Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gilgit-Baltistan Region, CPEC
Mains level: China's vested interests in the Kashmir Valley
Pakistan government has recently announced that it would give the Gilgit-Baltistan region “provisional provincial status”. When that happens, G-B will become the sixth official province of Pakistan.
Gilgit-Baltistan
- Gilgit-Baltistan is the northernmost territory administered by Pakistan, providing the country’s only territorial frontier, and thus a land route, with China, where it meets the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
- The region is an illegally occupied Indian territory as it was the part of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu & Kashmir as it existed in 1947 at its accession to India.
- To G-B’s west is Afghanistan, to its south is Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and to the east J&K.
Its current status
- Though Pakistan, like India, links G-B’s fate to that of Kashmir, its administrative arrangements are different from those in PoK.
- While PoK has its own Constitution that sets out its powers and their limits vis-à-vis Pakistan, G-B has been ruled mostly by executive fiat.
- Until 2009, the region was simply called Northern Areas.
- It had a Northern Areas Legislative Council with the Legislative Assembly. The NALC was an elected body, but had no more than an advisory role to the Islamabad.
Why the separate status?
- Pakistan’s separate arrangement with G-B goes back to the circumstances under which it came to administer it. On November 1 1947, after J&K ruler Hari Singh had signed the Instrument of Accession with India.
- Gilgit had been leased to the British by Hari Singh in 1935. The British returned it in August 1947.
- Pakistan did not accept G-B’s accession although it took administrative control of the territory.
- India went to the UN and a series of resolutions were passed in the Security Council on the situation in Kashmir.
- Pakistan believed that neither G-B nor PoK should be annexed to Pakistan, as this could undermine the international case for a plebiscite in Kashmir.
- It also reckons that in the event a plebiscite ever takes place in Kashmir, votes in G-B will be important too. This is why it is only being called “provisional” provincial status.
Move for a status-quo?
- The plan to grant G-B provincial status is linked to CPEC and Chinese interest as well as a response to India’s abrogation of Art. 370.
- While India has objected to the plan to make G-B a province of Pakistan and in the recent past asserted that it will take control of G-B, there is a realization that it is impossible to change the map now.
- In this sense, it can be argued that the merger of G-B with Pakistan is a move that could help both countries put the past behind and move forward on the Kashmir issue, sometime in the future.
What do the people in G-B want?
- The people of G-B have been demanding for years that it be made a part of Pakistan since there is virtual no connect with India.
- Some have in the past demanded a merger with PoK, but the people of G-B have no real connect with Kashmir either.
- They belong to several non-Kashmiri ethnicities and speak various languages, none of these Kashmiri.
- A majority of the estimated 1.5 million G-B residents are Shias. There is anger against Pakistan for unleashing extremist sectarian militant groups that target Shias.
- There is a movement for independence, but it has very little traction.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WWF Water Risk Filter
Mains level: Water scarcity in urban India
Nearly a third of the 100 cities in the world susceptible to ‘water risk’ — defined as losses from battling droughts to flooding — are in India, according to the WWF Water Risk Filter.
Try this question for mains:
Q.For Indian cities to break away from the vicious loop of flooding and water scarcity, nature-based solutions like restoration of urban watersheds and wetlands could offer an alternative. Examine.
What is Water Risk Filter?
- This is an online tool, co-developed by the Worldwide Fund for Nature that helps evaluate the severity of risk places faced by graphically illustrating various factors that can contribute to water risk.
- Launched in 2012, it is a practical online tool that helps companies and investors assess and respond to water-related risks facing their operations and investments across the globe.
- After a major upgrade in 2018, the Water Risk Filter 5.0 enables companies and investors to Explore, Assess, Value and Respond to water risks.
- Lately, the Water Risk Filter provides scenarios of water risks for 2030 and 2050, integrating climate and socio-economic changes in different pathways.
Highlights of the recent analysis
- It reported 30 Indian cities that would face a ‘grave water risk’ by 2050 due to a dramatic increase in their population percentage to 51 per cent by 2050, from 17 per cent in 2020.
- Jaipur topped the list, followed by Indore and Thane. Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi also featured on the list.
- The global list includes cities such as Beijing, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Mecca and Rio de Janeiro. China accounts for almost half the cities.
Major recommendations
- The future of India’s environment lies in its cities. As India rapidly urbanizes, cities will be at the forefront both for India’s growth and for sustainability.
- For cities to break away from the current vicious loop of flooding and water scarcity, nature-based solutions like restoration of urban watersheds and wetlands could offer solutions.
- Urban watersheds and wetlands are critical for maintaining the water balance of a city, flood cushioning, micro-climate regulation and protecting its biodiversity, the report notes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fortified rice, Biofortification, ICDS
Mains level: Various facets of hunger and malnutrition in India
In a bid to combat chronic anaemia and undernutrition, the government is planning to distribute fortified rice through the Integrated Child Development Services and Mid-Day Meal schemes across the country.
What is Fortified Rice?
- Rice can be fortified by adding a micronutrient powder to the rice that adheres to the grains or spraying of the surface of ordinary rice grains with a vitamin and mineral mix to form a protective coating.
- Rice can also be extruded and shaped into partially precooked grain-like structures resembling rice grains, which can then be blended with natural polished rice.
- Rice kernels can be fortified with several micronutrients, such as iron, folic acid and other B-complex vitamins, vitamin A and zinc.
- These fortified kernels are then mixed with normal rice in a 1:100 ratio, and distributed for consumption.
Note: Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional quality of food crops is improved through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology. It differs from conventional fortification in that Biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth rather than through manual means during the processing of the crops.
What was the earlier initiative?
- The centrally-sponsored pilot scheme was approved in February 2019 for a three-year period from 2019-20 onwards.
- However, only five States — Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh — have started the distribution of fortified rice in their identified pilot districts.
Need for expansion
- Currently, there are only 15,000 tonnes of these kernels available per year in the country.
- To cover PDS, anganwadis and mid-day meals in the 112 aspirational districts, annual supply capacity would need to be increased to about 1.3 lakh tonnes.
- To cover PDS across the country, 3.5 lakh tonnes of fortified kernels would be needed.
Regulating fortification
- FSSAI has formulated a comprehensive regulation on fortification of foods namely ‘Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016’.
- These regulations set the standards for food fortification and encourage the production, manufacture, distribution, sale and consumption of fortified foods.
- The regulations also provide for the specific role of FSSAI in promotion for food fortification and to make fortification mandatory.
- WHO recommends fortification of rice with iron, vitamin A and folic acid as a public health strategy to improve the iron status of population wherever rice is a staple food.
Back2Basics: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)
- The ICDS aims to provide food, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.
- The scheme was launched in 1975, discontinued in 1978 by the government of Morarji Desai, and then relaunched by the Tenth Five Year Plan.
- The tenth FYP also linked ICDS to Anganwadi centres established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers.
- The ICDS provide for anganwadis or day-care centres which deliver a package of six services including:
- Immunization
- Supplementary nutrition
- Health checkup
- Referral services
- Pre-school education (Non-Formal)
- Nutrition and Health information
Implementation
- For nutritional purposes, ICDS provides 500 kilocalories (with 12-15 grams of protein) every day to every child below 6 years of age.
- For adolescent girls, it is up to 500-kilo calories with up to 25 grams of protein every day.
- The services of Immunisation, Health Check-up and Referral Services delivered through Public Health Infrastructure under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 161
Mains level: Pardoning power of president vs. governor
The Supreme Court has recently said that the investigation into the conspiracy behind Ex-PMs assassination in 1991 need not deter the Governor from deciding the plea for pardon of convicts.
What did the court say exactly?
- The court made it clear that it was reluctant to exercise its jurisdiction when the Governor was already seized of convict’s plea for a pardon under Article 161 of the Constitution.
Try this PYQ now:
Q.Which of the following are the discretionary powers given to the Governor of a State?
- Sending a report to the President of India for imposing the President’s rule
- Appointing the Ministers
- Reserving certain bills passed by the State Legislature for consideration of the President of India
- Making the rules to conduct the business of the State Government
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Pardoning Powers of Governor
- Article 161 deals with the Pardoning Power of the Governor.
- The Governor can grant pardons, reprieves, respites and remissions of punishments or suspend, remit and commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the state extends.
- The Governor cannot Pardon a Death Sentence. (The President has the power of Pardon a death Sentence).
- The Governor cannot grant pardon, reprieve, respite, suspension, remission or commutation in respect to punishment or sentence by a court-martial. However, the President can do so.
Back2Basics:
- Pardon: means completely absolving the person of the crime and letting him go free. The pardoned criminal will be like a normal citizen.
- Commutation: means changing the type of punishment given to the guilty into a less harsh one, for example, a death penalty commuted to a life sentence.
- Reprieve: means a delay allowed in the execution of a sentence, usually a death sentence, for a guilty person to allow him some time to apply for Presidential Pardon or some other legal remedy to prove his innocence or successful rehabilitation.
- Respite: means reducing the quantum or degree of the punishment to a criminal in view of some special circumstances, like pregnancy, mental condition etc.
- Remission: means changing the quantum of the punishment without changing its nature, for example reducing twenty-year rigorous imprisonment to ten years.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Irish mutiny in India
Mains level: Decolonization (World History)
Ireland is commemorating 100 years of the mutiny by a British Army battalion stationed in Jalandhar and Solan in Punjab in support of the Irish freedom movement.
Try this PYQ:
Q.With reference to the Indian freedom struggle, consider the following events:
- Mutiny in Royal Indian Navy
- Quit India Movement launched
- Second Round Table Conference
What is the correct chronological sequence of the above events?
(a) 1-2-3
(b) 2-1-3
(c) 3-2-1
(d) 3-1-2
Irish mutiny in India
- The Connaught Rangers were raised during the British Army reforms of 1881.
- A British Army battalion belonging to the Connaught Rangers was the one in which Irish soldiers mutinied in Jalandhar and Solan in Punjab.
- Solan now lies in Himachal Pradesh but in 1920 it was part of Punjab. The Ist Battalion of the Connaught Rangers was stationed in Jalandhar since January 1920 after it had taken part in the First World War.
Why did the mutiny take place?
- The troops were protesting against the behaviour of the ‘Black and Tans’ during the Irish War of Independence (1919-22).
- The Black and Tan were members of the Irish constabulary which had been recruited from Great Britain and mostly comprised demobilized soldiers who had fought in the First World War.
- The Irish soldiers felt that they must rise in solidarity with their compatriots back in Ireland and hence in June and July 1920 some of the regiment’s men mutinied.
- Some of the mutinied soldiers were later put through a court-martial.
Who were the Black and Tans?
- They were constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) as reinforcements during the Irish War of Independence.
- Recruitment began in Great Britain in January 1920 and about 10,000 men enlisted during the conflict.
- The vast majority were unemployed former soldiers from Great Britain who fought in the First World War, although some were from Ireland.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Five eyes
Mains level: Paper 2- Quad and its future
Quad as new feature of Indo-Pacific
- Australia’s participation in the Malabar exercises marks the emergence of the Quad as a new feature of the Indo-Pacific geopolitics.
- The question is India’s ability to take full advantage of the possibilities after the US elections to construct a wide range of new international coalitions.
- Likely changes could envelop a range of old institutions like the Five Eyes and the G-7 grouping that coordinates Western policies on global economic management.
- We could also see the creation of a new League of Democracies that will addres issues like including the defence of shared values, commerce, corruption, taxation, climate change and digital governance.
Phases of India’s international aspiration
- The consolidation of the Quad reflects the political will in Delhi to break free from old shibboleths and respond to security imperatives.
- The post-Quad era opens a new phase in which India, for the first time, can help shape global institutions.
- First phase: Idealism was the hallmark of India’s internationalism in the 1950s, the harsh politics of the Cold War quickly dampened it.
- Second phase: In the 1970s, India embraced the radical agenda of a New International Economic Order, as the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77. The results were meagre.
- Third phase began with the end of the Cold War.
- And as India’s own economic model collapsed, India had to focus on economic reform and prevent the world from intruding too much into its internal affairs.
- The fear of the US activism on Kashmir and nuclear issues saw Delhi turn to Russia and China in search of a “multipolar world” that could constrain American power.
- The BRICS forum with Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa became emblematic of this strategy.
- Delhi also figured out that it was not possible for BRICS to constrain Beijing, since China was so much bigger than the other four members put together.
- Fourth phase in India’s multilateralism is marked by three features — the relative rise in Delhi’s international standing, the breakdown of the great power consensus on economic globalisation, and the breakout of the US-China rivalry.
Efforts to tackle China
- The Trump administration has already sought to imagine the Quad’s possibilities beyond the defence domain.
- The invitation to India to join a Five Eyes meeting came amidst the bipartisan calls in the US Congress for the expansion of the forum and the inclusion of India.
- The “Quad Plus” dialogue has variously drawn in Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, and Vietnam for consultations with the Quad members on coordinating the responses to the pandemic.
- India is also engaged with Japan and Australia in developing resilient supply chains to reduce the reliance on China.
- President Trump has proposed the expansion of G-7 grouping to include Australia, India, Russia and South Korea.
- The last few months has seen the Trump administration promote a “Clean Network” that eliminates untrustworthy vendors from telecom systems, digital apps, trans-oceanic cables and cloud infrastructure.
- Clean Network is now a broader effort to build secure technology ecosystems among like-minded countries.
- Britain is said to be developing plans to convene a coalition of 10 democracies, including India, that can contribute to the construction of secure 5G networks and reduce the current dependence on China.
- France and Canada have invited India to join the Global Partnership on artificial intelligence that now includes 15 countries.
- The objective is to promote responsible development of AI that is consistent with shared democratic values.
Conclusion
Delhi’s participation in the sweeping rearrangement of the global structures will have major consequences for India’s economic prosperity and technological future. Unlike in the past, Delhi now has the resources, leverage and political will to make a difference to the global order
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MPC and inflation targets
Mains level: Paper 3- Inflation targeting by the RBI
Inflation targeting and legal provisions
- The inflation target, notified in August 2016, is 4%.
- The upper tolerance level was set at 6% and the lower tolerance level at 2%.
- Inflation was 6.7% in the January-March quarter, 6.6% in the April-June quarter and 6.9% in the July-September quarter.
- Breaching limits for any three consecutive quarters constitutes a failure to achieve the inflation target.
- In such an event, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is required to send a report to the Centre, stating the reasons for the failure to achieve the inflation target, the remedial actions it proposes to initiate, and an estimate of the time-period within which it expects to achieve the inflation target through the corrective steps proposed.
- Through amendments passed by Parliament in 2016, these new provisions were written into the RBI Act.
- They are aimed at ensuring enhanced transparency and accountability of the central bank.
Reason given by the RBI for missing the target
- The normal data collection exercise of the National Statistics Office was disrupted during the lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting after its August policy review suggest that the RBI’s defence for the breach of the 4% inflation target and 6% upper tolerance limit was the handicap of data limitations.
Issues with the reason given by the RBI
- The range around the inflation target that the Ministry provided to the RBI is for accommodating constraints and challenges like data limitations.
- The whole point of the range around the target, the statement emphasised, is that it “accommodates data limitations, projection errors, short-run supply gaps and fluctuations in the agriculture production”.
Way forward
- RBI should be made to explain what it plans to do to control inflation.
- The central bank should be allowed to state expressly what support by way of government policy it needs to meet the inflation target.
- This can only strengthen the RBI’s hand; it should not let go of the opportunity to reinforce the MPC framework.
Conclusion
Transparency can enable more informed decision-making within the government, greater public scrutiny of the RBI’s performance, and an improved inflation-targeting regime. To slack off on it would be to compromise with the credibility, transparency and predictability of monetary policy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Malabar Naval Exercise, Quad, 2+2
Mains level: Global alliance against China
Phase 1 of the Malabar Naval Exercise has kicked begun with the participation of Australian navy for the first time since 2007.
Go through the list for once. UPSC may ask a match the pair type question asking exercise name and countries involved.
https://www.civilsdaily.com/prelims-spotlight-defence-exercises/
What is Malabar Exercise?
- It is a multilateral naval exercise that includes simulated war games and combat manoeuvres.
- It started in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between the Indian and US navies. Japan joined in 2015.
- This year the exercise will be held in two phases, the first from Tuesday off the coast near Visakhapatnam, and the second in the Arabian Sea in mid-November. Last year it was held in early September off the coast of Japan.
Major highlight: Quad Participation
- For the first time in over a decade, the exercise will see the participation of all four Quad countries.
- This will be the second time Australia will participate. In 2007, there were two Malabar Exercises.
- The first was held off Okinawa island of Japan in the Western Pacific — the first time the exercise was held away from Indian shores — and the second in September 2007.
- The following year, Australia stopped participating. Japan became a regular participant only in 2015, making it a trilateral annual exercise since then.
Why is Australia’s participation important?
- The 2+2 dialogue ended with an agreement to uphold the rules-based international order, respect for the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the international seas and upholding the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states.
- As the standoff in eastern Ladakh continues, the participation of four large navies from the Indo-Pacific region will send a message to China.
- It was the possibility of riling up China that had prevented India from expanding the Malabar Exercise, and from Australia joining it.
Quad is an exception
- Over the last few months, the Indian Navy has conducted a number of Passage Exercises (PASSEX) with navies from Japan, Australia and the US.
- But those were basic exercises to increase operability between the navies, while Malabar involves simulated war games.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Army Aviation Corps
Mains level: Indian armed forces
The Army Aviation Corps (AAC), the youngest Corps of the Indian Army, has celebrated its 35th Corps Day.
Try this question for mains:
Q. Discuss why high-altitude warfare is challenging. Also, discuss India’s preparedness for a long-term war.
The Army Aviation Corps
- The origin of the AAC can be traced back to the raising of the Army Aviation wing of the Royal Air Force in India in 1942, and the subsequent formation of the first Indian Air Observation Post in August 1947.
- The Air Observation Post units primarily acted as artillery spotters – which are the elements that help the artillery in directing the fire and also giving air support to ground forces.
- In the wars of 1965 and 1971, the Air Observation Post helicopters played a key role in the battlefields by flying close to the enemy lines and helping ground assets spot targets.
- The Corps was raised as a separate formation on November 1 in 1986. The AAC now draws its officers and men from all arms of the Army, including a significant number from the artillery.
Significant battles
- Immediately after raising, the units of the Corps were pressed into action in Operation Pawan by the Indian Peacekeeping Forces, in the mostly jungle areas of Sri Lanka.
- Ever since AAC helicopters have been an inseparable part of fighting formations in all major conflict scenarios and a life-saving asset in peace times.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Maharani Jindan Kaur, Anglo-Sikh Wars
Mains level: Not Much
Maharani Jindan Kaur, the last wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, is in news for the auction of some of her jewellery in London.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following Bhakti Saints:
- Dadu Dayal
- Guru Nanak
- Tyagaraja
Who among the above was/were preaching when the Lodi dynasty fell and Babur took over?
(a) 1 and 3
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3
(d) 1 and 2
Who was Rani Jindan (1817-1863)?
- She was the youngest wife of Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh empire, whose boundaries stretched from Kabul to Kashmir and the borders of Delhi.
- She was also the mother of Duleep Singh, the last ruler of the empire, who was raised by the British.
- Duleep Singh was five years old when he was placed on the throne in 1843 after the death of two heirs to Ranjit Singh. Since he was just a child, Maharani Jindan was made the regent.
- Not a rubber stamp, she took an active interest in running the kingdom, introducing changes in the revenue system.
Anglo-Sikh War and Jindan
- The British declared war on the Sikh empire in December 1845. After their victory in the first Anglo-Sikh war, they retained Duleep Singh as the ruler but imprisoned Jind Kaur.
- She escaped and arrived at Kathmandu on April 29, 1849, where she was given asylum by Jung Bahadur, the prime minister.
- She was given a house on the banks of river Bhagmati. She stayed in Nepal till 1860, where she continued to reach out to rebels in Punjab and Jammu-Kashmir.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kawasaki Disease
Mains level: NA
Children in the world over have shown to be affected by either Kawasaki Disease (KD) since the reopening of schools.
Try this PYQ:
Q.H1N1 virus is sometimes mentioned in the news with reference to which one of the following diseases?
(a) AIDS
(b) Bird flu
(c) Dengue
(d) Swine flu
What is Kawasaki Disease?
- Kawasaki disease is an illness that causes blood vessels to become inflamed, almost always in young children.
- Its cause is yet unknown. It is one of the leading causes of heart disease in kids.
- But doctors can treat it if they find it early. Most children recover without any problems.
Symptoms
Kawasaki disease comes on fast, and symptoms show up in phases. Signs of the first phase of Kawasaki disease include:
- High fever that lasts more than 5 days
- Swelling and redness in hands and bottoms of feet
- Red eyes
- Swollen glands, especially in the neck
- Irritated throat, mouth, and lips
In the second phase, symptoms include:
- Joint pain
- Stomach trouble, such as diarrhoea and vomiting
- Peeling skin on hands and feet
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mission SAGAR
Mains level: India's SAGAR policy of Indian Ocean Region
As part of ‘Mission Sagar-II’, Indian Naval Ship Airavat had entered Port Sudan.
Mission SAGAR, unlike other missions, can create confusion with the name and its purpose. Make note of such special cases. UPSC can ask such questions as one liner MCQs.
Mission Sagar – II
- Mission Sagar-II, follows the first ‘Mission Sagar’ undertaken in May-June 2020, wherein India reached out to Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros, and provided food aid and medicines.
- As part of Mission Sagar-II, Indian Naval Ship Airavat will deliver food aid to Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea.
- This mission is in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region ‘SAGAR’ and highlights the importance accorded by India to relations with her maritime neighbours.
Back2Basics
SAGAR Programme (Security and Growth for All in the Region)
- SAGAR is a term coined by PM Modi in 2015 during his Mauritius visit with a focus on the blue economy.
- It is a maritime initiative which gives priority to the Indian Ocean region for ensuring peace, stability and prosperity of India in the Indian Ocean region.
- The goal is to seek a climate of trust and transparency; respect for international maritime rules and norms by all countries; sensitivity to each other`s interests; peaceful resolution of maritime issues; and increase in maritime cooperation.
- It is in line with the principles of the Indian Ocean Rim Association.
IORA (Indian Ocean Rim Association)
- Established in 1997 in Ebene Cyber City, Mauritius.
- First established as Indian Ocean Rim Initiative in Mauritius on March 1995 and formally launched in 1997 by the conclusion of a multilateral treaty known as the Charter of the IORA for Regional Cooperation.
- It is based on the principles of Open Regionalism for strengthening Economic Cooperation particularly on Trade Facilitation and Investment, Promotion as well as Social Development of the region.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BECA
Mains level: Paper 2- India-U.S. relations and implications for relations with other countries
The article analyses the impact of India’s growing engagement with the U.S. on relations on India’s foreign policy.
What signing of BECA mean
- The centrepiece of the third 2+2 dialogue was the signing of the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for Geo-Spatial Cooperation.
- With the signing of BECA, India is now a signatory to all U.S.-related foundational military agreements.
- Built into the agreements are provisions for a two-way exchange of information.
- India had signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), in 2016, and the Communications, Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), in 2018.
- By appending its signature to BECA, India is in a position to specifically receive sensitive geo-spatial intelligence.
- The foundational military pacts effectively tie India to the wider U.S. strategic architecture in the region.
Issues with signing BECA
- With the signing of these agreements, India’s claims of maintaining strategic autonomy will be doubtful.
- By signing BECA, India has signed on to becoming part of the wider anti-China ‘coalition of the willing’ led by the U.S.
- By signing on to BECA at this juncture, India has effectively jettisoned its previous policy of neutrality, and of maintaining its equi-distance from power blocs.
Impact on relations with China
- China-India relations have never been easy.
- Since 1988, India has pursued, despite occasional problems, a policy which put a premium on an avoidance of conflicts with China.
- This will now become increasingly problematic as India gravitates towards the U.S. sphere of influence.
- India’s willingness to sign foundational military agreements with the U.S. would suggest that India has made its choice, which can only exacerbate already deteriorating China-India relations.
Impact on the relations in the region
- India needs to pay greater attention at this time to offset its loss of influence in its immediate neighbourhood (in South Asia), and in its extended neighbourhood (in West Asia).
- Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, normally perceived to be within India’s sphere of influence, currently seem to be out of step with India’s approach on many issues.
- At the same time, both China and the U.S. separately, seem to be making inroads and enlarging their influence here.
- The Maldives, for instance, has chosen to enter into a military pact with the U.S. to counter Chinese expansionism in the Indian Ocean region.
- India needs to ensure that the latest UAE-Israel linkage does not adversely impact India’s interests in the region.
- India must also not rest content with the kind of relations it has with Israel, as Tel Aviv has its own distinct agenda in West Asia.
- Furthermore, India needs to devote greater attention to try and restore India-Iran ties which have definitely frayed in recent years.
India’s role in Afghanistan
- India must decide on how best to try and play a role in Afghanistan without getting stuck.
- India had subscribed to an anti-Taliban policy and was supportive of the Northern Alliance (prior to 2001).
- The new policy that dictates India’s imperatives today, finds India not unwilling to meet the Taliban.
- India must decide how a shift in policy at this time would serve India’s objectives in Afghanistan, considering the tremendous investment it has made in recent decades to shore up democracy in that country.
India’s role in SCO and NAM
- SCO, which has China and Russia as its main protagonists — and was conceived as an anti-NATO entity — will test India’s diplomatic skills.
- Even though India currently has a detached outlook, vis-à-vis the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and has increasingly distanced itself from the African and Latin American group in terms of policy prescriptions, matters could get aggravated, following India’s new alliance patterns.
- It would be a rude awakening for India, if it is seen as no longer a stellar member of NAM.
Impact on relations with Russia
- The impact of India signing on to U.S.-related foundational military agreements, cannot but impact India-Russia relations.
- India-Russia relations in recent years have not been as robust as in the pre-2014 period, but many of the edifices that sustained the relationship at optimum levels, including annual meetings between the Russian President and the Indian Prime Minister have remained.
- It is difficult to see how this can be sustained, if India is seen increasingly going into the U.S. embrace.
- Almost certainly in the circumstances, India can hardly hope to count on Russia as a strategic ally.
- This is one relationship which India will need to handle with skill and dexterity, as it would be a tragedy if India-Russia relations were to deteriorate at a time when the world is in a state of disorder.
Consider the question “What are the implications of India’s signing of foundational military agreements with the U.S. for India’s relations with the other countries”
Conclusion
While India moves towards more robust engagement with the U.S., it must also consider impact of such move on the relations with the other countries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bulk Drugs
Mains level: India's pharma sector
Himachal Pradesh is one of the states vying for the allotment of a bulk drug park under a central government scheme announced earlier this year for setting up three such parks across the country.
Try this question:
Q.The drug pricing system in India is an indirect outcome of the growing dependence on China for APIs. Discuss.
What are Bulk Drugs or APIs?
- A bulk drug also called an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), is the key ingredient of a drug or medicine, which lends it the desired therapeutic effect or produces the intended pharmacological activity.
- For example, paracetamol is a bulk drug, which acts against pain.
- It is mixed with binding agents or solvents to prepare the finished pharmaceutical product, ie a paracetamol tablet, capsule or syrup, which is consumed by the patient.
- APIs are prepared from multiple reactions involving chemicals and solvents.
- The primary chemical or the basic raw material which undergoes reactions to form an API is called the key starting material, or KSM.
- Chemical compounds formed during the intermediate stages during these reactions are called drug intermediates or DIs.
Why is India promoting bulk drug parks?
- India has one of the largest pharmaceutical industries in the world (third largest by volume) but this industry largely depends on other countries, particularly China, for importing APIs, DIs and KSMs.
- This year, drug manufacturers in India suffered repeated setbacks due to disruption in imports.
- Factories in China shut down when the country went into a lockdown, and later, international supply chains were affected as the Covid pandemic gripped the entire world.
- The border conflict between India and China exacerbated the situation.
What is the Centre’s scheme?
- The Centre’s scheme will support three selected parks in the country by providing a one-time grant-in-aid for the creation of common infrastructure facilities.
- The grant-in-aid will be 70 per cent of the cost of the common facilities but in the case of Himachal Pradesh and other hill states, it will be 90 per cent.
- The Centre will provide a maximum of Rs 1,000 crore per park.
- A state can only propose one site, which is not less than a thousand acres in area, or not less than 700 acres in the case of hill states.
What does a bulk park offer?
- A bulk drug park will have a designated contiguous area of land with common infrastructure facilities for the exclusive manufacture of APIs, DIs or KSMs, and also a common waste management system.
- These parks are expected to bring down manufacturing costs of bulk drugs in the country and increase competitiveness in the domestic bulk drug industry.
Why Himachal?
- Himachal already has Asia’s largest pharma manufacturing hub, that is the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial belt, and the state produces around half of India’s total drug formulations.
- Himachal offers power and water at the lowest tariffs in the country, and the state also has an industrial gas pipeline.
- It jumped nine places in this year’s ease-of-doing-business rankings declared by the Centre last month, securing the seventh position in the country.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nyay Kaushal Centre
Mains level: Transparent and accessible judicial proceedings
CJI has inaugurated the first-ever e-resource centre and virtual court for traffic and transport to enable speedy justice for litigants, called ‘Nyay Kaushal’, at Nagpur.
Must read edition:
[Burning Issue] Judiciary in Times of COVID-19 Outbreak
Nyay Kaushal Centre
- It is a first of its kind e-resource centre in India that will facilitate electronic filing of cases in the Supreme Court, High Courts and district courts across the country.
- It is meant to be a step at mitigating various inequalities, being connected to the Supreme Court, the High Courts and the Taluka Courts.
- It will provide the easiest way of filing court matters by utilising technology. It will provide benefits in saving time, avoidance of exertion, travelling long distances, and a saving in costs.
- The virtual court will be working from Katol in Nagpur district.
It’s working
- The virtual court can deal with all traffic challan cases from every corner of Maharashtra online.
- It will be possible for the litigants to pay the fine and get the traffic challan case disposed of with the click of a button on a smartphone or a computer.
Why need such a mechanism?
- The biggest problem that came with the pandemic was that access to justice became conditional on access to technology.
- This has ended up creating a divide between the ones who can afford technology and ones who cannot.
- With the aid of virtual courts, our system of justice does not suffer and the rule of law continues to be maintained.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PM-SVANIDHI Scheme
Mains level: Welfare of the street vendors
Recently PM distributed loans to nearly 300,000 street vendors under the PM SVANidhi scheme.
Q. Discuss how Street-vending accounts for significant non-agricultural urban informal employment in India. Also, discuss how the PM SVANidhi scheme will help street vendors.
SVANidhi scheme
- The SVANidhi ensures a working capital loan up to Rs 10,000 for vendors and rewards digital transactions.
- All street vendors who have been in the business on or before March 24, 2020, are eligible to avail the benefits.
- For this scheme launched in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Centre has earmarked a stimulus package of Rs 5,000 crore for nearly 50 lakh vendors.
Street vendors in India
- There are estimated 50-60 lakh street vendors in India, with the largest concentrations in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad.
- Most of them are migrants who typically work for 10–12 hours every day on average. Anyone who doesn’t have a permanent shop is considered a street vendor.
- According to government estimates, street-vending accounts for 14 per cent of the total (non-agricultural) urban informal employment in the country.
- The sector is riddled with problems. Licence caps are unrealistic in most cities — Mumbai, for example, has a ceiling of around 15,000 licences as against an estimated 2.5 lakh vendors.
- This means most vendors hawk their goods illegally, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation and extortion by local police and municipal authorities.
Identifying street vendors
- The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 was enacted to regulate street vendors in public areas and protect their rights.
- The Act defines a “street vendor” as a person engaged in vending of articles… of everyday use or offering services to the general public, in…any public place or private area, from a temporary built-up structure or by moving from place to place”.
- The Act envisages the formation of Town Vending Committees in various districts to ensure that all street vendors identified by the government are accommodated in the vending zones subject to norms.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: D614G mutation
Mains level: Not Much
While novel coronavirus is undergoing many mutations, one particular mutation called D614G, according to a study, has become the dominant variant in the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following statements is not correct?
(a) Hepatitis B virus is transmitted much like HIV.
(b) Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine.
(c) Globally, the number of people infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses is several times more than those infected with HIV.
(d) Some of those infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses do not show the symptoms for many years.
D614G mutation
- When the virus enters an individual’s body, it aims at creating copies of itself. When it makes an error in this copying process, we get a mutation.
- In this case, the virus replaced the aspartic acid (D) in the 614th position of the amino acid with glycine (G). Hence the mutation is called the D614G.
- This mutated form of the virus was first identified in China and then in Europe. Later it spread to other countries like the U.S. and Canada and was eventually reported in India.
Threats posed
- This particular mutation aids the virus in attaching more efficiently with the ACE2 receptor in the human host, thereby making it more successful in entering a human body than its predecessors.
- D614G show increased infectivity but it also displayed greater ability at attaching itself to the cell walls inside an individual’s nose and throat, increasing the viral load.
How prevalent is it in India?
- A study (reveals that the D614G was one of the most prevalent spike mutations even during the initial phase of the pandemic.
- Since then, D614G mutation’s ‘relative abundance’ has increased over time to 70% and above, in most states except Delhi.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Asteroids, Bennu, Psyche
Mains level: Not Much
A recent study has found that asteroid 16 Psyche, which orbits between Mars and Jupiter, could be made entirely of metal and is worth an estimated $10,000 quadrillion.
A NASA mission has recently landed on and collected samples from an asteroid. Do you remember that? Yes. Its the Asteroid Bennu
16 Psyche
- Located around 370 million km away from Earth, asteroid 16 Psyche is one of the most massive objects in the asteroid belt in our solar system.
- The somewhat potato-shaped asteroid has a diameter of around 140 miles.
- It was first discovered on March 17, 1853, by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and was named after the ancient Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche.
- Unlike most asteroids that are made up of rocks or ice, scientists believe that Psyche is a dense and largely metallic object thought to be the core of an earlier planet that failed in formation.
- Its surface may mostly comprise iron and nickel, similar to the Earth’s core, according to a study.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mansar Lakes, Ramsar Sites
Mains level: Wetland conservation in India
Mansar Lake Development Plan is getting fulfilled after a long wait of 70 years.
Try this PYQ:
Q.With reference to a conservation organization called Wetlands International, which of the following statements is/are correct?
- It is an intergovernmental organization formed by the countries which are signatories to Ramsar Convention.
- It works at the field level to develop and mobilize knowledge, and use the practical experience to advocate for better policies.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
About Mansar Lake
- Situated at about 37 km from Jammu, Mansar is a lake fringed by forest-covered hills, over a mile in length by half-a-mile in width.
- Surinsar-Mansar Lakes are designated as Ramsar Convention in November 2005.
- With all religions belief and heritage behind the Mansar Lake is also picking up its fame among the tourists with all its flora & fauna.
- The lake has cemented path all around with required illumination, with projected view decks to enjoy flickering of seasonal birds, tortoise and fishes of different species.
- There is a wildlife Sanctuary housing jungle life like Spotted Deer, Nilgai etc. besides other water birds such as Cranes, Ducks etc.
Back2Basics: Ramsar Convention
- The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (better known as the Ramsar Convention) is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
- It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem.
- The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
- Traditionally viewed as a wasteland or breeding ground of disease, wetlands actually provide freshwater and food and serve as nature’s shock absorber.
- Wetlands, critical for biodiversity, are disappearing rapidly, with recent estimates showing that 64% or more of the world’s wetlands have vanished since 1900.
- Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.
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