Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAATSA
Mains level: Paper 2- India-U.S. relations
Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo makes his way to India next week, exactly a week before the election. This article discusses the various aspects that could form the part of the discussion.
Difference in U.S’s and India’s position on Quad
- He has stated that meeting in India “would include discussions about how free nations can work together to thwart threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party”.
- Just a few weeks ago, at the Quad Foreign Ministers meeting, U.S. Secretary of State had called for collaboration to protect people and partners from the Chinese Communist Party’s exploitation, corruption, and coercion.
- In contrast, India has maintained that its membership of the Quad is aligned to its Indo-Pacific policy, and by no means directed against any country.
- While Chines aggression is changing India’s priorities, any shift in India’s position on the Quad at the U.S.’s prompting must also benefit India.
What should be the part of U.S.-India collaboration
- It is critical to study just how India hopes to collaborate with the U.S. on the challenge that Beijing poses on each of India’s three fronts: at the LAC, in the maritime sphere, and in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region surrounding India.
- On the maritime sphere, discussions will include strengthening ties in the Indo-Pacific, enhancing joint military exercises like the ‘Malabar’ and completing the last of the “foundational agreements” with the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation (BECA).
- In Male, the U.S. has announced a defence agreement that will pave the way for a strategic dialogue.
- And unlike in the past, India has not objected this agreement with Male for entering in its area of influence in the Indian Ocean Region, as it will allow the U.S. to counter Chinese influence there.
- With Sri Lanka the U.S. is in discussions on infrastructure projects, and progress on its “Millenium Challenge Corporation” (MCC) offer of a five-year aid grant of about $480 million.
- At a time when India is delaying Sri Lanka’s requests for debt relief, given its own economic constraints, the U.S. aid offer will be seen as one way of staving off China’s inroads into Sri Lanka.
- Most important will be how the U.S. and India can collaborate on dealing with India’s most immediate, continental challenge from China: at the LAC.
- Apart from enhancing and expediting U.S. defence sales to India, there is must the U.S. could promise to India.
- The U.S. must also commit to keeping the pressure on Pakistan on terrorism, despite the U.S. need for Pakistan’s assistance in Afghan-Taliban talks.
- A firm U.S. statement in this regard may also disperse the pressure the Indian military faces in planning for a “two-front” conflict with China.
Resolving other key issues with the U.S.
- Resolution of Trade issues, an area the Trump administration has been particularly tough, and restoration of India’s Generalised System of Preferences status for exporters should also be priority.
- The government could press for more cooperation on 5G technology sharing, or an assurance that its S-400 missile system purchase from Russia will receive an exemption from CAATSA sanctions.
Conclusion
By inviting Secretary of State this close to the U.S. elections, New Delhi has taken a calculated and bold gamble, however, our leaders must drive a harder bargain to consolidate the pay-offs from the visit.
Back2Basics: What is CAATSA?
- The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) is a U.S. federal law that imposes economic sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.
- The bill came into effect on August 2, 2017, with the intention of countering perceived aggressions against the U.S. government by foreign powers.
- It accomplishes this goal by preventing U.S. companies from doing business with sanctioned entities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cereals producer states in India
Mains level: Paper 3- Encouraging cereals production in India to deal with the health issue
Promotion of millet crops serves the dual purpose of securing health and supporting farmers. This article explains the strategy adopted by the government to achieve the same.
Millet crops in India
- The three major millet crops currently growing in India are jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet) and ragi (finger millet).
- India also grows a rich array of bio-genetically diverse and indigenous varieties of “small millets” like kodo, kutki, chenna and sanwa.
- Major producers include Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana.
Advantages of millet cultivation
- Millets are good for the soil, have shorter cultivation cycles and require less cost-intensive cultivation.
- These unique features make millets suited for and resilient to India’s varied agro-climatic conditions.
- Millets are not water or input-intensive, making them a sustainable strategy for addressing climate change and building resilient agri-food systems.
Reasons for decline in millet production in India
- In the 1960s before the Green Revolution, millets were extensively grown and consumed in India.
- With the Green Revolution, the focus, rightly so, shifted to food security and high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice.
- An unintended consequence of this policy was the gradual decline in the production of millets.
- Millets were increasingly seen as “poor person’s food”.
- The cost incentives provided via MSPs also favoured a handful of staple grains.
Health issues related to refined food
- Along with declining millet production, India saw a jump in consumer demand for ultra-processed and ready-to-eat products, which are high in sodium, sugar, trans-fats and even some carcinogens.
- This demand was again met by highly-refined grains.
- With the intense marketing of processed foods, even the rural population started perceiving mill-processed rice and wheat as more aspirational.
- This has lead us to the double burden of mothers and children suffering from micronutrient deficiencies and the astounding prevalence of diabetes and obesity.
Strategy for promotion of nutri-cereals
1) Rebranding the cereals as nutri-cereals
- The first strategy from a consumption and trade point of view was to re-brand coarse cereals/millets as nutri-cereals.
- As of 2018-19, millet production had been extended to over 112 districts across 14 states.
2) Incentive through hiking MSP
- Second, the government hiked the MSP of nutri-cereals, which came as a big price incentive for farmers.
- From 2014-15 to 2020 MSPs for ragi has jumped by 113 per cent, by 72 per cent for bajra and by 71 per cent for jowar.
- MSPs have been calculated so that the farmer is ensured at least a 50 per cent return on their cost of production.
3) Providing steady markets through inclusion in PDS
- To provide a steady market for the produce, the Modi government included millets in the public distribution system.
4) Increasing area, production and yield
- The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare is running a Rs 600-crore scheme to increase the area, production and yield of nutri-cereals.
- With a goal to match the cultivation of nutri-cereals with local topography and natural resources, the government is encouraging farmers to align their local cropping patterns to India’s diverse 127 agro-climatic zones.
- Provision of seed kits and inputs to farmers, building value chains through Farmer Producer Organisations and supporting the marketability of nutri-cereals are some of the key interventions that have been put in place.
5) Intersection of agriculture and nutrition
- The Ministry of Women and Child Development has been working at the intersection of agriculture and nutrition by -1) setting up nutri-gardens, 2) promoting research on the interlinkages between crop diversity and dietary diversity 3) running a behaviour change campaign to generate consumer demand for nutri-cereals.
Consider the question “What are the reasons for decline in the millet production in India? What are the steps taken by the government to encourage its production?”
Conclusion
As the government sets to achieve its agenda of a malnutrition-free India and doubling of farmers’ incomes, the promotion of the production and consumption of nutri-cereals seems to be a policy shift in the right direction.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NHRC
Mains level: Sex workers
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recognised sex workers as informal workers in their advisory on “Human Rights of Women in the context of COVID 19”.
Try this question for mains:
Q.Recognizing sex workers as informal workers is a myopic and moralistic objection of human rights activism. Discuss.
What is the NHRC advisory?
- The NHRC in an effort to secure the rights of all excluded and marginalised women included sex workers as informal workers in their advisory on ‘Women at Work’.
- The advisory asked officials to recognise sex workers as informal workers and register them so they are able to avail the benefits of a worker.
- The Ministries have been asked to issue temporary documents so that the sex workers like all other informal workers, can access all welfare measures and health services.
Why is the advisory important?
- The advisory included sex workers among groups that they were considered as part of vulnerable and marginal sections of society thereby consider them as citizens who are deserving of the protection of human rights.
- To do this, NHRC had sought expert advice, and both the government and constitutional bodies had stood by the protection of the human rights and dignity of sex workers.
- For many, it is a welcome move and an important milestone in achieving constitutional rights for sex workers.
Legality check of such work
- The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act — lays down that the institution of prostitution is illegal.
- Sex is either a consensual engagement between two adults or it is rape.
- Commercial sex, if engaged through any institutional process is illegal and liable for prosecution. Hence the Government of India never recognised sex work.
Criticisms of this advisory
- The feminists who wish to end sex slavery are critical of this NHRC’s move.
- There has not been a single instance where a woman has voluntarily gone into prostitution.
- Therefore they have regarded this as an absolute failure to not provide viable options to women to engage in productive work.
Back2Basics: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
- The NHRC is a statutory public body constituted on 12 October 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance of 28 September 1993.
- It was given a statutory basis by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (PHRA).
- This act defines Human Rights as “Rights Relating To Life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India.
Functions
- Proactively or reactively inquire into violations of human rights by the government of India or negligence of such violation by a public servant
- Protection of human rights and recommend measures for their effective implementation
Composition
The NHRC consists of The Chairman and Four members (excluding the ex-officio members)
- A Chairperson, who has been a Chief Justice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Court
- One member who is, or has been, a Judge of the Supreme Court of India, or, One member who is, or has been, the Chief Justice of a High Court
- Three Members, out of which at least one shall be a woman to be appointed from amongst persons having knowledge of, or practical experience in, matters relating to human rights
- In addition, the Chairpersons of National Commissions serve as ex officio members.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Gender gap in labor market
Gender equality across the world remains a far-fetched goal and no country has achieved it so far, according to the 2020 edition of the United Nations report on the state of gender equality in the world.
Try this question for mains:
Q.Discuss how marriage age and women’s health are linked with each other?
About the Report
- The report titled “World’s Women: Trends and Statistics” was released by the UN-DESA.
- The report provided a reality-check on the global status of women 25 years since the world adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
- It presented the global state of gender equality in six critical areas: Population and families; health; education; economic empowerment and asset ownership; power and decision-making; and violence against women and the girl child as well as the impact of COVID-19.
Highlights on status of women
- The gender gap in the labour market, for example, has not budged a bit since 1995.
- While the status of women has improved with regard to education, early marriage, childbearing and maternal mortality, the progress has stagnated in other areas.
Participation in the labour market
- The gender gap in the labour market has remained as it was since 1995: The gap of 27 percentage points has barely changed since then, the report showed.
- Only 47 per cent women of working age participated in the labour market, compared to around 74 per cent men, according to the report.
- The largest gender gap in labour force participation was observed in the prime working age (25-54).
- This gap has remained unaddressed since 1995 and was at 32 percentage points as of 2020, according to the report. It was 31 percentage points in 1995.
- In India, the ratio of female-to-male labour force participation rate was 29.80 in 2019 as against the desired ratio of 50 per cent.
Working for free
- The data in the interactive UN report showed how women remained under the burden of unpaid domestic and care work.
- On an average day, women globally spent about three times (4.2 hours) as many hours on unpaid domestic and care work as men (1.7 hours).
- Unpaid domestic work includes activities related to the maintenance of the household, including food preparation, upkeep of the home, caring for pets etc.
Family responsibilities
- Family responsibilities and unequal distribution of unpaid domestic and care workers were among the primary reasons for women not joining the labour force.
- Their participation depended on their liabilities and responsibilities in their household, noted UN. It found that women living alone were more likely to be in the labour market.
- On an average, 82 per cent women of prime working-age living alone were in the labour market, compared to 64 per cent women living with a partner and 48 per cent living with a partner and children.
- Their participation rates in the economy were found to improve in the latter part of their lives after their responsibilities reduced — when their children grew older.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Asteroids, Bennu
Mains level: NASA's feat of landing on an asteroid
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touched asteroid Bennu, from where it is meant to collect samples of dust and pebbles and deliver them back to Earth in 2023.
The OSIRIS-REx mission
- OSIRIS-REx stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer. This is NASA’s first mission meant to return a sample from the ancient asteroid.
- The mission is essentially a seven-year-long voyage and will conclude when at least 60 grams of samples are delivered back to the Earth.
- As per NASA, the mission promises to bring the largest amount of extraterrestrial material back to our planet since the Apollo era.
- The mission was launched in 2016, it reached its target in 2018 and since then, the spacecraft has been trying to match the velocity of the asteroid using small rocket thrusters to rendezvous it.
- This week, the spacecraft’s robotic arm called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), made an attempt to “TAG” the asteroid and collected a sample.
About Bennu
- Bennu is a B-type asteroid, implying that it contains significant amounts of carbon and various other minerals.
- It was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999.
- Because of its high carbon content, the asteroid reflects about four per cent of the light that hits it, which is very low when compared with a planet like Venus, which reflects about 65 per cent of the light. Earth reflects about 30 per cent.
- Around 20-40 per cent of Bennu’s interior is empty space and scientists believe that it was formed in the first 10 million years of the solar system’s formation, implying that it is roughly 4.5 billion years old.
Why are scientists studying asteroid Bennu?
- Bennu is an asteroid about as tall as the Empire State Building and located at a distance of about 200 million miles away from the Earth.
- Scientists study asteroids to look for information about the formation and history of planets and the sun since asteroids were formed at the same time as other objects in the solar system.
- Another reason for tracking them is to look for asteroids that might be potentially hazardous. It is also relatively close to the Earth.
- It is for these reasons that scientists are interested in gathering information about this particular asteroid.
- Significantly, Bennu hasn’t undergone drastic changes since its formation over billions of years ago and therefore it contains chemicals and rocks dating back to the birth of the solar system.
How do chemicals and rocks offer scientists clues about the solar system?
- Because of Bennu’s age, it is likely to contain material that contains molecules that were present when life first formed on Earth, where life forms are based on carbon atom chains.
- Even so organic material like the kind scientists hope to find in a sample from Bennu doesn’t necessarily always come from biology.
- It would, though, further scientists’ search to uncover the role asteroids rich in organics played in catalyzing life on Earth.
Back2Basics: Asteroid
- Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, much smaller than planets. They are also called minor planets.
- According to NASA, 994,383 is the count of known asteroids, the remnants from the formation of the solar system over 4.6 billion years ago.
- Asteroids are divided into three classes. First, those found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is estimated to contain somewhere between 1.1-1.9 million asteroids.
- The second group is that of Trojans, which are asteroids that share an orbit with a larger planet.
- The third classification is Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA), which have orbits that pass close by the Earth. Those that cross the Earth’s orbit are called Earth-crossers.
- More than 10,000 such asteroids are known, out of which over 1,400 are classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Blue Dot Network, BRI
Mains level: Blue Dot Network
A group of US Senators has written to India asking to join the Blue Dot Network.
Try this MCQ:
Q.The Blue Dot Network recently seen in news is a global alliance for:
a) Beaches Certification
b) Infrastructure development
c) 5G connectivity
d) Patents regulation
The Blue Dot Network
- Blue Dot is a US-led collaboration with Australia and Japan that supports private-sector-led infrastructure financing opportunities in response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
- It was formally announced on 4 November 2019 at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok, Thailand on the sidelines of the 35th ASEAN Summit.
- It is led by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia.
- It is expected to serve as a global evaluation and certification system for roads, ports and bridges with a focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
Fundamental difference between BRI and Blue Dot
- While the former involves direct financing, giving countries in need immediate short-term relief, the latter is not a direct financing initiative and therefore may not be what some developing countries need.
- The question is whether Blue Dot offering first-world solutions to third-world countries.
- Secondly, Blue Dot will require coordination among multiple stakeholders when it comes to grading projects.
- Given the past experience of Quad, the countries involved in it are still struggling to put a viable bloc. Therefore, it remains to be seen how Blue Dot fares in the long run.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tubarial glands
Mains level: Not Much
Researchers from the Netherlands have discovered a new location of salivary glands.
Try this PYQ:
Q.With references to the scientific progress of ancient India, which of the statements given below are correct?
- Different kinds of specialized surgical instruments were in common use by 1st century AD.
- Transplant of internal organs in the human body had begun by the beginning of 3rd century AD.
- The concept of sine of an angle was known in 5th century AD.
- The concept of cyclic quadrilaterals was known in 7th century AD.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 and 4 only
(c) 1, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Tubarial Glands
- The salivary gland system in the human body has three paired major glands and over 1,000 minor glands that are spread throughout the mucosa.
- These glands produce saliva necessary for swallowing, digestion, tasting, mastication and dental hygiene.
- When researchers were studying scans from about 100 people, they found a bilateral structure at the back of the nasopharynx and these glands had characteristics of salivary glands.
- Researchers have proposed the name “tubarial glands” for their discovery.
- The researchers believe that these glands would qualify as the fourth pair of major salivary glands.
- The proposed name is based on their anatomical location; the other three glands are called parotid, submandibular and sublingual.
Why are these glands being discovered only now?
- The location of these glands is at a poorly accessible anatomical location under the base of the skull, which is an area that can only be visualized using nasal endoscopy.
- Further, conventional imaging techniques such as a CT scan, MRI and ultrasound have not allowed the visualization of these glands.
- For the scans done on the 100 patients, a new type of scan called the PSMA PET/CT scan was used, which was able to provide the high sensitivity and specificity required to detect these glands.
What is the purpose of these glands?
- So far, researchers suspect that the physiological function of the glands is to moisten and lubricate the nasopharynx and the oropharynx.
- However, this interpretation needs to be confirmed with additional research.
Significance of this discovery
- The discovery is potentially good news for some cancer patients with head and neck cancers.
- Patients with head and neck cancers and tumours in the tongue or the throat are treated with radiation therapy that can damage the new salivary glands, whose location was not previously known.
- Oncologists will be able to circumvent these areas and protect them from the side effects of radiation which can lead to complications such as trouble speaking, swallowing and speaking.
- Some patients may even face an increased risk of caries and oral infections that can significantly impact their life.
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