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  • Black Sea Grain Initiative

    black sea

    The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative as Russia has agreed to resume its participation.

    Black Sea Grain Initiative

    • The Initiative eased Russia’s naval blockade and saw the reopening of three key Ukrainian ports.
    • The agreement to create the sea corridor was negotiated by representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the UN and Turkey in July this year.
    • The agreement created procedures to safely export grain from certain ports to attempt to address the 2022 food crisis.
    • It provides a safe maritime humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian exports (particularly for food grains) from three of its key ports, namely, Chornomorsk, Odesa and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi in the Black Sea.

    Outcomes of this deal

    • Approximately 9.8 million tonnes of grains have been shipped so far since the deal was brokered.
    • People hoarding the grain in the hope of selling it for a sizable profit owing to the supply crunch were now obligated to sell.
    • The initiative has also been credited for having made a huge difference to the global cost of living crisis.

    What would suspension of the deal mean?

    • In a nutshell, the deal’s suspension was expected to re-introduce the price pressures on grain prices, especially that of wheat, with inventory being at historical lows.
    • It could particularly impact countries in the Middle East and Africa such as Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen which have benefitted from the resumption and are particularly dependent on Russian and Ukrainian exports

    About Black Sea

    black sea

    • The famed water body is bound by Ukraine to the north and northwest, Russia and Georgia to the east, Turkey to the south, and Bulgaria and Romania to the west.
    • It links to the Sea of Marmara through the Bosphorus and then to the Aegean through the Dardanelles.

    Significance of Black Sea for Russia

    • Domination of the Black Sea region is a geostrategic imperative for Moscow.
    • Black Sea has traditionally been Russia’s warm water gateway to Europe.
    • For Russia, the Black Sea is both a stepping stone to the Mediterranean.
    • It acts as a strategic buffer between NATO and itself.
    • It showcases the Russian power in the Mediterranean and to secure the economic gateway to key markets in southern Europe.
    • Russia has been making efforts to gain complete control over the Black Sea since the Crimean crisis of 2014.

     

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  • AIIB set to lend Pakistan $500 million

    The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is scheduled to lend $500 million to Pakistan in this month.

    Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

    • The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia, began operations in January 2016.
    • It aims to stimulate growth and improve access to basic services by furthering interconnectivity and economic development in the region through advancements in infrastructure.
    • AIIB has now grown to 102 approved members worldwide.
    • The US & Japan are not its members.
    • It is a brainchild of China. It has invested in 13 member regions.

    Capital and shareholding of AIIB

    • It has authorized capital of US 100 billion dollars and subscribed capital of USD 50 billion.
    • It offers sovereign and non-sovereign finance for projects in various sectors with an interest rate of London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus 1.15 % and a repayment period of 25 years with 5 years in grace period.
    • China is the largest shareholder in AIIB with a 26.06% voting power, followed by India with 7.62% and Russia with 5.92% voting power.

    Try this question from CSP 2019

    Q.With reference to Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), consider the following statements

    1. AIIB has more than 80 member nations.
    2. India is the largest shareholder in AIIB.
    3. AIIB does not have any members from outside Asia.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”7t4xlmyyu4″ question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • Why is ASEAN holding a special meeting on Myanmar?

    asean

    Foreign ministers from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting to discuss an intensifying crisis in Myanmar, 18 months after agreeing a peace plan with its military rulers.

    What is ASEAN?

    • ASEAN is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia.
    • It brings together ten Southeast Asian states – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – into one organisation.
    • It was established on 8th August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration by the founding fathers of the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
    • The preceding organisation was the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA) comprising of Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.
    • Five other nations joined the ASEAN in subsequent years making the current membership to ten countries.

    Why is the meeting happening?

    • ASEAN’s peace effort is the only official diplomatic process in play.
    • There has been a failure with the junta unwilling to implement a so-called “five-point consensus” that it agreed to with ASEAN in April 2021.
    • The United Nations has backed the ASEAN plan, but with suspicion the generals are paying lip service and buying time to consolidate power and crush opponents before a 2023 election.
    • For ASEAN to remain credible as a mediator, it may need to present a new strategy before the summit.

    What is the consensus?

    • The agreement includes-
    1. Immediate end of hostilities
    2. All parties engaging in constructive dialogue
    3. Allowing an ASEAN envoy to mediate and meet all stakeholders, and
    4. ASEAN to provide humanitarian assistance.
    • So far, the only success cited by ASEAN chair Cambodia has been allowing some humanitarian access, but that has been limited and conditional.

    How has the Junta (Military govt. in Myanmar) responded?

    • The military government has accused critical ASEAN members of meddling and warned them not to engage.
    • It has accused its opponents of trying to sabotage the ASEAN plan and has justified military offensives as necessary to secure the country and enable political talks.
    • Instead of advocating for the five-point ASEAN plan, the generals have instead been pushing a five-step roadmap of their own towards a new election, with few similarities.

     

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  • Pakistan is out of FATF ‘Grey List’ on terror funding

    Global terror-financing watchdog FATF has announced Pakistan‘s removal from its grey list, saying the country has largely completed its action plans on anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism.

    What is the FATF?

    • FATF is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering.
    • The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.
    • It holds three Plenary meetings in the course of each of its 12-month rotating presidencies.
    • As of 2019, FATF consisted of 37 member jurisdictions.

    India’s say in FATF

    • India became an Observer at FATF in 2006. Since then, it had been working towards full-fledged membership.
    • On June 25, 2010, India was taken in as the 34th country member of FATF.

    EAG of FATF

    • The EAG is a regional body comprising nine countries: India, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.
    • It is an associate member of the FATF.

    What is the role of FATF?

    • The rise of the global economy and international trade has given rise to financial crimes such as money laundering.
    • The FATF makes recommendations for combating financial crime, reviews members’ policies and procedures, and seeks to increase the acceptance of anti-money laundering regulations across the globe.
    • Because money launderers and others alter their techniques to avoid apprehension, the FATF updates its recommendations every few years.

    What is the Black List and the Grey List?

    • Black List: The blacklist, now called the “Call for action” was the common shorthand description for the FATF list of “Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories” (NCCTs).
    • Grey List: Countries that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money laundering are put in the FATF grey list. This inclusion serves as a warning to the country that it may enter the blacklist.

    Consequences of being in the FATF grey list:

    • Economic sanctions from IMF, World Bank, ADB
    • Problem in getting loans from IMF, World Bank, ADB and other countries
    • Reduction in international trade
    • International boycott

    How had it impacted Pakistan economically?

    • A country on the ‘grey list’ is not subject to sanctions.
    • However, the ‘grey list’ signals to the international banking system that there could be enhanced transaction risks from doing business with the said country.
    • In 2018, the Economist noted that there had been no direct economic implications when Pakistan was on the grey list from 2012 to 2015.
    • Instead, Pakistan managed to obtain a $6 billion bailout package from IMF in 2013 and raise additional funding in global debt markets in 2015.

    Pakistan claimed the politicization of FATF. Is that true?

    • In the run-up to the February 2018 decision, the US had weaned Saudi Arabia away, leaving only China and Turkey supporting Pakistan.
    • China eventually withdrew its objection.
    • A few days later, India publicly congratulated China for its election as vice president of FATF, lending credence to the speculation that a deal had been reached behind closed doors.

    How Pakistan managed to get out of the ‘inglorious’ list?

    fatf

    • Removal from the list mark the culmination of a four-year reform process that has required far-reaching changes to Pakistan’s financial system.
    • It appears that, Pakistan has performed well in particular to laws governing money laundering and terrorism financing.
    • Pakistan was given an action plan by FATF in 2018 to address strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies.

    Conclusion

    • This is not the first time for Pakistan to exit Grey List. It has been swinging on its position on terror financing.
    • Pakistan first figured in a FATF statement after the plenary of February 2008.

     

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  • International Solar Alliance approves funding mechanism

    To bolster investments in solar power projects, the International Solar Alliance (ISA), in its General Assembly approved the ‘Solar Facility’, a payment guarantee mechanism.

    What is Solar Facility?

    • It is expected to stimulate investments into solar projects through two financial components:
    1. Solar Payment Guarantee Fund and
    2. Solar Insurance Fund
    • The thrust of the facility is to attract private capital to flow into “underserved markets” in Africa.
    • The ISA would aim to crowdsource investments from various donors across the globe and proposed projects in Africa would be able to purchase payment guarantees or partial insurance premium from these funds.

    Why such move?

    • ISA’s mission is to unlock US $1 trillion (₹80 lakh crore) of investments in solar power by 2030 while reducing cost of the technology and its financing.

    What is International Solar Alliance (ISA)?

    • The ISA is an alliance of more than 121 countries, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
    • It is headquartered in Gurugram, India.
    • The primary objective of the alliance is to work for efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
    • The alliance is a treaty-based inter-governmental organization.
    • The initiative was launched by PM Modi at the India Africa Summit and a meeting of member countries ahead of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015.

    Objectives of the ISA

    • To mobilize investments of more than USD 1000 billion by 2030
    • To take coordinated action for better harmonization, aggregation of demand, risk and resources, for promoting solar finance, solar technologies, innovation, R&D, capacity building etc.
    • Reduce the cost of finance to increase investments in solar energy in member countries
    • Scale up applications of solar technologies in member countries
    • Facilitate collaborative research and development (R&D) activities in solar energy technologies among member countries
    • Promote a common cyber platform for networking, cooperation and exchange of ideas among member countries

    What does ISA formation signify?

    • Climate action commitment: It symbolizes about the sincerity of the developing nations towards their concern about climate change and to switch to a low-carbon growth path.
    • Clean energy: India’s pledge to the Paris summit offered to bring 40% of its electricity generation capacity from non-fossil sources (renewable, large hydro, and nuclear) by 2030.
    • Global electrification: India has pledged to let solar energy reach to the most unconnected villages and communities and also towards creating a clean planet.
    • Global cooperation: It is based on world cooperation irrespective of global boundaries.
    • India’s Soft power: For India, possible additional benefits from the alliance can be a strengthening of ties with the major African countries and increasing goodwill for India among them.

    Key initiatives

    [A] Global Solar Atlas

    • ISA alliance has partnered with World Bank to launch Global Solar Atlas at an ISA event at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.
    • Global Solar Atlas is a free online tool that displays annual average solar power potential at any location in the world and thus identify potential sites for solar power generation.

    [B] OSOWOG Initiative

    • Under the ISA project, India envisaged having an interconnected power transmission grid across nations for the supply of clean energy.
    • The vision behind the OSOWOG mantra is ‘The Sun Never Sets’ and is a constant at some geographical location, globally, at any given point of time.
    • With India at the fulcrum, the solar spectrum can easily be divided into two broad zones viz. far East which would include countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia etc. and far West which would cover the Middle East and the Africa Region.

    Implementation

    • The OSOWOG would have three phases.
    1. Phase I: Middle East, South Asia and South-East Asia would be interconnected
    2. Phase II: Solar and other renewable energy resources rich regions would be interconnected
    3. Phase III: Global interconnection of the power transmission grid to achieve the One Sun One World One Grid vision

    Benefits of the project

    • Attracting investment: An interconnected grid would help all the participating entities in attracting investments in renewable energy sources as well as utilizing skills, technology and finances.
    • Poverty alleviation: Resulting economic benefits would positively impact poverty alleviation and support in mitigating water, sanitation, food and other socio-economic challenges.
    • Reduced project cost: The proposed integration would lead to reduced project costs, higher efficiencies and increased asset utilization for all the participating entities.

    Various challenges

    • Lack of Funding: Providing the money for promoting solar electricity among the members is a challenge. The Alliance has very little money of its own.
    • Expensive implementation: The cost of power has two components. The variable cost is the payment made for the numbers of units of electricity purchased. In addition, the buyer is required to pay a certain amount towards the fixed cost of solar supply.
    • Battery-based Storage: Solar electricity is available only during the day when the sun shines. Thus, the storage of electricity is a difficult task.
    • Cross-border transmission: Solar electricity has to overcome the roadblocks of transmission.  Cross-border transmission of electricity requires the establishment of transmission lines from the producer to the consumer country.
    • Peak hour load:  The demand for electricity, however, is more during the morning and evening which are called “peak hours”. But it can be produced when the sun is shining.
    • Climate change: Sudden overcast and rainfall in many parts of the tropics has been a major issues these days. Such weather hampers solar energy production
    • Desired global consensus: It is hindered with the issues of intricate geopolitics, unfavourable economics, unwarranted globalisation and undue centralization that act against the concept.
    • Highly ambitious: In a nation like India, it took us this long to connect all the regions of the country through a national grid and we are talking about ‘one world, one grid’.

    Way forward

    • ISA should focus on its core goals such as- aggregating demand, tariff, technical collaborations, and financial assistance for achieving its target.
    • It further needs to ensure that solar benefits are clear and tangible to users beyond its cost ambitions.
    • ISA should demonstrate business models that are viable for users, suppliers and financiers.
    • Further, the alliance should support member countries in implementing policies to expedite these business models.
    • Geo-politically, this is being touted as a clever strategy however financially and technology-wise, this has to make sense.

     

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  • About 41.5 crore Indians out of multi-dimensional poverty since 2005-06

    poverty

    About 41.5 crore people exited poverty in India during the 15-year period between 2005-06 and 2019-21, out of which two-thirds exited in the first 10 years, and one-third in the next five years, according to the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

    What is global MPI?

    • The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute poverty covering over 100 developing countries.
    • It complements traditional income-based poverty measures by capturing the severe deprivations that each person faces at the same time with respect to education, health and living standards.
    • The global MPI was developed by OPHI with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) for inclusion in UNDP’s flagship Human Development Report in 2010.
    • It has been published in the HDR ever since.

    poverty

    Multidimensional poverty in India: Major improvements

    poverty

    • The report shows that the incidence of poverty fell from 55.1% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21 in India.
    • Deprivations in all 10 MPI indicators saw significant reductions as a result of which the MPI value and incidence of poverty more than halved.
    • Improvement in MPI for India has significantly contributed to the decline in poverty in South Asia.
    • It is for the first time that it is not the region with the highest number of poor people, at 38.5 crore, compared with 57.9 crore in Sub-Saharan Africa.
    • Bihar, the poorest State in 2015-2016, saw the fastest reduction in MPI value in absolute terms.

    Long way towards alleviation

    • Despite the strides made, the report notes that the ongoing task of ending poverty remains daunting.
    • India has by far the largest number of poor people worldwide at 22.8 crore, followed by Nigeria at 9.6 crore.
    • Two-third of these people live in a household in which at least one person is deprived in nutrition.
    • There were also 9.7 crore poor children in India in 2019-2021 — more than the total number of poor people, children and adults combined, in any other country covered by the global MPI.

    Why multi-dimensional poverty does persist in India?

    Poverty is not just the absence of income, money and/or money-like resources required to meet needs.

    • Multiple disadvantages: A person who is poor can suffer multiple disadvantages at the same time – for example they may simultaneously have:
    1. Poor health or malnutrition
    2. Lack of clean water or electricity
    3. Poor quality of livelihood options
    4. Little/No schooling
    5. Disempowerment
    6. Threats of violence
    7. Climate change vulnerability etc.

    Other factors include:

    1. Limited financial resources
    2. Material deprivation
    3. Social isolation
    4. Exclusion and powerlessness
    5. Physical and psychological ill-being
    • Multiple dimensions: Focusing on one factor alone, such as income, is not enough to capture the true reality of poverty. National MPI ensures a holistic approach towards defining poverty at the national level.
    • More comprehensive: MP measures can be used to create a more comprehensive picture. They reveal who is poor and how they are poor – the range of different disadvantages they experience.
    • Better targeting: As well as providing a headline measure of poverty, multidimensional measures can be broken down to reveal the poverty level in different areas of a country and among different sub-groups of people.
    • Priority definition for target groups: It offers statistics that determine the national priorities by using a set of dimensions, indicators with respect to the urban and rural areas of India along with an indicator-wise deconstruction and breakdown.

    Various govt. interventions to for poverty alleviation

    (I) Food Security

    • National Food Security Act 2013 (also ‘Right to Food Act’): It aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of the country’s 1.2 billion people.

    (II) Employment and Skilling

    • National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) – Ministry of Rural Development started NRLM 2011 to evolve out the need to diversify the needs of the rural poor and provide them jobs with regular income on a monthly basis.
    • Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) – In 2005 Ministry of Rural Development initiated MGNEREGA to provide 100 days of assured employment every year to every rural household. One-third of the proposed jobs would be reserved for women.

    (III) Income Support

    • PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY): The Ministry of Finance in 2014 initiated PMJDY that aimed at direct benefit transfer of subsidy, pension, insurance, etc., and attained the target of opening 1.5 crore bank accounts. The scheme particularly targets the unbanked poor.
    • PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM KISAN): PM KISAN is an initiative by the government of India in which all farmers will get up to ₹6,000 per year as minimum income support.

    Various challenges

    • Pauperization: Every year a huge number is added to the population pool of the country. To exemplify, this pandemic has led to severe pauperization of migrant workers.
    • Regional divide: Incidence of extreme poverty continues to be much higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
    • Jobless growth: Despite rapid growth and development, an unacceptably high proportion of our population continues to suffer from severe and multidimensional deprivation.
    • Inadequate resources: The resources allocated to anti-poverty programmes are inadequate and there is a tacit understanding that targets will be curtailed according to fund availability.
    • Implementation bottlenecks: Lack of proper implementation and right targeting has been legacy issues in India. There has been a lot of overlapping of schemes.

     

     

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  • Global Hunger Index is out, India in ‘serious’ category at rank 107

    hunger

    India ranks 107 out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index in which it fares worse than all countries in South Asia barring war-torn Afghanistan.

    Global Hunger Index (GHI)

    • The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
    • It determines hunger on a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
    • It is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
    • The aim of the GHI is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.

    For each country in the list, the GHI looks at four indicators:

    1. Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
    2. Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height)
    3. Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age)
    4. Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five

    India’s performance

    • India’s child wasting rate (low weight for height), at 19.3%, is worse than the levels recorded in 2014 (15.1%) and even 2000 (17.15),
    • It is the highest for any country in the world and drives up the region’s average owing to India’s large population.
    • Prevalence of undernourishment has also risen in the country from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021.
    • This translates into 224.3 million people in India considered undernourished.

    How India performs among its neighbours?

    • India’s score of 29.1 places it in the ‘serious’ category. India also ranks below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and Pakistan (99).
    • Afghanistan (109) is the only country in South Asia that performs worse than India on the index.
    • China is among the countries collectively ranked between 1 and 17 having a score of less than five.

    Has India improved somewhere?

    • India has shown improvement in child stunting, which has declined from 38.7% to 35.5% between 2014 and 2022, as well as child mortality which has also dropped from 4.6% to 3.3% in the same comparative period.
    • On the whole, India has shown a slight worsening with its GHI score increasing from 28.2 in 2014 to 29.1 in 2022.

    Reasons for such poor performance

    • Poor maternal health: Mothers are too young, too short, too thin and too undernourished themselves, before they get pregnant, during pregnancy, and then after giving birth, during breast-feeding.
    • Poor sanitation: Poor sanitation, leading to diarrhoea, is another major cause of child wasting and stunting.
    • Food insecurity: Low dietary diversity in India is also a key factor in child malnutrition.
    • Poverty: Almost 50 million households in India are dependent on these small and marginal holdings.
    • Livelihood loss: The rural livelihoods loss after COVID and lack of income opportunities other than the farm sector have contributed heavily to the growing joblessness in rural areas.

    Issues over credibility of GHI

    • India has ranked among many African countries while it is among the top 10 food-producing countries in the world.
    • The GHI is largely children-oriented with a higher emphasis on under-nutrition than on hunger and its hidden forms, including micronutrient deficiencies.
    • The first component — calorie insufficiency — is problematic for many reasons.
    • The lower calorie intake, which does not necessarily mean deficiency, may also stem from reduced physical activity, better social infrastructure and access to energy-saving appliances at home, among others.
    • For a vast and diverse country like India, using a uniform calorie norm to arrive at deficiency prevalence means failing to recognise the huge regional imbalances in factors that may lead to differentiated calorie requirements at the State level.

    Conclusion

    • The low ranking does not mean that India fares uniformly poor in every aspect.
    • This ranking should prompt us to look at our policy focus and interventions and ensure that they can effectively address the concerns raised by the GHI, especially against pandemic-induced nutrition insecurity

     

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  • UN World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC)

    UNWGIC

    PM has inaugurated the second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) in Hyderabad.

    What is UNWGIC?

    • The first United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress was held in Deqing, Zhejiang Province, China in 2018.
    • The United Nation Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) organizes the UNWGIC every four years.
    • It is hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of India.
    • The objectives are enhancing international collaboration among the Member States and relevant stakeholders in Geospatial information management and capacities.
    • The theme of UNWGIC 2022 is ‘Geo-Enabling the Global Village: No one should be left behind’.

    Objectives of UNWGIC

    • The move aims to provide high-quality and trustworthy geospatial data to support global and national policy agendas.
    • It also stresses international cooperation and coordination in the development of human data linked to geography.
    • It promotes societal development and well-being, addresses environmental and climate challenges, and embraces digital transformation and technological advancement.

    Why collaborate on geospatial technology?

    • Geospatial technology can be used to create intelligent maps and models which help to collect geographically referenced data.
    • Decisions based on the value and importance of resources, most of which are limited, can become easy through geospatial technology.
    • Intelligent maps and models can be created using geospatial technology.
    • It can be used to reveal spatial patterns hidden in large amounts of data that are complex to access collectively through mapping.

     

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  • Places in news: Solomon Islands

    solomon

    Solomon Islands PM has assured Australia that his nation will not allow a Chinese military presence in its territory.

    Where is the Solomon Islands located?

    • The Solomon Islands is a sovereign country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu.
    • Its capital, Honiara, is located on the largest island, Guadalcanal.
    • It is part of the ethnically Melanesian group of islands in the Pacific and lies between Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
    • The country takes its name from the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the North Solomon Islands (a part of Papua New Guinea).
    • It excludes outlying islands, such as the Santa Cruz Islands and Rennell and Bellona.

    Quick recap of its past

    • The islands, which were initially controlled by the British Empire during the colonial era, went through the hands of Germany and Japan.
    • It then went back to the UK after the Americans took over the islands from the Japanese during World War II.
    • The islands became independent in 1978 to become a constitutional monarchy under the British Crown, with a parliamentary system of government.
    • Nevertheless, its inability to manage domestic ethnic conflicts led to close security relations with Australia, which is the traditional first responder to any crisis in the South Pacific.

    How did China enter the picture?

    • Earlier this year, the Solomon Islands established a security agreement with China, saying it needed Beijing’s assistance with its domestic security situation.
    • But the announcement had rattled the west, esp. the US, Australia and others in the Indo-Pacific region.
    • The concerns were that the agreement could potentially lead to a Chinese military base on the island nation and a gain in power-projection capabilities.
    • At that time, following intense scrutiny, the Solomon Islands had denied that the agreement would allow China to establish a naval base.
    • The Island insisted that the agreement was only to assist the Solomon Islands with what he called “hard internal threats”.

    What is the Solomon Islands’ stance?

    • The government has asked all partner countries with plans to conduct naval visits or patrols to put them on hold until a revised national mechanism is in place.
    • The revised national mechanism applied to all foreign vessels seeking access to the country’s ports.
    • The nation wanted to build up its own naval capacity.
    • It has some unfortunate experiences of foreign naval vessels entering its waters without any diplomatic clearance.

    What is behind China’s growing influence in the region?

    • There is no dispute that China has been rapidly increasing its presence and influence in the region for over three decades, particularly in the South Pacific.
    • Certainly Beijing views the Pacific Island region as an important component of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
    • Specifically, it sees the region as a critical air freight hub in its so-called Air Silk Road, which connects Asia with Central and South America.

    Concerns of the West

    • The United States and its regional allies, such as Australia and New Zealand, are concerned that the China-Solomon Islands security pact allows Chinese naval vessels to replenish there.
    • That could open the door to a Chinese naval base, which would significantly extend China’s military reach in the South Pacific.”
    • It is likely that this security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands has been driven by, what the CFR calls, Beijing’s “sense of vulnerability” in the region.

    What is the rationale for the Solomon Islands’ increasing proximity to China?

    • The Solomon Islands had cultivated strong ties with Taiwan, which ended with the emergence of the current government in Honiara.
    • In 2019, the regime change switched Taiwan for China.
    • This was supposedly after Beijing offered half a billion US dollars in financial aid, roughly five times what Taiwan spent on the islands in the past two decades.
    • It has been alleged by the pro-Taiwan Opposition that the incumbent government has been bribed by China.

    Why is China interested in the Solomon Islands?

    • Isolating Taiwan: The Solomon Islands was one among the six Pacific island states which had official bilateral relations with Taiwan.
    • Supporter in UN: The small Pacific island states act as potential vote banks for mobilising support for the great powers in international fora like the United Nations.
    • Larger EEZ: These states have disproportionately large maritime Exclusive Economic Zones when compared to their small sizes.
    • Natural resources: Solomon Islands, in particular, have significant reserves of timber and mineral resources, along with fisheries.
    • Countering US: But more importantly, they are strategically located for China to insert itself between America’s military bases in the Pacific islands and Australia.

    What does this mean for the established geopolitical configuration in the region?

    • Diminishing western influence: The Pacific islands, in the post-World War II scenario, were exclusively under the spheres of influence of the Western powers, in particular, the US, UK, France and Australia and New Zealand.
    • Inserting into western hegemony: All of them have territorial possessions in the region, with the three nuclear powers among them having used the region as a nuclear weapons testing ground.
    • Shifting of dependencies: The smaller island nations of the region are heavily dependent on them, especially Australia as it is a resident power.

     

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  • Human Rights Council rejects debate on Xinjiang Abuses

    xinjiang

    The UN Human Rights Council has voted against holding a debate on alleged abuses in China’s Xinjiang region after intense lobbying by Beijing, in a major setback for Western nations.

    What is the news?

    • India and 10 other nations abstained.

    Who are the Uighurs?

    xinjiang

    • There are about 12 million Uighurs, mostly Muslim, living in north-western China in the region of Xinjiang, officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
    • The Uighurs speak their own language, similar to Turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.
    • They make up less than half of the Xinjiang population.
    • In recent decades, there’s been a mass migration of Han Chinese (China’s ethnic majority) to Xinjiang, and the Uighurs feel their culture and livelihoods are under threat.
    • In the early 20th Century, the Uighurs briefly declared independence, but the region was brought under complete control of mainland China’s new Communist government in 1949.

    Where is Xinjiang?

    • Xinjiang lies in the north-west of China and is the country’s biggest region.
    • Like Tibet, it is autonomous, meaning – in theory – it has some powers of self-governance. But in practice, both face major restrictions by the central government.
    • It is a mostly desert region, producing about a fifth of the world’s cotton.
    • It is also rich in oil and natural gas and because of its proximity to Central Asia and Europe is seen by Beijing as an important trade link.

    What was the build-up to the Uighur crackdown?

    • Anti-Han and separatist sentiment rose in Xinjiang from the 1990s, flaring into violence on occasion.
    • In 2009 some 200 people died in clashes in Xinjiang, which the Chinese blamed on Uighurs who want their own state.
    • Xinjiang is now covered by a pervasive network of surveillance, including police, checkpoints, and cameras that scan everything from number plates to individual faces.
    • According to Human Rights Watch, police are also using a mobile app to monitor peoples’ behaviour, such as how much electricity they are using and how often they use their front door.
    • Since 2017 when President Xi Jinping issued an order saying all religions in China should be Chinese in orientation, there have been further crackdowns.

    Chinese narrative

    • China says the crackdown is necessary to prevent terrorism and root out Islamist extremism and the camps are an effective tool for re-educating inmates in its fight against terrorism.
    • It insists that Uighur militants are waging a violent campaign for an independent state by plotting bombings, sabotage and civic unrest.
    • China has dismissed claims it is trying to reduce the Uighur population through mass sterilizations as “baseless”, and says allegations of forced labor are “completely fabricated”.

    Why did India abstain from voting against China?

    • India has traditionally voted against or abstained from such country-specific resolutions at the UNHRC.
    • It is understood that China’s presence within the UNHRC was a factor in the decision since any backing for the Xinjiang issue could have led to similar moves by China on other issues in India.
    • This is particularly in the context of the Kashmir issue.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Very recently, in which of the following countries have lakhs of people either suffered from severe famine/acute malnutrition or died due to starvation caused by war/ethnic conflicts?
    (a) Angola and Zambia
    (b) Morocco and Tunisia
    (c) Venezuela and Colombia
    (d) Yemen and South Sudan

     

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