products.

    Consider the question “What is carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) introduced by the EU? What are its implications for Indian industry?” 

    Conclusion

    At present, the CBAM may seem obstructionist. But over the long-term, it can provide regulatory certainty to industry by harmonising carbon prices, and Indian industry can position itself as a strong player in the trade landscape of the future.

    Back2Basics: UNCTAD

    • UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964.
    • Its headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland, and have offices in New York and Addis Ababa.
    • UNCTAD is part of the UN Secretariat.
    • IT report to the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council but have own membership, leadership, and budget.
    • It is also part of the United Nations Development Group.

  • SAARC

    Context

    Despite the framework SAARC provides for cooperation amongst South Asian nations, it has remained sidelined and dormant since its 18th summit of 2014 in Kathmandu. No alternative capable of bringing together South Asian countries for mutually beneficial diplomacy has emerged.

    Common challenges facing South Asia

    • The region is beset with unsettled territorial disputes, as well as trans-border criminal and subversive activities and cross-border terrorism.
    • The region also remains a theatre for ethnic, cultural, and religious tensions and rivalries besides a current rise in ultra-nationalism
    • Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan are at loggerheads.
    • US military withdrawal from Afghanistan has fuelled fears of intensification of these trends.

    Significance of SAARC

    • As the largest regional cooperation organisation, SAARC’s importance in stabilising and effectively transforming the region is becoming increasingly self-evident.
    • SAARC is needed as institutional scaffolding to allow for the diplomacy and coordination that is needed between member-states in order to adequately address the numerous threats and challenges the region faces.
    • Though SAARC’s charter prohibits bilateral issues at formal forums, SAARC summits provide a unique, informal window — the retreat — for leaders to meet without aides and chart future courses of action.
    • The coming together of leaders, even at the height of tensions, in a region laden with congenital suspicions, misunderstandings, and hostility is a significant strength of SAARC that cannot be overlooked.
    • In March last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi seized the Covid-19 crisis and utilised SAARC’s seal to convene a video conference of SAARC leaders.
    • Such capacity to bring member-states together shows the potential power of SAARC.

    What role SAARC can play in Afghanistan

    • Commitment to get rid of terrorism: The third SAARC summit in 1987 adopted a Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and updated it in 2004 with the signing of an additional protocol.
    • These instruments demonstrate the collective commitment to rid the region of terror and promote regional peace, stability, and prosperity.
    • Using the network of institutions: In 36 years of existence, SAARC has developed a dense network of institutions, linkages, and mechanisms.
    • SAARC members are among the top troop-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping missions.
    • Joint peacekeeping force: With the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, a joint peacekeeping force from the SAARC region under the UN aegis could be explored to fill the power vacuum that would otherwise be filled by terrorist and extremist forces.

    Consider the question “What role SAARC can play in stabilising the region after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan? Is SAARC still relevant for the region?”

    Conclusion

    Allowing SAARC to become dysfunctional and irrelevant greatly distorts our ability to address the realities and mounting challenges facing SAARC nations.

    Back2Basics: About SAARC

    •  In 1985, at the height of the Cold War, leaders of South Asian nations — namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka — created a regional forum.
    • The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established with the goal of contributing “to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another’s problems.”
    • Afghanistan was admitted as a member in 2007.

  • The Caste Census Debate

    The Ministry of Home Affairs has informed that it was decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in Census.

    What kind of caste data is published in the Census?

    • Every Census in independent India from 1951 to 2011 has published data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but not on other castes.
    • Before that, every Census until 1931 had data on caste.
    • However, in 1941, caste-based data was collected but not published.

    Why is there a demand for caste census?

    • In the absence of such a census, there is no proper estimate for the population of OBCs, various groups within the OBCs, and others.
    • The Mandal Commission estimated the OBC population at 52%, some other estimates have been based on National Sample Survey data.
    • Some political parties make their own estimates in states and Lok Sabha and Assembly seats during elections.

    How often has the demand for a caste census been made?

    • It comes up before almost every Census, as records of debates and questions raised in Parliament show.
    • The demand usually come from among those belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) and other deprived sections, while sections from the upper castes oppose the idea.
    • On April 1, the constitutional body National Commission for Backward Classes urged the government to collect data on the population of OBCs “as part of Census of India 2021 exercise”.

    Need for caste census

    • There is a central list of OBCs and a State-specific list of OBCs.
    • Some states do not have a list of OBCs; some States have a list of OBCs and a sub-set called Most Backward Classes.
    • There are certain open-ended categories in the lists such as orphans and destitute children.
    • Names of some castes are found in both the list of Scheduled Castes and the list of OBCs.
    • Scheduled Castes converted to Christianity or Islam are also treated differently in different States.
    • The status of a migrant from one State to another and the status of children of inter-caste marriage, in terms of caste classification, are also vexed questions.”

    Back2Basics: Census of India

    • The decennial Census of India has been conducted 15 times, as of 2011.
    • While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881.
    • Post-1949, it has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
    • All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act.
    • The last census was held in 2011, whilst the next was scheduled to be held in 2021.