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Coronavirus – Health and Governance Issues

Migrants and COVID

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 1: Population & Associated Issues,Urbanization, Their Problems & Remedies

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Data on migrants in India; Organizations which study migration and reports

Mains level: The issues faced by migrants in India and associated solutions

In this Article, we highlight some facts about migration in India, summarize key relief measures announced by the government and directives issued by the Supreme Court for the migrant population in relation to the lockdown.

Background

India has been in lock down since March 25, 2020.
During this time, the activities of production and supply of goods and services are on the lower side of growth.
Not surprisingly, the lock down has severely impacted migrants, several of whom lost their jobs due to shutting of industries and were stranded outside their native places wanting to get back.
Since then, the government has announced relief measures for migrants like in Atmanirbhar package, and made arrangements for migrants to return to their native place like Shramik trains.
On June 9, the Supreme Court directed central and state governments to complete transportation of remaining stranded migrants and expand focus of relief measures to facilitate employment for returning migrants.

The phenomenon of Migration

Migration is the movement of people away from their usual place of residence, across either internal (within country) or international (across countries) borders.
As per the Census 2011, India had 45.6 crore migrants in 2011 (38% of the population) compared to 31.5 crore migrants in 2001 (31% of the population).
Between 2001 and 2011, while population grew by 18%, the number of migrants increased by 45%.
In 2011, 99% of total migration was internal and immigrants (international migrants) comprised 1%.

Patterns of migration

Internal migrant flows can be classified on the basis of origin and destination.
One kind of classification is: i) rural-rural, ii) rural-urban, iii) urban-rural and iv) urban-urban.
As per the 2011 census, there were 21 crore rural-rural migrants which formed 54% of classifiable internal migration.
Rural-urban and urban-urban movement accounted for around 8 crore migrants each.
There were around 3 crore urban-rural migrants (7% of classifiable internal migration).
Another way to classify migration is: (i) intra-state, and (ii) inter-state.
In 2011, intra-state movement accounted for almost 88% of all internal migration (39.6 crore persons).
According to the 2011 Census, there were 5.4 crore inter-state migrants.
As of 2011, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were the largest source of inter-state migrants while Maharashtra and Delhi were the largest receiver states.

Inter-state Migration (in lakh)

Note: A Net out-migrant state is one where more people migrate out of the state than those that migrate into the state. Net in-migration is the excess of incoming migrants over out-going migrants.

Reasons for internal migration and size of migrant labour force

As of 2011, majority (70%) of intra-state migration was due to reasons of marriage and family.
While 83% of females moved for marriage and family, the corresponding figure for males was 39%.
Overall, 8% of people moved within a state for work (21% of male migrants and 2% of female migrants).
Movement for work was higher among inter-state migrants– 50% of male and 5% of female inter-state migrants.

Reasons for intra-state migration

Reasons for inter-state migration

Scope for Higher numbers

According to the Economic survey, 2016-17, Census data underestimates temporary migrant labour movement.
In 2007-08, the NSSO estimated the size of India’s migrant labour at 7 crore (29% of the workforce).
The Economic Survey, 2016-17, estimated 6 crore inter-state labour migrants between 2001-2011.
The Economic Survey also estimated that in each year between 2011-2016, on average 90 lakh people travelled for work.

Issues faced by migrant labour

People migrating for work face key challenges including:

Poor implementation of protections under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 (ISMW Act)

The ISMW Act provides certain protections for inter-state migrant workers.
Labour contractors recruiting migrants are required to: (i) be licensed, (ii) register migrant workers with the government authorities, and (iii) arrange for the worker to be issued a passbook recording their identity.
Guidelines regarding wages and protections (including accommodation, free medical facilities, protective clothing) to be provided by the contractor are also outlined in the law.
In December 2011, a report by the Standing Committee on Labour observed that registration of workers under the ISMW Act was low and implementation of protections outlined in the Act was poor.
The report concluded that the Central government had not made any concrete and fruitful efforts to ensure that contractors and employers mandatorily register the workers employed with them enabling access to benefits under the Act.

Lack of portability of benefits

Migrants registered to claim access to benefits at one location lose access upon migration to a different location.
This is especially true of access to entitlements under the PDS.
Ration card required to access benefits under the PDS is issued by state governments and is not portable across states.
This system excludes inter-state migrants from the PDS unless they surrender their card from the home state and get a new one from the host state.

Lack of affordable housing and basic amenities in urban areas

The proportion of migrants in urban population is 47%.
In 2015, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs identified migrants in urban areas as the largest population needing housing in cities.
The Prime Minister Awaas Yojana (PMAY) is a central government scheme to help the economically weaker section and low-income group access housing.
Assistance under the scheme includes: i) slum rehabilitation, ii) subsidised credit for home loans, iii) subsidies up to Rs 1.5 lakh to either construct a new house or enhance existing houses on their own and iv) increasing availability of affordable housing units in partnership with the private sector.
Since housing is a state subject, there is variation in approach of States towards affordable housing.

Steps taken by the government with regard to migrant labour during the lockdown

Measures taken by the government to aid migrants include-

Transport:

On March 28, the central government authorised states to use the State Disaster Response Fund to provide accommodation to traveling migrants.
States were advised to set up relief camps along highways with medical facilities to ensure people stay in these camps while the lock down is in place.
On April 29, the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed states to co-ordinate individually to transport migrants using buses.
On May 1, the Indian Railways resumed passenger movement with Shramik Special trains to facilitate movement of migrants stranded outside their home state.
Between May 1 and June 3, Indian Railways operated 4,197 Shramik trains transporting more than 58 lakh migrants.

Food distribution:

On April 1, the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs directed state governments to operate relief camps for migrant workers with arrangements for food, sanitation and medical services.
On May 14, under the 2nd Tranche of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, the Finance Minister announced that free food grains would be provided to migrant workers who do not have a ration card for two months.
The measure is expected to benefit 8 crore migrant workers and their families.
The Finance Minister also announced that One Nation One Ration card will be implemented by March 2021, to provide portable benefits under the PDS.

Housing:

The Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan also launched a scheme for Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for Migrant Workers and Urban Poor to provide affordable rental housing units under PMAY.
The scheme proposes to use existing housing stock under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Housing Mission (JnNURM) as well as incentivise public and private agencies to construct new affordable units for rent.
Further, additional funds have been allocated for the credit linked subsidy scheme under PMAY for middle income group.

Financial aid:

Some state governments (like Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh) announced one-time cash transfers for returning migrant workers.
Example: UP government announced provision of maintenance allowance of Rs 1,000 for returning migrants.

Directions by the Supreme Court

On May 26, the Court issued an order to the central and state governments to submit a response detailing all measures taken by the respective governments for migrant labourers.
On May 28, the Court provided interim directions to the central and state/UT governments for ensuring relief to the migrant workers: i) no train or bus fare should be charged to migrant workers, ii) free food should be provided to stranded migrants by the concerned State/UT government and this information should be publicised, iii) States should simplify and speed-up the process of registration of migrants for transport and those registered should be provided transportation at the earliest and iv) the state receiving migrants should provide last-mile transport, health screening and other facilities free of cost.
Reiterating their earlier directions, on June 5 (full order issued on June 9), the Supreme Court further directed the governments to ensure: i) transportation of all stranded workers wanting to return to their native place is completed within 15 days, ii) identification of migrant workers is immediately completed and the process of migrant registration be decentralised to police stations and local authorities, iii) records of returning migrant labourers are kept including details about place of earlier employment and nature of their skills, and iv) counselling centres are set-up at the block level to provide information about central and state government schemes and other avenues of employment.
The Court also directed the state/UT governments to consider withdrawal of prosecution/complaints under Section 51 of Disaster Management Act filed against migrant labourers who allegedly violated lockdown orders.

Try to answer the question:

Explain the structure and pattern of migration in India. Highlight the issues faced by them along with discussing some solutions that can be provided by center and state governments.

There is no denying the fact that the troubles of migrants are far from over even after they reach their home states. The issues of employment and sustenance need a serious policy revision both from the center and state governments.

———————————————————————————

Reference source: https://www.prsindia.org/theprsblog/migration-india-and-impact-lockdown-migrants

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Foreign Policy Watch: India-China

Sikkim-Tibet Convention of 1890 and its significance

| International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood - Relations

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Sikkim-Tibet Convention of 1890

Mains level: India-China border skirmishes

The skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops at Naku La in Sikkim that is considered settled may be Beijing’s way of attempting a new claim. Defence experts highlighted the historical Sikkim-Tibet Convention of 1890 as proof of India’s ownership of the territory.

Practice question for mains:

Q. China’s actions on dormant areas mask a hidden agenda of broader assertiveness in the entire Asia-Pacific. Comment.

China creates a new flashpoint

Referring to a major scuffle that took place at Naku La in May, it was unusual for Chinese troops to open up a part of the LAC that has not been in contention before.

Sikkim-Tibet Convention of 1890

Of the entire 3,488km Sino-Indian border, the only section on which both countries agree that there is no dispute is the 220km Sikkim-Tibet section of the boundary.
This is because under the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890, the Sikkim-Tibet border was agreed upon and in 1895 it was jointly demarcated on the ground.
Not only that but the new government of People’s Republic of China, which took power in 1949, confirmed this position in a formal note to the government of India on 26 December 1959.

Chinese claims

Prior to Sikkim’s merger with India in 1975, the Chinese side accepted the Watershed based alignment of the International Border (IB).
The Sikkim – Tibet boundary has long formally been delimited and there is neither any discrepancy between the maps nor any dispute in practice.
The Chinese reiterate that, as per para (1) of the Convention of 1890, the tri-junction is at Mount Gipmochi.

India’s stance

The geographic alignment of the features was so prominent that it could easily be identified and recognized.
Even analysing the available Google images of the past, the location of Naku La could be discerned by anyone as the watershed parting line in the area was very prominent. “
There exist no ambiguity with respect to the location of the pass, since geographic realities cannot be altered.

How Sikkim came into the picture?

Earlier, Sikkim came into the limelight in 1965 during the India-Pakistan conflict, when the Chinese suddenly and without any provocation sent a strongly-worded threat.
Then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri neatly sidestepped the issue by stating that if the bunkers were on the Chinese side they were well within their rights to demolish them.
The point that the Chinese were trying to make was not military, but political, for they wanted to bolster the Pakistani spirit, which by then was rapidly losing steam.
As India stood firm with the backing of USSR and the US, nothing emerged from Chinese threats on the Sikkim-Tibet border.

Series of activity since then

In 1967, the Chinese again activated the Sikkim-Tibet border and on 11 September, suddenly opened fire on an Indian patrol party near Nathu La pass. The main point was that India did not lose any position, nor did it yield any ground.
The next important episode was in 2003. When PM Vajpayee conceded during his visit to China in 2003 that “the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) was a part of the PRC” with the expectation that China would recognize Sikkim as a part of India.
This did not materialize then but in the joint statement issued by premier Wen Jiabao and prime minister Manmohan Singh on 11 April 2005.
In part 13, the Chinese recognized “Sikkim State of the Republic of India”. Wen even handed over an official map of the People’s Republic of China to Singh, showing Sikkim as a part of India.

Nothing new about the skirmishes over Sikkim

History would thus indicate that the present stand-off between India and China over the Sikkim-Tibet boundary is nothing new.
The latest episode after a road construction party entered Doklam area, despite Bhutanese attempts to dissuade them.

Ignoring usual behaviour

The clearly orchestrated actions on an otherwise dormant area mask a hidden agenda.
The Chinese push at several points along the LAC and also the ongoing aggression in the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits are testimony to this.
The timeline of initiating this incident indicates a high level of pre-planning, possibly at senior levels of the PLA as well as the Chinese government.

Way forward

There is no question of India bending to Chinese “demands”, for like in 1967, it must stand its ground firmly.
That would be a sufficient lesson for the Chinese that the Indian Army is no pushover and this is perhaps the only way to deal with China that likes to flaunt its economic and military prowess.

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Minority Issues – SC, ST, Dalits, OBC, Reservations, etc.

Reservation not fundamental right: SC refuses to hear pleas by TN parties

| Polity | Mains Paper 2: Indian Constitution - historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Art. 32

Mains level: Making reservation system more efficient

What did the Hon’ble Supreme Court rule?

Article 16 (4) and 16 (4-A) are in the nature of enabling provisions, vesting a discretion on the State Government to consider providing reservations, if the circumstances so warrant.
It is settled law that the State Government cannot be directed to provide reservations for appointments in public posts.
Similarly, the State is not bound to make reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in matters of promotions.
The judgment added that it is for the State Government to decide whether this was necessary.

What do the precedents say?

There are several major Supreme Court judgments that have, in the past, ruled that Articles 15(4) and 16(4) does not provide a fundamental right per se.
A five-judge apex court bench, as early as 1962 in the R. Balaji v. the State of Mysore had ruled that Article 15(4) is an “enabling provision”, meaning that “it does not impose an obligation, but merely leaves it to the discretion of the appropriate government to take suitable action, if necessary”.
The court was hearing a challenge to an order passed by the erstwhile state of Mysore reserving 68 percent of seats in engineering and medical colleges for educationally and socially backward classes and SCs and STs.
Five years later, in 1967, another five-judge bench in A. Rajendran v. Union of India reiterated this position, holding that the government is under no constitutional duty to provide reservations for SCs and STs, either at the initial stage of recruitment or at the stage of promotion.
Article 16(4), it said, does not confer any right on the citizens and is an enabling provision giving discretionary power to the government to make reservations.
The position went on to be reiterated in several other decisions, including the nine-judge bench ruling in Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992) and the five-judge bench decision in M Nagaraj v. Union of India (2006).

What does the judgment mean?

Reservations are not rights: The latest judgment is a reminder that affirmative action programs allowed in the Constitution flow from “enabling provisions” and are not rights as such.
Not a new legal position: This legal position is not new. Major judgments- these include those by Constitution Benches-note that Article 16(4), on the reservation in posts, is enabling in nature.
The state is not bound to provide reservation: In other words, the state is not bound to provide reservations. But if the state provides reservations, it must satisfy the following two criteria-
- For the backward class: It must be in favor of sections that are backward.
- Inadequately represented: And inadequately represented in the services based on quantifiable data.

Consequences of this judgment

Possibility of the unequal system: Some may even read into this an inescapable state obligation to extend reservation to those who need it, lest its absence renders the entire system unequal.
Possibility of perceptible imbalance: For instance, if no quotas are implemented and no study on backwardness and extent of representation is done, it may result in a perceptible imbalance in social representation in public services.

Why reservation needed?

To correct the historical injustice faced by backward castes in the country.
To provide a level playing field for backward section as they can not compete with those who have had the access of resources and means for centuries.
To ensure adequate representation of backward classes in the services under the State.
For advancement of backward classes.
To ensure equality as basis of meritocracy i.e all people must be brought to the same level before judging them on the basis of merit.

Argument Against Reservation

Reservation in state services led to divisions and enmity among government employees, vitiating the atmosphere at workplace.
Eradication, not perpetuation of caste was the objective of the reservation policy but Caste Based Reservation only perpetuate the notion of caste in society.
Reservation was introduced to ensure that the historically underprivileged communities were given equal access to resources but irrespective of the economic progress they continue to remain socially disadvantaged.
Reservation destroys self-respect, so much so that competition is no longer on to determine the best but the most backward.
Reservations are the biggest enemy of meritocracy which is the foundation of many progressive countries.
It has became a tool to meet narrow political ends through invoking class loyalties and primordial identities.
The dominant and elite class within the backward castes has appropriated the benefits of reservation and the most marginalised within the backward castes have remained marginalised.
Reservation has become the mechanism of exclusion rather than inclusion as many upper caste poors are also facing discrimination and injustice which breeds frustration in the society.

Way forward

Meanwhile, calls for reform and rethinking reservation policies get louder; one question is whether there’s a need to continue with reservation and if benefits have reached targets.
The challenge for India is that while many sections of the society remain disadvantaged, political action has resulted in the relative discrimination within reserved groups.
As the reservation pie grows larger, in effect, it becomes a method of exclusion rather than inclusion.
It is time that India has to make a critical assessment of its affirmative action programs.
Simplification, legislative sunsets, and periodic reviews should be important principles in the redesign.

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Wildlife Conservation Efforts

Guidelines for Import of Exotic Species

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

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: CITES appendices

Mains level: Illict wildlife trade and its prevention

The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) has issued an advisory saying people importing “exotic live species” will have to make a voluntary disclosure.

Practice questions for mains:

Q. What are Zoonotic Diseases? Discuss how the illicit trade in wildlife has resulted in the spread of zoonotic diseases of the scale of the ongoing COVID-19?

What is the new Advisory?

According to the advisory, the phrase “exotic live species” includes “animals named under the Appendices I, II and III of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora”.
It does not include species from the Schedules of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
This will create a process where all imports will be screened.
As of now, the imports are being made through the Director-General of Foreign Trade and State Forest departments are not kept in the loop.
For new “exotic live species”, the importer should obtain a no-objection certificate from the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the State.
For existing species, stocks shall be declared by the owner/ holder (stock, as on 1 January 2020) to the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the concerned State or UT.

Why need such advisory?

Many exotic species of birds, reptiles and amphibians are imported into India for commercial purposes.
Some of the most sought after exotic species in India are Ball python, Scarlet Macaw, sea turtles, sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps), marmoset and grey African parrots.
These imports were happening through the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), but they were beyond the purview of the forest departments and the chief wildlife wardens weren’t aware of them.
Wildlife experts have long been asking for stringent laws and guidelines to document and regulate numbers of exotic species being kept as pets by individuals and breeders in India.

Significance

The move comes as the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) has raised global concern about illegal wildlife trade and zoonotic diseases.
Often these species are illegally trafficked into the country to avoid lengthy documentation and scrutiny.

Issues with guidelines

Matters such as the spread of invasive species as well as zoonotic diseases had not been taken care of in the advisory.
There is a growing domestic trade in exotic species of wildlife that is unfortunately not listed under the various appendices of CITES (such as sugar gliders, corn snakes).
Hence limiting the scope of the latest advisory to only those species covered under CITES drastically limits the scope of the advisory itself.
It does not have the force of law and could potentially incentivize illegal trade by offering a long amnesty period.

Back2Basics: CITES

CITES stands for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
It is as an international agreement aimed at ensuring “that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival”.
It was drafted after a resolution was adopted at a meeting of the members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1963.
It entered into force on July 1, 1975, and now has 183 parties.
The Convention is legally binding on the Parties in the sense that they are committed to implementing it; however, it does not take the place of national laws.
India is a signatory to and has also ratified CITES convention in 1976.

CITES Appendices

CITES works by subjecting international trade in specimens of selected species to certain controls.
All import, export, re-exports and introduction from the sea of species covered by the convention has to be authorized through a licensing system.

It has three appendices:

Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade-in specimens of these species are permitted only in exceptional circumstances.
Appendix II provides a lower level of protection.
Appendix III contains species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling trade.

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Higher Education – RUSA, NIRF, HEFA, etc.

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ‘India Rankings 2020’

DOMR | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NIRF

Mains level: Not Much

The National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking list has been released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Practice question for mains:

Q. What is NIRF? Discuss the parameters and methodology used in the ranking. Also, discuss its key features and limitations.

About NIRF

The NIRF is a methodology adopted by the Ministry of HRD to rank institutions of higher education in India.
The Framework was approved and on 29 September 2015.
There are separate rankings for different types of institutions depending on their areas of operation like universities and colleges, engineering institutions, management institutions, pharmacy institutions and architecture institutions.
The ranking framework evaluates institutions on five broad generic groups of parameters, i.e. Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception (PR).

Why need such rankings?

Rankings help universities to improve their performance on various ranking parameters and identify gaps in research and areas of improvement.
The ranking is necessary for transparency and healthy competition.

Highlights of the 2020 rankings

IIT Madras retains 1^st Position in Overall Ranking as well as in Engineering,
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru tops the University list.
IIM Ahmedabad tops in Management Category and AIIMS occupies the top slot in Medical category for a third consecutive year.
Miranda College retains 1^st position amongst colleges for a third consecutive year.
Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, Delhi secures 1^st position in “Dental” category, dental institutions included for the first time in India Rankings 2020.

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Tax Reforms

NITI Aayog bats for Border Adjustment Tax (BAT)

Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: BAT, Customs Duty

Mains level: Not Much

A notable NITI Aayog member has favoured imposing a Border Adjustment Tax (BAT) on imports to provide a level-playing field to domestic industries.

Note how BAT is different from the Custom Duties on imports. Refer to our B2B section.

What is the proposed Border Adjustment Tax?

BAT is a duty that is proposed to be imposed on imported goods in addition to the customs levy that gets charged at the port of entry.
It is proposed to be a non-creditable levy on imported goods. The idea is to bring similar goods in the imported and domestic baskets at par.

Why need BAT?

Generally, BAT seeks to promote “equal conditions of the competition” for foreign and domestic companies supplying products or services within a taxing jurisdiction.
The Indian industry has been complaining to the government about domestic taxes like electricity duty, duties on fuel, clean energy cess, mandi tax, royalties, biodiversity fees that get charged on domestically produced goods as these duties get embedded into the product.
But many imported goods do not get loaded with such levies in their respective country of origin and this gives such products price advantage in the Indian market.

Will it be WTO compatible?

Countries that are members of Geneva-based global watchdog WTO have locked the upper limits of customs levies for product lines that they trade-in.
Any additional duty that gets imposed by WTO members are scoffed upon and in many instances, extra customs duties led to countries being dragged to international arbitration under WTO.
Commerce Ministry believes that the proposed extra customs duty through the Border Adjustment Tax is compatible with global trade norms.
Officials maintain that Article II: 2(a) of GATT allows for import charge that is equal to the internal tax of the country with respect to a “Like Product” or an item from which the imported product is made. Legal opinion on the proposed levy has also been taken.

Back2Basics: Customs Duty

It refers to the tax imposed on the goods when they are transported across international borders.
The objective behind levying customs duty is to safeguard each nation’s economy, jobs, environment, residents, etc., by regulating the movement of goods, especially prohibited and restrictive goods, in and out of any country.

Customs duties are charged almost universally on every good which are imported into a country. Some of these are:

Basic Customs Duty (BCD)
Countervailing Duty (CVD)
Protective Duty
Anti-dumping Duty etc.

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Higher Education – RUSA, NIRF, HEFA, etc.

Nature Index, 2020

IOCR | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Achievements Of Indians In S&T

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Nature Index

Mains level: NA

India has ranked twelfth, globally in science research output as per the recently-released Nature Index table 2020. The top five positions have gone to the United States of America, China, Germany, United Kingdom and Japan.

Note: This nature index has nothing to do with nature conservation. It has only mentioned the rankings of research institutes in natural and physical sciences.

What is the Nature Index?

The Nature Index is a database of author affiliation information collated from research articles published in an independently selected group of 82 high-quality science journals.
It serves as an indicator of high-quality research in the Natural and Physical Sciences.
The database is compiled by Nature Research, a division of the international scientific publishing company Springer Nature that publishes academic journals.
The index provides a close to the real-time proxy of high-quality research output and collaboration at the institutional, national and regional level.

India’s achievements

Globally the top-rated Indian institutions in this list are CSIR, a group of 39 institutions at the 160th position and IISc Bangalore at the 184^th
Three of the autonomous institutions of the DST have found their place among the top 30 Indian Institutions.
Keeping out CSIR, which is a cluster of institutions, IACS Kolkata is among the top three institutions in quality Chemistry Research in India.
NCASR Banglore ranks 4^th among academic institutions in life sciences, 10^th in Chemistry and Physical Sciences, 10^th among Indian academic institutions, and 469^th in the global ranking.

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Wildlife Conservation Efforts

Species in news: Indian Gaur

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

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Indian Gaur

Mains level: Not Much

The first population estimation exercise of the Indian gaur carried out in the Nilgiris Forest Division has revealed that more than an estimated 2,000 Indian gaurs inhabit the entire division.

Try this question from CSP 2012:

Q. Which one of the following groups of animals belongs to the category of endangered species?(2012)

(a) Great Indian Bustard, Musk Deer, Red Panda and Asiatic Wild Ass

(b) Kashmir Stag, Cheetal, Blue Bull and Great Indian Bustard

(c) Snow Leopard, Swamp Deer, Rhesus Monkey and Saras (Crane)

(d) Lion-tailed Macaque, Blue Bull, Hanuman Langur and Cheetal

Indian Gaur

The Indian Gaur also called the Indian bison is one of the largest extant bovines found in India.
It is native to South and Southeast Asia and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986.
The global population has been estimated at maximum 21,000 mature individuals by 2016.
It declined by more than 70% during the last three generations, and is extinct in Sri Lanka and probably also in Bangladesh.
In Malaysia, it is called Seladang and Pyaung in Myanmar. The domesticated form of the gaur is called Gayal (Bos frontalis) or Mithun.
They are highly threatened by poaching for trade to supply international markets, but also by opportunistic hunting, and specific hunting for home consumption.

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Global Geological And Climatic Events

Lonar Lake colour changes to pink

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Lonar Crater Lake, Pleistoscene epoch

Mains level: NA

The colour of water in Maharashtra’s Lonar Lake, formed after a meteorite hit the Earth some 50,000 years ago, has changed to glaring.

Make a note of all saltwater lakes in India. Few of them are Pulicat, Pangong Tso, Chilika, and Sambhar Lakes etc.

About Lonar Lake

Lonar Lake, also known as Lonar crater, is a notified National Geo-heritage Monument, saline (pH of 10.5), Soda Lake, located at Lonar in Buldhana district, Maharashtra.
It was created by an asteroid collision with earth impact during the Pleistocene Epoch.
It is one of the four known, hyper-velocity, impact craters in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth.
It sits inside the Deccan Plateau—a massive plain of volcanic basalt rock created by eruptions some 65 million years ago.
Its location in this basalt field suggested to some geologists that it was a volcanic crater.

Why there’s a color change?

The salinity and algae can be responsible for this change.
There is no oxygen below one meter of the lake’s water surface.
There is an example of a lake in Iran, where water becomes reddish due to increase in salinity.
The level of water in the Lonar Lake is currently low as compared to the few past years and there is no rain to pour fresh water in it.
The low level of water may lead to increased salinity and change in the behaviour of algae because of atmospheric changes.

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Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Crisis of today should not blind us to the crisis of tomorrow

| | Mains Paper 1: Important Geophysical Phenomena

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Cyclone Nisarga and Amphan

Mains level: Paper 1- Climate change

Covid-19 pandemic has overwhelmed the governments across the world. And the destruction caused by it would impact not only our present but the future as well. So, what this means to our climate future? First and foremost, it will leave the governments with less fund to invest for the greener outcomes. What would be the other impacts? And how can we avoid turning blind eye to the crises waiting for us in the near future? Read the article to know…

Cyclones amid pandemic-what do it signal?

The very language used to describe the effects of climate change is now being deployed, correctly, to shape our understanding of a covid-ravaged near future: poverty, the failure of markets, uncertainty, and an overwhelmed government.
In less than a month, we have been given a glimpse of how the climate crisis can yank at the seams of a state already undone.
We saw Cyclone Amphan transform from a tropical storm to one of the largest cyclones South Asia has ever seen in a matter of hours, aided by warmer than usual waters in the Bay of Bengal.
We also saw Cyclone Nisarga barrel down on Maharashtra, the second pre-monsoon cyclone to hit the west coast in 127 years.
Governments would have been hard-pressed to deal with such extremes even in the best of times.

So, how COVID-19 would impact response to climate change?

There are two strands of opinion.
The optimistic one sees this as a moment to remake our states and societies in a measured response.
This includes directing economic packages to areas that increase our resilience to natural disasters and technologies that reduce our emissions.
This could be an opportunity to reinforce sustainable behaviour — fewer morning commutes and less air travel, for example.
The other strand is more dire, arguing that this will amount to a lost decade or two as our attention is focused on keeping the teetering ship of economy afloat.
In this reading, present concerns will trump preparations for an uncertain future.
Between these two strands there is consensus that we are at a critical juncture.
What we do now will determine the flow of events decades into the future.

What our climate future holds?

We will have to face the following 3 problems in the future owing to the Covid-19 pandemic today.

1. Scarcity of funds

It has been two months since India’s lockdown, and we know enough to have a rational conversation about our climate future.
Perhaps the most important news relates to public and private debt.
The government has raised its borrowing limit, states will need to borrow more to tide over shortfalls and the private sector has seen returns from investments dry out.
All three are already heavily indebted, meaning the cost of capital for future borrowing will only grow.
That leaves limited fiscal room to finance the building blocks of resilience: everything from grain to health, employment schemes, irrigation, efficient water systems and river management infrastructure.
It could mean that efforts to reduce our energy emissions are left without patient pools of long-term capital.

2. Underdeveloped knowledge infrastructure

The knowledge infrastructure needed to react to climate change might be left similarly underdeveloped.
Climate change distinguishes itself from other policy fields in the wide range of analytical tasks it demands, from predicting weather trends to understanding how specific seed varieties react to droughts.
Thinking about climate change requires a lot of people exploring varied questions simultaneously.
That involves funding an ecosystem of thinkers from diverse disciplines.
Only the state can provide for multi-year studies, institutional support and the like.
These are inherently long-term investments and only really start paying off over decades.
It means that hamstrung investment in coming years will leave a knowledge vacuum in the future.

3. Impact on the psychology of the government

The Indian government, reacting to a million crises erupting across the economy, will be hard-pressed to plan for a hazy but sinister future.
Promises of a greener, less turbulent future will falter against the turbulence of today.
This instinct will be shared by governments across the world.
This might well numb the effects of the global climate negotiation architecture.

Way forward

Crafting a response that carefully balances present and future will take a great deal of collective effort.
Foremost, it will require policy ideas that deliberately marry employment and industrial priorities with green outcomes.
Ideas such as pushing to manufacture solar equipment or electric vehicles in India should, at some point, coalesce into something that looks like a climate plan for the country.
This task will fall to universities, NGOs, think tanks and individuals working together in disciplined debate.

Consider the question “Do you agree with the view that the corona crisis would adversely impact our efforts towards mitigating the impact of climate change? Giver reasons in support of your argument.”

Conclusion

We should be careful not to drag ourselves through one crisis only to emerge into another longer, less predictable, and unstoppable one. So, balancing the present problems and their solutions with an eye on a certain and stable future is the need of the hour.

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Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

Faults in section inserted for the suspension of IBC amid pandemic

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: IBC

Mains level: Paper 3- Problems with IBC

Following the lockdown, the government announced the suspension of some provision of IBC to soften the blow of economic crisis. Section 10A was inserted to suspend the provision. But it giver rise to other questions. What are these questions? Read the article to know…

What changes were made?

In mid-May, the Finance Minister announced that the government was planning to bring in an ordinance to suspend provisions enabling filing of fresh insolvency cases for a period of one year..
Finally, on June 5, the government promulgated an ordinance which inserted Section 10A in the IBC.
The government said the ordinance was promulgated because the lockdown has caused business disruptions which may lead to default on debts pushing such companies into insolvency.
Therefore, it felt that suspending Sections 7, 9 and 10 of the IBC would be the right course of action.

What are the issues with section 10A?

Section 10A provides that “no application for initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process of a corporate debtor shall be filed, for any default arising on or after 25th March, 2020 for a period of six months or such further period, not exceeding one year from this period, as may be notified in this behalf”.
This means that these provisions shall remain suspended from March 25 till September 25, unless extended for another six months, which would extend the suspension up till March 25, 2021.
However, the proviso to the section states that no application for insolvency resolution shall ever be filed against a corporate debtor for any default occurring during the suspension period.
While the main Section 10A suspends such applications for a limited period, the proviso enlarges the scope to provide complete amnesty under the IBC for any default occurring during such period.
The role of a proviso in a statute is to restrict the application of the main provision under exceptional circumstances.
However, the proviso here expands the substantive provision in the main section.
Further, if the main provision is unclear, a proviso may be given to explain its true meaning.
In this case the main provision appears clear, only to be obfuscated by the proviso.
The proviso therefore does not appear to be legally tenable.
As creditors can still approach courts, and as banks/FIs can still approach Debt Recovery Tribunals, the protection given by this proviso seems illusory.
But Section 10A also suspends provisions of Section 10 of the IBC which enables voluntary insolvency resolution.
This is difficult to understand as such voluntary insolvency resolution should have been made easier for companies facing distress.

Painting all defaults with the same brush

The ordinance appears to consider every default occurring during the suspension period to be a consequence of the pandemic.
There could be cases where defaults were imminent due to other reasons, but which will now still enjoy this protection.
The ordinance should have protected only such defaults which may occur as a direct consequence of the pandemic or the lockdown and should have left this determination to the National Company Law Tribunal.
Also, a company defaulting on its payment obligations on March 24 (a day before the lockdown started) would not be provided any relief under the IBC as compared to a company defaulting on or immediately after March 25 due to similar reasons.
This makes the suspension, in the absence of definition of a COVID-19 default, prima facie arbitrary.

Issue with increasing the default amount limit

Earlier, the government increased the minimum default amount to trigger corporate insolvency resolution from ₹1 lakh to ₹1 crore.
This was purportedly done to protect MSMEs from insolvency petitions.
However, this also operates against such MSMEs because they will now be forced to approach civil courts to recover undisputed debts below ₹1 crore.
The suspension of these provisions would now impact even claims above ₹1 crore for at least six months to a year.

Conclusion

The ordinance has opened itself up to a legal challenge on grounds of arbitrariness and untenability of the proviso due to the flaw in its drafting. It is unfathomable how these flaws arose despite the government having ample time to think this through.

B2BASICS:

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015

The code contains a clear speedy mechanism for early identification of financial distress and initiates revival/re-organisation of the company if it is viable.

Timeline

The bill proposes a timeline of 180 days to deal with the applications for insolvency resolution with an option of extending it by 90 days for exceptional cases.

Insolvency Resolution Plan

The insolvency resolution plan has to be approved by 75% of the creditors. If the plan is approved, then the adjudicating authority will give its sanction. In case of rejection of insolvency resolution plan, the adjudicating authority will pass an order for liquidation.

Insolvency Professionals (IPs) & Insolvency Professional Agencies (IPAs)

The resolution processes will be conducted by licensed insolvency professionals (IPs). These IPs will be members of insolvency professional agencies (IPAs). IPAs will also furnish performance bonds equal to the assets of a company under insolvency resolution.

Information Utilities

Information utilities (IUs) will be established to collect, collate and disseminate financial information to facilitate insolvency resolution.

Bankruptcy and Insolvency Adjudicator

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) will adjudicate insolvency resolution for companies. The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) will adjudicate insolvency resolution for individuals.
The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), which has jurisdiction over individuals and unlimited liability partnership firms. Appeals from the order of DRT shall lie to the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT).

Insolvency regulators

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India will be set up to regulate functioning of IPs, IPAs and IUs.

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G20 : Economic Cooperation ahead

Expanding the G7

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

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: G7 countries

Mains level: Paper 2- Should India join expanded G7 if invited to join as a member?

There has been a call for expansion of G7 by the U.S. President. Against this backdrop, this article examines the historical background in which the group emerged. But a lot has changed since. So, it would be appropriate for G7 to adjust to the new reality. But what would be the focus of a new mechanism? What are the areas in which India would be interested? All such questions are answered in this article.

Call for expansion of G7 and China’s objection

Recently, the U.S. President proposed the expansion of G7 to G10 or G11, with the inclusion of India, South Korea, Australia and possibly Russia.
Elaborating this logic, the White House Director of Strategic Communications said the U.S. President wanted to include other countries, including the Five Eyes countries.
Five Eye is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The U.S. also stressed said the expanded group should talk about the future of China.
A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official immediately reacted, labelling it as “seeking a clique targeting China”.

Should India care about China’s objection if invited to join?

China’s objection to an expanded G7 is no reason for India to stay away from it, if invited to join.
India has attended several G7 summits earlier too, as a special invitee for its outreach sessions.
India’s Prime Minister was guest invited to Biarritz, France to the G7 summit last year, along with other heads of government.

The historical background of G7

The G7 emerged as a restricted club of the rich democracies in the early 1970s.
The quadrupling of oil prices just after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, when OPEC imposed an embargo against Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States, shocked their economies.
Although the French were spared the embargo, the chill winds of the OPEC action reverberated around the world.
So, French President invited the Finance Ministers of five of the most developed members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom, for an informal discussion on global issues.
This transformed into a G7 Summit of the heads of government from the following year with the inclusion of Canada in 1976.
And the European Commission/Community (later Union) joined as a non-enumerated member, a year later.
On the initiative of U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the G7 became the G8, with the Russian Federation joining the club in 1998.
This ended with Russia’s expulsion following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Declining share G7 and rising of E7 in world GDP

When constituted, the G7 countries accounted for close to two-thirds of global GDP.
According to the 2017 report of the accountancy firm, PwC, “The World in 2050”, they now account for less than a third of global GDP on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.
And less than half on market exchange rates (MER) basis.
The seven largest emerging economies (E7, or “Emerging 7”), comprising Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey, account for over a third of global GDP on purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.
And over a quarter on MER basis.

Predictions for India

India’s economy is already the third largest in the world in PPP terms, even if way behind that of the U.S. and China.
By 2050, the PwC Report predicts, six of the seven of the world’s best performing economies will be China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia.
Two other E7 countries, Mexico and Turkey, also improve their position.
It projects that India’s GDP will increase to $17 trillion in 2030 and $42 trillion in 2050 in PPP terms, in second place after China, just ahead of the United States.
This is predicated on India overcoming the challenge of COVID-19, sustaining its reform process and ensuring adequate investments in infrastructure, institutions, governance, education and health.

Limitations of G7

The success or otherwise of multilateral institutions are judged by the standard of whether or not they have successfully addressed the core global or regional challenges of the time.
The G7 failed to head off the economic downturn of 2007-08.
This failure led to the rise of the G20.
In the short span of its existence, the G20 has provided a degree of confidence, by promoting open markets, and stimulus, preventing a collapse of the global financial system.
The G7 also failed to address the contemporary issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, the challenge of the Daesh, and the crisis of state collapse in West Asia.
It had announced its members would phase out all fossil fuels and subsidies, but has not so far announced any plan of action to do so.
And their coal fired plants emit “twice more CO2 than those of the entire African continent”.

Turmoil in West Asia and failure of Europe to act

Three of the G7 countries, France, Germany, and the U.K., were among the top 10 countries contributing volunteers to the ISIS.
West Asia is in a greater state of turmoil than at any point of time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
This turmoil has led to a migrants crisis.
Migrant crisis persuaded many countries in Europe to renege on their western liberal values, making the Mediterranean Sea a death trap for people fleeing against fear of persecution and threat to their lives.

So, to deal with the unprecedented challenge, we need new institution

The global economy has stalled and COVID-19 will inevitably create widespread distress.
Nations need dexterity and resilience to cope with the current flux, as also a revival of multilateralism, for they have been seeking national solutions for problems that are unresolvable internally.
Existing international institutions have proven themselves unequal to these tasks.
A new mechanism might help in attenuating them.
It would be ideal to include in it the seven future leading economies, plus Germany, Japan, the U.K., France, Mexico, Turkey, South Korea, and Australia.
The 2005 ad hoc experiment by Prime Minister Tony Blair in bringing together the G7 and the BRICS countries was a one-off.

What should be the focus of this new institution?

A new international mechanism will have value only if it focuses on key global issues.
A related aspect is how to push for observing international law and preventing the retreat from liberal values on which public goods are predicated.
Global public health and the revival of growth and trade in a sustainable way -that also reduces the inequalities among and within nations- would pose a huge challenge.

What should be India’s priority in new institution?

India would be vitally interested in three: 1) international trade, 2) climate change, 3) the COVID-19 crisis.
Second order priorities for India would be cross-cutting issues such as counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation.
An immediate concern is to ensure effective implementation of the 1975 Biological Weapons Convention .
And the prevention of any possible cheating by its state parties by the possible creation of new microorganisms or viruses by using recombinant technologies.
On regional issues, establishing a modus vivendi with Iran would be important to ensure that it does not acquire nuclear weapons and is able to contribute to peace and stability in Afghanistan, the Gulf and West Asia.
The end state in Afghanistan would also be of interest to India.
And also the reduction of tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea.

Consider the question “There has been a clamour for expanding G7 and India is being considered as one of the prospective candidates in the expanded group. In light of this examine the challenges and opportunities for India if it gets entry into the expanded group.”

Conclusion

The decaying influence in geopolitics and declining share in the world GDP calls for the formation of the new institution. IF and when that institution comes into being India should try to address its immediate concern with the help of new mechanism based on values.

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Foreign Policy Watch: India-China

Strategic importance of Daulat Beg Oldie, Ladakh

| International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood - Relations

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Shyok river, Nubra Valley, Sassar la pass

Mains level: Read the attached story

In the reporting on the LAC stand-off, the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO) road has often appeared in news.

Practice questions for mains:

Q. Discuss how India’s all-weather border infrastructure has created new festering points for the Sino-Indian border skirmished.

Daulat Beg Oldie

DBO is the northernmost corner of Indian Territory in Ladakh, in the area better known in Army parlance as Sub-Sector North.
DBO has the world’s highest airstrip, originally built during the 1962 war but abandoned until 2008 when the Indian Air Force (IAF) revived it as one of its many Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs) along the LAC.

The DSDBO Road

DSDBO is an all-weather 255-km long road 255-km long built by India over nearly 20 years.
Running almost parallel to the LAC, the DSDBO road, meandering through elevations ranging between 13,000 ft and 16,000 ft, took India’s Border Roads Organisation (BRO) almost two decades to construct.
Its strategic importance is that it connects Leh to DBO, virtually at the base of the Karakoram Pass that separates China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region from Ladakh.

A trigger for PLA incursions

Of the possible triggers cited for the PLA targeting of Indian Territory along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, the construction of DSDBO all-weather road is possibly the most consequential.
The Chinese build-up along the Galwan River valley region overlooks and hence poses a direct threat to the DSDBO road.

Significance of DSDBO Road

The DSDBO highway provides the Indian military access to the section of the Tibet-Xinjaing highway that passes through Aksai Chin.
The road runs almost parallel to the LAC at Aksai Chin, the eastern ear of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state that China occupied in the 1950s, leading to the 1962 war in which India came off worse.
The DSDBO’s emergence seemingly panicked China, evidenced by the 2013 intrusion by the PLA into the nearby Depsang Plains, lasting nearly three weeks.
DBO itself is less than 10 km west of the LAC at Aksai Chin. A military outpost was created in DBO in reaction to China’s occupation of Aksai Chin.
It is at present manned by a combination of the Army’s Ladakh Scouts and the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

Other strategic considerations

To the west of DBO is the region where China abuts Pakistan in the Gilgit-Baltistan area, once a part of the erstwhile Kashmir principality.
This is also the critical region where China is currently constructing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), to which India has objected.
As well, this is the region where Pakistan ceded over 5,180 sq km of PoK to China in 1963 under a Sino-Pakistan Boundary Agreement, contested by India.

Also read:

https://www.civilsdaily.com/burning-issue-india-china-skirmish-in-ladakh/

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Genetically Modified (GM) crops – cotton, mustards, etc.

GM seeds: the debate, and a sowing agitation

| Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: GM crops, BT

Mains level: Issues over GM crops

In the current Kharif season, farmers would undertake mass sowing of GM seeds for maize, soybean, mustard brinjal and herbicide-tolerant (Ht) cotton, although these are not approved. Farmers had carried out a similar movement last year, too.

Practice question for mains:

Q. Indian agriculture is in a way, a victim of its own past success – especially the green revolution. Critically comment.

Genetically Modified (GM) seeds

Conventional plant breeding involves crossing species of the same genus to provide the offspring with the desired traits of both parents.
Genetic engineering aims to transcend the genus barrier by introducing an alien gene in the seeds to get the desired effects.
The alien gene could be from a plant, an animal or even a soil bacterium.

What is the legal position of GM crops in India?

In India, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is the apex body that allows for the commercial release of GM crops.
In 2002, the GEAC had allowed the commercial release of Bt cotton.
More than 95 per cent of the country’s cotton area has since then come under Bt cotton.
Use of the unapproved GM variant can attract a jail term of 5 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh under the Environmental Protection Act,1989.

GM crops in India

Bt cotton, the only GM crop that is allowed in India, has two alien genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) that allows the crop to develop a protein toxic to the common pest pink bollworm.
Ht Bt, on the other, cotton is derived with the insertion of an additional gene, from another soil bacterium, which allows the plant to resist the common herbicide glyphosate.
In Bt brinjal, a gene allows the plant to resist attacks of fruit and shoot borer.

Why are farmers rooting for GM crops?

In the case of cotton, farmers cite the high cost of weeding, which goes down considerably if they grow Ht Bt cotton and use glyphosate against weeds.
Brinjal growers in Haryana have rooted for Bt brinjal as it reduces the cost of production by cutting down on the use of pesticides.
Industry estimates say that of the 4-4.5 crore packets (each weighing 400 gm) of cotton sold in the country, 50 lakh are of the unapproved Ht Bt cotton.
Haryana has reported farmers growing Bt brinjal in pockets which had caused a major agitation there.

Why furore over GM crops?

Environmentalists argue that the long-lasting effect of GM crops is yet to be studied and thus they should not be released commercially.
The genetic modification brings about changes that can be harmful to humans in the long run.

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Foreign Policy Watch: India-China

LAC row: China reaches accord with India

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

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NA

Mains level: India-China border skirmishes and their impacts on bilateral relations

China said that it had “reached an agreement” with India on the ongoing tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a day after India announced troops from both sides had begun a “partial disengagement” from some of the stand-off points.

Practice question for mains:

Q. “Early settlement of the boundary question serves the fundamental interests of both countries”. Discuss in light of the ongoing border skirmishes between India and China.

Read the complete story here:

https://www.civilsdaily.com/burning-issue-india-china-skirmish-in-ladakh/

Troops moving back

Partial deinduction has happened from some points in Galwan and Hot Springs areas.
Chinese side removed some of the tents and some troops and vehicles have been moved back, and the Indian side to has reciprocated.
At some points in the Galwan Valley, Chinese troops have moved back 2-3 km. However, there is no change in the ground situation at Pangong Tso.

De-escalation begins

India and China held Major general-level talks to discuss further de-escalation at several standoff points in Eastern Ladakh including Patrolling Point (PP) 14, following a broad accord reached on Saturday in talks held at the Corps Commander-level.
As per the agreement, a series of ground-level talks would be held over the next 10 days, with four other points of conflict identified at PP15, PP17, Chushul and the north bank of Pangong Lake.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said both sides had agreed to handle the situation “properly” and “in line with the agreement” to ease the situation.
However, it did not provide specific details on some of the stand-off points, such as Pangong Lake, where Chinese troops are still present on India’s side of the LAC.

No final solution yet

At present, the two sides are taking actions in line with the agreement to ameliorate the border situation.
Government officials said a partial disengagement had happened at some points in the Galwan area and at Hot Springs, but there was no change at Pangong Lake.
Chinese state-run media has revealed that the ongoing dispute will not escalate into a conflict.
But it added due to the complexity of the situation, the military stand-off could continue for a little longer.

Way forward

The military-level talks showed that both sides do not want to escalate tensions further.
It showed that China and India remain determined to peacefully resolve border issues.
However, the ongoing stand-off is not likely to end immediately, as concrete issues must still be resolved.

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Interstate River Water Dispute

Vamsadhara River Water Dispute

States | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Statutory, Regulatory & Various Quasi-Judicial Bodies

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Vamsadhara River, Inter-state water dispute

Mains level: Inter-state water dispute

Andhra Pradesh and Odisha CM recently held talks to iron out all differences with regard to the sharing of Vamsadhara River waters.

Note all major rivers over which inter-state disputes exist say Narmada, Mahadayi, Cauvery, Krishna, etc. Observe their flow and the area swept.

Also, refer your atlas to check the complicated border sharings between Chhatisgarh, AP/Telangana and Odisha.

Vamsadhara River

River Vamsadhara is an important east-flowing river between Rushikulya and Godavari, in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
The river originates in the border of Thuamul Rampur in the Kalahandi district and Kalyansinghpur in Rayagada district of Odisha.
It runs for a distance of about 254 kilometres, where it joins the Bay of Bengal at Kalingapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
The total catchment area of the river basin is about 10,830 square kilometres.

The dispute

Andhra Pradesh wants to build the Neradi bridge across the river which will be possible only after Odisha’s consent.
Odisha argues that the flood flow canal would result in drying up the existing river bed and consequent shifting of the river affecting the groundwater table.
Odisha also raised the issue of scientific assessment of available water in Vamsadhara at Katragada and Gotta Barrage, Andhra Pradesh and the basis for sharing the available water.

Back2Basics: Interstate River Water Disputes

River waters use/harnessing is included in states jurisdiction. However, article 262 of the Constitution provides for the adjudication of inter-state water disputes.
Under this, Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution and control of waters of any inter-state river and river valley.
The President of India may also establish an interstate council as per Article 263 to inquire and recommend on the dispute that has arisen between the states
The Parliament has enacted the two laws, the River Boards Act (1956) and the Inter-State Water Disputes Act (1956).
Under this, Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution and control of waters of any inter-state river and river valley.
The Inter-State Water Disputes Act empowers the Central government to set up an ad hoc tribunal for the adjudication of a dispute between two or more states in relation to the waters of an inter-state river or river valley.
The award of the tribunal is final and binding on the parties to the dispute.
Neither the Supreme Court nor any other court is to have jurisdiction in respect of any water dispute which may be referred to such a tribunal under this Act.

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Challenger Deep: the deepest spot in the ocean

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench

Mains level: Deep sea exploration

On June 7, astronaut and oceanographer Kathy Sullivan, who was the first American woman to walk in space in 1984, became the first woman and the fifth person in history to descend to the deepest known spot in the world’s oceans, called the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.

The ocean relief can be divided into various parts such as Continental Shelf, Continental Slope, Continental Rise or Foot, Deep Ocean basins, Abyssal plains & Abyssal Hills, Oceanic Trenches, Seamounts and Guyots.

Revise these ocean bottom relief features from your basic references.

Also revise India’s Deep Ocean Mission.

What is Challenger Deep?

The Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the Earth’s seabed hydrosphere (the oceans), with a depth of 10,902 to 10,929 m.
The deepest part is called the Challenger Deep, which is located below the surface of the western Pacific Ocean.
The first dive at Challenger Deep was made in 1960 by Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard on a submersible called ‘Trieste’.
The British Ship HMS Challenger discovered Challenger Deep between 1872-1876.
In 2012, film director James Cameron reached the bottom of the Mariana trench after a descent that lasted 2 hours and 36 minutes.
Cameron reached a depth of about 10,908 metres on a dive in his submersible called the ‘Deepsea Challenger’ and became the first to complete a solo submarine dive to this spot.

Why explore deep oceans?

Ocean exploration, however, is not randomly wandering in hopes of finding something new.
It is disciplined and organized and includes rigorous observations and documentation of biological, chemical, physical, geological, and archaeological aspects of the ocean.
Most of the existing knowledge of the oceans comes from shallower waters, while deeper waters remain relatively unexplored, even as humans are relying more on these areas for food, energy and other resources.
Further, finding out more about the deep ocean areas can potentially reveal new sources for medical drugs, food, energy resources and other products.
Significantly, information from the deep oceans can also help to predict earthquakes and tsunamis, and help us understand how we are affecting and getting affected by the Earth’s environment.

What does it take to reach the deep ocean?

Vehicles called Human Occupied Vehicles (HOVs) may be used that carry scientists to the deep sea.
Alternatively, there are unmanned Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) that are linked to ships using cables and can be steered by scientists remotely.
Even so, it is difficult for most private citizens to travel more than 100 feet below the surface of the ocean.
Further, technical divers can go as deep as 500 feet or more, but with an array of tanks filled with different gas blends.

Why is it so difficult to explore deep oceans?

Most recreational divers can’t explore more than about 120 feet down due to the amount of air needed to keep lungs pressurized at depth.
Such depths could lead to nitrogen narcosis, the intoxication by nitrogen that starts to set in around that depth (most of our atmosphere is nitrogen, not oxygen).
Waters at such depths of several kilometres exert tremendous pressure which human bodies cannot sustain.

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Wildlife Conservation Efforts

Species in news: Asiatic Lion

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

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Poonam Awalokan

Mains level: Man-Animal conflict

Asiatic lions have now significantly risen in number at an estimated population of 674 in the Gir forest region of Gujarat. Unlike in previous years, this count was estimated not from a Census, but from a population “observation” exercise called Poonam Avlokan.

Try this question from CSP 2017:

Q. The term ‘M-STrIPES’ is sometimes seen in the news in the context of

(a) Captive breeding of Wild Fauna

(b) Maintenance of Tiger Reserves

(c) Indigenous Satellite Navigation System

(d) Security of National Highways

Asiatic Lion

Indian Lion (Panthera Leo Persica) is listed as Endangered and exists as a single population in Gujarat.
It is one of five big cat species found in India and Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is the only habitat for Asiatic lions.
Historically, it inhabited much of Western Asia and the Middle East up to northern India.
On the IUCN Red List, it is listed under its former scientific name Panthera leo persica as Endangered because of its small population size and area of occupancy.
More than two dozen lions died last year in an outbreak of canine distemper virus (CDV) and Babesiosis.

What is Poonam Avlokan?

It includes two methods:

Block counting method — in which census enumerators remain stationed at water points in a given block and estimate abundance of lions in that block, based on the direct sighting of lions who need to drink water at least once in 24 hours during the summer.
Other teams keep moving in their respective territories and make their estimates based on inputs provided by lion trackers and on chance sightings.

Back2Basics: Lion Census in India

The first Lion Census was conducted by the Nawab of Junagadh in 1936; since 1965, the Forest Department has been regularly conducting the Lion Census every five years.
The 6th, 8th and 11th Censuses were each delayed by a year, for various reasons.
This year it was postponed after the lockdown was announced.

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Foreign Policy Watch: India-Nepal

Complexity of India-Nepal relations

| International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood - Relations

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Treaty of Sugauli-1816

Mains level: Paper 2- India-Nepal relations

This article helps us understand Nepal’s perspective of the India-Nepal border dispute. Though the issue dates back to India’s independence, it came to dominate the political landscape in Nepal since 1990s. But there is no solution in sight. So, what makes the issue complex? Read to know…

What the border dispute between two countries is about?

The inauguration of the “new road to Mansarovar” on May 8 by India’s defence minister has strained the relations between Nepal and India.
Nepal claims that a section of the road passes through the territory of Nepal and links with the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China through the Lipu Lekh pass in Nepal.
The 1816 Sugauli Treaty between Nepal and British India placed all the territories east of the Kali (Mahakali) river, including Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipu Lekh at the northwestern front of Nepal, on its side.
The borders of Nepal, India and China intersect in this area.
Given the situation in 1961, Nepal and China fixed pillar number one at Tinker pass with the understanding that pillar number zero (the tri-junction of Nepal, India, and China) would be fixed later.
Lipu Lekh pass is 4 km northwest and Limpiyadhura 53 km west of Tinker pass.

No progress on the solution of the issue

The dispute over the Kalapani area has spanned the last seven decades.
Both Nepal and India have recognised it as an outstanding border issue requiring an optimal resolution.
When in August 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Nepal in 17 years, Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala raised this issue again.
The two prime ministers agreed to resolve the issue on a priority basis and directed their foreign secretaries “to work on the outstanding boundary issues including Kalapani and Susta”.
There was virtually no progress on the ground.

Nepal’s objection to India-China agreement

In May 2015, Prime Minister Modi visited China, and the two countries agreed to “enhance border areas cooperation”.
The May 2015 agreement is a broad one compared to the 1954 India-China agreement “on trade and intercourse between Tibet Region of China and India”, which mentions Lipu Lekh pass as one of the six passes “through which traders and pilgrims of both countries may travel”.
Nepal protested against the inclusion of its territory, Lipu Lekh, in the joint statement without its consent and demanded that the two countries make necessary corrections to reflect the ground realities.
The protest was ignored.

Growing nationalism and distrust let to the deterioration of relations

The tone of Nepal-India relations appears to be dominated by frustrations of the past and traditional attitudes more than the opportunities of the future.
The widening gap in understanding each other’s concerns has helped feed Nepali nationalism and create a dense cloud of distrust and suspicion between the two countries.
The gap widened after India chose to impose an economic blockade in response to Nepal’s sovereign decision to promulgate a democratic constitution.
The current ruling Communist Party of Nepal made people’s anger over the blockade its campaign plank during the 2017 general election.

What makes the border issues complex and difficult to solve?

Complexity of the issue stems from the fact that the political leadership handles only a small part of this very important bilateral relationship.
India as a big neighbour is rarely seen grasping the psychological dimensions of the relationship.
Officials handling these multifaceted relations may momentarily influence the atmospherics but they rarely touch the core of these relations, let alone reorient or transform them in the rapidly changing context.
This is manifest in the deferring of substantive conversations on the outstanding boundary issue for decades.
The foreign secretary level mechanism has not met even once to discuss the border issue since its formation.
There are over three dozen bilateral mechanisms between Nepal and India to engage at various levels.
The meetings of these mechanisms are rarely regular.

Consider the question “The India-Nepal border dispute looks minor, but allowing it to fester is likely to sow the seeds of immense competition and intense rivalry in the sensitive Himalayan frontier with far-reaching geopolitical implications. Comment.”

Conclusion

Geography, history, and economy make Nepal and India natural partners, sharing vital interest in each other’s freedom, integrity, dignity, security and progress. People-to-people relations are unique strengths of bilateral relations. India, for it’s part and in the spirit of its ‘neighbourhood first’ policy, must start a solution-oriented dialogue and find the solution to the dispute.

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Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Will leaders act on the climate crisis as they did Covid-19?

op-ed snap | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Carbon Dioxide concentration in atmosphere

Mains level: Paper 3- Climate change

In the context of climate change, the rising concentration of carbon dioxide and rising global temperature are inextricably linked with each other. This article elaborates on two interlinked and rising curves-CO2 and temperature. The article is concluded on the positive note that leaders would act on climate change with same urgency as Covid.

The upward journey of two curves

Two interrelated curves began their upward trend two centuries ago with the advent of the industrial age.
The first curve was the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide or, more generally, all greenhouse gases, GHGs.
And the second was the average global temperature curve.

CO2 concentration at 407 ppm: But did we get here?

Actually, the CO2 curve began its upward march about 18,000 years ago when it was a little under 200 parts per million (ppm).
And earth was much colder back then.
By the time it reached 270 ppm about 11,500 years ago, the warmer conditions accompanying this curve made it possible for the emergence of agriculture.
Over the past million years, CO2 levels never exceeded 280-300 ppm.
They always went back to 200 ppm before rising again in a cyclical fashion.
They remained steady at close to 280 ppm for 10,000 years until, beginning in the mid-19th century.
They began to rise again as humans burnt coal and oil to fuel the industrial revolution, and burnt forests to expand agriculture and settlements.
From a mere 0.2 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions in 1850, annual emissions increased to 36 billion tonnes by 2018.
If all this CO2 had accumulated in the atmosphere, we can say that human life would have been altered beyond recognition.
Nature has been rather kind to us so far — about one-half of all CO2 emissions have been sanitised from the atmosphere, equally by growing vegetation on land and by absorption in the oceans.
Thus, the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 407 ppm in 2018, a level last experienced by earth some three million years ago.

Global temperature up by 1 degree Celcius

From 1850 onwards, for over a century, the global temperature showed a slight warming trend.
But there was nothing suggestive of anything serious.
From 1975 onwards, the temperature graph has shown a distinct, upward trend.
By 2015, the globe had heated by a full degree Celsius relative to a hundred years previously.
Climate modellers unequivocally project that under the current trends of emissions the globe will heat up by 4˚C by the end of the century.
he 2003 European heat wave killed over 70,000 people.
The years 2015-19 have globally been the warmest years on record.
Leave aside the Amazon fire of 2019, the bush fires of 2019-20 in Australia were unprecedented in their scale and devastation.
March 2020 has been the second warmest March on record.

But climate change is not just about temperature rise

Climate change involves not just a change in temperature but every other component of weather, including rainfall, humidity and wind speed.
Indirect effects follow, such as a rise in sea levels from melting glaciers.
Globally there have been several extreme weather events such as hurricanes, heat waves or droughts.
While no single event can be directly attributed to climate change, the collective trends are consistent with climate change predictions.

Warning for India

The Climate Impact Lab at the University of Chicago put out a warning for India last year.
It says that if global CO2 emissions continue to gallop at the present rate, average summer temperatures would rise by 4˚C in most States.
Extremely hot days (days above 35˚C), which were only five days in 2010, would increase to 15 days by 2050 and to 42 days by 2100 on average across all districts.
A more moderate emissions scenario, as a result of countries largely fulfilling their commitments under the Paris Agreement, would keep average global temperature rise below 2˚C compared to pre-industrial levels.

Let’s look into the financial dimension of tackling climate change

The most common excuse is that the world cannot afford to curb GHG emissions for fear of wrecking the economy.
An article in Nature in 2019 highlighted the financial dimensions of tackling the looming climate crisis.
Apparently, the wealthy nations are spending over $500 billion each year internally on projects aimed at reducing emissions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, however, estimates that a sustained annual investment of $2.4 trillion in more efficient energy systems is needed until 2035 in order to keep warming below the more ambitious 1.5˚C relative to pre-industrial levels.
To put this in perspective, that is about 2.5% of the global GDP.

What happened to the $100 billion per year aid to poor countries?

Some of the wrangling over money relates to the amounts that the wealthy nations, agreed to pay other countries to cope with climate change.
Underlying idea was that these countries have caused most of the GHGs resulting in global warming,
At the UN Climate Conference in 2009, the richest nations had pledged to provide $100 billion in aid each year by 2020 to the poorer countries for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
In 2017, for which data are available, only $71 billion had been provided.
And most of the money was spent on mitigation and less than 20% towards climate adaptation.
Such numbers had been challenged prior to the 2015 Paris Summit by many countries, including India.
It was challenged because much of the so-called aid provided did not come out of dedicated climate funds but, rather, development funds or simply loans which had to be repaid.
It thus seems unlikely that the rich countries will deliver $100 billion in tangible climate finance during 2020.

Time to act

COVID-19 has unwittingly given humanity a brief respite from the climate change curve.
Commentators are already talking about a paradigm shift in the structure and functioning of societies once the pandemic subsides.
This is also a make-or-break moment for the climate trajectory which has to be flattened within a few years if we are to avoid dangerous climate change.
Nature’s kindness is not expected to last beyond a 2˚C rise in temperature as the carbon sequestered into vegetation will be thrown back into the atmosphere.
Also remember that earth has already warmed by 1˚C and we really have only another 1˚C as a safety margin or 0.5˚C if we are concerned about island nations.

Consider the mains question asked by the UPSC in 2017-‘Climate change’ is a global problem. How India will be affected by climate change? How Himalayan and coastal states of India will be affected by climate change?

Conclusion

There is no substitute to reducing GHG emissions. Technologists, economists and social scientists must plan for a sustainable planet based on the principles of equity and climate justice within and across nations. It is the responsibility of leaders to alter their mindset and act on the looming climate crisis with the same alacrity they have shown on COVID-19.

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