Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: The ‘Lost at Home’ Report
Mains level: Internal Migration and Displacement
More than five million people were internally displaced in India due to natural disasters, conflict and violence in 2019, constituting the highest number of new internal displacements in the world.
Try to answer:
‘Environmental migrant’ is an issue that globally countries should start taking seriously. Discuss the statement with respect to India which already ranks high in climate vulnerability.
The ‘Lost at Home’ Report
- The report is published by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
- It says that almost 33 million new displacements were recorded in 2019 — around 25 million were due to natural disasters and 8.5 million as a consequence of conflict and violence.
- Of these, there were 12 million new displacements involving children, including around 3.8 million of them caused by conflict and violence, and 8.2 million due to disasters linked mostly to weather-related events.
- The report said that natural disasters resulted in more new displacements than conflict and violence.
- Almost 10 million new displacements in 2019 were recorded in East Asia and the Pacific (39 %) — and almost the same number in South Asia (9.5 million).
- The report looks at the risks internally displaced children face —child labour, child marriage, trafficking among them — and the actions urgently needed to protect them.
Displacement in India
- India, the Philippines, Bangladesh and China all suffered from natural disasters leading to displacement in the millions, which accounted for 69% of global disaster-induced displacements.
- These were overwhelmingly caused by extreme conditions created by dangerous storms and floods.
- In India, the total number of new internal displacements in 2019 stood at 5,037,000 – including 5,018,000 due to natural disasters and 19,000 because of conflict and violence.
Global Scenario
- India is followed by the Philippines, Bangladesh and China.
- The Philippines accounted for 4.27 million new internal displacements due to natural disasters, conflict and violence, Bangladesh 4.08 million and China 4.03 million.
- The largest number of internally displaced children due to conflict is found in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and sub-Saharan Africa.
- Internally displaced persons are concentrated in two regions — the Middle East and North Africa and West and Central Africa.
- The MENA region recorded over 12 million IDPs as a result of conflict and violence at the end of 2019. Almost all of them lived in just three countries — Syria, Yemen, and Iraq — and around 5 million were children.
What makes the situation worse?
- The COVID-19 pandemic is only making a critical situation worse.
- Camps or informal settlements are often overcrowded and lack adequate hygiene and health services.
- Physical distancing is often not possible, creating conditions that are highly conducive to the spread of the disease, the report said.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: World Health Assembly , WHO
Mains level: China-Taiwan tussle
Following its successful containment of coronavirus outbreak, Taiwan has made a new push for inclusion in the World Health Assembly (WHA).
Locate the seas and straits around Taiwan using your Atlas.
What is World Health Assembly (WHA)?
- The WHA, composed of representatives from all 194 member states, serves as the WHO’s supreme decision-making body.
- The WHA convenes annually and is responsible for selecting the Director-General, setting goals and priorities, and approving the WHO’s budget and activities.
- The first meeting of the WHA the WHO’s agency’s governing body, took place on 24 July 1948.
- Its work began in earnest in 1951 following a significant infusion of financial and technical resources.
Why Taiwan must be included in WHA?
- Taiwan has been praised over its handling of the pandemic, despite being just a short flight from China where the virus was first detected late last year.
- Taiwan since then has been in a state of constant readiness to the threat of emerging infectious disease.
- Hence, its exclusion from the upcoming World Health Assembly would harm the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Issues with Taiwan’s inclusion
- Taiwan is claimed as part of Chinese territory by Beijing, which has excluded it from the United Nations and its subsidiary organisations.
- China’s growing influence in the U.N. has made officials wary of crossing it, even while the U.S. has withdrawn from or suspended funding for some of its bodies, including WHO.
- Beijing’s Communist leadership has increasingly shut Taiwan out of gatherings such as the World Health Assembly as part of a diplomatic and military drive to force Taiwan’s independence-leaning tendencies.
Also read:
[Burning Issue] World Health Organization (WHO) And Coronavirus Handling
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
Mains level: NAM, it's aims and objective, current role of NAM; India's past, present and future link to NAM
PM Modi has for the first addressed the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit since assuming office in 2014.
Possible mains question-
Q. Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has lost its relevance in the new era of multipolar world. Comment.
Highlights of the online summit
- The online NAM Contact Group Summit on “United against COVID-19” was hosted by current NAM Chairman and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.
- The NAM leaders announced the creation of a task force to identify requirements of member countries through a common database reflecting their basic medical, social and humanitarian needs in the fight against COVID-19.
What is the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)?
- The NAM is a forum of 120 developing world states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
- The group was started in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1961.
- After the UN, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.
Its formation
- NAM emerged in the context of the wave of decolonization that followed World War II.
- It was created by Yugoslavia’s President, Josip Broz Tito, India’s first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt’s second President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah, and Indonesia’s first President, Sukarno.
- All five leaders believed that developing countries should not help either the Western or Eastern blocs in the Cold War.
- As a condition for membership, the states of the NAM cannot be part of a multilateral military alliance (such as the NATO) or have signed a bilateral military agreement with one of the “big powers” involved in Great Power conflicts.
- However, its idea does not signify that a state ought to remain passive or even neutral in international politics.
Terms of summits
- Unlike the UN or the Organization of American States, the NAM has no formal constitution or permanent secretariat.
- All members of the NAM have equal weight within its organization.
- The movement’s positions are reached by consensus in the Summit Conference of Heads of State or Government, which usually convenes every three years.
- The administration of the organization is the responsibility of the country holding the chair, a position that rotates at every summit.
- The ministers of foreign affairs of the member states meet more regularly in order to discuss common challenges, notably at the opening of each regular session of the UN General Assembly.
Its relevance today
- One of the challenges of the NAM in the 21st century has been to reassess its identity and purpose in the post-Cold War era.
- The movement has continued to advocate for international cooperation, multilateralism, and national self-determination, but it has also been increasingly vocal against the inequities of the world economic order.
- On the contrary, from the founding of the NAM, its stated aim has been to give a voice to developing countries and to encourage their concerted action in world affairs.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Petersberg Climate Dialogue
Mains level: Coronovirus outbreak and climate negotiaitions
India along with 30 countries deliberated on issues of Climate Change in first-ever virtual Petersberg Climate Dialogue.
Climate change negotiations are somehow put to a halt due to ongoing pandemic. Such small dialogues are keeping alive the spirit of climate action.
Petersberg Climate Dialogue
- It has been hosted by Germany since 2010 to provide a forum for informal high-level political discussions, focusing both on international climate negotiations and the advancement of climate action.
- This year’s virtual Dialogue was co-chaired by Germany and the UK.
- The dialogue was crucial because of the efforts to contain coronavirus as well as countries preparing to move into the implementation phase of the Paris Agreement 2015 in the post-2020 period.
India’s Contributions
- Expressing solidarity with the world as it combats the COVID 19 pandemic the Union Minister highlighted how COVID – 19 has noticed that we can survive on less.
- India pushed for having climate technology as an open source available to all countries at affordable prices.
- India stressed on climate finance and urged to plan for 1 trillion USD in grants to the developing world immediately.
- India focussed on the opportunity that the world has today to accelerate renewable energy deployment and creating new green jobs in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sector.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Highlights of the report
The annual report ‘Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2019’ was released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a Swedish think tank.
Military expenditure across the World
- The global military expenditure rose to $1917 billion in 2019 with India and China emerging among the top three spenders, according to the report.
- In 2019, the top five largest spenders — U.S. ($732 bn), China, India, Russia ($65.1 bn) and Saudi Arabia ($61.9 bn) — accounted for 62% of the global expenditure.
- China’s military expenditure reached $261 billion in 2019, a 5.1% increase compared with 2018, while India’s grew by 6.8% to $71.1 billion.
- In Asia and Oceania, other than India and China, Japan ($47.6 bn) and South Korea ($43.9 bn) were the largest military spenders.
What drives India’s military spending?
- India’s tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending.
- While India’s defence spending excluding pensions, which constitute a significant part, has been growing in absolute terms, it has been going down as a percentage of its GDP as noted by the report.
Significant rise
- India’s expenditure in 2019 was 6.8% more than that in 2018.
- It grew by 259% over the 30-year period of 1990–2019, and by 37% over the decade of 2010–19.
The Defence expenditure in India is increasing every year in absolute terms, implying higher spending while there has been very selective modernisation of the armed forces. Critically analyse.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Need for a global consensus on Terrorism
A report compiled by NITI Aayog has questioned the methodology adopted by an Australian based institute to rank India as the seventh-worst terrorism affected country.
Despite of being a global threat, there is yet no consensus on the definition of terrorism. Despite the considerable discussion, the formation of a comprehensive convention against international terrorism by the United Nations has always been impeded by the lack of consensus on a definition.
Global Terrorism Index (GTI)
- GTI is a report published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
- The index provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism since 2000.
- It produces a composite score in order to provide an ordinal ranking of countries on the impact of terrorism.
- It is an attempt to systematically rank the nations of the world according to terrorist activity.
- The index combines a number of factors associated with terrorist attacks to build an explicit picture of the impact of terrorism, illustrating trends, and providing a data series for analysis by researchers and policymakers.
Its database
- The GTI is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD).
- The GTD is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland.
- It has codified over 190,000 cases of terrorism.
- The GTI covers 163 countries, covering 99.7% of the world’s population.
India’s ranking
- India has moved to the seventh position from the previous years eighth in the annual Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2019.
- India has ranked ahead of conflict-ridden countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Palestine and Lebanon.
Why such ranking matters?
- The positioning in the global indices impacted investments and other opportunities.
- The purpose was to see which of the indices can be used to drive reforms or which of these would require some amount of engagement with the publishing agency to make the indices more relevant.
Issues with GTI
- The GTD was based solely on “unclassified media articles, with more than 100 structured variables such as each attack’s location, tactics and weapons, perpetrators, casualties and consequences etc.
- The large diversity in definitions of terrorism amongst countries, and the lack of a universally accepted definition of terrorism, leads to a great deal of ambiguity in calculating and understanding GTI reports.
- IEP’s economic impact of terrorism model does not account for costs for countering violent extremism and long-term economic impacts on business activity, production and investment.
- Indeed, the GTI 2019 report itself states that a great majority of property damage values from terrorist incidents are coded in the GTD as ‘unknown,’ resulting in 1 out 4 parameters scoring nil for most countries.
- Similarly, the definition of mass shootings used in the GTI is limited to ‘indiscriminate rampages in public places resulting in four or more victims killed by the attacker,’ leaving out lone-wolf attacks.
Highly irrelevant data
- The absence of a robust data collection and analysis methodology, and any engagement with Governments facing the scourge of terrorism, means that the GTI has low direct value for policymakers.
- It cannot be used as an aid to understand and alleviate challenges to countries from domestic and cross border terrorism.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Naming of Tropical Cyclones
Mains level: Tropical Cyclones
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has released a new list containing 169 names of future tropical cyclones that would emerge in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.
When is the name of a Tropical Cyclone declared?
- Names are declared when TCs are diagnosed with maximum sustained surface wind-speed of 34 knots (62 kmph) or more as per Global Data Processing and Forecasting System (GDPFS) Manual of WMO.
- Panel Members’ names will be listed alphabetically country-wise.
We can expect a statement based prelim question like – Which of the following criterion are followed while naming a tropical cyclone?
Who is involved in the naming of Tropic Cyclone?
- Worldwide there are six regional specialised meteorological centres (RSMCs) and five regional Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs) mandated for issuing advisories and naming of tropical cyclones.
- IMD is one of the six RSMCs to provide tropical cyclone and storm surge advisories to 13 member countries under WMO/ESCAP Panel.
- The panel countries include Bangladesh, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
- RSMC, New Delhi is also mandated to name the Tropical Cyclones developing over the North Indian Ocean (NIO) including the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.
Since when did naming begin?
- The WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC) at its twenty-seventh Session held in 2000 in Muscat, agreed in principle to assign names to the tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.
- After long deliberations among the member countries, the naming of the tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean commenced from September 2004.
- This list contained names proposed by the eight member countries of WMO/ESCAP PTC, viz., Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Why name Cyclones?
The naming of Tropical Cyclones (TC) helps the scientific community, disaster managers, media and general masses to-
- identify each individual cyclone.
- create awareness of its development.
- remove confusion in case of simultaneous occurrence of TCs over a region
- remember a TC easily
- rapidly and effectively disseminate warnings to a much wider audience
Major criteria adopted for naming
- The proposed name should be neutral to (a) politics and political figures (b) religious believes, (c) cultures and (d) gender
- The name should be chosen in such a way that it does not hurt the sentiments of any group of the population over the globe
- It should not be very rude and cruel in nature
- The maximum length of the name will be eight letters
- The Panel reserves the right to reject any name if any of the criteria above are not satisfied
- The names of tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean will not be repeated. Once used, it will cease to be used again.
Back2Basics
Explained: Naming of cyclones
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Highlights of the report
Mains level: Freedom of Press
India has dropped two places on a global press freedom index to be ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in the annual World Press Freedom Report.
Press freedom especially after the abrogation of Art. 370 in J&K was profoundly debated back then. We can expect a mains question like-
“Reasonable restrictions to the freedoms enjoyed by media are necessary while addressing the concerns of national security. Critically comment.”
World Press Freedom Index
- The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders.
- It is based upon the organization’s own assessment of the countries’ press freedom records.
- It intends to reflect the degree of freedom that journalists, news organisations, and netizens have in each country, and the efforts made by authorities to respect this freedom.
- The report is partly based on a questionnaire which asks questions about pluralism media independence, environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency, and infrastructure.
Highlights on India
- The report said that with no murders of journalists in India in 2019, as against six in 2018.
- However, there have been constant press freedom violations, including police violence against journalists, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials.
Global scenario
- Norway is ranked first in the Index for the fourth year running.
- India ranked better than its neighbours Pakistan (145) and Bangladesh (151), but worse than Sri Lanka (127) and Nepal (112).
- China at 177th position is just three places above North Korea, which is at 180th.
Various threats to press freedom
- Across the world, press freedom is under pressure from aggressive authoritarian regimes.
- The media is also facing a technological crisis, due to a lack of democratic guarantees and a democratic crisis following polarization and repressive policies, the report reads.
- In addition comes a crisis of trust following growing suspicion and even hatred of the media, and an economic crisis and impoverishing of quality journalism.
- Among other issues, the report has listed coordinated social media hate campaigns against journalists reporting on issues that “annoy right-wing followers”, criminal prosecutions to gag journalists critical of authorities and police violence against journalists.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WHO and its funding
Mains level: Fall of major global institutions amid COVID-19 outbreak
The US has announced to halt the funding it gives to the WHO accusing it of mismanagement of the COVID-19 spread.
WHO is facing the biggest pandemic in human history. For all the responsibility vested in the WHO, it has little power. Whatever the causes of this disaster are, it is clear that the WHO has failed in its duty to raise the alarm in time. This shortfall of WHO is failure indicative of a deeper malaise: the global institutional framework is a pawn in the hands of the great powers, cash-strapped.
About WHO
- The WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health.
- It is part of the U.N. Sustainable Development Group.
- The WHO Constitution, which establishes the agency’s governing structure and principles, states its main objective as ensuring “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.”
- It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with six semi-autonomous regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide.
Where does WHO get its funding from?
- It is funded by a large number of countries, philanthropic organisations, UN organisations etc.
- Voluntary donations from member states (such as the US) contribute 35.41%, assessed contributions are 15.66%, philanthropic organisations account for 9.33%, UN organisations contribute about 8.1%; the rest comes from myriad sources.
- India contributes 1% of member states’ donations.
- Countries decide how much they pay and may also choose not to.
Its expenditure
- The WHO is involved in various programmes. For example, in 2018-19, 19.36% (about $1 bn) was spent on polio eradication, 8.77% on increasing access to essential health and nutrition services, 7% on vaccine preventable diseases and about 4.36% on prevention and control of outbreaks.
- The Africa countries received $1.6 bn for WHO projects; and South East Asia (including India) received $375 mn.
How does WHO prioritise its spending?
- The annual programme of work is passed by the WHO’s decision-making body, the World Health Assembly.
- It is attended by delegates from all member states and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board.
- The main functions of the Assembly, held annually in Geneva, are to determine WHO policies, appoint the Director-General, supervise financial policies, and review and approve the proposed programme budget.
- The decision on which country gets how much depends on the situation in the countries.
WHO and India
- India became a party to the WHO Constitution on January 12, 1948.
- The first session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia was held on October 4-5, 1948 in the office of India’s Health Minister, and inaugurated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
- The WHO India Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) 2019-2023 has been developed jointly by the Health Ministry and the WHO India country office.
- The CCS aims to address complex challenges such as the prevention of NCDs, the control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the reduction of air pollution, and the prevention and treatment of mental illnesses.
- On the ground, the WHO has been a key partner in the immunisation programme, tackling TB and neglected diseases such as leprosy and kala azar, and nutrition programmes across states.
Immediate reason for US withdrawal
- The US contributes almost 15% of the WHO’s total funding and almost 31% of the member states’ donations, the largest chunk in both cases.
- It receives $62.2 mn for WHO projects.
- That is where most of the WHO funding comes from and the least of it goes.
Impact
- For the WHO, the loss of about 15% of its total funding is bound to have an impact on the world over.
- However, unless other countries do the same as the US, the move may not severely hamstring WHO operations.
Also read:
[Burning Issue] World Health Organization (WHO) And Coronavirus Handling
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IOC
Mains level: Indian ocean security
India was accepted as an observer in the Indian Ocean Commission getting a seat at the table of the organization that handles maritime governance in the western Indian Ocean.
Indian Ocean Commission
- The Indian Ocean Commission is an intergovernmental organization that was created in 1982 at Port Louis, Mauritius and institutionalized in 1984 by the Victoria Agreement in Seychelles.
- The COI is composed of five African Indian Ocean nations: Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion (an overseas region of France), and Seychelles.
- These five islands share geographic proximity, historical and demographic relationships, natural resources and common development issues.
Aims and Objectives of IOC
- COI’s principal mission is to strengthen the ties of friendship between the countries and to be a platform of solidarity for the entire population of the African Indian Ocean region.
- COI’s mission also includes development, through projects related to sustainability for the region, aimed at protecting the region, improving the living conditions of the populations and preserving the various natural resources that the countries depend on.
- Being an organisation regrouping only island states, the COI has usually championed the cause of small island states in regional and international fora.
India and IOC
- India’s entry is a consequence of its deepening strategic partnership with France as well as its expanding ties with the Vanilla Islands.
- India had made the application to be an observer. The IOC has four observers — China, EU, Malta and International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF).
Significance
- For India, the importance of joining this organization lies in several things.
- First, India will get an official foothold in a premier regional institution in the western Indian Ocean, boosting engagement with islands in this part of the Indian Ocean.
- These island nations are increasingly important for India’s strategic outreach as part of its Indo-Pacific policy.
- This move would enhance ties with France which is the strong global power in the western Indian Ocean.
- It lends depth to India’s SAGAR (security and growth for all in the region) policy unveiled by PM Modi in 2015.
- The move, India hopes, would lead to greater security cooperation with countries in East Africa.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Freedom in the World Report
Mains level: Read the attached story
India has become one of the world’s least free democracies, according to a global survey.
Freedom in the World Report
- It is a yearly survey and report by the U.S. based non-governmental organization Freedom House.
- It measures the degree of civil liberties and political rights in every nation and significant related and disputed territories around the world.
- The report derives its methodology from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948.
- It covers 195 countries, awarding scores based on political rights indicators such as the electoral process, political pluralism and participation and government functioning, as well as civil liberties indicators related to freedom of expression and belief associational and organisational rights, the rule of law and personal autonomy and individual rights.
Highlights of the report
Deteriorating freedom in India
- The report ranks India at the 83rd position, along with Timor-Leste and Senegal.
- This is near the bottom of the pile among the countries categorised as “Free”.
- India’s score fell by four points to 71, the worst decline among the world’s 25 largest democracies this year.
- India scored 34 out of 40 points in the political rights category, but only 37 out of 60 in the civil liberties category, for a total score of 71, a drop from last year’s score of 75.
- The report treats “Indian Kashmir” as a separate territory, which saw its total score drop precipitously from 49 to 28 this year, moving it from a status of “Partly Free” to “Not Free”.
Reason for the downfall
- The annulment of autonomy and the subsequent shutdown of Kashmir, the NRC and the CAA, as well as the crackdown on mass protests, have been listed as the main signs of declining freedom in the report.
- These three actions have shaken the rule of law in India and threatened the secular and inclusive nature of its political system said the report.
- The report slammed the internet blackout in Kashmir terming it the longest shutdown ever imposed by democracy.
- It said freedom of expression was under threat in India, with journalists, academics and others facing harassment and intimidation when addressing politically sensitive topics.
- It warned that the Indian government’s alarming departures from democratic norms under present govt. could blur the values-based distinction between Beijing and New Delhi.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Highlights of the report
Mains level: State of higher education in India
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Indian higher-education institutes have improved their performance on the global stage, with a greater number getting ranked in the top-100 programs, according to the latest edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject 2020.
Major findings of the report
- IIT Bombay (44), IIT Delhi (47), IIT Kharagpur (86), IIT Madras (88) and IIT Kanpur (96) found place in top 100 of this category.
- In the Natural Sciences category, three Indian institutions made it to the top 200: IIT-Bombay at 108th rank closely followed by the IISc, Bangalore at the 111th position, while IIT-Madras scraped in at the 195th rank.
- Jawaharlal Nehru University remained the country’s top institution in the Arts and Humanities category, with a global ranking of 162, followed at a distance by Delhi University at 231.
- Delhi University topped the Social Sciences and Management category, with a global ranking of 160, followed by IIT-Delhi at 183.
- There are no Indian institutions in the world’s top 200 when it comes to Life Sciences and Medicine.
- The top institution in the country is the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, which had a global ranking of 231.
- Other top subjects included physics & astronomy with 18 Indian institutes, biological sciences (16), electrical engineering (15), chemical engineering (14) and mechanical engineering (14).
- MIT, Stanford University and the University of Cambridge has secured top three positions in the Engineering and Technology category.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PM 2.5
Mains level: World Air Quality Report, 2019
The 2019 World Air Quality Report was recently released
World Air Quality Report
- The World Air Quality Report is released by the pollution tracker IQAir and Greenpeace.
- The report focuses on PM2.5 as a representative measure of air pollution.
Highlights of the report
- India accounts for two-thirds of the world’s most polluted cities — 21 of the most polluted 30 cities; 14 of the highest 20; and 6 of the highest 10 — in the report.
- Among countries, when population is taken into account, average PM2.5 pollution is highest in Bangladesh, followed by Pakistan, while India is at number 5.
- China is at number 11 in the list of countries affected by population, with population factored in. Chinese cities achieved a 9% average decrease in PM2.5 levels in 2019.
- While cities in India, on average, exceed the WHO target for annual PM2.5 exposure by 500%, national air pollution decreased by 20% from 2018 to 2019, with 98% of cities experiencing improvements.
- It said 90% of the global population breathing unsafe air.
Top polluted Indian Cities
Back2Basics
PM 2.5
- PM 2.5 refers to particulate matter (ambient airborne particles) which measure up to 2.5 microns in size and has a range of chemical makeups and sources.
- It is widely regarded as the pollutant with the most health impact of all commonly measured air pollutants.
- Due to its small size PM2.5 is able to penetrate deep into the human respiratory system and from there to the entire body, causing a wide range of short- and long-term health effects.
- Particulate matter is also the pollutant group which affects the most people globally. It can come from a range of natural as well as man-made sources.
- Common sources of PM include combustion (from vehicle engines, industry, wood and coal burning), as well as through other pollutants reacting in the atmosphere.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Future for the World’s Children Report 2020 and indices mentioned
Mains level: Ensuring sustainable development worldwide
The Future for the World’s Children Report 2020 was recently released.
About the report
- The report was released by a commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world after assessing 180 countries.
- It was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and The Lancet medical journal.
What is Flourishing Index?
- Flourishing is the geometric mean of Surviving and Thriving.
- For Surviving, the authors selected maternal survival, survival in children younger than 5 years old, suicide, access to maternal and child health services, basic hygiene and sanitation, and lack of extreme poverty.
- For Thriving, the domains were educational achievement, growth and nutrition, reproductive freedom, and protection from violence.
Threats to Children
- The report highlights the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing.
- Evidence suggests that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250% in the U.S. over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people.
- Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the U.S. — among many others — have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children.
- Children’s exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with the purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity.
- The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 — an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs, the report said.
What is Sustainability Index?
- Under the Sustainability Index, the authors noted that promoting today’s national conditions for children to survive and thrive must not come at the cost of eroding future global conditions for children’s ability to flourish.
- It ranks countries on excess carbon emissions compared with the 2030 target.
- This provides a convenient and available proxy for a country’s contribution to sustainability in future.
Highlights of the SI
- The report noted that under realistic assumptions about possible trajectories towards sustainable greenhouse gas emissions, models predict that global carbon emissions need to be reduced from 39·7 gigatonnes to 22·8 gigatonnes per year by 2030 to maintain even a 66% chance of keeping global warming below 1·5degrees C.
- No country in the world is currently providing the conditions we need to support every child to grow up and have a healthy future alarmed the report.
India’s performance
India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and secures 131st spot on a flourishing ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children.
Performance of nations in SI
- Norway leads the table for survival, health, education and nutrition rates – followed by South Korea and the Netherlands.
- The central African Republic, Chad and Somalia come at the bottom.
- However, when taking into account per capita CO2 emissions, these top countries trail behind, with Norway 156th, the Republic of Korea 166th and the Netherlands 160th.
- Each of the three emits 210 per cent more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target, the data shows, while the U.S., Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the 10 worst emitters.
- The lowest emitters are Burundi, Chad and Somalia.
- According to the report, the only countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly — within the top 70 — on child flourishing measures are Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WEFFI
Mains level: Need for internationalization of Indian education system
India has jumped five ranks in the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI) 2019.
About WEFFI
- The report is published by The Economist Intelligence Unit. The report and index were commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation.
- The index ranks countries based on their abilities to equip students with skill-based education.
- The report analyses the education system from the perspective of skill-based education “in areas such as critical thinking, problem-solving, leadership, collaboration, creativity and entrepreneurship, as well as digital and technical skills.”
Global scenario
- Among the world’s largest economies, the US, UK, France and Russia all fell back in the index, while China, India and Indonesia took steps forward.
- Finland was at the apex of the index, with strengths across each category followed by Sweden.
India’s performance
- India ranked 35th on the overall index in 2019 with a total score of 53, based on three categories – policy environment, teaching environment and overall socio-economic environment.
- India scored 56.3 in policy environment falling from a 61.5 score in 2018.
- India’s score of 52.2 in the teaching environment category and 50.1 in the socio-economic environment category increased significantly from 32.2 and 33.3 in 2018 respectively.
- Earlier, India ranked 40th with an overall score of 41.2 across categories in 2018.
What made India progress?
- The report attributed India’s growth to the new education policy introduced by the government.
- India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the Union Budget 2020, had highlighted a
- The New Education Policy announced in this year budget under ‘Aspirational India’ will focus on “greater inflow of finance to attract talented teachers, innovate and build better labs.
- The policy will focus further on skill-based education.
Various shortcomings highlighted
- The 2018 WEFFI report had highlighted the shortcomings in India’s education system emphasizing upon its inability to utilise the opportunity of internationalizing its higher education system.
- A decentralized education system is another shortcoming of India’s education policy according to the 2019 report.
- Well-intentioned policy goals relating to future skills development often do not get filtered downward, a hazard in economies such as the US and India that have large, decentralized education systems, the report said.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Read the attached story
Mains level: NA
Friday, February 21 was International Mother Language Day.
International Mother Language Day
- It has been observed since 1999 to promote “linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism”, according to the UN.
- Of the world’s 6,000 languages, 43% are estimated as endangered, according to the UN.
- On the other hand, just 10 languages account for as many as 4.8 billion speakers — over 60% of the world population.
- Globally, English remains the most widely spoken language with 1.13 billion speakers in 2019, followed by Mandarin with 1.17 billion, according to the online database Ethnologue.
Why February 21?
- UNESCO declared International Mother Language Day in 1999, to commemorate a 1952 protest against West Pakistan’s imposition of Urdu as the official language of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
- According to a report, police opened fire on demonstrating Dhaka University students and “some people were killed”.
- When thousands thronged the university the next day, police fired again, killing more people.
- In Bangladesh, since 1953, February 21 is observed as Ekushe Day, after the Bengali word for twenty-one.
- According to the South Asia Democratic Forum, five among those killed were recognised as “language martyrs — Abul Barkat, Abdul Jabbar, Rafiquddin Ahmad, Abdus Salman and Shafiur Rahman.
Data on Indian languages
- Hindi is third with 615 million speakers while Bengali is seventh with 265 million.
- In India, Hindi is the most spoken language with over 528 million speakers in 2011, as per the Census.
- Bengali had 97.2 million speakers in 2011, followed by Marathi (83 million), while other languages with over 50 million speakers are Telugu (81 million), Tamil (69 million), Gujarati (55.5 million) and Urdu (50.8 million).
- Percentage trends from 1991 to 2011 underline the growth of the most widely spoken language, Hindi, which was spoken by 39.29% of the Indian population in 1991, and whose share grew to 43.63% in 2011.
- For other languages in India’s top 12, the 2011 percentage share has fallen when compared to that in 1991.
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A new Greenpeace report has estimated the global cost of air pollution from fossil fuels at around $2.9 trillion per year, or $8 billion per day — 3.3% of the world’s GDP.
Cost of air pollution
India is estimated to bear a cost of $150 billion, or 5.4% of the country’s GDP, which is the third-highest absolute cost from fossil fuel air pollution worldwide.
China and the US are estimated to bear the highest absolute costs from fossil fuel air pollution, respectively at $900 billion and $600 billion.
Loss of lives
- Globally, air pollution is estimated to cause 4.5 million premature deaths each year.
- This includes 3 million deaths attributable globally to PM2.5, which is one of the principal pollutants in northern Indian cities including Delhi.
- Globally, PM2.5 is also estimated to cause the loss of 62.7 million years of life, 2.7 million emergency room visits due to asthma, 2 million preterm births and 1.75 billion work absences.
- The 2 million preterm births include 981,000 in India and over 350,000 in China.
Economic cost
In India, exposure to fossil fuels also leads to a loss of around 490 million workdays, the report said.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: '2 Billion Kilometers to Safety' campaign
Mains level: Refugees issue across the world
The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR has announced a new global campaign urging people worldwide to cover the total distance travelled by refugees each year – 2 billion kilometers – by running, jogging or walking.
About the campaign
- The “2 Billion Kilometers to Safety” campaign vies to encourage people to support refugees by championing individual acts of solidarity.
- The goal is to acknowledge the resilience and strength of refugees.
- It calls on the public to show their solidarity with refugees by running, walking or cycling to collectively cover two billion kilometers.
- Participants can use their fitness apps or the campaign website to log the kilometers and contribute to the global total.
Distance covered by refugees
- UNHCR traced the journeys of refugees around the world and calculated that, collectively, people forced to flee travel approximately two billion kilometers every year to reach the first point of safety.
- This is roughly the distance that separates Earth from somewhere between the planets Saturn and Uranus.
- According to UNHCR estimates, Syrian refugees travelled over 240 kilometers each to reach Turkey.
- South Sudanese refugees travelled more than 640 kilometers to reach Kenya. Rohingya refugees from Myanmar travelled approximately 80 kilometers to reach Bangladesh.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CMS, Central Asian Flyway
Mains level: Conservation of migratory species
The 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) is going to be hosted by India at Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
13th COP of CMS
- The theme of CMS COP13 in India is, “Migratory species connect the planet and we welcome them home.
- The CMS COP 13 logo is inspired by ‘Kolam’, a traditional artform from southern India.
- In the logo of CMS COP-13, Kolam art form is used to depict key migratory species in India like Amur falcon, humpback whale and marine turtles.
- The mascot for CMS COP13, “Gibi – The Great Indian Bustard” is a critically endangered species which has been accorded the highest protection status under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
About CMS
- CMS is an international treaty concluded under aegis of UN Environment Programme (UNEP), concerned with conservation of wildlife and habitats on a global scale.
- It is commonly abbreviated as Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) or the Bonn Convention.
- It aims to conserve terrestrial, marine and avian migratory species throughout their range.
- It was signed in 1979 in Bonn (hence the name), Germany and entered into force in 1983.
- Its headquarters are in Bonn, Germany.
- CMS is only global and UN-based intergovernmental organization established exclusively for conservation and management of terrestrial, aquatic and avian migratory species throughout their range.
Prospects for India
- As the host, India shall be designated the President for the next three years.
- India is Signatory to the CMS since 1983.
- India has been taking necessary actions to protect and conserve migratory marine species.
- Seven species that include Dugong, Whale Shark, Marine Turtle (two species), have been identified for preparation of Conservation and Recovery Action Plan.
Other facts
- The Indian sub-continent is also part of the major bird flyway network, i.e, the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) that covers areas between the Arctic and Indian Oceans, and covers at least 279 populations of 182 migratory water bird species, including 29 globally threatened species.
- India is home to several migratory species of wildlife including snow leopard, Amur falcons, bar headed Geese, black necked cranes, marine turtles, dugongs, humpbacked whales, etc.
- It has signed non legally binding MOU with CMS on the conservation and management of Siberian Cranes (1998), Marine Turtles (2007), Dugongs (2008) and Raptors (2016).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mutation, Gene mapping
Mains level: Rising incidences of cancer in India and its prevention
A series of new papers in the journal Nature has revealed the most comprehensive gene map ever of the genes causing cancer. It shows departures from normal behaviour i.e. mutations trigger a cascade of genetic misbehaviours that eventually lead to cancer.
What is Mutation?
- A mutation is a change that occurs in our DNA sequence, either due to mistakes when the DNA is copied or as the result of environmental factors such as UV light and pollution etc.
- Structural variations mean deletion, amplification or reorganization of genomic segments that range in size from just a few bases to whole chromosomes.
- Bases are the structural units of genes.
- Over a lifetime our DNA can undergo changes or ‘mutations’ in the sequence of bases A, C, G and T.
Why study cancer?
- Cancer is known to be a disease of uncontrolled growth.
- The growth process, like all other physiological processes, has genetic controls so that the growth is self-limiting. When one or more genes malfunction, the growth process can go out of hand.
- Not just cancer, there are many other diseases with a genetic link in varying degrees.
- Just a handful of “driver” mutations could explain the occurrence of a large number of cancers, the researchers said, raising hopes of a cancer cure being nearer than ever.
How big is the cancer burden?
- Cancer is the second most-frequent cause of death worldwide, killing more than 8 million people every year; incidence of cancer is expected to increase by more than 50% over the coming decades.
- 1 in 10 Indians will develop cancer during their lifetime, and one in 15 Indians will die of cancer, according to the World Cancer Report by WHO.
- The Northeastern states, UP, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh account for 44% of the cancer burden in India, says a recent analysis, published in The Lancet.
Is the genetic link to cancer well established?
- Yes, it is. One such association, for example, is of breast cancer with the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes; the actress Angelina Jolie, who discovered that she carried the former gene, chose to undergo a preventive double mastectomy.
- This is personalised therapeutics where, instead of traditional toxic medications like chemotherapy, drugs that specifically target the delinquent genetic mutation are already being used.
- Such therapy, however, remains very expensive.
What is the new study that has oncologists around the world excited?
- It is a major international collaboration called the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG), in which researchers has published a series of papers after analysing some whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumor types.
- They concluded that on average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements.
- This is the largest genome study ever of primary cancer.
- Various kinds of cancers required to be studied separately because cancers of different parts of the body often behave very differently from one another; so much so that it is often said that cancer is not one disease but many.
Breakthrough achievement of the study
- The mutations identified by the team have been catalogued. Identification and cataloguing of the genes is a very crucial step and has taken science’s understanding of cancer and its genesis ahead by several leaps.
- The catalogue, which is already available online, allows doctors and researchers from all over the world to look things up, consult and find information about the cancer of a given patient.
- The study has discovered causes of previously unexplained cancers, pinpointed cancer-causing events and zeroed in on mechanisms of development, opening new vistas of personalized cancer treatment to strike at the root of the problem.
- When it comes to drug development, however, the gene mapping is but a first step.
The next step
- The process of drug development will have to now kick in with pharmaceutical companies first identifying the compound(s) that target these gene mutations and then it being subjected to the rigours of clinical trials to prove its safety and efficacy.
- That could take anything from a few decades to a few years to cover all the mutations identified.
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