Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Taj Mahal
Mains level: Conservation of historical monuments
The Taj Mahal complex has been spruced up for the visit of US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.
About Taj
- The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the city of Agra.
- It was commissioned in 1632 by Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658) to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself.
- The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.
- The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2015 would be approximately 52.8 billion rupees (U.S. $827 million).
- The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.
- The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”.
Various threats to Taj
- The Supreme Court had earlier expressed concern over the marble of the Taj changing colour, and asked how the white marble, which had first become yellowish, was now turning brownish and greenish.
- Firstly, the polluting industries and the vehicular emissions in the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) area are a major source of pollution.
- The second reason is that the Yamuna River, which flows behind the Taj, has become highly polluted.
- There is no aquatic life in it, and has caused insect and algae infestation on the Taj Mahal and other monuments situated on its banks.
Use of mud packs
- Increasing pollution in the air over the Gangetic Valley affecting the Taj has been a reason for concern for archaeologists and conservationists for long now.
- Mud packs were applied on the surface of the monument first in 1994, and then again in 2001, 2008, and, most recently, beginning 2014.
- Mud packs have been one of the ASI’s favoured ways to remove the yellow stains that have appeared over the years on the Taj Mahal’s white marble facade.
- The clay is applied in the form of a thick paste that absorbs the grime, grease and bird droppings on the marble, before being washed off using distilled water.
- The process is slow and tortuous, but is believed to leave the marble cleaner and shinier.
- The intricate parts are applied with special “multani mitti’ (Fuller’s clay) treatment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pakke Tiger Reserve
Mains level: Not Much
The government in Arunachal Pradesh is planning to build a 692.7 km highway through the 862 sq km Pakke Tiger Reserve (PTR). Named the East-West Industrial Corridor, the highway aims to connect Bhairabhunda in West Kameng district and Manmao in Changlang district along Arunachal Pradesh’s border with Assam.
About Pakke Tiger Reserve (PTR)
- Pakke Tiger Reserve, also known as Pakhui Tiger Reserve, is a Project Tiger reserve in the East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
- The 862 km2 reserve is protected by the Department of Environment and Forest of Arunachal Pradesh.
- This Tiger Reserve has won India Biodiversity Award 2016 in the category of ‘Conservation of threatened species’ for its Hornbill Nest Adoption Programme.
- It falls within the Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspot.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SPICe+
Mains level: Not Much
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has launched SPICe+ web form.
SPICe+
- It would offer 10 services by 3 Central Govt Ministries & Departments (Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Labour & Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance) and One State Government (Maharashtra).
- It saves as many procedures, time and cost for Starting a Business in India and would be applicable for all new company incorporations.
Following are the features of the new Spice+ web form:
- SPICe+ would be an integrated Web Form.
- SPICe+ would have two parts viz.: Part A-for Name reservation for new companies and Part B offering a bouquet of services viz.
- Registration for Profession Tax shall also be mandatory for all new companies to be incorporated in the State of Maharashtra through SPICe+.
- All new companies incorporated through SPICe+ would also be mandatorily required to apply for opening the company’s Bank account through the AGILE-PRO linked web form.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: International Judicial Conference
Mains level: Highlights of the conference
The President of India delivered the valedictory address at the International Judicial Conference being organised by the Supreme Court of India, in New Delhi.
About the Conference
- The Conference was organized by the Supreme Court of India.
- The theme of the Conference was ‘Judiciary and the Changing World’.
Important Topics of discussion at the Conference included :
- Gender Justice,
- Contemporary Perspectives on Protection of Constitutional Values,
- Dynamic Interpretations of the Constitution in a Changing World,
- Harmonization of Environment Protection vis-à-vis Sustainable Development and
- Protection of Right to Privacy in the Internet Age
Other excerpts:
“Just-World” Hypothesis
- The “Just World” fallacy is associated with the actions of bringing fair actions towards education, health, gender equality and other social issues.
- The Conference introduced the “Just World” concept in the Judicial System of India.
- By this it aims to take the judicial system of the country to every citizen irrespective of their gender.
- Also, it aimed to bring upon gender equality in other crucial areas where women have still not earned their recognition, especially the areas of mining and military.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- India-US relations, contradictory impulses in the US policy and what future holds for India in the present scenario.
Context
Trump administration seems supportive of India as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, while also counting gains for itself.
No substantive outcomes of the visit stated
- Neither side has so far publicly touted any major substantive outcomes of the visit.
- Creation of positive atmosphere: To create some positive atmospherics, the Indian Cabinet Committee on Security just gave final approval to $3 billion worth of pending contracts to purchase military helicopters from US companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
- Missile defence system sale: The US Administration, on its part, informed Congress of its willingness to authorise the sale of another $1.8 billion worth missile defence system.
- The move is indicative of the US’s growing willingness to allow higher technology defence equipment to India.
- Placing India at level (STA-1) similar to its closest allies: The Trump Administration has gone farther than its predecessors in the technology levels it is willing to offer.
- Including Guardian drones in 2017, and placing India at STA-1 level, similar to its closest allies and partners.
- The expected MoUs: The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs indicated on February 20 that five MoUs can be expected, inter alia,-
- On intellectual property.
- Trade facilitation and
- Homeland security.
- Making sense of the US’s actions in the present context: There will also be the regulation joint statement.
- Analysing in greater details: This time, the statement will be parsed in more than usual detail for indications of future direction and intent for the partnership.
- It is the time when the US has been talking of “Make America Great Again”, advocating for sovereignty and nationalism.
- The US is also decrying-Alliance commitments, Readying to sign an agreement with the Taliban by month-end leading to a drawdown of US troop presence.
- Yet, it is articulating repeatedly about India being a lynchpin of its “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy”.
No development on the limited trade front
- No progress on limited trade package: The two countries have not been able to finalise even a “limited trade package”, which has been under discussion for two years.
- Gaps between the expectations: Obviously, there is a gap between what India can accommodate, and what the US negotiators want for their own political reasons.
- The Trump administration has taken several steps that have negatively impacted India.
- It has imposed additional tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from India, ostensibly on national security grounds.
Contradictory impulses
- The above action flies in the face of citing strategic partnership and convergence in Indo-Pacific strategy.
- GSP withdrawal: It has withdrawn hitherto available GSP benefits from certain categories of labour-intensive Indian products.
- Labelling India a ‘Developed’ country: The US has taken India out of its list of “developing” countries, lowering the threshold for countervailing trade action.
- Against the spirit of the beneficial rise of India: These actions go against the grain of the US articulation that it sees the rise of India to be in US benefit.
- Treating the trade deficit with China and India on equal footing: It also does not make sense when India is an overall trade deficit country.
- Even though it has a $20 billion surplus with the US which pales compared to China’s $350 billion surplus.
- Unprecedented actions against the closest allies: Trump has taken unprecedented action against the closest US allies.
- He has also repeatedly publicly ridiculed Indian tariffs, claiming recently that India has not treated the US fairly.
What the future holds for the India-US relationship
- Is the US “all-weather” partner: Given the contradictory impulses, it would be fair to ask what the future holds for the India-US relationship, and where would the Trump visit and its aftermath take us.
- Can India consider the US a reliable and “all-weather” partner, or be constantly juggling convergences and divergences?
- The factors that affected relationship: Historically, four factors have affected the India-US relationship at any point of time:
- US global posture and priorities.
- Strength of bilateral relations.
- The role assigned to Pakistan in its global objectives.
- The strategy towards China.
Evolution of India-US relationship
- Under Democrat Presidents
- Roosevelt Period: During the Second World War, Roosevelt pushed Britain to grant independence to India, facilitated a separate official Indian representation in Washington through an Agent-General since 1941.
- But did not go far enough fearing disruption of the necessary wartime alliance. In the post-war period.
- Truman Period: Truman spoke of partnering with developing countries for their industrial and scientific progress.
- He welcomed Indian PM Nehru for an acclaimed visit in 1949.
- But initiated the Cold War containment strategy against the Soviet Union, and the assessment of newly independent countries from that lens.
- Kennedy Period: He was extremely supportive of democratic India’s economic assistance requirements, and for military assistance during the 1962 China conflict.
- Carter Period: Carter, wedded to human rights issues, acclaimed India’s post Emergency elections.
- But was critical on non- proliferation differences.
- Clinton Period: Clinton stabilised the relationship after the dissonance and sanctions following our 1998 nuclear tests.
- And gave full support to India’s position during the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.
- Obama Period: He came out in support of India’s permanent membership of the UN Security Council, and declared India a Major Defence Partner, enabling higher-level technology authorisations.
- Under Republican Presidents
- Eisenhower Period: Eisenhower embraced and armed Pakistan in its CENTO and SEATO military alliances.
- India as a bulwark against China: He emphasised food and economic assistance to India seeing it as a democratic bulwark against a Communist China.
- First-ever visit to India by the US president: He made a successful first-ever visit of a serving US President to India, welcomed also by a 5 lakh crowd in Connaught Place.
- Nixon Period: He visited India for a day in 1959, was upset with Indian criticism of his Vietnam military offensives.
- Sided completely with Pakistan during the Bangladesh crisis of 1971.
- He sent the US seventh fleet into the Bay of Bengal to pressurise India and sought to reorder the global balance by outreach to China through a secret Kissinger visit that year.
- Reagan Period: He explored economic and scientific cooperation with India, but was absorbed with Pakistan’s support in pushing the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan.
- George W Bush Period: George W Bush transformed the relationship with the civil nuclear cooperation agreement of 2008.
- Perceiving again the technological, military and political challenge to the US from a rising China.
Conclusion
It is clear that India’s interests have been impacted a bit by party orientation on issues, but more by the overall global circumstance. Under the present circumstance, therefore, India will have to deal with a transactional administration, supportive of strengthening India as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, but also counting the gains for itself.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- Ending the opacity in the financial system and making the multinationals pay their fair share of tax.
Context
It is now beyond obvious that India cannot revive its economy without increasing public spending, and so increasing its fiscal resources is essential. Among other measures, this requires urgent adoption of legislation and institutional reforms to end financial opacity.
The opacity in the data
- Unlikely Budget estimates: The Union Budget was presented, based on numbers for revised estimates for the current year and Budget estimates for the coming year that the Finance Ministry itself knows are
- Where else the opacity in data extends: The opacity of data also extends to cross-border movement of funds generated through a range of activities, including tax evasion, misappropriation of state assets, laundering of the proceeds of crime, and bribery.
- Even here, India still has a lot to do, as confirmed by the recent publication of the Financial Secrecy Index by the Tax Justice Network, a U.K.-based financial advocacy group.
- Financial Secrecy Index rank: On the surface, India has managed to reduce its contribution to global financial secrecy, with its rank falling from 32 on the 2018 index to 47 in 2020.
- But this is partly because the new edition of the index covers more countries than it did two years ago.
Transparency Reforms by the government
- Arrangement with Switzerland: It is true that the government has adopted and supported a few transparency reforms, such as the automatic exchange of tax and financial information with other jurisdictions, like Switzerland.
- What the arrangement with Switzerland mean? If an Indian citizen has an account with a Swiss bank and has a balance over a certain threshold, this information will be sent to the Indian tax authorities automatically.
- Beneficial ownership register: The government did create a beneficial ownership register- which would allow the identification of the beneficial owner of an asset regardless of whose name the title of the property is in.
- Exemption making the law weak: The law is weak since it exempts a lot of people at the discretion of the authorities.
- Also, this register is not accessible to the public.
Making multinationals and the super-rich pay their fair share of taxes
- Need to do more: Stopping the financial haemorrhage and making multinationals and the super-rich pay their fair share of taxes requires much more.
- Capital flight and consequence for the country’s development: Capital flight out of India by Indian elites and foreigners alike has been undermining our country’s development for decades.
- Outdated international system: An important part of these flows is the result of artificial profit shifting by multinational companies taking advantage of an outdated international tax system.
- How the multinationals shifts profits? These multinationals may be making profits in India but can easily declare those profits in a low tax jurisdiction like Hong Kong and justify that transaction as a payment for the use of a patent.
- The magnitude of loss-$27.5 billion: According to one estimate, this strategy represented a loss of $27.5 billion in 2014 for the Indian government, up from $142 million in 2000.
Onshore financial services and issues with it
- Paradoxical decision: Three years ago, the government took the paradoxical decision to set up onshore international financial services in the country.
- This is how the International Financial Services Centre in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT-City), Gandhinagar, emerged.
- It was modelled after offshore financial centres such as Hong Kong, Singapore, the City of London and Dubai.
- Increasing the possibility of regulatory arbitrage: While this has not created much employment, it has led to growing possibilities for regulatory arbitrage by financial firms, with potentially very problematic consequences.
The issue with the policy of tax incentives
- Little evidence of attracting investment: The government keeps granting tax incentives on a discretionary basis, even though there is little evidence that these incentives attract investment.
- What factors matters for investment: Recent research by International Monetary Fund, factors such as-
- Quality of infrastructure.
- A healthy and skilled workforce.
- Market access and-
- Political stability matters much more.
- Consequences of the policy-reduction in tax revenue: The massive reduction in corporate tax rates has thus far not led to any increase in private investment.
- But it has meant a significant reduction in tax revenues, with devastating consequences.
- Implications for health, educations etc.: Reduction in tax revenue translates into a lack of resources for education, healthcare, food and nutrition and infrastructure.
- Low tax-GDP ratio: India is already an outlier among similarly placed developing countries with its low tax-GDP ratio of 18%.
- Making the budget dependent on indirect taxes: The government budget is also highly dependent on indirect taxes like the Goods and Services Tax which are regressive and hit ordinary citizens harder.
Way forward
- Legislation to end financial opacity: Adoption of legislation and institutional reforms to end financial opacity- including, for example-
- Opening the beneficial ownership register to the public and-
- Stopping the creation of onshore tax havens is the need of the hour.
- Opening the debate on how to make the multinationals pay their fair share: The Government of India must also assume a more vocal role in the international debate about how to make multinationals pay their fair share of taxes.
- This means continuing to appeal for a United Nations tax body, which is much more legitimate than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
- The issue with the OECD’s proposal: The OECD’s proposals, published at the end of 2019, are neither ambitious nor fair enough.
- Explore the possibility of going alone: If the organisation continues to remain deaf to the demands of developing countries, India must be prepared to go it alone, thinking unilaterally about how to make multinationals pay what they owe.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-Policy framework needed to reap the benefits of demographic dividends.
Context
The demographic dividend is close to five-decade-long demographic opportunities that can be leveraged only with suitable policies and programmes
The youngest population in the world
- Median age at 28 years: By 2022, the median age in India will be 28 years.
- In comparison, it will be 37 in China and the United States.
- 45 in western Europe, and 49 in Japan.
- The demographic dividend
- The working-age population more than non-working: India’s working-age population has numerically outstripped its non-working age population.
- An extraordinary opportunity: A demographic dividend, said to have commenced around 2004-05, is available for close to five decades.
The two caveats
- The demographic dividend is an extraordinary opportunity. There are, however, two caveats.
- First: Dividend available in different states at different times.
- India’s population heterogeneity ensures that the window of demographic dividend becomes available at different times in different States.
- Example of Kerala vs. Bihar: While Kerala’s population is already ageing, in Bihar the working-age cohort is predicted to continue increasing till 2051.
- Decline in 11 major states by 2031: By 2031, the overall size of our vast working-age population would have declined in 11 of the 22 major States.
- Second: Many factors that matter for harnessing the dividend
- Factors that matter: Harnessing the demographic dividend will depend upon the-
- Employability of the working-age population.
- Health.
- Education.
- Vocational training and skill.
- Besides appropriate land and labour policies, as well as good governance.
- Demography is not destiny: India will gain from its demographic opportunity only if policies and programmes are aligned to this demographic shift. Demography is not destiny.
Need for skills
- Need for the additional jobs: The Economic Survey 2019 calls for additional jobs to keep pace with the projected annual increases in the working-age population.
- Lack of education and skills: UNICEF 2019 reports that at least 47% of Indian youth are not on track to have the education and skills necessary for employment in 2030.
- Possibility of demographic disaster: The projected demographic dividend would turn into a demographic disaster if an unskilled, under-utilised, and frustrated young population undermines social harmony and economic growth.
- Poor learning outcomes: While over 95% of India’s children attend primary school, the National Family Health Surveys (completed up to 2015-16) confirm that poor infrastructure in government schools, malnutrition, and scarcity of trained teachers have ensured poor learning outcomes.
What needs to be done?
- Adopt a uniform school system: A coordinated incentive structure prompting States to adopt a broadly uniform public school system focusing on equity and quality will yield a knowledge society faster than privatising school education can accomplish.
- Ensure training in line with the market demand: Most districts now have excellent broadband connectivity-
- Let geography not trump demography: Irrespective of a rural or urban setting, the public school system must ensure that every child completes high school education, and is pushed into appropriate skilling, training and vocational education in line with market demand.
- Invest and modernise: Modernise school curricula, systematically invest in teacher training so that they grow in their jobs to assume leadership roles while moving beyond the tyranny of the syllabus.
- Use of technology: Deploy new technology to accelerate the pace of building human capital by putting in place virtual classrooms together with massive open online courses (MOOCS) to help prepare this huge workforce for next-generation jobs.
- Investing in open digital universities would further help yield a higher educated workforce.
Focus on women
- Translating literacy into skill: Growing female literacy is not translating into relevant and marketable skills.
- A comprehensive approach is needed to improve their prospects vis-à-vis gainful employment.
- Need of the flexible policies: Flexible entry and exit policies for women into virtual classrooms, and into modules for open digital training, and vocational education would help them access contemporary vocations.
- The need for equal pay: Equal pay for women will make it worth their while to stay longer in the workforce.
- The deferred bonus: Economist Yogendra Alagh has written that the significance of this “deferred bonus” (women entering the workforce), could be higher than the immediate benefits of the dividend from shifts in population age structure.
Health care
- In India, population health is caught between the rising demand for health services and competition for scarce resources.
- Impact of economy on rural health: The National Sample Survey Office data on health (75th round, 2018), shows that a deep-rooted downturn in the rural economy is making quality health-care unaffordable.
- People are availing of private hospitals less than they used to, and are moving towards public health systems.
- Diverting public investment from However, central budget 2020-21 lays emphasis on private provisioning of health care which will necessarily divert public investment away from public health infrastructure.
- The Ayushman Bharat Yojana: It links demand to tertiary in-patient care.
- This promotes earnings of under-utilised private hospitals, instead of modernising and up-grading public health systems in each district.
- We need to assign 70% of health sector budgets to integrate and strengthen primary and integrated public health-care services and systems up to district hospital levels.
- Include out-patient department and diagnostic services in every health insurance model adopted, and-
- Implement in ‘mission mode’ the Report of the High-Level Group, 2019, submitted to the XV Finance Commission.
- The elderly population in India is projected to double from 8.6% in 2011 to 16% in 2040.
- This will sharply reduce the per capita availability of hospital beds in India across all major States unless investments in health systems address these infirmities.
Conclusion
The policies that we adopt and their effective implementation will ensure that our demographic dividend, a time-limited opportunity, becomes a boon for India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Joint Commands of the tri-services
Mains level: Need for Joint Commands
- The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Rawat said his office is working on a tentative timeline for the establishment of joint commands among the three defence services.
- With the creation of the CDS post on December 31, the government has set the ball rolling for bringing jointness and integration among the services.
What are joint commands?
- Simply put, it is a unified command in which the resources of all the services are unified under a single commander looking at a geographical theatre.
- It means that a single military commander, as per the requirements, will have the resources of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to manage a security threat.
- The commander of a joint command will have the freedom to train and equip his command as per the objective and will have logistics of all the services at his beckoning.
- The three services will retain their independent identities as well.
- A committee headed by Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar had earlier recommended three new commands: Northern, for China; Western, for the Pakistan border’ and Southern, for maritime security.
Present commands
- There are two tri-services commands at the moment.
- The joint command at the moment, the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), is a theatre command, which is headed by the chiefs of the three services in rotation.
- It was created in 2001 after a Group of Ministers had given a report on national security following the Kargil War.
- The Strategic Forces Command was established in 2006 and is a functional tri-services command.
What is the structure right now?
- There are 17 commands, divided among the three services. The Army and the Air Force have seven commands each, while the Navy has three commands.
- The commands under the Army are Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Central, Southwestern and the Army Training Command.
- The Air Force has Eastern, Western, Southern, Southwestern, Central, Maintenance and Training commands, and the Navy is divided into Western, Eastern and Southern commands.
- These commands report to their respective services and are headed by three-star officers.
- Though these commands are in the same regions, they are no located together.
Advantages of joint commands
- One of the main advantages is that the leader of unified command has control over more varied resources, compared to the heads of the commands under the services now.
- For instance, the head of one of the proposed commands, Air Defence Command, will have under him naval and Army resources, too, which can be used as per the threat perception.
- And the officer commanding the Pakistan or China border will have access to the Air Force’s fighter jets and can use them if needed.
- However, that not all naval resources will be given to the Air Defence Command, nor will all resources of the Air Force come under another proposed command, Peninsula Command, for the coasts.
- The Peninsula Command would give the Navy Chief freedom to look at the larger perspective in the entire Indian Ocean Region in which China’s presence is steadily increasing.
- The other key advantage is that through such integration and jointness the three forces will be able to avoid duplication of resources.
- The resources available under each service will be available to other services too. The services will get to know one another better, strengthening cohesion in the defence establishment.
How many such commands are expected to roll out?
- While the number of commands India needs is still being studied, the CDS has envisaged that there could be between six to nine commands. It is not certain how many land-based theatre commands on the borders will come up.
- The CDS said it will be studied, and the study group will be given the options for creating two to five theatre commands.
- One possibility is to have single commands looking at the China and Pakistan borders respectively, as they are the two major threats.
- The other option is to have a separate command for the border in the J&K region, and another command looking at the rest of the western border.
- There could be independent commands looking at the border with China which is divided by Nepal.
- A proposed Logistics Command will bring the logistics of all the service under one person, and the CDS is also looking at a Training and Doctrine Command so that all services work under a common doctrine and have some basic common training.
Do militaries of other countries have such commands?
- Several major militaries are divided into integrated theatre commands.
- China’s People’s Liberation Army has five theatre commands: Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern and Central. Its Western Theatre Command is responsible for India.
- The US Armed Forces have 11 unified commands, of which seven are geographic and four functional commands. Its geographic commands are Africa, Central, European, Indo-Pacific, Northern, Southern and Space.
- Cyber, Special Operations, Transportation and Strategic are its functional commands.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Happiness Curriculum
Mains level: Happiness Curriculum and its significance
On the upcoming visit to India, US President Trump will visit a Delhi government school, where they will attend a happiness curriculum class.
What is Delhi’s ‘happiness curriculum’?
- The curriculum calls for schools in India to promote development in cognition, language, literacy, numeracy and the arts along with addressing the well-being and happiness of students.
- It further says that future citizens need to be “mindful, aware, awakened, empathetic, firmly rooted in their identity…” based on the premise that education has a larger purpose, which cannot be in isolation from the “dire needs” of today’s society.
- For the evaluation, no examinations are conducted, neither will marks be awarded.
- The assessment under this curriculum is qualitative, focusing on the “process rather than the outcome” and noting that each student’s journey is unique and different.
Objectives of the curriculum
The objectives of this curriculum include:
- developing self-awareness and mindfulness,
- inculcating skills of critical thinking and inquiry,
- enabling learners to communicate effectively and
- helping learners to apply life skills to deal with stressful and conflicting situations around them
Learning outcomes of this curriculum
The learning outcomes of this curriculum are spread across four categories:
- becoming mindful and attentive (developing increased levels of self-awareness, developing active listening, remaining in the present);
- developing critical thinking and reflection (developing strong abilities to reflect on one’s own thoughts and behaviours, thinking beyond stereotypes and assumptions);
- developing social-emotional skills (demonstrating empathy, coping with anxiety and stress, developing better communication skills) and
- developing a confident and pleasant personality (developing a balanced outlook on daily life reflecting self-confidence, becoming responsible and reflecting awareness towards cleanliness, health and hygiene).
How is the curriculum implemented?
- The curriculum is designed for students of classes nursery through the eighth standard.
- Group 1 consists of students in nursery and KG, who have bi-weekly classes (45 minutes each for one session, which is supervised by a teacher) involving mindfulness activities and exercise.
- Children between classes 1-2 attend classes on weekdays, which involves mindfulness activities and exercises along with taking up reflective questions.
- The second group comprises students from classes 3-5 and the third group is comprised of students from classes 6-8 who apart from the aforementioned activities, take part in self-expression and reflect on their behavioural changes.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan
Mains level: Various schemes for drought management
Jalyukta Shivar, the flagship water conservation project launched by the earlier government has been officially scrapped by the present Maha government.
What is Jalyukta Shivar?
- Launched in December 2014 after Maharashtra experienced consecutive droughts, the project aimed at rolling out measures that could potentially mitigate water scarcity in the most drought-prone villages in a systematic manner.
- Nearly 52 per cent of the state’s geographical area is prone to drought, either naturally or due to poor rainfall.
- This includes Marathwada and adjoining areas of Madhya Maharashtra and large parts of Vidarbha.
- The project targeted strengthening and streamlining existing water resources like canals, bunds and ponds by arresting maximum run-off rainwater during monsoon.
- Tasks to widen and deepen natural water streams and connect them to nearby water storage facilities like earthen or concrete check-dams were proposed.
- In the first phase, planned during 2015 – 2019, Jalyukta Shivar envisaged making 5,000 villages drought-free, every year.
- During its proposed tenure, the government eyed at making 25,000 drought-prone villages water-sufficient.
Was Jalyukta Shivar beneficial?
- While the exact number of villages that were declared drought-free remains unknown, the programme attempted to bring water stress down in a majority of the most water-scarce villages in the state.
- In January last year, then CM had announced that the scheme had transformed 16,000 drought-prone villages of Maharashtra.
What is the future of water conservation in the state?
- Geologists and hydrologists, who worked on implementing the project, shared similar views and hailed Jalyukta Shivar.
- This was mainly due to the interventions undertaken in the existing water reserves, planned de-silting activities, among many others.
- However, experts agreed that the scheme was not appropriately implemented.
- Now with Jalyukta Shivar no longer in existence, focused efforts of the past five years, in most likelihood, will go down the drain unless a similar scheme is introduced.
- With rainfall variations getting more pronounced, in addition to depleting groundwater reserves, the state will need concrete interventions to tackle future water requirements.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: An-32, Biojet Fuel
Mains level: Biojet Fuel and its feasiblity
In his monthly Mann ki Baat radio address, PM hailed the use of biofuel in an Indian Air Force transport aircraft.
What did PM cite?
- IAF’s An-32 aircraft successfully used a 10% blend of Indian biojet fuel and took off from Leh’s Kushok Bakula Rimpoche Airport on January 31.
- This was the first time that this mix was used in both engines of an aircraft.
- Leh is at an altitude of 10,682 ft above mean sea level and is among the world’s highest and most difficult operational airfields.
- Even during clear weather, operating an aircraft at Leh is a challenge, given the reduced power output of the engines in the rarefied atmosphere, turbulent winds, and proximity of the mountains.
What is Biojet fuel?
- Biojet fuel is prepared from “non-edible tree borne oil” and is procured from various tribal areas of India.
- This fuel is made from Jatropha oil sourced from Chattisgarh Biodiesel Development Authority (CBDA) and then processed at CSIR-IIP, Dehradun.
- Generally, it is made from vegetable oils, sugars, animal fats and even waste biomass, and can be used in existing aviation jet engines without modification.
- Jatropha oil is suitable for conversion to jet fuel. This biojet fuel has received wide acceptance from the airline industry.
Why it matters?
- Evaluating the performance of biojet fuel under conditions prevalent in Leh was considered extremely important from an operational perspective.
- The success of the flight validated the capability of the aircraft’s engines to operate smoothly with biojet fuel at the extremities of the operational envelope.
- The tests were conducted by a team comprising test pilots from the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), Bengaluru and pilots from the operational squadrons.
- The successful test flight also demonstrated the IAF’s capability to absorb newer technology, while sponsoring indigenization.
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Note4Students
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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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bay of Bengal Offshore Sailing Expedition (BBSE)
Mains level: Not Much
Indian Naval Sailing Vessels Mhadei and Tarini set sail for the Bay of Bengal Offshore Sailing Expedition from the Indian Naval Ocean Sailing Node at Goa.
BBSE
- This would be the maiden major mixed crew sailing expedition of the Indian Navy with crew composition of five naval officers including two women officers in each boat.
- It would be covering a total distance of 6,100 Nautical miles each and will be at sea for 55 days.
- The prolonged voyage of nearly three months during this expedition would showcase harnessing of renewal energy namely wind energy to propel the boats.
- The expedition is also in pursuance of the GOI mission of ‘Nari Shakti’ providing opportunity to women officers at par with men.
- The sailing vessels as part of the expedition would make replenishment halts at ports of Phuket, Yangon, Chittagong and Colombo.
About the vessels
- Mhadei and Tarini inducted in the Indian Navy on 08 February 2009 and 18 February 2017 respectively have been the vessels of choice for the naval expeditions in various sailing expeditions, including three circumnavigations and thus have thousands of miles tucked under their belt.
- Mhadei has successfully completed two circumnavigations, three Cape to Rio trans-Atlantic races and several other expeditions around various continents.
- The vessel has covered in excess of 1,36,000 nautical miles.
- Tarini created history in 2017-18 when six Indian Naval women officers sailed the vessel on maiden circumnavigation voyage titled Navika Sagar Parikrama.
- She thereafter also participated in mixed crew Kochi to Seychelles sail training expedition during the 10th-anniversary celebration of the IONS.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Leap Year and the science behind it
Mains level: Not Much
The year 2020 is a ‘leap year’, meaning the month of February will have 29 days instead of 28, and the total number of days will be 366 instead of 365. This was also the case in 2016, and 2024 will again be a leap year.
Leap Years
- A calendar is meant to correspond to the Earth’s seasons.
- For this, the number of days in a calendar needs to match the time required by the Earth to orbit the Sun.
- The time required by the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun is approximately 365.242 days. But years are usually only 365 days.
- To adjust for the extra 0.242 days in the orbital period, which becomes almost one full day in four years, the calendar adds an extra day once every four years.
- This approximates the time to 365.25 days, which is close to the actual 365.242 days.
But is that not inaccurate?
- Yes, it is. And further adjustments are made to the Gregorian calendar, the calendar we follow today.
- The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582. Before that, the calendar followed was the Julian calendar, introduced in 45 BC.
- The calendars were different in their treatment of leap years.
- The Julian calendar had leap days every four years, but since it still did not accurately conform to the Earth’s precise orbit time, it kept falling behind with respect to natural seasons over the centuries.
- By the 16th century, the Julian calendar had fallen out of tune with the natural seasons by almost 10 days.
- To correct this discrepancy, Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 decreed that the day of October 4 that year would be followed directly by October 15 – thus covering up the error.
- The Pope also modified the leap year system in the Julian calendar. That new system came to be known as the Gregorian calendar.
What is the new system?
- In the Gregorian calendar, a century year (a year ending with 00) is not a leap year, even though it is a multiple of 4. Thus, the year 2100 will not be a leap year.
- But even this does not provide total accuracy. To ensure that, some century years remain leap years. In the Gregorian calendar, leap years include those century years which are exactly divisible by 400.
- Thus, 2000 remained a leap year even though it ended with 00.
- The Gregorian calendar reduces the margin of error under the Julian calendar, thus keeping days more in tune with seasons.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Security cooperation with the US, security concern for India over the US withdrawal from the Middle East.
Context
With the withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan and other regions, India must think about its new role in the region.
The US plans for Afghanistan and the Gulf-cause of concerns for India
- Why it matters? Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be eager to get a first-hand briefing from the US President on his plans for the Af-Pak region and the Gulf.
- These two regions are vital to India’s economic, political and military security.
- End of an important era in northwestern frontier: The impending withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and the downsizing of the American security role in the Gulf region mark the end of an important era in India’s northwestern frontiers — both land and maritime.
- Can India overcome the past reluctance? The question is whether Modi and Trump can overcome the past reluctance in both capitals to collaborate in the regions west of India.
- Suitable for both the countries: There is a good fit between-
- America’s downward adjustment in the region under Trump, and-
- India’s ambition to play a larger role in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
Broad understandingIndo-Pacific and extending it to the West
- Development in the last three years: Over the last three years of the Trump presidency, Delhi and Washington had developed a broad understanding of how to secure the Indo-Pacific that the US had defined.
- Need to extend the same to Western Indian Ocean: Officials in Delhi frequently complained that these common perspectives did not extend to the Western Indian Ocean.
- In recent weeks, though, senior US officials have said the Indo-Pacific region extends to the east coast of Africa.
- Question of strategic cooperation: Extending Indo-Pacific is not a question of defining geography but finding ways to secure common ground through strategic cooperation.
Elevation of South West Asia to the top of America’s security concerns
- Filling the vacuum created by the British Empire: As the sun set over the British empire in the east after a century and a half, the US stepped in to fill the breach.
- What began as a cautious entry into the Indian Ocean became a full-blown military power projection at the end of the 1970s.
- Other events that played an important role? The dramatic rise in oil prices, the Islamic Revolution in Iran and its threat to export it to the Arab World, and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, saw the elevation of South West Asia to the top of America’s security concerns.
- Events after Gulf War: The First Gulf War during 1990-91 saw the US intervene to restore the sovereignty of Kuwait that was swallowed by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
- 9/11 attacks: The terror attacks on September 11, 2001, invited a ferocious response from the US that ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.
The Iraq and Afghanistan war-Endless wars
- Costly failures: Notwithstanding the initial successes in both Afghanistan and Iraq, there is a growing consensus in the US that these occupations have been costly failures.
- Trump has been among the first political leaders in the US to call these wars initiated by a Republican predecessor in the White House as “stupid”.
- The promise of ending the endless wars: During his presidential campaign in 2016 and since Trump has promised to end the “endless wars” in the Greater Middle East and bring the boys back home.
- It is an idea that has found considerable resonance among Democrats.
- Focusing on great power competition instead of small wars: While the security establishment is not willing to give up, US is now focusing more on the great power competition with Russia and China than the small wars that had preoccupied it over the last three decades.
- The Oil factor: The steep decline in US energy dependence on the Gulf, too, has reduced the salience of the region in Washington.
Three consequence of the change in the US policy
- Cutting down the military commitments
- The Middle East and Africa: Trump has been cutting down military commitments in the Middle East and Africa.
- His officials are about to sign an agreement with the Taliban that provides for American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
- Maritime front: On the maritime front, Trump has called on all major powers, especially those importing oil from the Gulf, to contribute to the security of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
- How it matters for India?
- Challenges of limiting the consequences: The challenge for Indian policymakers has been to limit the consequences of what seems a definitive turn in US policy.
- Chance to extend the own role: It should also be about seizing the possibilities for expanding India’s own role in the western marches of the Subcontinent.
- To expand its role Delhi needs to make a few important shifts in its own thinking.
- One, it must overcome the still powerful belief in sections of the Indian establishment that the US-Pakistan relationship is unchanging.
- The US tilt toward India and away from Pakistan: Over the last two decades, there has been a tilt in US policies away from Pakistan and towards India.
- For instance, the US pressures on Pakistan to vacate the Kargil heights, an exclusive nuclear exemption to India and efforts to rein in Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism during the Obama years.
- Support in Trump period: Trump went further to acknowledge that Pakistan is part of the problem in Afghanistan and turned up the heat on Pakistan’s support for terrorism.
- He has supported India’s efforts at the UNSC to bring Masood Azhar to book in the face of Chinese resistance.
- Helped India isolate Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force.
- Prevented the UNSC from discussing Kashmir.
- But India must also recognise: That there will be a measure of cooperation between the US and Pakistan.
- Delhi’s focus should, instead, be on expanding its own security cooperation with the US in the troubled lands to the west of India.
- India needs to prepare for a larger security role in Afghanistan
- Question of being at the next-door: Trump has been asking a simple question: If India is next door to Afghanistan, should it not be doing more for Afghan security?
- Need to explore the options: The NDA government has stepped up security assistance to Kabul. As Afghanistan enters a turbulent phase, regional and other powers are bound to fill the vacuum left by the US.
- There are many options– between doing nothing and sending the Indian army into Afghanistan- that Delhi and Washington could discuss.
- Need to increase Naval activity
- Increased role as regional security provider: Delhi has already stepped up its naval activity within the Gulf and beyond as part of its emergence as a regional security provider.
- Cooperation with others: Effectiveness of India’s role will rise manifold if it acts in concert with the US and other partners.
- Modi and Trump could begin by laying the political foundation for such cooperation.
Conclusion
At the beginning of Trump’s term, sceptics dismissed the prospects for India-US security cooperation in the eastern Indian Ocean and the Pacific, but progress has been steady. That cooperation can and must be extended now to the Western Indian Ocean.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Success of Swachh Bharat Mission and replicating it in Jal Jeevan Mission.
Context
After the success of the SBM, government is looking for the next mission in the form of Jal Jeevan Mission.
Investment in Sanitation
- Investment of over 1 lakh crore: The central and state governments have invested in excess of one lakh crore on sanitation over the past five years.
- Where the fund was used? A majority of these funds have gone towards-
- Incentivising the poor and marginalised households to construct and use household toilets.
- Bringing about behaviour change, and-
- Building capacities of field functionaries.
- The success of the mission: Over 10 crore toilets have been built in rural India and nearly 55 crore people have stopped defecating in the open, all in just five years.
- This has contributed in bringing down global open defecation by more than half.
- Return on the investment in sanitation: The returns on these investments have been manifold, and their effects on the broader economy, markets and employment have been significant.
- 400 % return: The UNICEF recently estimated that investments in sanitation in India are yielding a 400 per cent return with each rural household in an open-defecation-free village saving Rs 50,000 on account of avoided medical costs and time savings.
- Future prospects for the sanitation infrastructure: The Toilet Board Coalition has estimated that the sanitation infrastructure and services market in India will be worth over $60 billion by 2021.
- Many new jobs, even in the most rural areas of the country, apart from reducing health and environmental costs and generating savings for households.
- Growth in the sanitation-related business: The business of manufacturing toilet-related hardware accessories have reported huge growth in sales during the SBM period.
- They project a continued uptrend through retrofitting and upgrades.
- This has been corroborated by another recent study by UNICEF in which they have estimated that SBM has resulted in creating over 75 lakh full-time equivalent jobs over the past five years, giving the rural economy a major boost.
A milestone, not a finish-line
- Sustaining the success: The government is committed to ensuring that this success is sustained.
- On October 2, 2019, the prime minister said that we must all ensure that people continue to use toilets and that no one is left behind.
- Allocation of 10,000 crores in the Budget: This has been backed up by the finance minister in the budget for 2020-21.
- In the budget, she announced about Rs 10,000 crore for rural sanitation to focus on-
- ODF sustainability.
- Bio-degradable waste management.
- Greywater management.
- Sludge management and-
- Plastic waste management for all villages by 2024.
Next Mission- Piped Water Supply
- Jal Jeevan Mission: The next critical basic service, is piped water supply. On Independence day this year, the prime minister announced the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).
- With the goal of ensuring piped water supply for all households of India by 2024 and with a commitment of Rs 3.6 lakh crore of central and state funds for the scheme.
- The budgetary allocation of 12,000 crores: In the Union budget for 2020-2021, the government has already allocated Rs 11,500 crore for JJM, with an additional Rs 12,000 crore being made available through extra-budgetary resources.
- Earmarking 50% grants for drinking water and sanitation: In addition, a huge impetus to the rural water supply and sanitation sector is the earmarking of 50 per cent of the Rs 60,750 crore grant for rural local bodies provided under the Fifteenth Finance Commission for drinking water and sanitation.
- Making local bodies more responsible: This will ensure that the gram panchayats and local communities are responsible for the upkeep of their water and sanitation infrastructure, providing a boost to the sustainability of service delivery to people.
- Making sanitation and water supply everyone’s business: This approach will ensure that just like sanitation, provision of water supply and its upkeep will also become everyone’s business.
Conclusion
It is fairly clear now that investment in sanitation is actually a facilitator for broader economic, health and social gains. The government should ensure the sustainability of SBM and replicate its success in implementing the JJM.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-India-US, Importance for India, issues involved.
Context
It is clearer than perhaps ever before in recent times, that New Delhi needs the continued support of the U.S. government on almost everything substantial that matters to India in its quest to be a power of substance in the international system.
Preparing for Trump 2.0
- The world may have to deal with Mr Trump for four more years after the end of his present term this year.
- Where India can benefit from constructive ties with the US?
- A fairer trade regime.
- Accessing cutting-edge technology.
- The fight against terrorism.
- Stabilising our region.
- New Delhi stands to benefit from constructive ties on all issues, given a more sensitive United States.
- India must, therefore, seek greater understanding and engagement should there be a Trump 2.0.
- Understanding the asymmetrical partnership: Asymmetrical partnerships, as we know from history, are rarely easy.
- Partnership with the superpowers: Partnerships with superpowers are even more difficult; in international politics, as in life, even the best of unequal relationships results in a loss of some dignity and autonomy.
Why the partnership with the US matters for India?
- The growing influence of China in Indo-Pacific: Without the United States, the region could become willy-nilly part of a new Chinese tributary system.
- Chance of more organic rule-based order: With a fully engaged United States, the region has at least the chance of creating a more organic rules-based order.
- Past consequences for India: the history of “estrangement” with the United States, during the Cold War, has had consequences for vital national interests that continue to cast their shadow on the present.
- Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
- Nuclear non-proliferation.
- Festering of the Pakistan “problem”.
- The Chinese humiliation of 1962, are just a few examples.
- Change in the perception over the US: But much of course has changed today.
- Anti–Americanism is outdate: Anti-Americanism, once the conventional wisdom of the Indian elite, seems outdated.
- Close alignment with the US: New Delhi has, over the decades, gone on to align itself more closely with Washington.
- Opinion in favour of the stronger ties: More important, both within India and in the U.S., the consensus across the mainstream of political opinion favours stronger relations between the two countries.
Pro-US tilt of the Indian Foreign policy
- A survey suggests support for Trump: According to the latest Pew Surveys of Global Opinion, support for Mr Trump in India is high enough to suggest a great deal of public affection for the American President.
- That itself is a marker of the way India and Indians now see the world.
- Reason for the change in geo-strategic change: The reason for the change in New Delhi’s geostrategic outlook can be summarised quickly.
- If the 1971 Friendship Treaty with the Soviet Union was a response to the continuing U.S. tilt towards Pakistan and the beginnings of a Washington-Beijing entente.
- China factor: At present, it is the prospect of a potentially hegemonic China in the Indo-Pacific region is helping to cement the relationship.
- Beijing has managed to alienate nearly all its neighbours and allies, except North Korea and Pakistan.
- Gains made in bilateral ties in the last 3 years:
- COMCASA– A foundational military agreement that allows for the sharing of encrypted communications and equipment.
- Export control law relaxation: A change in U.S. export control laws that places India in a privileged category of NATO and non-NATO U.S. allies;
- 2+2 dialogue: New ‘2+2’ foreign and defence ministers dialogue.
- Oil export to India: An exponential increase in U.S. oil exports to India.
- Tri-lateral military exercise: The inauguration of the first India-U.S. tri-service military exercise and expansion of existing military exercises.
- The signing of Industrial Security Annex: The signing of an Industrial Security Annex that will allow for greater collaboration among the two countries’ private defence industries.
- Inclusion of India in a U.S. security Initiative: The inclusion of India and South Asia in a U.S. Maritime Security Initiative.
Preparing for the President from Democratic Party
- There is, of course, a chance that we may have a Democratic President next year.
- Bipartisan support in the US: In those circumstances, we can only hope that the bipartisan consensus on engaging India will prevail.
- To be sure, however, a new President will seek to put his/her own imprimatur on the relationship.
- Democrats and the Human Right issue: The Democrats will clearly be more proactive on human rights and on issues of inclusion and diversity, which would make a greater demand on India and test its capacity and creativity.
- Indian diaspora: India, of course, continue engaging with its strongest source of support in the United States: the Indian diaspora.
- Fortunately, there is a near consensus on the need to strengthen this constituency.
Conclusion
In any case, there is little doubt that whoever is the next occupant of the White House, a retreat from multilateralism (especially on trade-related issues) and concern about China will continue to be the two main pillars of contemporary American foreign policy. If for only those reasons, Mr Trump’s reason has undeniable significance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF), Spectrograph
Mains level: HPF and its applications
At 100 light-years from Earth, a low-mass star was sending signals in a pattern that suggested that an exoplanet was orbiting the star confirmed the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF).
Habitable-zone Planet Finder
- NASA’s Kepler mission observed a dip in the host star’s light, suggesting that the planet was crossing in front of the star during its orbit.
- To confirm, researchers turned to an instrument called Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF). It has confirmed that there is indeed an exoplanet.
- HPF is an astronomical spectrograph, built by Penn State University scientists, and recently installed on the 10m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas.
- The instrument is designed to detect and characterize planets in the habitable zone — the region around the star where a planet could sustain liquid water on its surface — around nearby low-mass stars.
- The newly confirmed planet, called G 9-40b, is the first one validated by HPF. It is about twice the size of Earth and orbits its star once every six Earth-days.
How it works
- A spectrograph is an instrument that splits light into its component wavelengths.
- Scientists then measure the properties of light over a specific portion of the spectrum and draw conclusions on what is responsible for the trends they observe.
Why need HPF?
- Kepler’s observations alone were not enough to confirm a planet. It was possible that a close stellar companion was responsible for the dip in the star’s light.
- Precision spectroscopic observations from HPF ruled out this possibility.
- Shooting a high-power laser into the air, researchers generated a “laser guide star”, and subsequent observations found no evidence of blending of light or other stellar companions.
- Finally, using HPF, an analysis of a set of radial velocities helped provide estimates for the planet’s mass.
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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: Tilhan Mission, Oilseed production in India
Mains level: Not Much
The government will launch Tilhan Mission to make the country self-reliant in oilseed production.
Why such mission?
- India is the fourth largest vegetable oil economy in the world after the USA, China and Brazil.
- Today, the oilseeds account for 13% of the cropped area in the country.
- Still, India is the largest importer of palm oil in the world.
Oilseed production in India
- Total Oilseeds production in the country during 2019-20 is estimated at 34.19 million tonnes which is higher by 2.67 million tonnes than the production of 31.52 million tonnes during 2018-19.
- Further, the production of oilseeds during 2019-20 is higher by 4.54 million tonnes than the average oilseeds production.
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