Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: e-VTOLs.
Mains level: Paper 3- Recovery strategy after Covid-19 and adoption of green technologies.
The article discusses the recovery strategies for India. There are three examples from the past from which we can draw the lessons. 1) Recovery of the US and Europe after the World Wars 2) Recovery of Japan after World War 3) China’s stimulus package after the 2008 financial crisis. In the case of the first two, climate change was not the factor. But in case of the 2008 financial package, China emphasised green technologies and was benefited from it. Drawing on China’s example, the article suggests three pronged strategy for India’s recovery taking into account the climate change factor.
Decisions on recovery and lessons from the past recovery frameworks
- The decisions and directions taken by states from hereon will be judged ruthlessly by historical lenses.
- Though India has managed the pandemic with relative precision, we cannot deny an impending emergence of a new socio-economic order, where the recovery is going to be hard-earned.
- This is not the first time the world has faced an economic crisis and won’t be the last.
- Can a country like India, which might be one of the few countries to come out of the crisis without a recession, take lessons from past recovery frameworks?
- Recovery frameworks: Even though the very nature of the current health crisis is much different from the past crises like World Wars and their repercussions in Europe, the US and Japan.
- But the evidence shows that ambitious recovery plans made these nation-states more prosperous than the pre-crisis period.
Recovery lessons form the western world after the World Wars
- Hurt by the two World Wars and a Great Depression in between, the western world demonstrated unprecedented recovery to attain post-war full employment and stabilized income levels.
- Almost thirty years between World War II and 1973 recession (“Glorious Thirties“), the countries like the US, Canada, Germany, and France experienced a golden period of growth.
- In the US, the labour productivity grew at 2.82% per year which meant that productivity doubled every 25 years thanks to better machines driven by electricity and internal combustion engines, better education and massive capital investment.
- The world wars accelerated technological innovations in energy, manufacturing and vastly improved the labour pool.
Recovery of Japan after World War
- Severely hit by the war, Japan’s miraculous growth from 1950 to 1990 is another example of a state using great adversity to propel itself towards prosperity.
- Post-war liberalization was augmented by multilateral trade agreements and export promotion schemes.
- That propelled the Japanese economy to dizzying heights making it the second-largest economy at the time.
- Apart from fiscal stimuli, immense efforts went into strengthening human capital by promoting R&D and skilling activities.
- Suddenly, Japan becomes one of the most ingenious economies churning out one innovative product after another in fields like electronics.
- In addition, pioneering quality systems made Japan the first Asian economy to become a developed state.
Recoveries based on values and technological innovations
- All the above recoveries are rooted in modern values like create, explore and meet challenges.
- While large investments garner a lot of attention, role played by massive skilling and resultant technological innovation should not be forgotten.
- Skilling and innovation enabled creating goods and services of the future.
Climate change and recovery
- These successful recovery plans did not have the responsibility to plan for an impending climate change hanging over our head by a thread.
- The times were different; the needs were different: more importantly, the evidences were not as irrefutable as now.
- A 2018 study titled ‘Earth’s future’, estimated that India will lose 10% of its GDP annually in a 3°C scenario and lose 14% of its GDP annually in a 4°C scenario in the long term.
- And the time to act is ‘now’, as consequences of inaction are existential.
China’s stimulus after the 2008 crisis with a focus on green technologies
- Fast-forwarding to the 21st century, the 2008–09 Chinese economic stimulus plan pumped in $586 billion to manage the crisis.
- With serious money of $586 billion going into upgrading selected industrial sectors to firm up its presence in the global value chains (GVC).
- Interestingly, a sizeable portion went into green technologies.
- China understood that if the world is provided with affordable green technologies at scale, the states will incentivize the increasingly eco-aware consumers to buy these products.
- Catalyzed by plans like “Ten Cities, Thousand Vehicles and “Thousand Talents Program (TTP)” and generous state incentives, China became a global leader in e-vehicles.
- Chinese-made buses started roaming famous cities across the world, the roads traditionally dominated by European makers.
- Powered by generous capital infusion, China also attained leadership in solar panels, batteries and associated supply chains in a short period setting up a sustainable growth module.
- A lesson in fiscal prudence: The 2008–09 Chinese economic stimulus plan is also criticized for raising the Chinese debt levels, hence giving us lessons in fiscal prudence.
Should India opt for a green recovery module?
- Can a developing India afford to allocate a significant portion of its precious resources towards a green recovery module?
- Unbridled economic growth and sustainable development are not mutually exclusive.
- In fact, we might not have a choice, given the movement of global supply chain towards green technologies and tightening screws around strict sustainability standards.
- European Commission, for instance, has announced that every euro into the recovery plan will be linked to green recovery.
A three-pronged approach is suggested for recovery
1. Investment and incentives for green economic activities in the selected sectors
- First, ambitious investment and incentives in catalyzing futuristic green economic activities in selected sectors.
- Developing, manufacturing and deploying low carbon products could help India create more jobs: the kind of jobs that will survive into the future.
- With Giga scale battery and solar manufacturing plans already underway, there is a huge demand globally for sustainable supply chain of even traditional sectors such as textiles.
- India could choose 5 sectors where it can fill the sustainability vacuum helping the sub-continent emerge as a new global leader in those sectors.
- India has the potential to scale-up currently ready technologies like e-VTOLs (intra-city electric aerial mobility), which will upend the global mobility modules, increasing the profitability of growing Indian e-mobility supply chain.
- Companies like Hyundai who have already announced manufacturing of e-VTOLs should be attracted to India.
- Crisis situations often provide policy windows, where all the stakeholders are empowered, and historically time-consuming decisions are fast-forwarded.
- If India manages to efficiently remove regulatory bottlenecks and creates standards for e-VTOLs before anyone else, it will take a huge chunk of the global future mobility pie.
- Similar initiatives for other strategic sectors could be carried out.
2. Resolve regulatory and on-ground legacy issues
- Aggressively resolving on-ground legacy issues and challenges.
- Shackles around entrepreneurship from labour laws to clearances regimes should be broken one by one.
- It could be done by leveraging the cooperative and competitive federalism evidenced through the crisis under the able leadership of the Hon’ble Prime Minister.
- And the current policy window might be an ideal opportunity for Indian democracy to deliver.
3. Focus on skilling people
- Third, a big-ticket omni-channel skilling architecture should be instituted.
- Universities should be empowered and enabled to come up with new-age educational programmes to serve futuristic industries.
- A special focus should be given to develop enough trainers to train the millions of Indian youth getting ready for the labour market every year, in new-age skills.
- Adequate online-offline training courses must be designed in a way that it does not affect daily wages drastically.
- The big-ticket vocational programmes, specially directed at the informal sector which constitute more than 90% of the total workforce, has the potential to employ displaced and poor labourers.
- A strategic skill committee may be empowered to dynamically identify key skills and tweak the training modules.
- This can be integrated with the Ministry of Environment’s Green Skill Development Program to train 10 million youth by 2030.
The issues discussed here are important for achieving sustainable and inclusive growth. A question based on this theme was asked by UPSC in 2019.
Consider the question “It is argued that the strategy of inclusive growth is intended to meet the objectives of inclusiveness and sustainability together. Comment on this statement.”
Conclusion
The current pandemic calls for deep-set forces and scientific concepts of development for building a dynamic and modern economy. Green growth is one such concept that will add a new dimension to the economic dynamism of the sub-continent helping it serve the aspirations of its citizens.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TRIPS.
Mains level: Paper 3- How Covid-19 could impact the intellectual property rights?
The article discusses the idea of creating a patent pool of the patents dealing with Covid-19. Such a patent pool will be effective in avoiding the possibility of the hostile response of societies towards patent rights. And also avoid the conflict between nations. corporations and international organisations.
Purpose of patent rights
- The purpose of creating and recognising patent rights is for the common public good, i.e., innovation should be made public in exchange for a limited monopoly.
- Thus, patents need to be disclosed to the public in order to enable further research.
- Should pandemics such as COVID-19be an exception to this?
- With the outbreak of COVID-19, there are several innovations.
- All these innovations may be the subject matter of patent applications around the world.
- It will be a few years before patents are even granted.
- However, friction already exists among various stakeholders.
- For instance, one country made attempts to obtain exclusive rights to a vaccine being developed.
- On the other hand, there are also collaborations taking place.
- However, the spirit of collaborative solutions is only on the anvil.
- The question that arises is whether the exclusivity that is recognised by patent rights will be detrimental to society.
- Will patents create roadblocks or is there a solution?
Possibility of conflicts over patent rights
- Governments and international organisations need to arrive at a consensus in advance to ensure that the system is ready.
- Procrastination would be disastrous.
- Creating hindrances through exclusivity claims, in the wake of a pandemic, will result in dividing countries, corporations and international organisations.
- This will not benefit patients and the world as a whole.
- If patent owners create impediments on the strength of patent rights, the world will start despising patents and that is not a situation IP owners ought to be in.
- Under the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) regime, there are several tools such as compulsory licensing that are available to ensure access to medicines.
- However, beyond the laws, society needs to respect innovation.
- To protect the sanctity and integrity of patent systems, and in order to ensure that an anti-IP sentiment is not generated globally, answers need to be found within the existing regime.
- In exceptional circumstances such as these, there is a likelihood that societies may resort to extreme steps to protect themselves.
- Before such ideas are floated, solutions should be created.
The idea of creating a patent pool
- One method by which aggregation and dissemination of innovative products can be ensured is by creating a patent pool.
- Patent pools are usually effective in aggregating, administering and licensing patents related to specific areas of technology.
- Such pools are usually managed by a central agency and the patents which become part of the pool are readily made available for licensing.
- Some pools even publish the royalty rates payable for such licences.
- Anyone who wishes to obtain a licence will be able to approach the pool, agree to the terms, and begin to manufacture and sell the products.
- Such pools are prevalent in, for instance, standard essential patents related to telecom and digital innovations.
- At the moment, individual efforts are being made by research organisations to create their own pools.
- A more fruitful endeavour would be to create a global pool of COVID-19-related innovations, or innovations related to rare pandemics, in respect of vaccines and medicines.
- This could be managed by a trustworthy international organisation.
- All countries ought to have the right to implement these innovations without further permission from the patent-holders.
- This would not require countries resorting to provisions such as compulsory licensing, state acquisition, etc.
- Even if royalties are at a minimal level, the revenues would still be in billions of dollars owing to the large swathes of the population affected by the pandemic, who will need to be administered these products.
Way forward
- Creation of a pool and immediate licensing will ensure that there are hundreds of manufacturers across the world.
- As a result, vaccines and medicines will be quickly available.
- Such a pool needs the cooperation of not just countries and international organisations but also the hundreds of researchers, innovators, companies and universities involved.
- Doha Declaration: Pooling of patent resources is also in line with the Doha Declaration on Public Health which is a part of the TRIPS agreement.
- This declaration recognises the need for taking measures to ‘protect public health’ and ‘promote access to medicines’.
A direct question on the issue can be asked by the UPSC, for ex-“Though IPRs have been provided to respect and protect the innovations and ideas, but in the wake of corona crisis, some strict provisions need to be changed. In light of the above statement, discuss the limitations of the exclusivity clause under the patents rights. And how can it be overcome in emergency situations?”
Conclusion
Public-private partnerships (PPP) need to be scaled up. Creation of the ‘PPP-pandemic patent pool’ at a global level, to pool all innovations, is the way forward. Let us not wait any longer.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Convalescent plasma therapy.
Mains level: Paper 3- What is plasma therapy and issues involved in its adoption.
The article discusses the issues with convalescent plasma therapy. The therapy has been in the news as a cure to Covid-19. The lack of conclusive evidence is a major issue. There are certain risks involved in large scale adoption. All such issues are dealt with in detail here.
Importance of scientific research in dealing with Covid-19
- The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to governments, health professionals and the general public at large, around the world.
- Every response, administrative, social, economic or medical is being subjected to intense public scrutiny, as it rightly should be in the spirit of mature democracy.
- Scientific research in medicine is the only means to overcome novel and complex diseases such as COVID-19 and that too thrives on the same spirit of debate and criticism.
- Difficulty in establishing protocols: The difference is that the standards of evidence required, to generate consensus and arrive at the most optimal protocols, are far more rigorous and time-taking than in most other walks of life.
Issues with plasma therapy
- The convalescent plasma therapy, that is being currently studied by the Indian Council of Medical Research, through open-label, randomised controlled trial to evaluate it for both safety and efficacy.
- The problem with the therapy is of the lack of established protocols.
- What is involved in therapy? The therapy involves infusing patients suffering from COVID-19 with plasma from recovered patients.
- In theory, the antibodies of the recovered person may help that patient’s immune system fight the virus.
- While showing great promise, it is a line of treatment that is yet to be validated for efficacy and safety and cannot be deployed widely without caution.
- The current evidence to conclude anything about the true benefits of this therapy is very thin.
- Till date, there have been only three published case series for convalescent plasma in COVID-19 with a cumulative of 19 patients.
- Given the very small number of patients involved in these studies and a publication bias in medicine, we cannot conclude the therapy will work on all patients all the time or even believe that the convalescent plasma was the only reason for their improvement.
- The most important principle in medical ethics is “do no harm”.
- The transfusion of convalescent plasma is also not without risks, which range from mild reactions like fever, itching, to life-threatening allergic reactions and lung injury.
- To recommend a therapy without studying it thoroughly with robust scientific methods may cause more harm than good.
- Further, convalescent plasma therapy requires intensive resources, healthy COVID-19 survivors to donate, a blood bank with proper machinery and trained personnel to remove plasma, equipment to store it and testing facilities to make sure it has an adequate amount of antibodies.
Need for the Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT)
- To say with certainty whether a drug is truly effective or not, the gold standard in medicine is to conduct a randomised controlled trial.
- In RCT half the patients get the experimental drug and the other half do not.
- Only if patients in the first half show substantial improvement over those in the second half, it indicates the drug is beneficial.
Exploring other options and focusing on health infrastructure
- Too much focus on one approach can take away the focus from other important therapeutic modalities like the use of oxygen therapy, antivirals, and antibiotics for complicated hospital courses.
- To overcome the pandemic comprehensively, we should focus on strengthening health systems at all levels, including referral systems, supply chain, logistics and inventory management.
- We need to work on protecting our healthcare workers, improving prevention methods, promoting cough etiquettes, effective quarantining and accurate testing.
A direct question based on the therapy like- “What is convalescent plasma therapy and what are the issues involved in its adoption?” can be asked by the UPSC.
Conclusion
Even these times of collective uncertainty are no reason to lower scientific temper. Science should be driven by reason and evidence with hope as a catalyst but not by either fear or populism. Pushing one or the other therapy without evidence or caution can only set back our larger fight against COVID-19.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mekon River
Mains level: India-China Relations
A new study highlighting the impact of China’s dams on the Mekong River has raised fresh questions on whether dams being built on other rivers that originate in China, such as the Brahmaputra, may similarly impact countries downstream.
Make a note of:
1) Tributaries of R. Brahmaputra
2) Countries swept by R. Mekong
3) Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (reminds us seeing R. Mekong)
China’s dams on the Mekong River
- The Mekong flows from China to Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
- The Mekong River Commission, which comprises Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, has said more scientific evidence was needed to establish whether dams caused a 2019 drought.
- While China’s southwestern Yunnan province which usually has above-average rainfall, there was “severe lack of water in the lower Mekong.
Mekong dams raise some questions
- The Mekong study was not conclusive on the question of how China’s dams had affected the quantity of flows.
- To state that the basin had less water because of activities in China alone is misleading, mainly because that only considers the water flowing into the lower basin at one station in Thailand.
- The study did not consider other dams and water-use along the course of the river.
- The lower basin isn’t entirely dependent on flows from China but also receives water from tributaries in all four countries, which the study did not account for.
Concerns for India
- India does not have a water-sharing agreement with China, but both sides share hydrological data.
- India has long expressed concerns over dam-building on the Brahmaptura.
- In 2015, China operationalised its first hydropower project at Zangmu, while three other dams at Dagu, Jiexu and Jiacha are being developed.
- India need to raise the issue of river waters in the Brahmaputra with China, as that appears to be the only methodology to ensure what happened on Mekong does not happen on Brahmaputra.
A management problem
- The dams are not likely to impact the quantity of the Brahmaputra’s flows because they are only storing water for power generation.
- Moreover, the Brahmaputra is not entirely dependent on upstream flows and an estimated 35% of its basin is in India.
- However, India concerns more about activity in China affecting quality, ecological balance, and flood management.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Permanent Missions to the UN
Mains level: Terms of reference for the mission
Syed Akbaruddin, a fiery spokesperson, who is credited with effectively presenting India’s position on a range of crucial issues at the UN headquarters in New York for the last several years, has retired. A 1985-batch IFS officer T S Tirumurti, currently serving as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs will succeed him.
Permanent Missions to the United Nations
- The Permanent Mission is the diplomatic mission that every member state deputies to the UN, and is headed by a Permanent Representative, who is also referred to as the “UN ambassador”.
- Article 1 (7) of the Vienna Convention on the Representation of States provides for a permanent mission.
- UN Permanent Representatives are assigned to the UN headquarters in New York City, and can also be appointed to other UN offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi.
- The Mission in New York is housed in a 27-story building designed by the noted architect Charles Correa in 1993 and is decorated with MF Hussain paintings.
The Indian Permanent Mission at the UN
- According to the website of the Permanent Mission of India in New York, there are currently eight Indians in senior leadership positions at the UN at the levels of Under-Secretary-General and Assistant Secretary-General.
- The first Indian delegates at the UN included statesman Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar, and freedom fighters Hansa Mehta, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, and Lakshmi Menon.
- Mehta and Pandit were among the 15 women members of the Indian Constituent Assembly.
- India was among the select members of the United Nations that signed the United Nations Declaration at Washington on January 1, 1942.
- India also participated in the historic UN Conference of International Organization at San Francisco from April 25 to June 26, 1945.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: The Haymarket incident, Singaravelu Chettiar, Self Respect Movement
Mains level: Labour reforms in India before and after independence
Today (May 1) is May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day and as Labour Day in different parts of the world. It is an occasion that commemorates the contributions of workers and the historic labour movement.
Personality based history question in the UPSC CSE prelims is on the way to become the new normal. Kindly note all such phenomena in the news which tend to invoke some aspects of the modern Indian history. You can find all such news here.
The Haymarket incident
- While observed as an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival, May 1 became associated with the labour movement in the late 19th century, after trade unions and socialist groups designated it as a day in support of workers.
- It was decided to do so in memory of the Haymarket affair of 1886, in Chicago in the United States, in which a peaceful rally in support of workers led to a violent clash with the police, leading to the deaths of 4 civilians and 7 police officers.
- Many of the agitationists, who were protesting workers’ rights violations, straining work hours, poor working conditions, low wages and child labour, were arrested and served terms of life imprisonment, death sentences, etc., and those who died were hailed as “Haymarket Martyrs”.
- The incident is believed to have given the workers’ movement a great impetus.
Linked to the Russian Revolution
- In 1889, The Second Communist International, an organisation created by socialist and labour parties, declared that May 1 would be commemorated as International Workers’ Day from then on.
- Finally, in 1916, the US began to recognise eight-hour work timings after years of protests and uprisings.
- In 1904, the International Socialist Congress at Amsterdam called on to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day.
- After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the celebration was embraced by the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc nations during the Cold War– becoming a national holiday in many of them.
- Parades were a part of the celebration– the one at Moscow’s Red Square was attended by top Communists leaders and displayed Soviet military might.
Indian Case
- In India, May Day was first celebrated on May 1, 1923, after the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan initiated and Comrade Singaravelar (Singaravelu Chettiar) helmed the celebrations.
- Chettiar was known for being one of the leaders of Self Respect Movement in the Madras Presidency and for his fight for the rights of backward classes.
- In one of his meetings, Chettiar passed a resolution stating the government should allow everybody a national holiday on Labour Day.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Earths magnetosphere
Mains level: Earths magnetosphere and its significance for space missions
Scientists at the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) have developed a generalized one-dimensional fluid simulation code capable of studying a wide spectrum of coherent electric field structures of earth’s magnetosphere which can be useful in the planning of future space missions.
The newscard talks of not so new phenomenon but a basic terminology of space sciences. Kindly make a note of what the Magnotesphere is, how it is formed, role of solar winds, Geodynamo etc.
Earth’s Magnetosphere
- The magnetosphere is the region of space surrounding Earth where the dominant magnetic field is the magnetic field of Earth, rather than the magnetic field of interplanetary space.
- It is generated by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth’s magnetic field.
Features of the Earth’s magnetosphere
1) Bow shock,
2) Magnetosheath,
3) Magnetopause,
4) Northern tail lobe,
5) Southern tail lobe,
6) Plasmasphere,
7) Solar wind.
How is it formed?
- Sun is the major source of plasma deposition in space around the Earth. Sun forces some of its plasma towards the earth in the form of the solar wind.
- The speed of this wind varies between 300 to 1500 km/s, which carries with it solar magnetic field, called as Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF).
- The magnetic field is generated by electric currents due to the motion of convection currents of a mixture of molten iron and nickel in the Earth’s outer core.
- These convection currents are caused by heat escaping from the core, a natural process called a geodynamo.
Why study the magnetosphere?
- The Earth’s magnetosphere is a vast region which has a finite number of satellites hurtling through this realm.
- The morphology of the plasma processes around the satellite can be understood quite well.
- However, when they leave the observational domain of one satellite to enter into another, a vast blind arena is created.
- How the morphology of these processes changes over space and time can be ideally deciphered only through computer simulations.
Outcome of the study
- Almost 99% of matter in the universe is in the form of plasma, Earth’s magnetosphere, too, contains this material and the plasma.
- They have the ability to hamper the working of a number of satellites that have been placed in orbit in the magnetospheric region.
Significance
- Apart from the well being of these expensive satellites, the academic understanding of this region is quite essential to comprehend the cosmos in its entirety.
- The study will help advance the knowledge of plasma waves, instabilities, and coherent effects associated with wave-particle interactions that are useful in planning of future space missions.
- It can also lead to precisely controlled fusion laboratory experiments for ever-expanding energy needs of humanity.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GI mentioned in the news
Mains level: Not Much
Chak-Hao, the black rice of Manipur and the Gorakhpur terracotta and the Kovilpatti kadalai mittai of Tamil Nadu have bagged the Geogrphical Indication (GI) tag.
Must read: GI Tags in news for 2020 Prelims
Chak-Hao
- Chak-Hao, the scented glutinous rice which has been in cultivation in Manipur over centuries.
- It is characterized by its special aroma. It is normally eaten during community feasts and is served as Chak-Hao kheer.
- The application for Chak-Hao was filed by the Consortium of Producers of Chak-Hao (Black Rice), Manipur and was facilitated by the Department of Agriculture.
- Chak-Hao has also been used by traditional medical practitioners as part of traditional medicine.
- According to the GI application filed, this rice takes the longest cooking time of 40-45 minutes due to the presence of a fibrous bran layer and higher crude fibre content.
- At present, the traditional system of Chak-Hao cultivation is practised in some pockets of Manipur.
- Direct sowing of pre-soaked seeds and also transplantation of rice seedlings raised in nurseries in puddled fields are widely practised in the State’s wetlands.
Gorakhpur terracotta
- The terracotta work of Gorakhpur is a centuries-old traditional art form, where the potters make various animal figures like, horses, elephants, camel, goat, ox, etc. with hand-applied ornamentation.
- The application was filed by Laxmi Terracotta Murtikala Kendra in Uttar Pradesh.
- Some of the major products of craftsmanship include the Hauda elephants, Mahawatdar horse, deer, camel, five-faced Ganesha, singled-faced Ganesha, elephant table, chandeliers, hanging bells etc.
- The entire work is done with bare hands and artisans use natural colour, which stays fast for a long time.
- There are more than 1,000 varieties of terracotta work designed by the local craftsmen.
- The craftsmen are mainly spread over the villages of Aurangabad, Bharwalia, Langadi Gularia, Budhadih, Amawa, Ekla etc. in Bhathat and Padri Bazar, Belwa Raipur, Jungle Ekla No-1, Jungle Ekla No-2 in Chargawan block of Gorakhpur.
Kovilpatti kadalai mittai
- It is a candy made of peanuts held together with glistening syrup, and topped with wisps of grated coconut dyed pink, green and yellow.
- It is made using all natural ingredients such as the traditional and special ‘vellam’ (jaggery) and groundnuts and water from the river Thamirabarani is used in the production, which enhances the taste naturally.
- It is manufactured in Kovilpatti and adjacent towns and villages in Thoothukudi district.
- It is produced by using both groundnuts and jaggery (organic jaggery), in carefully selected quantities from selected specific locations in Tamil Nadu.
Back2Basics: Geographical Indications in India
- A Geographical Indication is used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
- Such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness which is essentially attributable to its origin in that defined geographical locality.
- This tag is valid for a period of 10 years following which it can be renewed.
- Recently the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry has launched the logo and tagline for the Geographical Indications (GI) of India.
- The first product to get a GI tag in India was the Darjeeling tea in 2004.
- The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 (GI Act) is a sui generis Act for protection of GI in India.
- India, as a member of the WTO enacted the Act to comply with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
- Geographical Indications protection is granted through the TRIPS Agreement
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Chithirai Festival
Mains level: Not Much
For the first time, in place of Madurai’s Chithirai Festival, a simple celestial union is set to take place that will be streamed online.
Match the pair based question can be asked from festivals as such. Recently, the following festivals were in the news: Ambubachi Mela, Thrisoor Puram, Meru Jatara, Nagoba Jatara etc.
Chithirai Festival
- Chithirai Festival or Chithirai Thiruvizha is an annual celebration celebrated in the city of Madurai during the month of April.
- It is celebrated during the Tamil month of Chithirai.
- It lasts for one month of which the first 15 days mark the celebrations of the coronation of Goddess Meenakshi and the Marriage of Lord Sundareswara and Goddess Meenakshi.
- The next 15 days mark the celebrations of the Journey of Lord Alagar from Kallazhagar temple in Alagar Koyil to Madurai.
About Meenakshi Temple
- The ancient city of Madurai, more than 2,500 years old, was built by the Pandyan king, Kulashekarar, in the 6th century B.C.
- But the reign of the Nayaks marks the golden period of Madurai when art, architecture and learning flourished expansively.
- The most beautiful buildings in the city including its most famous landmark, the Meenakshi temple, were built during the Nayak rule.
- Located in the heart of the city, the Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar temple is dedicated to goddess Meenakshi, the consort of lord Shiva.
- The sculpted pillars are adorned with the exquisite murals that celebrate the ethereal beauty of princess Meenakshi and the scenes of her wedding with Lord Shiva.
- The pillars depict scenes from the wedding of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar. There are 985 richly carved pillars here and each one surpasses the other in beauty.
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