Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Exploring potential for a Westward trade push
After walking away from the RCEP, India needs to find alternative trading partners that can offer the potential for trade expansion. The article suggests a Westward trade push as an alternative.
Forging trade deals with the Western countries
- Our rejection of RCEP, which covers much of the eastern hemisphere, had exposed us to the risk of losing out on cross-border commercial relations in a highly dynamic part of the world.
- To compensate for the opportunity cost of that decision, it was imperative to strike other alliances.
- As a part of this, India adopted a roadmap for the rest of this decade to elevate ties with the UK and also moving to revive free-trade talks with the EU.
- An India-UK plan unveiled recently will raise our bilateral relationship to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership in such areas as economic affairs, defence and health.
- The two countries signed a £1-billion trade investment pact that is expected to generate jobs in both.
- Separately, India and the EU are reportedly working out how to resume stalled negotiations for a trade deal.
Issues India may face
- The signing of pacts would involve mutual tariff reductions and the lowering of other barriers, both of which have proven thorny so far.
- In general, while the West wants us to lower import duties, our negotiators have been citing India’s sovereign right to protect domestic businesses under World Trade Organization rules.
- Globally, even before covid knocked the wind out of the sails of cargo ships, commerce across borders had been doing badly under the extended effects of a financial crisis that shook things up in 2008-09.
- But world trade remains a reliable path to global prosperity and must therefore regain its gusto.
- For us, deal-making would mean opening up markets to imports in lieu of easier access to foreign ones.
Way forward
- Concessions that cause very few job losses in India can easily be made. A broad cost-benefit analysis will have to guide our approach to talks, on complex issues like US visa rules which affect our software exports.
- Since it is governments that thrash out deals, geopolitical convergences are often sought too.
- We seem to be in a favourable position on this, given the West’s need to keep China’s rise in check.
- The UK’s Rolls-Royce has just inked a memorandum with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for warship engines, a sign of our strategic ties.
- Technology could come our way from the US, too.
- If we can leverage an ability to play a role in Asia’s balance of power to our economic benefit, we should.
Conclusion
Mutually assured flexibility on tariff concessions would help India and its Western partners score economic gains and also counterbalance China’s growing dominance of world trade.
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B2B
[pib] India-UK Virtual Summit
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 102nd Amendment
Mains level: Paper 2- Maratha quota judgement
- A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the Maharashtra law granting reservation to the Maratha community.
- The court had framed six questions of law on the issue.
- The court unanimously agreed on three of those issues, while the verdict was split 3:2 on the other three.
Issue 1: Whether Indra Sawhney judgment needs to be revisited
- One of the key issues was to examine whether the 1992 landmark ruling by the nine-judge bench in Indra Sawhney v Union of India had to be revisited.
- First, it said that the criteria for a group to qualify for reservation is “social and educational backwardness”.
- Second, it reiterated the 50% limit to vertical quotas reasoning that it was needed to ensure “efficiency” in administration.
- However, the court said that this 50% limit will apply unless in “exceptional circumstances”.
- The Maratha quota exceeded the 50% ceiling.
- The arguments by state governments before the court was that the Indra Sawhney verdict must be referred to a 11-judge Bench for reconsideration since it laid down an arbitrary ceiling which the Constitution does not envisage.
- The court said that the 50% ceiling, although an arbitrary determination by the court in 1992, is now constitutionally recognized and held that there is no need to revisit the case.
Issue 2 and 3: Does Maratha quota law come under exceptional circumstances
- The state government’s argument was that since the population of backward class is 85% and reservation limit is only 50%, an increase in reservation limit would qualify as an extraordinary circumstance.
- All five judges disagreed with this argument.
- The bench ruled that the above situation is not extraordinary.
Issue 4,5 and 6: Validity of 102nd Amendment
- The Constitution (One Hundred and Second Amendment) Act, 2018 gives constitutional status to the National Backward Classes Commission.
- The Amendment also gives the President powers to notify backward classes.
- The Bench unanimously upheld the constitutional validity of the 102nd Amendment but differed on the question of whether it affected the power of states to identify socially and economically backward classes (SEBCs).
- Attorney General, appearing for the central government, clarified that this was not the intention of the law.
- The Attorney General argued that it is inconceivable that no State shall have the power to identify backward class”.
- The Attorney General explained that the state government will have their separate list of SEBCs for providing reservations in state government jobs and education.
- The Parliament will only make the central list of SEBCs which would apply for central government jobs.
- However, the Supreme Court held that “the final say in regard to inclusion or exclusion (or modification of lists) of SEBCs is firstly with the President, and thereafter, in case of modification or exclusion from the lists initially published, with the Parliament”.
- This raises a question: How does this impact interventions by other states to provide reservations for other communities, for example Jats in Haryana and Kapus in Andhra?
- The majority opinion essentially says that now the National Backward Classes Commission must publish a fresh list of SEBCs, both for states and the central list.
- The Supreme Court also issued a direction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India which says that till the publication of the fresh list the existing lists will continue to operate.
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BACK2BASICS
- National Commission for Backward Classes is a constitutional body (102nd amendment 2018 in the constitution to make it a constitutional body) (Article 338B of the Indian Constitution).
- It was constituted pursuant to the provisions of the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993.
- According to Article 338B, Commission shall consist of a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and three other Members and the conditions of service and tenure of office of the Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and other Members so appointed shall be such as the President may by rule determine. The Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and other Members of the Commission shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various thresholds for digital tax
Mains level: Paper 3- Rules for digital tax
- Starting April 2022, overseas entities that don’t have a physical presence in India but derive significant financial benefit from Indian customers will come under the Indian tax net.
- While the main legal provision was introduced in 2018, the revenue department notified the thresholds for the purposes of significant economic presence (SEP) on May 3.
- The concept was introduced via Finance Act, 2018, to enlarge the scope of income of non-residents that accrues or arises in India, by establishing a “business connection” of the foreign entities.
- The idea is to tax profits of those online and offline businesses that don’t have a physical presence in India but derive significant economic value from the country.
- Only those entities will get impacted by the SEP provisions who come from non-treaty jurisdictions.
- That’s because the treaties specify non-resident entities will come under the tax net only if they have a permanent establishment in India.
- India currently has a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with 97 countries.
Thresholds
- Transaction Threshold: Any non-resident whose revenue exceeds Rs 2 crore for transactions in respect of goods, services or property with any person in India. This will include transactions on the download of data or software.
- User Threshold: Any entity that systematically and continuously does business with more than 3 lakh users in India.
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BACK2BASICS
Revision of this topic further:
What are Digital Services Taxes?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 102nd Constitution Amendment
Mains level: Paper 2- The Supreme Court strikes down law granting reservation to Maratha community
About the judgment
- The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the provisions of a Maharashtra law providing reservation to the Maratha community.
- It rejected demands to revisit the verdict or to refer it to a larger Bench for reconsideration.
What the Supreme Court said
- The Bench said that “providing reservation for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward class in public services is not the only means and method for improving the welfare of backward class”
- The 50% rule is to fulfill the objective of equality as engrafted in Article 14 of which Articles 15 and 16 are facets.
- To change the 50% limit is to have a society that is not founded on equality but based on caste rule.
- If the reservation goes above the 50% limit, it will be a slippery slope, the political pressure, make it hard to reduce the same.
- It added that “the Constitution (Eighty-first Amendment) Act, 2000 by which sub-clause (4B) was inserted in Article 16 makes it clear that ceiling of 50% “has now received constitutional recognition”
- The Supreme Court disapproved the findings of the Justice M G Gaikwad Commission on the basis of which Marathas were classified as a Socially and Educationally Backward Class.
- It said that “the data collected and tabled by the Commission as noted in the report clearly proves that Marathas are not socially and educationally backward class”.
SC upheld 102nd Constitution amendment
- The SC also upheld the 102nd Constitution amendment, saying it does not violate the basic structure of the Constitution.
- The bench, by 3:2 majority, held that after the amendment, only the President will have the power to identify backward classes in a state or Union Territory.
- The amendment inserted Articles 338B and 342A in the Constitution.
- Article 338B deals with the structure, duties and powers of the National Commission for Backward Classes.
- Article 342A speaks about the power of the President to notify a class as Socially and Educationally Backward (SEBC) and the power of Parliament to alter the Central SEBC list. He can do this in consultation with Governor of the concerned State. However, law enacted by Parliament will be required if the list of backward classes is to be amended.
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BACK2BASICS
- 102nd Constitution Amendment Act, 2018 provides constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).
- The Commission consists of five members including a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and three other Members appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal. It has the authority to examine complaints and welfare measures regarding socially and educationally backward classes.
- Previously NCBC was a statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 5Gi technology
Mains level: Paper 3- Permission granted for 5-G trial
Trials for 5G technology
- The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Tuesday gave permission to Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to conduct trials for the use and application of 5G technology.
- The applicant TSPs include Bharti Airtel Ltd., Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd., Vodafone Idea Ltd. and MTNL.
- These TSPs have tied up with original equipment manufacturers and technology providers which are Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT.
- Each TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings also in addition to urban settings so that the benefit of 5G technology proliferates across the country.
- This formally leaves out Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE from the 5G race in India.
About 5Gi technology
- TSPs are encouraged to conduct trials using 5Gi technology in addition to the already known 5G technology.
- 5Gi technology was advocated by India, as it facilitates much larger reach of the 5G towers and radio networks.
- The 5Gi technology has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT) and IIT Hyderabad.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Strategic implications of Covid second wave
Foreign policy consequences
- The devastation caused by the second Covid wave prompted India to accept foreign aid after a gap of 17 years.
- This is bound to have far-reaching strategic implications for India.
- As a direct consequence of the pandemic, India’s claim to regional primacy and leadership will take a major hit.
- India ‘leading power’ aspirations will be dented, and accentuate its domestic political contestations.
- These in turn will impact the content and conduct of India’s foreign policy in the years to come.
What would be the strategic implications?
1) Impact on India’s regional primacy
- COVID 2.0 has quickened the demise of India’s regional primacy.
- India’s geopolitical decline is likely to begin in the neighbourhood itself.
- India’s traditional primacy in the region was built on a mix of material aid, political influence and historical ties.
- Its political influence is steadily declining, its ability to materially help the neighbourhood will shrink in the wake of COVID-19.
- Its historical ties alone may not do wonders to hold on to a region hungry for development assistance and political autonomy.
2) Impact on India’s great power aspiration
- India aspires to be a leading power, rather than just a balancing power.
- While the Indo-Pacific is geopolitically keen and ready to engage with India, the pandemic could adversely impact India’s ability and desire to contribute to the Indo-Pacific and the Quad.
- COVID-19, for instance, will prevent any ambitious military spending or modernisation plans.
- Covid-19 will also limit the country’s attention on global diplomacy and regional geopolitics, be it Afghanistan or Sri Lanka or the Indo-Pacific.
- With reduced military spending and lesser diplomatic attention to regional geopolitics, New Delhi’s ability to project power and contribute to the growth of the Quad will be uncertain.
3) Domestic political contestation and its impact on strategic ambition
- Domestic political contestations in the wake of the COVID-19 devastation in the country could also limit India’s strategic ambitions.
- General economic distress, a fall in foreign direct investment and industrial production, and a rise in unemployment have already lowered the mood in the country.
- A depressed economy, politically volatile domestic space combined with a lack of elite consensus on strategic matters would hardly inspire confidence in the international system about India.
4) Impact on India-China equation
- From competing with China’s vaccine diplomacy a few months ago, New Delhi today is forced to seek help from the international community.
- China has, compared to most other countries, emerged stronger in the wake of the pandemic.
- The world, notwithstanding its anti-China rhetoric, will continue to do business with Beijing — it already has been, and it will only increase.
- Claims that India could compete with China as a global investment and manufacturing destination would be dented.
- India’s ability to stand up to China stands vastly diminished today: in material power, in terms of balance of power considerations, and political will.
5) Depressed foreign policy
- Given the much reduced political capital within the government to pursue ambitious foreign policy goals, the diplomatic bandwidth for expansive foreign policy goals would be limited.
- This, however, might take the aggressive edge off of India’s foreign policy.
- Less aggression could potentially translate into more accommodation, reconciliation and cooperation especially in the neighbourhood, with Pakistan on the one hand and within the broader South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) framework on the other.
- COVID-19 has forced us to reimagine, to some extent at least, the friend enemy equations in global geopolitics.
- While the United States seemed hesitant, at least initially, Russia was quick to come to India’s aid.
6) Implications for strategic autonomy
- The pandemic would, at the very least indirectly, impact India’s policy of maintaining strategic autonomy.
- As pointed out above, the strategic consequences of the pandemic are bound to shape and structure India’s foreign policy choices as well as constrain India’s foreign policy agency.
- It could, for instance, become more susceptible to external criticism for, after all, India cannot say ‘yes’ to just aid and ‘no’ to criticism.
Consider the question “Examine the strategic implications of Covid for India.”
Way forward
- COVID-19 will also do is open up new regional opportunities for cooperation especially under the ambit of SAARC.
- India might do well to get the region’s collective focus on ‘regional health multilateralism’ to promote mutual assistance and joint action on health emergencies such as this.
- Classical geopolitics should be brought on a par with health diplomacy, environmental concerns and regional connectivity in South Asia.
Conclusion
While the outpouring of global aid to India shows that the world realises India is too important to fail, the international community might also reach the conclusion that post-COVID-19 India is too fragile to lead and be a ‘leading power’.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GIP
Mains level: Paper 2- India-UK Global Innovation Partnership
Cabinet approval to GIP
- The Union Cabinet gave ex-post facto approval to the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) India and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom on Global Innovation Partnership (GIP).
- GIP will support Indian innovators to scale up their innovations in third countries thereby helping them explore new markets and become self-sustainable.
How GIP will help India
- It will also foster an innovative ecosystem in India.
- GIP innovations will focus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related sectors thereby assisting recipient countries achieve their SDGs.
- Through seed funding, grants, investments and technical assistance, the Partnership will support Indian entrepreneurs and innovators to test, scale-up and take their innovative development solutions to select developing countries.
- GIP will also develop an open and inclusive e-marketplace (E-BAAZAR) for cross-border innovation transfer and will focus on results-based impact assessment thereby promoting transparency and accountability.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with model predicting Covid-19 cases
About SUTRA
- SUTRA (Susceptible, Undetected, Tested (positive), and Removed Approach) first came into public attention when one of its expert members announced in October that India was “past its peak”.
- Unlike many epidemiological models that extrapolated cases based on the existing number of cases, the behaviour of the virus and manner of spread, the SUTRA model chose a “data centric approach”.
- However, the surge in the second wave was several times what any of the modellers had predicted.
- The predictions of the SUTRA model were too variable to guide government policy.
So, what went wrong in the model
- The SUTRA model was problematic as it relied on too many parameters, and recalibrated those parameters whenever its predictions broke down.
- The more parameters you have, the more you are in danger of overfitting.
- One of the main reasons for the model not gauging an impending, exponential rise was that a constant indicating contact between people and populations went wrong.
- Further the model was ‘calibrated’ incorrectly.
- The model relied on a serosurvey conducted by the ICMR in May that said 0.73% of India’s population may have been infected at that time.
- This calibration led our model to the conclusion that more than 50% population was immune by January.
- The SUTRA model’s omission of the importance of the behaviour of the virus; the fact that some people were bigger transmitters; a lack of accounting for social or geographic heterogeneity and not stratifying the population by age as it didn’t account for contacts between different age groups also undermined its validity.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 21
Mains level: Paper 2- Principle of non-refoulement
Significance of Manipur High Court judgement
- The High Court of Manipur on Monday allowed seven Myanmar nationals, to travel to New Delhi to seek protection from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
- “The far-reaching and myriad protection afforded by Article 21 of our Constitution, as interpreted and adumbrated by our Supreme Court time and again, would indubitably encompass the right of non-refoulement,” the court said.
What is the principle of non-refoulemennt
- Non-refoulement is the principle under international law that a person fleeing from persecution from his own country should not be forced to return.
- Though India is not a party to the UN Refugee Conventions, the court observed that the country is a party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Zoonotic diseases
Mains level: Paper 2- 'One Health' approach to deal with infections diseases
The article highlights the need for a holistic approach to animal and human health as more than two-thirds of existing and emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic.
Need to document the link between environment animal and human health
- Studies indicate that more than two-thirds of existing and emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, or can be transferred between animals and humans, and vice versa.
- Another category of diseases, anthropozoonotic infections, gets transferred from humans to animals.
- The transboundary impact of viral outbreaks in recent years such as the Nipah virus, Ebola, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has reinforced the need for us to consistently document the linkages between the environment, animals, and human health.
India’s ‘One Health’ vision
- India’s ‘One Health’ vision derives its blueprint from the agreement between the tripartite-plus alliance.
- The alliance comprises the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) — a global initiative supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank under the overarching goal of contributing to ‘One World, One Health’.
- In keeping with the long-term objectives, India established a National Standing Committee on Zoonoses as far back as the 1980s.
- This year, funds were sanctioned for setting up a ‘Centre for One Health’ at Nagpur.
- Further, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) has launched several schemes to mitigate the prevalence of animal diseases since 2015.
- Hence, under the National Animal Disease Control Programme, ₹13,343 crore have been sanctioned for Foot and Mouth disease and Brucellosis control.
- In addition, DAHD will soon establish a ‘One Health’ unit within the Ministry.
- Additionally, the government is working to revamp programmes that focus on capacity building for veterinarians such as Assistance to States for Control of Animal Diseases (ASCAD).
- There is increased focus on vaccination against livestock diseases and backyard poultry.
- DAHD has partnered with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the National Action Plan for Eliminating Dog Mediated Rabies.
Need for coordination
- There are more than 1.7 million viruses circulating in wildlife, and many of them are likely to be zoonotic.
- Therefore, unless there is timely detection, India risks facing many more pandemics in times to come.
- There is need to address challenges pertaining to veterinary manpower shortages, the lack of information sharing between human and animal health institutions, and inadequate coordination on food safety at slaughter.
- These issues can be remedied by consolidating existing animal health and disease surveillance systems — e.g., the Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health, and the National Animal Disease Reporting System.
Conclusion
As we battle yet another wave of a deadly zoonotic disease (COVID-19), awareness generation, and increased investments toward meeting ‘One Health’ targets is the need of the hour.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-Britain relations
The article highlights the factors that make building sustainable partnership with Britain hard for India and suggests the ways to find fresh basis for bilateral relationship.
Need to tap potential for bilateral strategic cooperation
- The long-scheduled summit between Prime Ministers of India and UK will take place with a digital conversation scheduled for Tuesday.
- India and the UK must tap into the enormous potential for bilateral strategic cooperation in the health sector and contributions to the global war on the virus.
- Foreign ministers of India, Japan and Australia would also join this meeting to set the stage for the “Group of Seven Plus Three” physical summit next month hosted by the British Prime Minister.
Challenges in forming a sustainable partnership with Britain
- Few Western powers are as deeply connected to India as Britain.
- While India’s relations with countries as different as the US and France have dramatically improved in recent years, ties with Britain have lagged.
- One reason for this failure has been the colonial prism that has distorted mutual perceptions.
- The bitter legacies of the Partition and Britain’s perceived tilt to Pakistan have long complicated the engagement between Delhi and London.
- Also, the large South Asian diaspora in the UK transmits the internal and intra-regional conflicts in the subcontinent into Britain’s domestic politics.
Finding fresh basis for bilateral relationship
- The two leaders are expected to announce a 10-year roadmap to transform the bilateral relationship that will cover a range of areas.
- Both countries are on the rebound from their respective regional blocs.
- Britain has walked out of the European Union and India has refused to join the China-centred Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
- Although both will continue to trade with their regional partners, they are eager to build new global economic partnerships.
- While remaining a security actor in Europe, Britain is tilting to the Indo-Pacific, where India is a natural ally.
- India needs as wide a coalition as possible to restore a semblance of regional balance.
- Britain could also contribute to the strengthening of India’s domestic defence industrial base.
- The two sides could also expand India’s regional reach through sharing of logistical facilities.
- Both countries are said to be exploring an agreement on “migration and mobility” to facilitate the legal movement of Indians into Britain.
- Both sides are committed to finding common ground on climate change.
Consder the question “What are the factors that introduce friction in the sustainability of India’s bilateral relations with the Britain? Identify the areas in which both the countries can find fresh basis for the bilateral relations?”
Conclusion
If leaders of both the countries succeed in laying down mutually beneficial terms of endearment, future governments might be less tempted to undermine the partnership.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global Innovation Partnership
Mains level: Paper 2- India-UK virtual summit
India-UK Virtual Summit
- Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and The Rt Hon’ble Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom held a Virtual Summit today.
- An ambitious ‘Roadmap 2030’ was adopted at the Summit to elevate bilateral ties to a ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’.
- The two Prime Ministers launched an ‘Enhanced Trade Partnership’ (ETP) by setting an ambitious target of more than doubling bilateral trade by 2030.
- As part of the ETP, India and the UK agreed on a roadmap to negotiate a comprehensive and balanced FTA, including consideration of an Interim Trade Agreement for delivering early gains.
- The enhanced trade partnership between India and UK will generate several thousands of direct and indirect jobs in both the countries.
Collaboration and partnerships
- The UK is India’s second-largest partner in research and innovation collaborations.
- A new India-UK ‘Global Innovation Partnership’ was announced at the Virtual Summit that aims to support the transfer of inclusive Indian innovations to select developing countries, starting with Africa.
- Both sides agreed to enhance cooperation on new and emerging technologies, including Digital and ICT products, and work on supply chain resilience.
- They also agreed to strengthen defence and security ties, including in the maritime, counter-terrorism and cyberspace domains.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Generations of biofuels
Mains level: Paper 3- Used Cooking Oil based biofuel
Eco-system for collection and conversion of UCO into Biodiesel
- Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas flagged off the first supply of UCO (Used Cooking Oil) based Biodiesel blended Diesel under the EOI Scheme.
- To create an eco-system for collection and conversion of UCO, Expressions of Interest had been initiated for “Procurement of Bio-diesel produced from Used Cooking Oil” on the occasion of World Biofuel Day on 10th August 2019.
- Under this initiative, Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) offer periodically incremental price guarantees for five years and extend off-take guarantees for ten years to prospective entrepreneurs.
Advantages
- This is a landmark in India’s pursuance of Biofuels and will have a positive impact on the environment.
- This initiative will garner substantial economic benefits for the nation by shoring up indigenous Biodiesel supply, reducing import dependence, and generating rural employment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Polar shift
Mains level: Paper 3- How climate change causing a shift in the Earth's axis of rotation
About the study
- A study is published in Geophysical Research Letters of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
- The study has added yet another impact of climate change on the earth – marked shifts in the axis along which the Earth rotates.
- It says that due to the significant melting of glaciers because of global temperature rise, our planet’s axis of rotation has been moving more than usual since the 1990s.
How the earth’s axis shifts
- The Earth’s axis of rotation is the line along which it spins around itself as it revolves around the Sun.
- The points on which the axis intersects the planet’s surface are the geographical north and south poles.
- The location of the poles is not fixed, however, as the axis moves due to changes in how the Earth’s mass is distributed around the planet.
- Thus, the poles move when the axis moves, and the movement is called “polar motion”.
- Generally, polar motion is caused by changes in the hydrosphere, atmosphere, oceans, or solid Earth.
- But now, climate change is adding to the degree with which the poles wander.
What the study says
- As per the study, the north pole has shifted in a new eastward direction since the 1990s, because of changes in the hydrosphere (meaning the way in which water is stored on Earth).
- From 1995 to 2020, the average speed of drift was 17 times faster than from 1981 to 1995.
- The faster ice melting under global warming was the most likely cause of the directional change of the polar drift in the 1990s, the study says.
- The other possible causes are terrestrial water storage change in non‐glacial regions due to climate change and unsustainable consumption of groundwater.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: G7 countries
Mains level: Paper 3- G7 to consider rapid response mechanism to counter misinformation
G7 considering rapid response mechanism
- The G7 members are Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan and their combined gross domestic product is about $40 trillion – a little less than half of the global economy.
- G7 will look at a proposal to build a rapid response mechanism to counter Russian propaganda and disinformation.
- Speaking ahead of a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in London British Foreign Secretary said the United Kingdom was getting the G7 to come together with a rapid rebuttal mechanism to counter Russian misinformation.
- Britain has identified Russia as the biggest threat to its security though it views China as its greatest long-term challenge, militarily, economically and technologically.
Britain to engage more in Indo-Pacific
- Britain has invited India, Australia and South Korea to attend this week’s meeting and the full leaders’ summit in June.
- There was no concrete proposal as yet about Britain joining Quad.
- Britain has been looking at ways to engage more in the Indo-Pacific.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAMELS model
Mains level: Paper 3- Strengthening risk-based supervision of banks, NBFC
About RBS model
- The RBI uses the Risk-Based Supervision (RBS) model, including both qualitative and quantitative elements, to supervise banks, urban cooperatives banks, non-banking financial companies and all India financial institutions.
Decision to review the model
- The Reserve Bank has decided to review and strengthen the Risk-Based Supervision (RBS) of the banking sector with a view to enable financial sector players to address the emerging challenges.
- The review process will help make the extant RBS model more robust and capable of addressing emerging challenges, while removing inconsistencies if any.
- Annual financial inspection of UCBs and NBFCs is largely based on CAMELS model (Capital Adequacy, Asset Quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity, and Systems & Control).
- It is intended to review the existing supervisory rating models under CAMELS approach for improved risk capture in a forward-looking manner and for harmonising the supervisory approach across all Supervised Entities.
Source:
https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/banking-finance/rbi-to-strengthen-risk-based-supervision-of-banks-nbfcs/2244259/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Factors contributing to the melting of glaciers
Mains level: Paper 3- Glaciers melting rapidly
Glaciers shrinking faster than before
- A new study by ETH Zurich and University of Toulouse researchers finds that the world’s glaciers are shrinking at a faster rate than before.
- If the trend continues this will put the densely-populated parts of Asia at risk of flood and water shortages.
- The study found the world’s ice fields lost 298 gigatons of ice per year from 2015 to 2019, a 30% increase in the rate of retreat compared with the previous five years.
- Glaciers in Alaska, the Alps and Iceland are among those disappearing at the fastest pace.
- The scientists used images from a special camera aboard NASA’s Terra satellite, which has circled the Earth every 100 minutes since its launch in 1999.
Impact
- The situation in the Himalayas is particularly worrying.
- Swathes of India and Bangladesh could face water stress during dry periods when major rivers like the Ganges and Indus are mainly fed by glacial runoff.
- Glaciers typically accumulate ice in the winter, but a warming climate means summer melting has outstripped those gains and caused a net loss of ice in mountain regions.
- The melting in turn contributes to global warming and indirectly accelerates sea level rise, raising the risk of flooding faced by coastal communities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 139A
Mains level: Paper 3- Judicial federalism and autonomy of the High Courts
The article discusses the idea of judicial federalism and autonomy of the High Courts.
Issue of transfer of cases from High Courts to Supreme Court
- Under Article 139A of the Constitution, the Supreme Court does have the power to transfer cases from the High Courts to itself if cases involve the same questions of law.
- In Parmanand Katara v. Union of India (1989), the Supreme Court underlined that the right to emergency medical treatment is part of the citizen’s fundamental rights.
- As such, constitutional courts owe a duty to protect this right.
- In the face of a de facto COVID-19 health emergency, the High Courts of Delhi, Gujarat, Madras and Bombay, among others, have done exactly that.
- These High Courts among others have directed the state governments on various issues related to COVID-19 health emergency.
- However, Supreme Court issued an order asking the State governments and the Union Territories to “show cause why uniform orders” should not be passed by the Supreme Court.
- Therefore, the Supreme Court indicated the possibility of the transfer of cases to itself.
Issues with the SC’s move
- According to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, public health and hospitals come under the State List as Item No. 6.
- There could be related subjects coming under the Union List or Concurrent List.
- Also, there may be areas of inter-State conflicts.
- But as of now, the respective High Courts have been dealing with specific challenges at the regional level, the resolution of which does not warrant the top court’s interference.
- In addition to the geographical reasons, the constitutional scheme of the Indian judiciary is pertinent.
- In L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India (1997), the Supreme Court itself said that the High Courts are “institutions endowed with glorious judicial traditions” since they “had been in existence since the 19th century”.
- Even otherwise, in a way, the power of the High Court under Article 226 is wider than the Supreme Court’s under Article 32.
- This position was reiterated by the court soon after its inception in State of Orissa v. Madan Gopal Rungta (1951).
- Judicial federalism has intrinsic and instrumental benefits which are essentially political.
- The United States is an illustrative case.
- The U.S. Supreme Court reviews “only a relative handful of cases from state courts” which ensures “a large measure of autonomy in the application of federal law” for the State courts.
- The need for a uniform judicial order across India is warranted only when it is unavoidable — for example, in cases of an apparent conflict of laws or judgments on legal interpretation.
- Otherwise, autonomy, not uniformity, is the rule.
- Decentralisation, not centrism, is the principle.
Consider the question “Under Article 139A of the Constitution, the Supreme Court does have the power to transfer cases from the High Courts to itself if cases involve the same questions of law. However, transferring such cases should not impinge on judicial federalism. Comment.”
Conclusion
In the COVID-19-related cases, High Courts across the country have acted with an immense sense of judicial responsibility. This is a legal landscape that deserves to be encouraged. To do this, the Supreme Court must simply stay away.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IUCN status of white-bellied heron
Mains level: Paper 3- White-bellied heron spotted
About the bird
- The white-bellied heron is categorised as ‘critically endangered’ in International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red Data Book.
- It is listed in Schedule IV in the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
- It is one of the rarest birds in the world and is found only in Bhutan, Myanmar and the Namdapha Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh.
- It had also been recorded in the adjacent Kamlang Tiger Reserve in Lohit district in camera trap images.
Significance of recent sighting
- The recent sighting at a height of 1,200 metres above sea level is a first at such a higher elevation in India.
- The presence of nesting sites within this area is a positive sign for the future habitat as the breeding season of the white-bellied heron starts in February and lasts till June.
- It is great news that the critically endangered bird is establishing new habitat beyond its traditional range.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: AQI
Mains level: Paper 3- Air pollution in Delhi
Air quality to oscillate between poor to very poor
- Delhi’s air quality deteriorated from ‘moderate’ to ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ on April 29.
- It will be oscillating between ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ for the next three days, according to the SAFAR-System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research.
- Delhi’s air typically worsens in October-November and improves by March-April.
What is the cause
- Current weather conditions are not unfavourable, unlike in winter.
- Hence, apart from local emissions, the deterioration in air quality is being attributed to an increase in fire counts, mostly due to burning of wheat crop stubble in northern India.
- Deteriorating air quality is worrying amid an increasing number of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and deaths.
Quality classification
- An AQI between 0-50 is considered ‘good.
- An AQI between 51-100 is considered satisfactory.
- An AQI between 101-200 is considered moderate.
- An AQI between 201-300 is considered poor.
- An AQI between 301-400 is considered very poor.
- An AQI between 401-500 is considered severe.
- Above 500 is the ‘severe-plus’ or ‘emergency’ category.
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