Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Extending the gender equality to women in the armed forces.
Context
SC ruling in favour of women officers in the Army is pathbreaking, extends arc of equality.
What is said in the significance of the judgement?
- The judgement took many constitutional steps further
- First, the judgement said “engagement of women officers in the Army” has been an “evolutionary process”.
- It acknowledges that the “physiological features of a woman have no significance to her equal entitlements under the Constitution”.
- Second, it indicates “a need for change in attitudes and mindsets to recognise the commitment to the values of the Constitution”.
- The judgement said that reliance on the “inherent physiological differences between men and women” rests on a deeply entrenched stereotypical and constitutionally flawed notion.
- The above-flawed notion fails to ignore “the solemn constitutional values which every institution in the nation is bound to uphold and facilitate”.
- Third, this change has to be based on “the right of women officers to equality of opportunity”, which has two “facets”:
- Non-discrimination on the grounds of sex and-
- Equality of opportunity for all citizens in employment.
- State and civil society have to firmly internalise these rights to achieve even the minima of gender justice.
- Fundamental fallacy: Removal of the “fundamental fallacy” demands non-discrimination and affirmation of the equality of opportunity in public employment. To rule otherwise will constitute “a travesty of justice”.
- What does this mean for women? This means women now have the same terms of employment as men.
- No longer will women be forced to retire after 14 years in service, irrespective of their record.
- They will also have a full pension and other financial benefits.
- Fourth, Article 14 of the Constitution has been pressed into service as prescribing “a right to rationality” that forbids any “blanket” and “absolute”
- The burden to justify differentiation on Army: The burden to justify the differentiation between women and men falls “squarely on the Army”, which has to “justify such differentiation with reason”
Judicial consciousness of policy consciousness
- Achilles’ heel of the judgement: In fact, the brief remark outlining the judicial consciousness of policy limitations may well prove to be the proverbial Achilles’ heel in future courts.
- One hopes that the stoic and heroic endeavours of the petitioner army officers and their counsel, will not be visited with the constitutional fates in which the judgement is reversed.
- And this path-breaking judgment will forever vindicate gender equality and justice.
Conclusion
Making gender justice less contingent on the executive’s mood swings is the primary task of the judiciary. Making it immune from judicial re-visitations remains the paramount constitutional duty of all citizens, but more particularly of feminist citizens’ crusade for judicial consistency as a badge for constitutional rights and justice.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Adoption of innovation in improving the healthcare system in India.
Context
India needs to tap the potential of the health-care start-ups in India and make the necessary provision to deal with the problems in the adoption of innovations in health-care.
Expanding the supply side
- Need to increase the hospital empanelled: As the scale of this scheme grows, a key area of focus is-
- To expand the secondary and tertiary hospitals empanelled under PM-JAY and
- To ensure their quality and capacity while keeping the costs down.
- The ratio of doctors and beds: At present, there is one government bed for every 1,844 patients and one doctor for every 11,082 patients.
- 3% hospitalisation under the scheme: In the coming years, considering 3% hospitalisation of PM-JAY-covered beneficiaries, the scheme is likely to provide treatment to 1.5 crore patients annually.
- This means physical and human infrastructure capacity would need to be augmented vastly.
- Need for more beds: Conservative estimates suggest that we would need more than 150,000 additional beds, especially in Tier-2 and -3 cities.
- Long-term strategy: While a comprehensive long-term strategy will focus on expanding hospital and human resources infrastructure, an effective near-term approach is needed to improve efficiencies and bridge gaps within the existing supply and likely demand.
- Mainstreaming innovation: A strong, yet under-tapped lever for accelerating health system efficiency and bridging these gaps is mainstreaming innovation in the Indian health system.
Transformative solutions
- India’s burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit combined with a systematic push for the development of a start-up ecosystem has led to a plethora of innovations in health care.
- It is estimated that there are more than 4,000 health-care technology start-ups in India.
- How do start-ups help? Today, start-ups are working to bring-
- Innovative technologies and business models that leapfrog infrastructure.
- Human resources.
- Cost-effectiveness and efficiency challenges in Tier-2 and -3 cities.
- How other innovations could help?
- Artificial Intelligence platforms that aid in rapid radiology diagnoses in low resource settings.
- Tele-ICU platforms to bridge the gap in high-skilled critical care personnel.
- Centralised drone delivery of blood, medicines and vaccines to reach remote locations cost-effectively and reliably are all no longer just theoretical ideas.
- Time to implement transformative solutions: It is high time for transformative solutions to make their way into our hospitals, especially in Tier-2 and -3 cities, to turbocharge the way health care is delivered at scale.
Challenges in mainstreaming healthcare innovations
- Lack of uniform regulatory standards: One challenge is non-uniform regulatory and validation standards.
- Regulations evolving in India: Regulatory requirements, specifically for biomedical start-ups, are still evolving in India.
- As a result, hospitals often rely on foreign regulatory certifications such as FDA and CE, especially for riskier devices and instruments.
- Government to overhaul standards: The government is now pushing ahead to overhaul Indian med-tech regulatory standards and product standards which will help bridge this trust-deficit.
- Difficulty in the promotion of start-ups: Another problem in promoting start-ups is the operational liquidity crunch due to a long gestation period.
- Health-care start-ups spend long periods of time in the early development of their product, especially where potential clinical risks are concerned.
- Long gestation period: The process of testing the idea and working prototype, receiving certifications, performing clinical and commercial validations, and raising funds, in a low-trust and unstructured environment makes the gestational period unusually long thereby limiting the operational liquidity of the start-up.
- Lack of framework to adopt innovation: Another hurdle is the lack of incentives and adequate frameworks to grade and adopt innovations.
- Health-care providers and clinicians, given limited bandwidth, often lack the incentives, operational capacity, and frameworks necessary to consider and adopt innovations.
- This leads to limited traction for start-ups promoting innovative solutions.
- Procurement challenges: Start-ups also face procurement challenges in both public and private procurement.
- They lack the financial capacity to deal with lengthy tenders and the roundabout process of price discovery.
- Private procurement is complicated by the presence of a fragmented customer base and limited systematic channels for distribution.
Way forward
- Identify promising market-ready products: To accelerate the process of mainstreaming innovations within the hospital system in India-
- We need to focus on identifying promising market-ready health-care innovations that are ready to be tested and deployed at scale.
- Facilitate standard operational validation studies: There is a need to-
- Facilitate standardised operational validation studies that are required for market adoption.
- To help ease out the start-up procurement process such that these solutions can be adopted with confidence.
- This, in effect, will serve the entire ecosystem of health-care innovators by opening up health-care markets for all.
- Need to develop an interface between hospital and start-ups: A strong theme in mature health-care systems in other parts of the world is a vibrant and seamless interface between hospitals and health-care start-ups.
- Through Ayushman Bharat, India has the unique opportunity to develop a robust ecosystem where-
- Hospitals actively engage with health-care start-ups by providing access to testbeds, communicating their needs effectively and adopting promising innovations.
- Start-ups as collaborators: Start-ups can be effective collaborators for the most pressing health-care delivery challenges faced by hospitals.
Conclusion
The dream of an accessible, affordable and high-quality health-care system for all, will be achieved when we work in alignment to complement each other and jointly undertake the mission of creating an Ayushman Bharat.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- Designation of India as developed country by the US and its implications for India-Strategy to counter the impact.
Context
The United States’s annual exercise of designating developing, and least developed countries has assumed importance for India this year: it has been dropped from the list of developing countries.
‘Developing’ or ‘developed’ country designation by the US
- Last week, the United States officially designated developing and least-developed countries for the purposes of implementing the countervailing measures.
- The division is provided by the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
- Why the designation matters?
- The higher level of subsidies allowed: According to the ASCM, developing countries are allowed to grant higher levels of subsidies as compared to the developed countries before countervailing duties (CVD) can be imposed.
- What are the limits? The maximum limit of the subsidy is-
- For developed country: Limit is maximum 1% of the import value of the investigated product.
- For developing country: Limit is a maximum 2% of the import value of the investigated product.
- If the limit is breached the importing country can impose a countervailing duty on the product.
India as a target by the US
- Provision of self-designation: Under the WTO rules, any country can “self-designate” itself as a developing country.
- No criteria specified by the WTO: The WTO does not lay down any specific criteria for making a distinction between a developed and a developing country member, unlike in the World Bank where per capita incomes are used to classify countries.
- Arbitrary criteria used to designate India: Despite this clearly laid down criterion in the WTO rules, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) employed an arbitrary methodology that took into consideration-
- “Economic, trade, and other factors, including the level of economic development of a country (based on a review of the country’s per capita GNI) and a country’s share of world trade” to exclude India from list of designated developing countries.
- Second such instance after denying GSP: Excluding India from the lists of developing countries for the purposes of using countervailing measures or denying benefits of GSP are but two of the more recent initiatives that the U.S. has taken to challenge India’s status as a developing country in the WTO.
What would the impact on India?
- Loss of Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT): India would lose the ability to use the special and differential treatment (S&DT) to which every developing country member of the WTO has a right.
- What is S&DT? In short, S&DT lessens the burden of adjustment that developing countries have to make while acceding to the various agreements under the WTO.
- How S&DT benefited India?S&DT has been particularly beneficial for India in two critical areas: one, implementation of the disciplines on agricultural subsidies and, two, opening up the markets for both agricultural and non-agricultural products.
- Limits on subsidies: The WTO Agreement on Agriculture(AoA) provides an elaborate discipline on subsidies.
- Subsidies are classified into three categories, but two of these are virtually outside the discipline since the WTO does not limit spending on these categories of subsidies.
- Limits on price support measures: The discipline exists in case of price support measures (minimum support price) and input subsidies which is the more common form of subsidies for most developing countries, including in India.
- Limits on spending on prices support measures: For developing countries, spending on price support measures and input subsidies taken together cannot exceed 10% of the total value of agricultural production.
- In contrast, developed countries are allowed to spend only 5% of their value of agricultural production.
Shifting to DBT
- Why shifting to DBT necessary? India is a major user of price support measures and input subsidies.
- And given the constraints imposed by the AoA, the government has spoken about its intention to move into the system of direct benefit transfer (DBT) for supporting farmers.
- No limit on spending through DBT: A shift to DBT is attractive for India since there are no limits on spending, unlike in case of price support measures and input subsidies.
- Rework subsidies’ programme: Faced with on-going farm distress, the government has had to rework its subsidies’ programme in order to extend greater benefits, especially to small and marginal farmers.
- Challenges in the implementation of DBT
- Implementation of DBT in agriculture has several insurmountable problems.
- Difficulty in identifying the beneficiary: Targeting potential beneficiaries of DBT seems difficult at this juncture for a number of reasons, including inadequate records of ownership of agricultural land on the one hand, and the presence of agricultural labour and tenants on the other.
- This implies that in the foreseeable future, India would continue to depend on price support measures and input subsidies.
- How it matters: Given this scenario, the government needs the policy space to provide adequate levels of subsidies to a crisis-ridden agricultural sector.
- And therefore it is imperative that continues to enjoy the benefits as a developing country member of the WTO.
Issue of tariffs
- The issue of market access, or the use of import tariffs, is one of the important trade policy instruments.
- Provision of no reciprocal tariff cuts: It has some key provisions on S&DT, which the developing countries can benefit from. The most important among these is the undertaking from the developed countries that they would not demand reciprocal tariff cuts.
- Over the past two years, the government of India has been extensively using import tariffs for protecting Indian businesses from import competition.
- With the increasing use of tariffs, almost across the board, India’s average tariffs have increased from about 13% in 2017-18 to above 17% at present.
- Why it matters? Developed country members of the WTO have generally maintained very low levels of tariffs, and, therefore, India’s interests of maintaining a reasonable level of tariff protection would be well served through its continued access to S&DT, by remaining as a developing country member of the WTO.
Conclusion
With the changing stance of the US towards India, the government must ensure its international trade and agriculture at home is not adversely impacted.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: One Health Concept
Mains level: Strategies to curb rising incidences of zoonotic diseases
The concept of ‘One Health’ is gaining importance as most of the contagious diseases affecting humans are zoonotic (animal to man origin) in nature. It can be effectively implemented for reducing incidence of emerging zoonotic threats like COVID-19.
The One Health concept
- The World Organization of Animal Health, commonly known as OIE (an abbreviation of its French title), summarizes the One Health concept.
- It says that as “human health and animal health are interdependent and bound to the health of the ecosystems in which they exist”.
- Circa 400 BC, Hippocrates in his treatise On Airs, Waters and Places had urged physicians that all aspects of patients’ lives need to be considered including their environment; disease was a result of imbalance between man and environment.
- So One Health is not a new concept, though it is of late that it has been formalized in health governance systems.
Why accept this model?
- Of the contagious diseases affecting humans, more than 65% are of zoonotic or animal to man origin.
- One Health model is a globally accepted model for research on epidemiology, diagnosis and control of zoonotic diseases.
- One Health model facilitates interdisciplinary approach in disease control so as to control emerging and existing zoonotic threats.
- Increasing stress on animals due to loss of their habitat would increase scope of zoonotic diseases.
Why corona is so deadly?
- Current outbreak of COVID-19 still could not find out the actual source of virus.
- Even though genomics of the virus has been published ambiguity still exists whether it was from bats, snakes, pangolin, etc.
Frequent Outbreaks of Zoonotic Diseases
- Not so long ago, the widespread prevalence of avian influenza in poultry, or bird flu as it commonly became known, created nationwide panic resulting in the culling of millions of poultry birds.
- It was concern for human health that prompted the extreme reaction and subsequent establishment of protocols; containment of avian influenza is managed quite effectively now.
- Similarly in 2003, SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome emanated suddenly in China and vanished soon.
Followed by hues and panic
- These outbreaks culminated emergency response that included extreme measures like travel bans and restrictions.
- In both cases, panic spread much faster than the virus.
- Besides drawing a response from governments, these events also brought forth the hitherto forgotten philosophy of One Health.
- This idea recognizes inter-connectivity among human health, the health of animals, and the environment.
Why rise in zoonotic outbreaks?
- As human populations expand, it results in greater contact with domestic and wild animals, providing more opportunities for diseases to pass from one to the other.
- Climate change, deforestation and intensive farming further disrupt environment characteristics, while increased trade and travel result in closer and more frequent interaction, thus increasing the possibility of transmission of diseases.
Need for a robust animal health system
- Private sector presence in veterinary services is close to being nonexistent.
- Unlike a physician, a veterinarian is always on a house call on account of the logistic challenge of transporting livestock to the hospital, unless they are domestic pets.
- There could not be a stronger case for reinventing the entire animal husbandry sector to be able to reach every livestock farmer, not only for disease treatment but for prevention and surveillance to minimize the threat to human health.
- Early detection at animal source can prevent disease transmission to humans and introduction of pathogens into the food chain. So a robust animal health system is the first and a crucial step in human health.
Conclusion
- Developing countries like India have a much greater stake in strong One Health systems on account of agricultural systems resulting in uncomfortably close proximity of animals and humans.
- This builds a strong case for strengthening veterinary institutions and services.
- Further delay may pave way for emergence of new communicable diseases.
Way Forward
- The most effective and economical approach is to control zoonotic pathogens at their animal source.
- It calls not only for close collaboration at local, regional and global levels among veterinary, health and environmental governance, but also for greater investment in animal health infrastructure.
- Need of the hour is to scale up such a model across the country and to establish meaningful research collaborations across the world.
- Health, veterinary, agriculture and life science research institutions and universities can play a lead role.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NEED
Mains level: Sea level rise and its impact
An extraordinary measure to protect 25 million people and important economic regions of 15 Northern European countries from rising seas has been proposed. It is called Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED) enclosing all of the North Sea.
Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED)
- The scientists have proposed the construction of two dams of a combined length of 637 km — the first between northern Scotland and western Norway.
- It would be 476 km and with an average depth of 121 m and maximum depth of 321 m; the second between France and southwestern England, of length 161 km, and average depth of 85 m and maximum depth of 102 m.
- A/c to scientists, separating the North and Baltic Seas from the Atlantic Ocean is considered to be the “most viable option” to protect Northern Europe against unstoppable sea level rise (SLR).
- They have also identified other regions in the world where such mega-enclosures could potentially be considered, including the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Red Sea.
The rationale behind
- The concept of constructing NEED showcases the extent of protection efforts that are required if mitigation efforts fail to limit sea level rise.
- While NEED may appear to be “overwhelming” and “unrealistic”, it could be “potentially favourable” financially and in scale when compared with alternative solutions to fight SLR, the research argues.
- The researchers classify the solutions to SLR into three categories of taking no action, protection, and managed retreat — and submit that NEED is in the second category.
- While managed retreat, which includes options such as managed migrations, may be less expensive than protection (NEED), it involves intangible costs such as national and international political instability, psychological difficulties, and loss of culture and heritage for migrants.
- NEED, the paper says, will have the least direct impact on people’s daily lives, can be built at a “reasonable cost”, and has the largest potential to be implemented with the required urgency to be effective.
Viability of NEED
- The researchers have estimated the total costs associated with NEED at between €250 billion and €550 billion.
- They referred to the costs of building the 33.9-km Saemangeum Seawall in South Korea and the Maasvlakte 2 extension of the Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands as examples,
- If construction is spread over a 20-year period, this will work out to an annual expense of around 0.07%-0.16% of the GDP of the 15 Northern European countries that will be involved.
- Also the construction will “heavily impact” marine and terrestrial ecosystems inside and outside the enclosure, will have social and cultural implications, and affect tourism and fisheries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Parker Probe. Aditya L1 Mission, Lagranges points
Mains level: Read the attached story
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched on August 12, 2018 has completed its fourth close approach — called perihelion very recently, whizzing past at about 3.93 lakh km/h, at a distance of only 18.6 million km from the Sun’s surface.
Aditya L1: Exciting ahead
- The ISRO is preparing to send its first scientific expedition to study the Sun.
- Named Aditya-L1, the mission, expected to be launched early next year, will observe the Sun from a close distance, and try to obtain information about its atmosphere and magnetic field.
- ISRO categorizes Aditya L1 as a 400 kg-class satellite that will be launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in XL configuration.
- The space-based observatory will have seven payloads (instruments) on board to study the Sun’s corona, solar emissions, solar winds and flares, and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), and will carry out round-the-clock imaging of the Sun.
- Aditya L1 will be ISRO’s second space-based astronomy mission after AstroSat, which was launched in September 2015.
What is L1?
- L1 refers to Lagrangian/Lagrange Point 1, one of five points in the orbital plane of the Earth-Sun system.
- Lagrange Points, named after Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange, are positions in space where the gravitational forces of a two-body system (like the Sun and the Earth) produce enhanced regions of attraction and repulsion.
- These can be used by spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption needed to remain in position.
- The L1 point is home to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Satellite (SOHO), an international collaboration project of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
- The L1 point is about 1.5 million km from Earth, or about one-hundredth of the way to the Sun.
But why is studying the Sun important?
- Every planet, including Earth and the exoplanets beyond the Solar System, evolves — and this evolution is governed by its parent star.
- The solar weather and environment, which is determined by the processes taking place inside and around the sun, affects the weather of the entire system.
- Variations in this weather can change the orbits of satellites or shorten their lives, interfere with or damage onboard electronics, and cause power blackouts and other disturbances on Earth.
- Knowledge of solar events is key to understanding space weather.
- To learn about and track Earth-directed storms, and to predict their impact, continuous solar observations are needed.
- Every storm that emerges from the Sun and heads towards Earth passes through L1, and a satellite placed in the halo orbit around L1 of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses.
Why are solar missions challenging?
- What makes a solar mission challenging is the distance of the Sun from Earth (about 149 million km on average, compared to the only 3.84 lakh km to the Moon).
- More importantly the super hot temperatures and radiations in the solar atmosphere make it difficult to study.
- NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has already gone far closer — but it will be looking away from the Sun.
- The earlier Helios 2 solar probe, a joint venture between NASA and space agency of erstwhile West Germany, went within 43 million km of the Sun’s surface in 1976.
Problem of Heat
- The Parker Solar Probe’s January 29 flyby was the closest the spacecraft has gone to the Sun in its planned seven-year journey so far.
- Computer modelling estimates show that the temperature on the Sun-facing side of the probe’s heat shield, the Thermal Protection System, reached 612 degrees Celsius, even as the spacecraft and instruments behind the shield remained at about 30°C, NASA said.
- During the spacecraft’s three closest perihelia in 2024-25, the TPS will see temperatures around 1370°C.
Hurdles for Aditya L1
- It will stay much farther away, and the heat is not expected to be a major concern for the instruments on board. But there are other challenges.
- Many of the instruments and their components for this mission are being manufactured for the first time in the country, presenting as much of a challenge as an opportunity for India’s scientific, engineering, and space communities.
- One such component is the highly polished mirrors which would be mounted on the space-based telescope.
- Due to the risks involved, payloads in earlier ISRO missions have largely remained stationary in space; however, Aditya L1 will have some moving components, scientists said.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RIN Mutiny
Mains level: Significance of the Mutiny
Seventy-four years ago on February 18, 1946, some 1,100 Indian sailors or “ratings” of the HMIS Talwar and the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Signal School in Bombay declared a hunger strike, triggered by the conditions and treatment of Indians in the Navy.
RIN Mutiny
- A “slow down” the strike was also called, which meant that the ratings would carry out their duties slowly.
- The morning after February 18, somewhere between 10,000-20,000 sailors joined the strike, as did shore establishments in Karachi, Madras, Calcutta, Mandapam, Visakhapatnam, and the Andaman Islands.
- One of the triggers for the RIN strike was the arrest of a rating, BC Dutt, who had scrawled “Quit India” on the HMIS Talwar.
- The day after the strike began, the ratings went around Bombay in lorries, waving the Congress flag, and getting into scraps with Europeans and policemen who tried to confront them.
Their demands
While the immediate trigger was the demand for better food and working conditions, the agitation soon turned into a wider demand for independence from British rule. The protesting sailors demanded:
- release of all political prisoners including those from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA),
- action against the commander for ill-treatment and using insulting language,
- revision of pay and allowances to put RIN employees on a par with their counterparts in the Royal Navy,
- demobilisation of RIN personnel with provisions for peacetime employment,
- release of Indian forces stationed in Indonesia, and better treatment of subordinates by their officers
Upsurge of nationalism
- The RIN strike came at a time when the Indian nationalist sentiment had reached fever pitch across the country.
- The winter of 1945-46 saw three violent upsurges: in Calcutta in November 1945 over the INA trials; in February 1946, also in Calcutta, over the sentencing of INA officer Rashid Ali; and, in that same month, the ratings’ uprise in Bombay.
- This chain of events led to the “mounting fever of excitement affecting the whole political climate”.
- Soon, ordinary people joined the ratings, and life came to a virtual standstill in both Bombay and Calcutta. There were meetings, processions, strikes, and hartals.
- In Bombay, labourers participated in a general strike called by the Communist Party of India and the Bombay Students’ Union. In many cities across India, students boycotted classes in solidarity.
- The response of the state was brutal. It is estimated that over 220 people died in police firing, while roughly 1,000 were injured.
Significance of the events
- The RIN revolt remains a legend today. It was an event that strengthened further the determination among all sections of the Indian people to see the end of British rule.
- Deep solidarity and amity among religious groups was in evidence, which appeared to run counter to the rapidly spreading atmosphere of commuanal hatred and animosity.
- However, communal unity was more in the nature of organisational unity than a unity among the two major communities.
- Within months, India was to be devoured by a terrible communal conflagration.
Final nail in the coffin
- This revolt was different from the other revolts in the sense that, after 1857 it was the first time that the British realized that the Royal Indian forces were no more obedient to the British commands and were in concurrence with the overall defiant nationalist sentiments prevailing in the entire country.
- Mutinies are usually confined to a particular station, establishment or ship. However, this was the first instance when the entire service joined the revolt.
- Most striking feature was that it was directed against the British government and not against superior officers – not a single officer, British or Indian, was harmed.
- Fearless action by the masses was an expression of militancy in the popular mind. Revolt in the armed forces had a great liberating effect on the minds of people.
- It displayed that the armed forces no longer obeyed the British authority rather it was the nationalist leaders who held sway over them. The RIN revolt was seen as an event marking the end of British rule.
Aftermath
- The leaders realized that any mass uprising would inevitably carry the risk of not being amenable to centralized direction and control. Besides, now that independence and power were in sight, they were eager not to encourage indiscipline in the armed forces.
- It was immediately after this revolt that PM Atlee dispatched the Cabinet Mission to India, so it is also inferred that the mutiny hastened the process of transfer of power to India.
- It is also important to mention that the revolt came to an end after the nationalist leaders, Sardar Patel and Mohammad Ali Jinnah on receiving a request to intervene by the British, issued a statement calling upon the mutineers to surrender.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Meghalayan caves, and their biodiversity
Mains level: NA
Systematic exploration of the Meghalayan caves has been underway for almost 30 years and hundreds of kilometres of cave passages have been explored and mapped. In a cave in a remote forested area of Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills a research expedition found large specie of a subterranean fish (occurring under the earth’s surface).
About the fish
- The blind fish was over 40 cm. It has not been named so far.
- It is nearly five times the mean length (85mm/8.5 cm) for all known subterranean fish to date.
- The only other species exceeding 300mm (30 cm) in length are eel-like Synbranchidae with nothing like the bulk of the new fish.
- The 250-known subterranean (occurring under the earth’s surface) fish species around the world measure only around 8.5 cm on average.
- The specialists say that possibly one (or more) populations of these fish became isolated deeper in the caves and over generations became adapted to the dark, losing their eyes in the process.
Closest resemblance
- The experts feel that the fish species is very similar to the Golden Mahseer or the Tor Putitora, one of the most famous game fish of the Himalayan rivers.
- Unique characters that distinguishes it from the Golden Mahseer is the lack of pigmentation, a lack of eyes and of course, its subterranean habitat – being locked in caves.
- There are ‘normal’ Golden Mahseer in the area too but there is not much surface water (at least in the dry winter months) so fish end up in the cave pools and underground rivers.
Features of Subterranean ecosystems
- Subterranean ecosystems are considered extreme, high-stress environments characterised by darkness, truncated food webs and food scarcity.
- Despite this, they harbour exceptional vertebrate and invertebrate taxa (21,000+ species), many of which are evolutionarily unique, and relics of ancient fauna given their long-term isolation.
- Many cave fish show different adaptations – some don’t have eyes, some have reduced eyes, some don’t have fins, some have weird body shapes.
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