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  • Article 21 and the right 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.

  • A ‘One Health’ approach that targets people, animals

    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.

  • India-UK 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.

  • Important Straits

     

    4th May 2021

    Important straits in the news.

    A strait is a naturally formed, narrow, typically navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water. Most commonly it is a channel of water that lies between two landmasses. Some straits are not navigable, for example, because they are too shallow, or because of an unnavigable reef or archipelago.

    Strait of Hormuz

     

    • It links the Persian Gulf (west) with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea (southeast).
    • On the north coast lies Iran, and on the south coast the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman. 
    • The strait is 35 to 60 miles (55 to 95 km) wide and separates Iran from the Arabian Peninsula.
    • It contains the islands of Qeshm (Qishm), Hormuz, and Hengām (Henjām) and is of great strategic and economic importance, especially as oil tankers collecting from various ports on the Persian Gulf must pass through the strait.
    • OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE, Kuwait and Iraq export most of their crude via the Strait
    • Qatar, the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, sends almost all of its LNG through the Strait
    • The UAE and Saudi Arabia have sought to find other routes to bypass the Strait, including building pipelines.

    2. Strait of Malacca

    • Strait of Malacca connects the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pacific Ocean).
    • Stretching about 800km, it is the longest straits in the world and facilitates not just shipping and the movement of people in the surrounding communities but is a confluence of trade, cultures, ideas, and knowledge between the East and West.
    • It runs between the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the west and peninsular (West) Malaysia and extreme southern Thailand to the east and has an area of about 25,000 square miles (65,000 square km).
    • The strait derived its name from the trading port of Melaka (formerly Malacca)—which was of importance in the 16th and 17th centuries—on the Malay coast.
    • As the link between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca is the shortest sea route between India and China and hence is one of the most heavily travelled shipping channels in the world.
    • Singapore, one of the world’s most important ports, is situated at the strait’s southern end.
    • The global shift in economic power from the West to the East coupled with burgeoning trade, investments, and production in areas spanning the Indian and Pacific Ocean regions has given increasing importance to this region.

    3. Bab-el-Mandab

    • The Bab al-Mandab strait is the narrow waterway that separates the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa.
    • It links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
    • At its narrowest point, the strait is only 29 km wide between Yemen on one side and Djibouti and Eritrea on the other.
    • It is a key strategic channel for commerce and trade, with an estimated 4 percent of global oil supply passing through it.

    4. Palk Strait

    • It connects the Bay of Bengal in the northeast with Palk Bay in the southwest.
    • The strait is 40 to 85 miles (64 to 137 km) wide, 85 miles long, and less than 330 feet (100 metres) deep.
    • It receives several rivers, including the Vaigai (India), and it contains many islands on the Sri Lankan side.
    • The Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project (SSCP) is a 167 km long shipping canal, and envisages the creation of a navigable canal from the Gulf of. Mannar to the Bay of Bengal to facilitate the movement of ships.
    • The Adam’s Bridge is a series of sand shoals created by sedimentation over a period of time.
    • All islands are made up of a calcareous framework of dead reef and sand.
    • In India, the Gulf of Mannar region in Tamil Nadu is one of the four major coral reef areas and the others are Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, Lakhsadweep and Andaman and Nicobar islands.
    • With its rich biodiversity of over 4,000 species of various flora and fauna, part of this Gulf of Mannar between Rameswaram and Tuticoirin covering 21 islands and the surrounding shallow coastal waters was declared as a Marine National Park in 1986.

    5.Sunda Strait

    • It links the Java Sea (Pacific Ocean) with the Indian Ocean (south).
    • Sunda Strait, Indonesian Selat Sunda, is a channel, 16–70 miles (26–110 km) wide, between the islands of Java (east) and Sumatra.
    • The Sunda Strait is an important passage connecting the Indian Ocean with eastern Asia.
    • The strait stretches in a roughly northeast/southwest orientation, with a minimum width of 24 km (15 mi) at its northeastern end between Cape Tua on Sumatra and Cape Pujat on Java.
    • It is very deep at its western end, but as it narrows to the east it becomes much shallower, with a depth of only 20 m (65 feet) in parts of the eastern end.
    • It is notoriously difficult to navigate because of this shallowness, very strong tidal currents, sandbanks, and man-made obstructions such as oil platforms off the Java coast.
    • The strait’s narrowness, shallowness, and lack of accurate charting make it unsuitable for many modern, large ships, most of which use the Strait of Malacca instead.

    6.Mozambique Channel

    • It is located between the island nation of Madagascar on the east and Mozambique on the African mainland (west).
    • About 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long, it varies in width from 250 to 600 miles (400 to 950 km) and reaches a maximum depth of 10,000 feet (3,000 m).
    • The Comoro Archipelago marks the northern entrance, and the islands of Bassas da India and Europa lie in the south.
    • An important route for shipping in eastern Africa, it receives all major Madagascar rivers and has the ports of Mahajanga (Majunga) and Toliary (Tuléar) on the same coast.
    • Along the opposite coast are the mouth of the Zambezi River and the ports of Maputo (formerly Lourenço Marques), Moçambique, and Beira.
    • The Mozambique Current passes through the strait.

    7.Gibraltar Strait

    • It is a channel connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, lying between southernmost Spain and northwesternmost Africa.
    • It is 36 miles (58 km) long and narrows to 8 miles (13 km) in width between Point Marroquí (Spain) and Point Cires (Morocco).
    • It is one of the most significant global sea lanes because it provides a means of seaborne transit for shipping between the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and via the Suez Canal into the Indian Ocean and beyond.
    • After the English Channel, the Strait is the world’s busiest shipping lane.

    8. Bosphorus strait and Dardanelles strait

    • Bosphorus,also known as the Strait of Istanbul, is a narrow, natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in northwestern Turkey.
    • The Bosporus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and, by extension via the Dardanelles, the Aegean and Mediterranean seas.
    • It is the world’s narrowest strait used for international navigation.
    • Dardanelles is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey that forms part of the continental boundary between Europe and Asia, and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey.
    • The Dardanelles connects the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, while also allowing passage to the Black Sea by extension via the Bosphorus.
    • The Dardanelles is 61 kilometres (38 mi) long, and 1.2 to 6 kilometres (0.75 to 3.73 mi) wide, averaging 55 metres (180 ft) deep with a maximum depth of 103 metres (338 ft) at its narrowest point abreast the city of Çanakkale

    9. Yucatan Strait

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies : Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea

    Location: Mexico-Cuba

    10. Mesina Strait  

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies : Mediterranean Sea

    Location: Italy-Sicily

    11. Otranto Strait

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies :Adriatic Sea & Ionian Sea

    Location: Italy-Albania

    12. Cook Strait 

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies :South Pacific Ocean

    Location:  New Zealand (North & South Islands)

    13. North Channel

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies :Irish Sea & Atlantic Ocean

    Location: Ireland-England

    14. Hudson strait     

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies : Gulf of Hudson & Atlantic Ocean

    Location: Canada

    15. Magellan strait   

    Join: Pacific and South Atlantic Ocean

    Location: Chile

    16. Makassar Strait

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: the Java Sea & Celebes Sea

    Location: Indonesia

    17. Tsugaru Strait 

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: Japan Sea and Pacific Ocean

    Location: Japan (Hokkaido-Honshu Island)

    18. Tatar Strait  

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: Japan Sea & Okhotsk Sea

    Location: Russia (East Russia-Sakhalin Islands)

    19. Fovex Strait 

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: South Pacific Ocean

    Location: New Zealand (South Island- Stewart Island)

    20. Formosa Strait  

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: the South China Sea & East China Sea

    Location: China-Taiwan

    21. Taurus Strait

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies:Arafura Sea & Gulf of Papua

    Location: Papua New Guinea — Australia

    22. Bass Strait

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: the Tasman Sea & South Sea

    Location: Australia

    23. Bering Strait

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: the Bering Sea & Chukchi Sea

    Location: Alaska-Russia

    24. Bonne-Fasio Strait

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: Mediterranean Sea

    Location: Corsica — Sardinia

    25. Davis Strait  

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies : the Baffin Bay & Atlantic Ocean

    Location: Greenland-Canada

    26. Denmark Strait 

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean

    Location: Greenland-Iceland

    27. Dover strait  

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: The English Channel & North Sea

    Location: England-France

    28. Florida Strait

    Joining seas/ Water Bodies: Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean

    Location: USA-Cuba

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  • [pib] 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.

  • [pib] First supply of UCO-based Biodiesel flagged off

    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.

  • 6 May 2021 | Nikaalo Prelims Quiz- TS 10- Environment Test 1: Acts & Policies; International institutions & initiatives; Misc

    [WpProQuiz 622]

  • Climate change causing a shift in Earth’s axis, finds new study

    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.

  • 4 May 2021 | Nikaalo Prelims Quiz- TS 09- Economy Test 1: National Income; Accounting; Banking system; Inflation

    [WpProQuiz 620]

  • 4th May 2021 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

    [WpProQuiz 619]

    [WpProQuiz_toplist 619]

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