💥UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (April Batch) + Access XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Archives: News

  • Historical and Archaeological Findings in News

    Nagardhan Excavations

    | | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture

     

    • Recent archaeological excavations at Nagardhan near Nagpur have provided concrete evidence on the life, religious affiliations and trade practices of the Vakataka dynasty that ruled parts of Central and South India between the third and fifth centuries.
    • After a 1,500 year-old sealing was excavated for the first time, a new study in Numismatic Digest has tried to understand the Vakataka rule under Queen Prabhavatigupta.

    Nagardhan

    • Nagardhan is a large village in Nagpur district, about 6 km south of Ramtek taluka headquarters.
    • Archaeological remains were found on a surface spread over a 1 km × 1.5 km area. The researchers excavated the site during 2015-2018.
    • The existing village sits on top of the ancient habitation. The Nagardhan Fort stands south of present-day Nagardhan village.
    • This was constructed during the Gond Raja period and later renovated and re-used by the Bhosales of Nagpur during the late 18th and 19th centuries.

    Importance of the excavation

    • Very little was known about the Vakatakas, the Shaivite rulers of Central India between the third and fifth centuries.
    • All that was known about the dynasty, believed to hail from the Vidarbha region, was largely through some literature and copperplates.
    • There were assumptions that the excavated site of Nagardhan is the same as Nandhivardhan, the capital city of the eastern branch of the Vakatakas.
    • It was after archaeological evidence from here that Nagardhan was understood to have served as a capital of the Vakataka kingdom.

    The seals so found

    • It is the first time clay sealings have been excavated from Nagardhan.
    • The oval-shaped sealing belongs to the period when Prabhavatigupta was the queen of the Vakataka dynasty.
    • It bears her name in the Brahmi script along with the depiction of a conch.
    • The presence of the conch, scholars say, is a sign of the Vaishnava affiliation that the Guptas held.
    • The sealing was traced on top of a mega wall that researchers now think could have been part of a royal structure at the capital city of the kingdom.

    Who was Queen Prabhavatigupta?

    • The copperplate issued by Queen Prabhavatigupta starts with a genealogy of the Guptas, mentioning the Queen’s grandfather Samudragupta and her father Chandragupta II.
    • These are strong indicators of Vaishnava signatures on the royal seals of the Vakatakas reiterate that Queen Prabhavatigupta was indeed a powerful woman ruler.
    • Since the Vakataka people traded with Iran and beyond through the Mediterranean Sea, scholars suggest that these sealings could have been used as official royal permission issued from the capital city.
    • Besides, these were used on documents that sought mandatory royal permissions.

    Why are the findings on Queen Prabhavatigupta significant?

    • Scholars say Queen Prabhavatigupta was among a handful of women rulers in India to have reigned over any kingdom during ancient times.
    • The Vakataka rulers were known to have forged several matrimonial alliances with other dynasties of their times.
    • One of the key alliances was with Prabhavatigupta of the mighty Gupta dynasty, which was then ruling north India. The Guptas were way more powerful than the Vakatakas.
    • After marrying Vakataka king Rudrasena II, Prabhavatigupta enjoyed the position of Chief Queen.
    • When she took over the Vakataka kingdom, after the sudden demise of Rudrasena II, her stature as a woman Vakataka ruler rose significantly.
    • This is evident from the fact that the sealings were introduced and issued during her period as a ruler, that too from the capital city of Nagardhan.

    Why is the sign of Vaishnava affiliation important?

    • The Vakataka rulers followed the Shaiva sect of Hinduism while the Guptas were staunch Vaishnavites.
    • Excavators say that many religious structures indicating affinity to the Vaishnava sect, and found in Ramtek, were built during the reign of Queen Prabhavatigupta.
    • While she was married into a family that belonged to the Shaiva sect, the queen’s powers allowed her to choose a deity of worship, that is, Lord Vishnu.

    What else has been excavated from Nagardhan so far?

    • Earlier results from the excavations here had traced evidence in the form of ceramics, ear studs of glass, antiquities, bowls and pots, a votive shrine and tank, an iron chisel, a stone depicting a deer, and terracotta bangles.
    • Some terracotta objects even depicted images of gods, animals and humans, along with amulets, scotches, wheels, skin rubbers and spindle whorls.
    • An intact idol of Lord Ganesha, which had no ornaments adorned, too was found from the site.
    • This confirmed that the elephant god was a commonly worshipped deity in those times.
    • On the means of living of the Vakataka people, researchers found animal rearing to be one of the main occupations.
    • Remains of seven species of domestic animals — cattle, goat, sheep, pig, cat, horse and fowl — were traced in an earlier study by the team.

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Middle East

    Oslo Peace Accord

    Prelims Only | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Important International Institutions

     

    Palestinian officials threatened to withdraw from key provisions of the Oslo Accords, which define relations with Israel, if U.S. President Donald Trump announces his Middle East peace plan next week.

    The Oslo Peace Accord

    • The Oslo Accords were a landmark moment in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East.
    • Actually a set of two separate agreements signed by the government of Israel and the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)—the militant organization established in 1964 to create a Palestinian state.
    • The negotiations between Israel and the PLO that ultimately led to the Oslo Accords began, in secret, in Oslo, Norway, in 1993.
    • The Oslo Accords were ratified in Washington, D.C., in 1993 (Oslo I) and in Taba, Egypt, in 1995 (Oslo II).
    • Sometimes called Oslo II, the interim agreement set out the scope of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.
    • The interim pact was only supposed to last five years while a permanent agreement was finalised but it has tacitly been rolled over for more than two decades.

    A final nail in the coffin

    • World powers have long agreed that Jerusalem’s fate should be settled through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
    • The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and believe Trump’s plan buries the two-state solution that has been for decades the cornerstone of international Middle East diplomacy.

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

    Operation Alberich

    | | Mains Paper 1:

    The recently released ‘1917’ movie tells the story of two British soldiers during the WWI in Operation Alberich, the strategic retreat in which their troops were taken back to the Hindenburg Line in 1917.

    What was Operation Alberich?

    • Operation Alberich is considered among Germany’s most important operations on the Western Front in 1917, as well as one of its most extreme due to the ‘scorched earth’ policy employed.
    • In World War I (1914-18), the Allied Powers — principally France, the British Empire, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the US (after 1917) — fought and defeated the Central Powers — mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey.
    • The war caused destruction and suffering on unprecedented levels, and only led to a bigger conflict, World War II, two decades later in 1939.
    • The war manoeuvre involved the systematic destruction of 1,500 square kilometres of French territory by the German army after it decided to retreat to a newly constructed defence line.
    • The German army leadership had decided that the war must shift temporarily to the shorter and more easily defensible Hindenburg Line. The Operation took place in February and March 1917.

    Course of action

    • The shortening of the war front was drastic, and is considered the war’s biggest military construction project.
    • The planning for the approximately 130-km Hindenburg Line began in September 1916, and much of it was completed in four months from October — using 5,00,000 tonnes of rocks and gravel, over 1,00,000 tonnes of cement, and 12,500 tonnes of barbed wire.
    • The scorched earth policy, which laid to waste entire villages, roads, and bridges, was meant to destroy anything that the Allies could find useful.
    • The Operation saw the complete evacuation of the area’s civilian population.

    Aftermath

    • The move is regarded as a tactical success for the Germans, as it took the Allies by surprise and delayed their advance, but is criticised for the disproportionate destruction that it caused.
    • It is considered a propaganda disaster for Germany, and was presented by the Allies as an example of “Hun barbarism”.
    • At the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed after the war, the Allies used Alberich to legitimize their claims for punitive reparations from Germany.

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-SAARC Nations

    Sagarmatha Sambaad

    | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

     

    Nepal has invited the PMs of India and Pakistan along with several other heads of government and heads of state for the Sagarmatha Sambaad.

    Sagarmatha Sambaad

    • Sagarmatha Sambaad is a multi-stakeholder, permanent global dialogue forum initiated by the Government of Nepal.
    • It is scheduled to be held biennially in Nepal.
    • The Sambaad (dialogue) is named after the world’s tallest mountain Sagarmatha (Mount Everest).
    • The Everest is also a symbol of friendship and is meant to promote the notions of common good and collective well-being of humanity.
    • The first episode of the Sambaad is scheduled to be held from 2 to 4 April 2020 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Nepal).
    • The theme of the first Sambaad is “Climate Change, Mountains and the Future of Humanity.”

    Significance

    • This is the first ever multi-stakeholder dialogue and a biggest diplomatic initiative in Nepal’s recent history.
    • India and Pakistan have been caught up in a cycle of hostility, which had prevented Islamabad from hosting the SAARC Summit in 2016.
    • The Kathmandu event aims to draw all the SAARC leaders and provide an opportunity to break the ice.
    • India had accused Pakistan of cross border terrorism while boycotting the Islamabad summit leading to its cancellation.

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Food Procurement and Distribution – PDS & NFSA, Shanta Kumar Committee, FCI restructuring, Buffer stock, etc.

    [op-ed of the day] Food for Expediency

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3:

    Context

    A substantial rise in consumer food price inflation to 14.12% in December 2019, the highest ever in the past six years, has driven the retail price inflation in this country.

    Discrepancies in the fiscal deficit

    • Policy dilemma for the RBI: Though the CPI was at 14.12% in December but with the core inflation rate still not overshooting the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) medium-term target of 4(+/- 2)%.
      • Speculations hover as to whether the RBI monetary policy committee will go for another rate cut in the coming month.
      • This is a policy dilemma for the central bank
      • Why is the dilemma? The dilemma is because the moot issues regarding the government’s key economic estimates, such as the fiscal deficit, largely remain unresolved.
    • Discrepancies flagged by the CAG: The CAG has stated that the current figures on deficit have been kept at a 1.5% to 2% low by not including the government’s off-budget borrowings from public accounts, such as the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF).
      • According to media reports, such off-budget expenditure of the current government stands at ₹1.5 lakh crore in 2019–20.
      • The major portion of off budged expenditure on food subsidy: About three-fourths of the incremental off-budget expenditure is on account of under-recoveries in food subsidies of the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
    • Low allocation but high expenditure on food subsidy: For instance, the 2019–20 Union Budget had provisioned food subsidy at₹1.84 lakh crore.
      • While the overdue of the FCI is already at₹1.86 lakh crore.
      • For these burgeoning overdue, FCI’s ­off-budget borrowings from the NSSF have been on the rise.

    Excessive stock by the government and rising inflation

    • Issue of supply management: The issues of agricultural supply management are relegated to the background by the standard causality argument of “crop damages” caused by excessive rains and that the inflation will ease out once the new harvest comes in.
      • This argument can hold some water for horticulture crops like onions that saw an almost 200% rise in price in November and December.
      • Unable to explain inflation in wheat and other cereals: This argument may not find traction in explaining the price inflation of wheat and other cereals.
    • holding the excessive cereal stock: With the government currently stocking much higher quantities of cereals at the FCI than the buffer norms.
      • 45.8 million tonnes of wheat as against the buffer norm of 27.5 million tonnes and nearly double the amount of rice vis-à-vis the buffer norm of 13.5 million tonnes.
      • India is now a cereal surplus economy.
      • Why then the inflation in cereal prices? Is this artificially created by the government through its irrational stocking practice?
      • Some fundamental concerns are triggered at this juncture.
    • Concerns with excess stocks
      • First-Higher stock means higher subsidy bill-With the economic costs of the FCI being 12 times or more than the allocation cost of the grains through the public distribution system-higher stocks would imply higher subsidy bills.
      • Second–No benefit of the stock: In tandem with the first, ad hoc releasing of the stocks will not bring about any major changes in the situation.
      • Third–Hiding fiscal deficit from the public: In this context, off-budget borrowing can serve various politically expedient purposes.
      • It has enabled the government to showcase a consistently low share (below 1%) of subsidies in national income.
      • Thereby diverted the public attention from two critical facts: the FCI’s tipping financials and the country’s (grossly) underestimated fiscal deficit.

    Conclusion

    The government must recall that the “illusion” of this acceptable limit of inflation potentially rests upon the savings of the common consumers, which is being unduly misemployed by the government.

     

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

    [op-ed snap] Frame rules to govern how devices identify us

    op-ed snap | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Context

    Facial recognition technology is set to become an integral part of the law enforcement toolkit, but we should regulate this technology before it pervades our public spaces.

    What are the issues with the use of facial recognition?

    • Enormous possibilities for law enforcement agencies:
      • Detectives have been using facial recognition to solve crimes for almost as long as the camera has been in existence.
      • Use of AI for facial recognition: It is but a logical extension of the modern crime solver’s toolkit to use artificial intelligence (AI) on the most identifiable physical feature of people, their face.
      • Screening faces within hours: An image captured at the scene of a crime can now be screened against photographs of entire populations for a match within a matter of hours.
    • Uneasiness with being watched: The idea of being watched by devices linked to vast databases far out of sight makes liberal societies uneasy.
    • Invasion of privacy:  The intrusion that is causing alarm, however, has nothing to do with the technology itself, and everything to do with the all-pervasive surveillance it enables.

    Should there be no rules governing it?

    • Issue of accuracy: How accurately faces are identified by machines is a major point of concern. Deployed in law enforcement, false matches could possibly result in a miscarriage of justice.
      • Judicial scrutiny: Even a low rate of error could mean evidence faces judicial rejection. It is in the judiciary’s interest, all the same, to let technology aid police-work.
    • Racial bias: First up for addressal is the criticism that facial recognition is still not smart enough to read emotions or work equally well for all racial groups.
      • With iterative use, it will improve.
    • Mala fide use: Since such tools can be put to mala fide use as-rogue drones equipped with the technology, for example, should never be in a position to carry out an assassination.
      • Nor should an unauthorized agent be able to spy on or stalk anyone.
      • Caution in the developed countries:  Apart from California, the European Union has also decided to exercise some caution before exposing people to it.
    • Privacy as fundamental rights in India: India, which has recently accepted privacy as a fundamental right, would do well to tilt the Western way on this.

    Conclusion

    • We need regulations that restrict the use of facial recognition to the minimum required to serve justice and ease commercial operations. For the latter, customer consent should be mandatory.
    • There will be some overlaps. Its use at an aerobridge to board an aircraft, for example, could serve the interests of both state security and the airline, but data-sharing could risk leakage.

     

     

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India – EU

    [op-ed snap] It’s not yet Howdy, Modi!

    op-ed snap | International Relations | : Effect Of Policies & Politics Of World On India’S Interests

    Context

    Persistent in their efforts to remake their countries and their engagement with the world, Mr Modi and Mr Trump are shaking up the bilateral ties between the two countries, and the resultant flux could outlive their tenures.

    The emergence of both the leaders on similar promises

    • Improvements over the legacy of their predecessors: Both leaders continuously reiterate that their predecessors were incapable of protecting national interest.
      • The compulsion to reframe the national interest: Such premises commits them both to reframe the national interest, and both have articulated it with clarity and force.
      • For instance, Mr Modi, in Houston in September 2019 and Mr Trump in Davos this week, went great lengths to lay out figures that presented their respective regimes as the most effective guardians.
    • Both have cultural and economic agenda: Both dispensations believe that “the people” had been given a raw deal by earlier regimes.
      • Both have a cultural and economic agenda.
      • National awakening: They are now leading a national reawakening, and working hard for the hard-working people.
      • Both believe that cultural nationalism is a force for the good.
      • Securing borders and entry barriers: Both believe that national borders need to be strengthened by stricter monitoring and setting new bars for entry.
      • Renegotiating the treaties: Both leaders try to renegotiate the contract between the union and the States, and between citizens and the state within their respective countries.
      • The supremacy of executive: They assert the supremacy of the executive over the legislature and the judiciary.
      • Shared values: The notion of shared values of India and the U.S. has acquired a whole new meaning under Mr Trump and Mr Modi.

    Politics and governance

    • Hopes of status-quo in bilateral relations shattered: It was hoped that the stronger U.S.-India ties- that have autonomous drivers of convergence-would not be impacted by the nationalist politics of these two leaders.
      • But both leaders have been remarkably true to their politics in their governance.
      • Current tumult in the India-US ties: Shared values notwithstanding, national interests as perceived by these leaders have several points of divergence and therein lies in the current tumult in India-U.S. ties.
      • Opposition to the “world order”: Mr Trump has been outspokenly confrontational with the “world order” that he says has worked against American interests.
      • Dismantling the treaties: America under Mr Trump has wrecked treaties such as the Paris climate agreement and institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, disrupting the “rule-based order”.
      • India’s relations with Bangladesh: India’s spirited outreach in the neighbourhood is still playing out. India’s historically warm ties with Bangladesh have been frayed after CAA.
    • India’s ambitions on the global level
    • The seat at the UNSC: India under continues to push for more space for itself in global affairs by seeking a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and membership.
    • NSG membership: India is also pushing for the membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
    • The US actions at global levels
      • Expansion of the principle of the pre-emptive strike: America expanded the principle of pre-emptive strike to include the assassination of a senior official of Iran.
      • Renegotiating the treaties: After dismantling the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mr Trump forced Mexico and Canada to accede to his demands in a new trade deal.
    • The India-US relations and impact of U.S. relations with other countries
      • Impact on India-US ties: India’s ties with the U.S. are impacted by America’s ties with India’s adversaries and neighbours, China and Pakistan.
      • Hopes of alignment in the Indo-US ties: Mr Trump’s bluster against both had lit hope that there would finally be a near-complete alignment between India and the U.S. on strategy.
      • US-Iran conflict: Despite Mr Trump’s avowed opposition to America’s endless wars in West Asia, the US is going against Iran headlong, which is not in India’s interest.
      • Relations with Gulf Countries: Trump and Mr Modi share a strong bonding with the Gulf Cooperation Council kings, but their courses in the region are diverging.
      • US-Pakistan coming closer once again: The American President’s impatience to get out of Afghanistan has already pushed his administration closer to Pakistan, which is now further necessitated by his adventurist Iran policy.
      • The US disregard for China’s expansionist policies: Mr Trump has been singularly focused on one question-trade. He cares little about China’s expansionism and at any rate that is not a factor in his ties with other Asian countries.

    India-US ties- Points of fission

    • On the trade front: Mr Trump has bracketed India and China as two countries that have duped his predecessors to gain undue advantage. Which is far from seeing India as deserving special concessions to counterbalance China as old wisdom demanded.
      • Ending GSP: The US ended India’s status under the World Trade Organization’s Generalized System of Preferences and took other punitive measures.
      • India trying to decrease the trade surplus: By increasing hydrocarbon imports from the U.S., the government is trying to reduce India’s trade surplus.
    • Restrictions on H1-B visa: The US has tightened the restrictions on the H1-B visa which is used by the Indian companies.
    • Decreasing bipartisan support in the US: The mobilisation of Indian diaspora in America by the government has resulted in the inevitable blowback.
      • Diaspora divided and bipartisan support waning: The diaspora has been divided, and the bipartisan support for India is now squandered. Progressive sections on the Democratic side and religious libertarians and evangelicals on the Trump side are both concerned over India’s actions back home.

    Conclusion

    Partnership with America is critical to India. India must take the steps to align the interest but whenever it diverges India must take measures to minimise its impact on India while furthering its interests.

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Trade Sector Updates – Falling Exports, TIES, MEIS, Foreign Trade Policy, etc.

    Forex Reserves of India

    | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Effects Of Liberalization On The Economy, Changes In Industrial Policy and their effects on Industrial Growth

    India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $943 million to touch a lifetime high of $462.16 billion according to the latest data from the RBI.

    Forex reserves of India

    • They are holdings of cash, bank deposits, bonds, and other financial assets denominated in currencies other than Indian rupee.
    • The reserves are managed by the Reserve Bank of India for the Indian government and the main component is foreign currency assets.
    • They act as the first line of defense for India in case of economic slowdown, but acquisition of reserves has its own costs.
    • They facilitate external trade and payment and promote orderly development and maintenance of foreign exchange market in India.
    • They act as a cushion against rupee volatility once global interest rates start rising.

    Composition of Forex

    • Reserve Bank of India Act and the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 set the legal provisions for governing the foreign exchange reserves.
    • RBI accumulates foreign currency reserves by purchasing from authorized dealers in open market operations.
    • The Forex reserves of India consist of below four categories:
    1. Foreign Currency Assets
    2. Gold
    3. Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)
    4. Reserve Tranche Position

    What is Reserve tranche?

    • Reserve tranche is a portion of the required quota of currency each member country must provide to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that can be utilized for its own purposes.

    What are Special Drawing Rights?

    • The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries’ official reserves
    • The SDR is neither a currency nor a claim on the IMF.
    • Initially SDR was defined as equivalent to 0.888671 grams of fine gold, which at the time, was also equivalent to one U.S. dollar.
    • After the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the SDR was redefined as a basket of currencies.
    • This basket Includes five currencies—the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen, and the British pound sterling.

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Forest Conservation Efforts – NFP, Western Ghats, etc.

    Threat of Invasive Alien Species in Shola Forests of the Nilgiris

    | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

     

    Shola Forests

    • The Shola forests of South India derive their name from the Tamil word solai, which means a ‘tropical rain forest’.
    • Classified as ‘Southern Montane Wet Temperate Forest’ the Sholas are found in the upper reaches of the Nilgiris, Anamalais, Palni hills, Kalakadu, Mundanthurai and Kanyakumari in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
    • These forests are found sheltered in valleys with sufficient moisture and proper drainage, at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres.

    Vegetation

    • The upper reaches are covered with grasslands, known as Shola grasslands.
    • The vegetation that grows in Shola forests is evergreen. The trees are stunted and have many branches. Their rounded and dense canopies appear in different colours.
    • Generally, the leaves are small in size and leathery. Red-coloured young leaves turning into different colours on maturity is a prominent characteristic of the Shola forests.
    • Epiphytes like lichens, ferns and bryophytes usually grow on the trees.
    • The occurrence of Himalayan plants like rhododendron in these Shola forests is a mystery.

    Significance of Sholas

    • Sholas thus act as ‘overhead water tanks’. They play a major role in conserving water supply of the Nilgiris’ streams.
    • The trees are slow-growing varieties which produce timber of little or no value and probably take at least a century to mature.
    • The rolling grasslands found on top of the Western Ghats, enhance the beauty of the region. Usually, Shola forests and grasslands are found in a ratio of 1:5.
    • The rain received from the Southwest and Northeast monsoons is harvested by the Shola forest-grassland ecosystem, leading to the formation of the Bhavani river that finally drains into the Cauvery.
    • Thus, the Shola forest-grassland ecosystem of the Nilgiris, also supports the prosperity of Cauvery delta farmers.
    • As tree species of the montane, evergreen forests are flammable, regeneration of any Shola tree species is completely prevented except for Rhododendron nilagiricum, the only Shola tree that can tolerate fire.

    Threats to Sholas

    • Unfortunately, the Sholas have begun to gradually shrink due to the introduction of alien plant species and annual fire occurrences.
    • Alien species like Sticky Snakeroot, Gorse and Scotch Broom introduced during British rule, have encroached upon the grasslands.
    • During 1840, tree species such as Acacia and Eucalyptus were introduced from Australia.
    • Afterwards, between 1886 and 1891, Pine and Cypress were introduced, again from Australia. As the alien species grew, the forests and grasslands gradually became degraded and shrank.
    • In addition, unscientific agricultural practices like growing tea on the slopes, cattle grazing and fuel wood collection have become serious causes for degradation.
    • Unregulated tourism has created concrete jungles, traffic congestion and caused the generation of garbage.

    Wrath of Eucalyptus

    • During 1849, the extent of Shola forests was 8,600 hectares (ha), grasslands 29,875 ha and agriculture was 10,875 ha.
    • No wattle or eucalyptus was planted in the area at that time.
    • The comparison of the results of the 1849 and 1992 studies shows that cultivation of tea, wattle and eucalyptus has reduced the Shola forest-grassland ecosystem to a great extent.

    Protective measures

    • After realizing the seriousness of the situation, the government banned the planting of wattle and eucalyptus completely in 1987.
    • Ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation were given importance.
    • Under the Hill Area Development Programme since the mid-1980s, seedlings have been planted in degraded patches and protected with chain-link fences to restore the forests.
    • Special Shola forest protection committees were formed involving teachers, nature lovers, ecologists, environmentalists, students and villagers in the Nilgiris.
    • They were motivated to remove plastic garbage from the nearby forests, protect Shola trees, remove alien species and learn about the importance of the Sholas.
    • Presently, the Tamil Nadu forest department is now focusing on eradicating wattle, providing fencing and planting shola seedlings in degraded shola forests.

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Mother and Child Health – Immunization Program, BPBB, PMJSY, PMMSY, etc.

    ICDS Programme

    Schemes | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies

     

    Centre seeks to revamp the ICDS scheme in urban areas. For this NITI Aayog will develop draft policy, which will be circulated to the Ministries for consultations.

    Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

    • The ICDS is a government programme in India which provides food, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.
    • The scheme was launched in 1975, discontinued in 1978 by the government of Morarji Desai, and then relaunched by the Tenth Five Year Plan.
    • Tenth FYP also linked ICDS to Anganwadi centres established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers.
    • The ICDS provide for anganwadis or day-care centres which deliver a package of six services including:
    1. Immunization
    2. Supplementary nutrition
    3. Health checkup
    4. Referral services
    5. Pre-school education(Non-Formal)
    6. Nutrition and Health information

    Implementation

    • For nutritional purposes ICDS provides 500 kilocalories (with 12-15 grams of protein) every day to every child below 6 years of age.
    • For adolescent girls it is up to 500 kilo calories with up to 25 grams of protein every day.
    • The services of Immunisation, Health Check-up and Referral Services delivered through Public Health Infrastructure under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

    Revamp for Urban Areas

    • Health and ICDS models that work in rural areas may not work in urban areas because of higher population density, transportation challenges and migration.
    • Children in urban areas were overweight and obese as indicated by subscapular skinfold thickness (SSFT) for their age.
    • The first-ever pan-India survey on the nutrition status of children, highlighted that malnutrition among children in urban India.
    • It found a higher prevalence of obesity because of relative prosperity and lifestyle patterns, along with iron and Vitamin D deficiency.
    • According to government data from 2018, of the 14 lakh anganwadis across the country there are only 1.38 lakh anganwadis in urban areas.

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

Join the Community

Join us across Social Media platforms.