Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Animal sacrifice and associated issues
The Supreme Court has agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the Kerala Animals and Birds Sacrifices Prohibition Act of 1968 that prohibits sacrifice of animals and birds in temples to ‘please’ the deity.
Try this question for mains:
Q. The ritual slaughters of animals in India is a greater ethical issue than a legal one. Analyse.
The dichotomy over ritual slaughter
- The Supreme Court is set to analyse how the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 allows the killing of animals but prohibits cruelty to animals.
- It highlighted the “dichotomy” in animal protection law that allows the killing of animals for food but does not permit “killing of animals for an offer to a deity and then consumption”.
Why did SC interfere?
- However, the 1968 Kerala law bans the killing of animals and birds for religious sacrifices but not for personal consumption.
- This amounted to arbitrary classification.
Legal protections to Animal sacrifice
- The Kerala Act criminalizes the intent behind the animal sacrifice and not animal sacrifice per se.
- If the sacrifice is not for propitiating any deity but for personal consumption even in the precincts of the temple, it is not forbidden.
- Section 28 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1960 does not make the killing of animals for religious purposes and offence.
Appeal citing the necessity of the practice
- The oral remarks came in an appeal filed by P.E. Gopalakrishnan and some others, who are Shakthi worshippers, and for whom, animal sacrifice is an integral part of the worship.
- In their appeal, they said the animal sacrifice was an “essential religious practice” and the High Court had no power to interfere.
Why animal sacrifice needs a rethink?
- All religions call for compassion, no religion requires killing or eating animals and hacking animals to death with weapons.
- The way executioners handle, transport and kill animals for sacrifices typically violates animal transport and slaughter laws, making it a punishable offence.
- There exist ample ambiguities in religious texts over allowing the ritual slaughter of animals.
- Moreover, the practice of animal sacrifice normalizes killing and desensitizes humans to violence against animals.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Manhattan Project, WW2 and related stories
On this day, exactly 75 years ago, US scientists tested ‘Gadget’— the world’s first atomic bomb — in what was dubbed as the ‘Trinity Test’.
Practice question for mains:
Q.What is the Manhattan Project? Describe its consequences on the post-world war scenario.
The Trinity Test
- The super bomb, nicknamed ‘Gadget’, was built by a team of scientists at a top-secret site in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
- It was developed as part of the US-led Manhattan Project, which sought to build nuclear weapons to give the allied forces an edge over Germany, Japan and Italy in World War 2.
- Very soon after the Trinity test, an identical nuclear bomb called ‘Fat Man’ was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands of people.
- Before it detonated, the scientists had placed bets on what could happen. Some believed that the bomb would be a dud and would fail to explode.
What was the Manhattan Project?
- Germany initiated World War II by invading Poland.
- A letter signed by Nobel prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein warned then-US President Franklin D Roosevelt of the potential threat posed by an atomic weapon being developed by Adolf Hitler.
- Soon after, the US launched a secret atomic research undertaking, code-named the Manhattan Project, which sought to develop an atomic weapon to end the war.
Execution of the project
- The Project remained a relatively small-scale initiative for the next two years.
- It was only after the bombing of Pearl Harbour the project was officially kicked into gear.
- By December 1942 facilities were established in remote locations across the US, as well as in Canada.
- However, the superbomb was finally designed and conceptualized by a team of scientists at a top-secret laboratory in Los Alamos.
- The Los Alamos team developed two types of bombs — one was uranium-based, which was later code-named ‘the Little Boy’ before it was dropped on Hiroshima; the other had a plutonium core.
Looping-in nuclear physicists
- The project brought together some of the country’s leading atomic experts as well as exiled scientists and physicists from Germany and other Nazi-occupied nations.
- The team at Los Alamos was headed by J Robert Oppenheimer, a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
- Oppenheimer later came to be known as the “father of the atomic bomb”.
- His team included famous Danish scientist Niels Bohr and Italian scientists Enrico Fermi.
What were the repercussions of the Trinity Test?
- New Mexico residents were pointedly not warned before the test, to ensure that it was carried out secretly.
- Data collected by the New Mexico health department, which showed the adverse impact of radiation caused by the detonation, was ignored for years after the test.
- A sudden rise in infant mortality was reported in the months after the explosion. Several residents also complained that the number of cancer patients went up after the Trinity Test.
- The dust outfall from the explosion was expected to have travelled nearly 100 miles from the test site, posing a serious threat to residents in the area.
- Many families complained that their livestock suffered skin burns, bleeding and loss of hair.
Impact of bombing on Japan
- The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings are known to have killed well over 200,000 people — many of whom succumbed to radiation poisoning in the weeks after the blasts.
- The uranium bomb in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroyed around 70 per cent of all buildings and caused around 140,000 deaths by the end of 1945.
- The plutonium bomb explosion over Nagasaki, which took place three days later, killed 74,000 people that year, according to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICANW) data.
- After seeing the destruction caused to the two Japanese cities, Oppenheimer publicly admitted that he regretted building a bomb that could cause an apocalypse.
Nuclearisation of the world thus began
- Seventy-five years after the Trinity Test, as many as nine countries around the world are currently in possession of nuclear weapons.
- These include the US, the UK, Russia, France, India, China, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea.
- At least eight countries have detonated over 2,000 nuclear test explosions since 1945.
- The most recent instance of nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by India, were the series of five explosions done as part of the Pokhran-II tests in May 1998.
- The first test, code-named Smiling Buddha, took place in May 1974.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IMEF
Mains level: Various energy related alliances and partnerships
In the joint working group meeting of the Sustainable Growth Pillar of the India-US partnership, an India Energy Modeling Forum was launched.
Note the following things about IEMF:
1. It is a bilateral forum.
2. It is not associated with any International Agency say UN, IEA, IAEA etc.
3.On March15 last year, the idea was incepted and only a formal workshop was organized on IEMF (it wasn’t launched).
UPSC can puzzle you along these 3 points in a statements-based MCQ.
India Energy Modeling Forum (IEMF)
- The IEMF seeks to provide a platform for policy makers to study important energy and environmental issues and ensure induction of modelling and analysis in informed decision making process.
- The Forum aims to improve cooperation and coordination between modeling teams, the GoI, knowledge partners and think-tanks, build capacity of Indian institutions, and identify issues for joint modeling activities and future areas of research.
What is Energy Modelling?
- Energy modeling or energy system modeling is the process of building computer models of energy systems in order to analyze them.
- There exists energy modelling forums in different parts of the World.
- Such models often employ scenario analysis to investigate different assumptions about the technical and economic conditions at play.
- Outputs may include the system feasibility, greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative financial costs, natural resource use, and energy efficiency of the system under investigation.
- Governments maintain national energy models for energy policy development.
Outcomes of the forum
- Discussions on energy modelling in India and the world explored how energy modelling can play an important role in decision-making.
- The panelists laid focus on bridging the rural-urban divide and factoring in energy pressures from the informal economy within models.
- Deliberations included a spotlight on how the impact of the evolving character of India’s cities, industries and especially the transport sector should be included in the any India-centric models.
- The shift towards electric mobility, an increasing emphasis on mainstreaming of renewable energy options and overarching environmental concerns were also stated as key factors for determining India’s energy future.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NISHTHA programme
Mains level: Various digital initiatives by HRD ministry
The first on-line NISHTHA programme for 1200 Key Resources Persons in Andhra Pradesh was launched by Union HRD Ministry.
There are various web/portals/apps with peculiar names such as YUKTI, DISHA, SWAYAM etc. Their core purpose is similar with slight differences. Pen them down on a separate sheet under the title various digital HRD initiatives.
Add one more to this list.
NISHTHA Programme
- NISHTHA is an acronym for National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement.
- It is the largest teachers’ training programme of its kind in the world.
- The basic objective of this massive training programme ‘NISHTHA’ is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students.
- The initiative is first of its kind wherein standardized training modules are developed at national level for all States and UTs.
- The States and UTs can also contextualize the training modules and use their own material and resource persons also, keeping in view the core topics and expected outcomes of NISHTHA.
Progress till date
- Around 23,000 Key Resource Persons and 17.5 lakh teachers and school heads have been covered under this NISHTHA face to face mode till date.
- It has been customized for online mode to be conducted through DIKSHA and NISHTHA portals by the NCERT.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Migration of Pied Cuckoo and its association with Indian monsoon onset
Mains level: NA
A new project by a number of agencies is using advancements in nanotechnology to study migratory patterns of the Pied Cuckoo.
This specie carries an unusual importance compared to other IUCN species. Go through this newscard to read more about it.
Pied Cuckoo
- There are basically three subspecies of the Pied Cuckoo of which one is resident in Africa while another is resident in South.
- The third is a migrant moving between India and Africa.
- The Pied Cuckoo is famous in North Indian folklore as ‘chatak’, a bird that quenches its thirst only with raindrops.
- From Southern Africa, it comes to the Himalayan foothills stretching from Jammu to Assam to breed every year. The birds come to the same localities every year.
- It is also a brood parasite in that it does not make its own nest and instead lays its egg in the nest of other birds, particularly the Jungle Babbler.
About the Study
- The project is a joint effort by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), which comes under the Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO.
- The Pied Cuckoo migration study is part of a larger project — Indian Bioresource Information portal (IBIN) funded by the Department of Biotechnology under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.
- It aims to deliver relevant bioresources (plant, animal and other biological organisms) information of India through a web portal.
- The project aims to assess the likely impacts of projected climate change on the potential distribution of Pied Cuckoo in the altered climate change scenarios.
Why study Pied Cuckoo?
- It is closely linked with the arrival of the south-west monsoon in India.
- It moves to India during the summer.
- Being a small, terrestrial bird, a sea crossing holds a lot of risk for this cuckoo.
- Before it migrates back to its home in the southern African region, by flying over the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, it must be stopping somewhere.
- It is these stopovers that researchers want to find out about.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Privatisation of railways
The article analyses the implications and issues with the Indian Railways recent move to allow the private investors to operate the passenger trains on selected routes.
Let’s understand the structure of IR’s passenger business
- It operated a daily average of 13,523 passenger trains in 2018-19.
- It includes 3,695 inter-city mail and express services.
- 3,947 ordinary short-distance-stopping “regional” trains.
- 5,881 electrical multiple units operated on suburban sections for intra-city passengers.
- The regional/sectional trains, with multiple stops, cater to short-distance journeys (an average of 111 km in 2018-19) and contribute maximum loss in passenger business.
- The inter-city mail and express services constitute IR’s core passenger business.
- It needs to be duly nurtured and developed.
- Within this category, only the upper-class portion will be of interest to private operators, due to flexibility in fixing fares.
Now, let’s analyse the implications of privatisation decision
The stated objectives are-
- 1) Reducing the supply-demand deficit.
- 2) Encouraging modal shift from air to rail.
- 3) Significantly reducing transit time.
Let’s analyse the issues with the objectives
1) Reducing the supply-demand deficit
- Passenger ridership on railways has almost been stagnant at 8,354 million in 2018-19.
- The Railways’s endemic capacity constraint has kept its share in the nation’s transport market steadily decreasing.
- Despite the demand for more trains, its seven high-density corridors stretched over 10,500 km remain clogged.
- Its stations and maintenance wherewithal are over-stretched.
- Speeds remain low and services far less than satisfactory.
- Rail travel demand far outstrips supply and remains set to further grow substantially.
- The steadily growing services sector continues to trigger high mobility and demand for passenger travel, generally in the upper classes.
2) Modal shift from air to rail
- Transfer of traffic to rail will depend on-
- 1) reduced journey time
- 2) the frequency of rail services
- 3) offering accommodation on demand.
- Rail travel needs to appropriately match air and road services in terms of pre-board and onboard convenience, reliability, and speed.
- As it faces competition from budget airlines, high-capacity buses, and personal cars, IR needs to craft a concerted strategy to expand, accelerate and modernise its inter-city passenger services.
3) Reducing transit time
- Freight, as well as passenger trains across the network, have remained stuck in slow tracks over decades.
- The “pilot project” of IRCTC-operated upscale “Tejas” train-sets clock virtually the same travel time as the older Shatabdis on these routes.
- On completion of the two ongoing DFCs by December 2021, and the contemplated up-gradation of existing Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata rail routes will see trains running at 160 km/h.
- Most other paths with mixed freight and passenger trains jostling for space and constrained by speed limits.
- This will lead to the new train-sets to be substantially under-utilised in terms of their potential, and at far below expectations of customers for faster and frequent services.
Issues
1) Absence of regulator
- An autonomous regulator, vital for the equitable and effective functioning of the private operators.
- It is not without a challenge that the private train operators will strive to provide value for money to passengers and ensure their profitability in an environment of a price war.
- So, the absence of an autonomous regulator is essential.
- Experience of the licensed container train operators with the Railways alone driving policy and settling disputes has not been encouraging.
2) Concessions issue
- A 35-year concession in an age of rapidly evolving technologies impacting design contours of train-sets as much as customer expectations raise plausible questions.
- Taking a plunge in 100 paths without first testing the waters on few selected sections is could also give rise to issues.
Suggestions
- Some structural shifts in IR’s business management are now a clear imperative:
- 1) Segregating its passenger and freight businesses for focussed attention.
- 2) Restructuring the tariffs rationally and urgently.
- 3) Developing terminal infrastructure.
- 4) Leapfrogging the conversion of the existing dual-use high demand trunk routes into semi high-speed corridors.
Consider the question “What are the objectives of the recent move of the India Railways to invite the private investors to operate some passenger trains on selected routes? What are the issues railway’s passenger service faces? Suggest the measures to deal with the issues.
Conclusion
The result of the move would suggest the future path for the operation for railways. But it must ensure the level playing field to the private players to test the efficacy of the move.
Source:
https://www.financialexpress.com/infrastructure/railways/private-trains-on-indian-railways-network-why-one-cant-ignore-several-red-flags/2025432/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ASEAN
Mains level: Paper 2- Growing aggression of China in the Indo-Pacific and increasing coordination among Indo-Pacific nations to counter it.
The focus of this article is on the U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific and its relations with its allies there in countering China.
Instances of China’s aggression
- Galwan Valley is not an exception in Beijing’s recent behaviour in Asia.
- China has also engaged in a tense geopolitical confrontation with its other neighbours.
- Stand-offs with Vietnam and Malaysia in the South China Sea and threatening Australia with boycotts are a few examples.
Response to China
- Beijing’s aggressiveness is fueling debates about the underlying costs of reliance on China.
- China’s aggression is also increasing support for closer coordination between other Indo-Pacific partners.
- Indian, Japan, Malaysia, and Australia have all taken concrete steps to reduce their economic exposure to Beijing.
- India and Australia recently inked a new military logistics agreement in the “virtual summit”.
- A similar agreement between Delhi and Tokyo may follow.
- The Quadrilateral Dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States is growing stronger and even expanding.
- And recently Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued one of their strongest statements to date on the South China Sea.
- The ASEAN statement insisted that maritime disputes must be resolved in accordance with the UN Law of the Sea treaty.
Asian multilateralism: Born out of crises
- Recently the “Milk Tea Alliance”, reaction of people, born to forge solidarity between Taiwanese, Hong Kongers, and Southeast Asians online to deal with Chinese cyberbullying.
- The Chiang Mai Initiative — a financial swap mechanism between China, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia — emerged in the aftermath of the late 1990s financial crisis.
- ASEAN, created in 1967, did not convene its first heads of state meeting until fall of Saigon in 1976 in the Vietnam War.
Role of the U.S.
- The COVID-19 crisis is remaking the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific.
- The ongoing crisis has made countries aware of seriousness of Chinese dominance.
- This situation has given the U.S. opportunity it has long sought: 1) More credible multilateral coordination among allies, 2) Pushback against online disinformation. 3) The desire to better integrate like-minded economies and supply chains.
- But the crisis is also raising renewed questions about the American leadership.
- The question now facing the U.S. is whether or not it can harness this new regional momentum.
Alienating allies
- U.S. continues to make unforced errors that create distance with U.S. allies and partners.
- For example, its focus on cutting support for the WHO and asserting that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab alienated Canberra.
- Similarly, the administration’s suspension of various worker visas will almost certainly have serious repercussions in India.
What should be the U.S. approach to Asia?
- The U.S. needs to make two major shifts.
- First, U.S. policy needs to start supporting, rather than attempting to commandeer, regional efforts to build a less China-centric future for the Indo-Pacific.
- While Chinese aggression provides powerful motivation for coordination, U.S. partners are seeking an agenda that is framed in broader terms than simply rallying to counter Beijing.
- If the U.S. wants to reduce reliance on Beijing and “re-couple” investments and supply chains among allied nations, it is going to have to make compromises.
- U.S. should work with Indo-Pacific partners on the issues that they prioritise and provided them with space for independent action.
- Second, Washington should avoid repeating Beijing’s mistakes of bullying.
- U.S. should offer a clear alternative in word and deed to China’s “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy.
- Moves such as demanding that a G-7 communiqué refer to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan virus” and blocking mask shipments to close allies are the kind of counterproductive bullying.
Options for Asian countries
- Beijing’s recent aggression is not an aberration but part of a growing pattern.
- As Beijing’s confidence in its growing material and military power solidifies, its neighbours will need to think carefully about the long-term decisions necessary to preserve an open regional order.
- Facing the unprecedented health and economic crises spawned by COVID-19, the U.S. and Asian partners will need to coordinate more closely.
- Asian countries should strengthen their own regional networks.
- This Asian network will challenge the views of those in both Washington and Beijing who would see the region only as a sparring ground.
Conclusion
For American and Asian leaders, the choice is stark: encourage and foster this trend, recognising that stronger regional coordination will require more compromises as well as tougher choices, or resist it and risk being left behind.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: European Union
Mains level: Paper 2- Commonalities and areas of cooperation with the EU
India and the EU have many things in common. And there are many areas in which both can expand the cooperation. This article explores commonalities and the areas which offer the scope for enhancing the cooperation.
Common interests
- Both aim to enhance strategic autonomy and their global standing.
- Diversifying strategic value chains is also a common interest.
- Both seek to address the issue of climate change on an urgent basis.
Economic ties with the EU
- The EU is India’s largest trading partner accounting for €80 billion worth of trade in goods in 2019.
- This is equal to 11.1% of total Indian trade.
- The EU is also the biggest foreign investor, with €67.7 billion worth of investments made in 2018.
- Which is equal to 22% of total FDI inflows.
Scope for improving the economic ties
- The EU’s investments in China amounted to €175.3 billion (2018).
- So, India could succeed in attracting EU investment that might be moving out of China.
- To attract this outflowing investment, India must address the mutual trust deficit.
- Enhanced business cooperation can help both the EU and India diversify their strategic value chains.
- Increasing people’s mobility and connectivity is another area that can create opportunities for innovation and growth.
Talks on FTA
- Both sides need to move further on the Free Trade Agreement.
- A new study from the European Parliament estimates the impact of an EU-India trade agreement between €8 billion and €8.5 billion.
- The study also mentions additional potential gains from enhanced coordination on the provision of global public goods, such as environmental standards.
Cooperation on climate change
- Under the new industrial strategy, the Green Deal, the EU has set an ambitious target to be carbon-emission neutral by 2050.
- If the EU and India succeed in transforming into carbon-neutral economies by 2050, we all would gain from the investment.
Strategic partnership with EU
- The Indo-Pacific region is becoming contentious, so India should capitalise on its geopolitical leverage there.
- Cooperation with like-minded, democratic powers can support this effort, especially towards assertive competitors like China.
- The EU as a whole offers more to India than the strongest bilateral relations with individual EU member state.
- New Delhi must learn how to maximise benefits from this strategic partnership.
- The disruption caused by COVID-19 has been the occasion for the EU to prove its worth.
- “Next-generation EU proposal” submitted by the European Commission has economic as well as geopolitical implications.
- The proposal shows that the ties that bind the EU extend well beyond treaties and individual members’ self-interest.
- The EU champions the rules-based international order, so the EU and India must act to promote sustainable reform of multilateral institutions starting from the WTO.
Consider the question “India-EU ties with many common interests assume significance as rule-based order is being challenged by the rise of exceptionalism. Comment.”
Conclusion
A strong partnership would help both the EU and India become global decision-makers and tackle the challenges caused by the disruption of global order collectively.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan
Mains level: Paper 3- Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan and need for skilling the youth.
As India embarks on the path of self-reliance through Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, it has to nurture the skilled workforce. This article highlights the need to upgrade the skills or upskill the youth to meet the employment needs of technology-driven 21st century.
Context
- The effects of the pandemic are expected to have a lasting impact on every sphere of activity.
- Considering this impact, India announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to propel the country on the path of self-sustenance.
Objectives
- Atmanirbhar Bharat has twin objectives- short term and long term.
- 1) Reviving different spheres of the economy in the short term.
- 2) Insulating India from any future global economic downturn, by making it robust in the long run.
- The Abhiyan seeks to build capacities across sectors and promote local products.
- Further, it would focus on scaling up manufacturing, accelerating infrastructure development, attracting investments and promoting a consumption-led growth.
Youth: Strength of India
- About 65 per cent of India’s population is below 35 years and 50 per cent is below 25 years.
- With a huge, educated young population, India is uniquely poised to realise its demographic potential.
- The fact that Indians are heading several MNCs shows that there is no dearth of knowledge and talent in the country.
- However, we need to upgrade the skills or upskill the youth to meet the employment needs of technology-driven 21st century.
Opportunities and challenges
- Pandemic and is being seen by many as an opportunity to upgrade their knowledge and acquire new skills.
- The fourth industrial revolution has triggered a paradigm change in which digital technology drives the job market.
- Remote working with increasing adoption of digital technology might continue to be dominant mode of working for the near future.
- It is estimated that nearly 70 per cent of the world’s learners are affected by school closures due to pandemic across education levels.
- Artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, cloud computing and Internet of Things will be area of interest for companies.
- With people opting to online buying, companies will seek to adopt new online marketing strategies.
- Another important issue that needs to be addressed is ensuring equitable employment through higher participation of women in the workforce.
Way forward for Atmanirbhar Bharat
1) Local to glocal
- There have been some reassuring developments with an accent on “local to glocal”
- The production of several lakh PPE kits, a collaboration of automobile industries to produce ventilators, manufacture of more than 70 Made in India products by the DRDO are just a few examples of the capability of Indian scientists, IT professionals and technocrats.
2) Reducing import
- We must aim to gradually reduce imports in every sector from crude oil to heavy machinery.
- This reduction should be based on the locally available resources, talent, and skills of the human capital.
3) Globally competitive product
- While remaining vocal about local, we must aim at making Indian products to be globally competitive.
- We should try to stay ahead in the innovation-led knowledge economy.
- PSUs and the private sector should not only complement but collaborate wherever feasible.
- The private sector must massively step up investments R&D. PSUs too need to modernise in terms of technology.
Consider the question “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan has the aim of reviving the Indian economy. Examine its objective and how it seeks to revive the economy”
Conclusion
To remain globally competitive with a well-assured future, we need to focus on “skills, scale and speed”. India has the potential to emerge as the global hub for providing skilled manpower to other nations.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Non-personal data
Mains level: Data privacy issues
A government committee headed by Infosys co-founder has suggested that non-personal data generated in the country be allowed to be harnessed by various domestic companies and entities.
Practice question for mains:
Q.What is Non-Personal Data? Discuss its utility and various privacy concerns associated with it.
What is non-personal data?
- In its most basic form, non-personal data is any set of data which does not contain personally identifiable information.
- This, in essence, means that no individual or living person can be identified by looking at such data.
- For example, while order details collected by a food delivery service will become non-personal data if the identifiers such as name and contact information are taken out.
- The government committee, which submitted its report, has classified non-personal data into three main categories, namely public non-personal data, community non-personal data and private non-personal data.
Types of non-personal data
Depending on the source of the data and whether it is anonymised in a way that no individual can be re-identified from the data set, the three categories have been divided:
1) Public
All the data collected by government and its agencies such as census, data collected by municipal corporations on the total tax receipts in a particular period or any information collected during execution of all publicly funded works have been kept under the umbrella of public non-personal data.
2) Community
Any data identifiers about a set of people who have the same geographic location, religion, job, or other common social interests will form the community non-personal data. For example, the metadata collected by ride-hailing apps, telecom companies, electricity distribution companies among others have been put under the community non-personal data category by the committee.
3) Private
Private non-personal data can be defined as those which are produced by individuals which can be derived from the application of proprietary software or knowledge.
How sensitive can non-personal data be?
- Unlike personal data, which contains explicit information about a person’s name, age, gender, sexual orientation, biometrics and other genetic details, non-personal data is more likely to be in an anonymised form.
- However, in certain categories such as data related to national security or strategic interests such as locations of government laboratories or research facilities, even if provided in anonymised form can be dangerous.
- Similarly, even if the data is about the health of a community or a group of communities, though it may be in anonymised form, it can still be dangerous, the committee opined.
- Possibilities of such harm are obviously much higher if the original personal data is of a sensitive nature.
- Therefore, the non-personal data arising from such sensitive personal data may be considered as sensitive non-personal data.
What are the global standards on non-personal data?
- In May 2019, the EU came out with a regulatory framework for the free flow of non-personal data.
- It suggested that member states of the union would cooperate with each other when it came to data sharing.
- Such data, the EU had then ruled would be shared by member states without any hindrances.
- The authorities must inform the commission of any draft act which introduces a new data localisation requirement or makes changes to an existing data localisation requirement.
- The regulation, however, had not defined what non-personal data constituted of and had simply said all data which is not personal would be under its category.
What areas does India’s non-personal data draft miss?
- Though the non-personal data draft is a pioneer in identifying the power, role, and usage of anonymised data, there are certain aspects such as community non-personal data, where the draft could have been clearer.
- Non-personal data often constitute protected trade secrets and often raises significant privacy concerns.
- The paper proposes the nebulous concept of community data while failing to adequately provide for community rights.
- Other experts also believe that the final draft of the non-personal data governance framework must clearly define the roles for all participants, such as the data principal, the data custodian, and data trustees.
Conclusion
- Regulation must be clear, and concise to provide certainty to its market participants, and must demarcate the roles and responsibilities of participants in the regulatory framework.
- The report is unclear on these counts and requires public consultation and more deliberation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TFR, Demographic Dividends
Mains level: Population explosion in India
When this century ends, India may no longer be a country of a billion, says a projection that appears in the online edition of the Lancet. The reference forecasts for China and India peaked before 2050 and both countries thereafter had steep declining trajectories.
Try this question from CSP 2011:
Q.India is regarded as a country with ‘Demographic Dividend’. This is due to
(a) Its high population in the age group below 15 years
(b) Its high population in the age group of 15-64 years
(c) Its high population in the age group above 65 years
(d) Its high total population
World to see the peak
- A new analysis published in The Lancet has projected that the world population will peak much earlier than previously estimated.
- It projects the peak at 9.73 billion in 2064, which is 36 years earlier than the 11 billion peaks projected for 2100 by last year’s UN report World Population Prospects.
- For 2100, the new report projects a decline to 8.79 billion from the 2064 peak.
5 most populated countries
- The five largest countries in 2100 are projected to be India, Nigeria, China, the U.S. and Pakistan.
- However, these forecasts showed different future trajectories between countries.
- Nigeria is forecast to have continued population growth through 2100 and was expected to be the second-most populous country by then.
Predictions on India’s population
- For India, the report projects a peak population of 1.6 billion in 2048, up from 1.38 billion in 2017.
- By 2100, the population is projected to decline by 32% to 1.09 billion.
- However, meeting UN Sustainable Goal Development targets, the peak would be earlier and see a population decline to 929 million.
- Conventional wisdom is that though a decline in population is expected, it is expected to begin only around 2046.
- The fall according to the latest 2019 assessment by the UNDP calculation, is expected to see India’s population settle at a little over 1.4 billion.
Reasons for fall
- The sharper fall is due to the assumption that all women globally will have much higher access to contraception and education.
- This scenario will lead to a sharper reduction in the Total Fertility Rate, a metric that shows on average how many children a woman must have to keep replenishing the population.
- A TFR is lower than 2.1leads to a decline in a country’s population.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Trans-persons rights
After facing flak from the transgender community, the Centre has done away with the requirement of a medical examination for trans persons applying for a certificate of identity in its latest draft rules framed under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
Practice question for mains:
Q.What are the salient features of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019? Also, discuss the loopholes.
What are the new rules?
- The draft of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020, published stated that a District Magistrate would issue a transgender identity certificate and card based on an affidavit by the applicant, but without any medical examination.
Issue with the earlier draft
- An earlier draft of the rules had mandated a report from a psychologist along with the affidavit for the application.
- The transgender rights movement had opposed this, as it was seen as going against a trans person’s right to self-identification, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2014.
Change of gender is permissible
- In case of change of gender, the application for new identification would require a certificate from the medical superintendent or chief medical officer of the medical institution where the applicant the surgery.
- For this, the Centre has proposed a series of welfare schemes, including making at least one hospital in each State equipped to provide safe and free gender-affirming surgery and counselling and hormone replacement therapy among others.
Back2Basics: The 2014 Judgement on Trans-persons Rights
- The Supreme Court in 2014 recognized transgenders as the third gender in a landmark ruling, saying it was addressing a “human rights issue”.
- The ruling came after it heard a PIL filed by National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa) demanding equal rights.
- The judgements said that non-recognition of gender identity amounts to discrimination under Article 15, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
- The spirit of the constitution is to provide equal opportunity to every citizen to grow and attain their potential, irrespective of caste, religion or gender said justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri in their ruling.
- Self-identification as man or woman, irrespective of sexual reassignment surgery, was now protected by law.
- The judges said rights such as the right to vote, own property, marry and to “claim a formal identity” would be made available “more meaningfully” to the transgender community as a result of the ruling.
Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019
The Parliament passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019.
Key Features
- Definition of a transgender person: The Bill defines a transgender person as one whose gender does not match the gender assigned at birth. It includes transmen and trans-women, persons with intersex variations, gender-queers, and persons with socio-cultural identities, such as kinnar and hijra.
- Certificate of identity: A transgender person may make an application to the District Magistrate for a certificate of identity, indicating the gender as ‘transgender’.
- Prohibition against discrimination: The Bill prohibits discrimination against a transgender person, including denial of service or unfair treatment in relation to:
- Education, employment, healthcare.
- Access to or enjoyment of goods, facilities, opportunities available to the public.
- Right to movement, right to reside, rent, or otherwise occupy property.
- Opportunity to hold public or private office.
- Access to a government or private establishment in whose care or custody a transgender person is.
- Health care
- The Bill also seeks to provide rights of health facilities to transgender persons including separate HIV surveillance centres, and sex reassignment surgeries.
- It also states that the government shall review medical curriculum to address health issues of transgender persons, and provide comprehensive medical insurance schemes for them.
- It calls for establishing a National Council for Transgender persons (NCT).
- Punishment: It states that the offences against transgender persons will attract imprisonment between six months and two years, in addition to a fine.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hope Mission
Mains level: Quest for Mars and its possibility to host life
The launch of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first mission to Mars has been delayed by two days due to bad weather conditions which were scheduled to take off from its launch site, Tanegashima Space Center, in Japan.
Try this question from CSP 2014:
Q.Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched?
| Spacecraft |
Purpose |
| 1. Cassini-Huygens |
Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth |
| 2. Messenger |
Mapping and investigating the Mercury |
| 3. Voyager 1 and 2 |
Exploring the outer solar system |
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
a) 1 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Hope Mission
- The Emirates Mars Mission called “Hope” was announced in 2015 with the aim of creating mankind’s first integrated model of the Red planet’s atmosphere.
- Hope weighs over 1500 kg and will carry scientific instruments mounted on one side of the spacecraft, including the Emirates exploration Imager (EXI), which is a high-resolution camera among others.
- The spacecraft will orbit Mars to study the Martian atmosphere and its interaction with outer space and solar winds.
- Hope will collect data on Martian climate dynamics, which should help scientists understand why Mars’ atmosphere is decaying into space.
Objectives of the mission
- Once it launches, Hope will orbit Mars for around 200 days, after which it will enter the Red planet’s orbit by 2021, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of UAE.
- The mission is being executed by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, UAE’s space agency.
- It will help answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year.
Back2Basics: Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)
- The MOM also called Mangalyaan is a space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
- It aims at studying the Martian surface and mineral composition as well as scans its atmosphere for methane (an indicator of life on Mars).
- It is India’s first interplanetary mission and it made it the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after Roscosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency.
- It made India the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the first nation in the world to do so on its maiden attempt.
- It was initially meant to last six months, but subsequently, ISRO had said it had enough fuel for it to last “many years.”
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cestrum nocturnum
Mains level: Invasive alien species
Nilgiris forest officials are restoring native Shola habitats in places overrun by the invasive species ‘Cestrum nocturnum’.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2018:
Q.Why is a plant called Prosopis juliflora often mentioned in the news?
(a) Its extract is widely used in cosmetics.
(b) It tends to reduce the biodiversity in the area in which it grows
(c) Its extract is used in the pesticides.
(d) None of the above
Cestrum nocturnum
- Cestrum nocturnum is commonly known by the names night-blooming jasmine and raatrani.
- It is native to the West Indies but naturalized in South Asia.
- Its spread is a threat to all Shola and grassland habitats as it does not allow any native flora to thrive.
- The plants unless completely removed with their roots, keep sprouting and keep taking over Shola and native grasslands.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Melghat Tiger Reserve
Mains level: Tiger conservation
Maharashtra CM has sought alternative routes for the proposed broad gauge conversion of a railway line passing through the Melghat Tiger Reserve in Amravati district.
Try this question from CSP 2012:
Consider the following protected areas:
1. Bandipur 2. Bhitarkanika 3. Manas 4. Sunderbans
Which of the above are declared Tiger Reserves?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1, 3 and 4 only
(c) 2, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Melghat Tiger Reserve
- Melghat, part of the Satpura-Maikal landscape was among the first nine tiger reserves notified in 1973-74 under the Project Tiger.
- The Tapti River and the Gawilgadh ridge of the Satpura Range form the boundary of the reserve.
- The forest is tropical dry deciduous in nature, dominated by teak.
- The reserve is a catchment area for five major rivers: the Khandu, Khapra, Sipna, Gadga and Dolar. These all rivers are tributaries of the river Tapti.
Back2Basics: Project Tiger
- Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 during PM Indira Gandhi’s tenure.
- In 1970 India had only 1800 tigers and Project Tiger was launched in Jim Corbett National Park.
- The project is administrated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
- It aims at ensuring a viable population of Bengal tigers in their natural habitats, protecting them from extinction etc.
- Under this project the govt. has set up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers and funded relocation of villagers to minimize human-tiger conflicts.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Azad Pattan hydel project
Mains level: Dams in PoK
Pakistan and China have signed an agreement for the 700 MW Azad Pattan hydel power project on the Jhelum River in Sudhoti district of PoK.
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Q.What is common to the places known as Aliyar, Isapur and Kangsabati?
(a) Recently discovered uranium deposits
(b) Tropical rain forests
(c) Underground cave systems
(d) Water reservoirs
Azad Pattan hydel project
- The project is a run-of-the-river scheme with a reservoir located near Muslimabad village, 7 km upstream from the Azad Pattan bridge, in district Sudhnoti, one of the eight districts of PoK.
- It is one of five hydropower schemes on the Jhelum.
- Upstream from Azad Pattan are the Mahl, Kohala, and Chakothi Hattian projects; Karot is downstream. Like Kohala and Azad Pattan, Karot too is being developed under the CPEC framework.
- The project will comprise a 90-metre-high dam, with a 3.8 sq km reservoir.
- The $ 1.5-billion project is the second power project under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Other projects in PoK
- Kohala project is a 1,124 MW hydel project that will come upon the Jhelum near Muzaffarabad. This project is one of the biggest investments by China in PoK.
- The Karot Hydropower station, the third project being executed by China on the Jhelum is on the boundaries of Kotli district in PoK and Rawalpindi district in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
- Two hydel projects are planned in Gilgit Baltistan – Phandar Hydro Power, and Gilgit KIU.
- Most recent in the news was Diamer-Bhasha dam in the PoK.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Major ports of India
Mains level: Not Much
The Ministry of Shipping has reviewed the development activities of the Vallarpadam Terminal of Cochin Port, envisaged as first trans-shipment port of India.
Try this question from CSP 2016:
Q.Recently, which of the following States has explored the possibility of constructing an artificial inland port to be connected to the sea by a long navigational channel?
(a) Andhra Pradesh
(b) Chhattisgarh
(c) Karnataka
(d) Rajasthan
Vallarpadam Terminal
- The Kochi International Container Trans-shipment Terminal (ICTT), locally known as the Vallarpadam Terminal is located strategically on the Indian coastline.
- It is the terminal at the port which handles containers, stores them temporarily and transfers them to other ships for the onward destination.
- It is proposed to be developed as the most preferred gateway for South India and leading transhipment hub of South Asia.
It successfully fulfils all the criteria which are needed to develop it as trans-shipment hub which include:
- It is best positioned Indian port with regard to proximity to International sea routes;
- It is located at least average nautical distance from all Indian feeder ports;
- It entails connectivity which has multiple weekly feeder connections to all ports on West & East Coast of India, From Mundra to Kolkata;
- It has proximity to key hinterland markets of India;
- It has the infrastructure to manage large ships and capacity to scale it up as per requirement.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Overview of trade statistics
Mains level: India and China trade comparison; Strategy for trade policy
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PRAGYATA Guidelines
Mains level: Limitations of Digital learning
Union HRD Ministry has released PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education through online medium.
Practice question for mains:
Q.Discuss the impact of the COVID induced lockdowns on the education system in India. Give some solutions for it.
PRAGYATA guidelines
- The guidelines include eight steps of online/ digital learning that is, Plan- Review- Arrange- Guide- Yak(talk)- Assign- Track- Appreciate.
- These guidelines have been developed from the perspective of learners, with a focus on online/blended/digital education for students who are presently at home due to lockdown.
- It provides a roadmap or pointers for carrying forward online education to enhance the quality of education.
- The guidelines will be relevant and useful for a diverse set of stakeholders including school heads, teachers, parents, teacher educators and students.
- It stresses upon the use of an alternative academic calendar of NCERT, for both, learners having access to digital devices and learners having limited or no access.
Major highlights
The guidelines highlight 3 modes of online education:
The guidelines outline suggestions for administrators, school heads, teachers, parents and students in the following areas:
- Need assessment
- Concerns while planning online and digital education like duration, screen time, inclusiveness, balanced online and offline activities etc level-wise
- Modalities of intervention including resource curation, level-wise delivery etc.
- Physical, mental health and wellbeing during digital education
- Cyber safety and ethical practices including precautions and measures for maintaining cyber safety
- Collaboration and convergence with various initiatives
Recommended screen time
| Class |
Recommendation |
| Pre Primary |
Not more than 30 minutes. |
| Classes 1 to 12 |
Recommended to adopt/adapt the alternative academic calendar of NCERT |
| Classes 1 to 8 |
Not more than two sessions of 30-45 minutes each on the days |
| Classes 9 to 12 |
Not more than four sessions of 30-45 minutes each on the days |
Guidelines for parents
- For parents, the guideline helps to understand the need for physical, mental health and wellbeing along with the cyber safety measures for children at home.
- Guidelines for physical health and mental wellness is stressed so that children do not get overly stretched or stressed, or get affected owing to prolonged use of digital devices.
- Also, it provides sufficient Dos and Don’ts regarding ergonomics and cyber safety.
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The NITI Aayog has recently presented India’s second Voluntary National Review at the UN’s High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, 2020.
Practice question for mains:
Q.Discuss the institutional approach adopted by NITI Aayog for the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.
About the UN Forum on SDGs
- The HLPF is the foremost international platform for follow-up and review of progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- The HLPF meets annually in July for eight days under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN.
- The VNRs presented by the Member States at the HLPF are a critical component of the review of progress and implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.
- The reviews are voluntary and state-led and are aimed at facilitating the sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned.
India VNR 2020
- NITI Aayog prepared and presented India’s first VNR in 2017.
- The report is a comprehensive account of the adoption and implementation of the 2030 Agenda in India.
- India’s VNR this year has undertaken a paradigm shift in terms of embodying a “whole-of-society” approach in letter and spirit.
- Apart from presenting a review of progress on the 17 SDGs, the report discusses at length the policy and enabling environment, India’s approach to localizing SDGs, and strengthening means of implementation.
- Leveraging science, technology and innovation for SDGs, and costing and financing of SDGs are the two levers of strengthening means of implementation which have been introduced this year.
Consultations made for the VNR 2020
From Global to Local -key steps of localisation of SDGs in India
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