Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RIC and BRICS
Mains level: Paper 2- India-Russia relations
The article highlights Russia’s increasing inclinations towards China and its implications for India.
Context
Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently asserted that both the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, are “responsible” enough to solve issues between their countries, while underlining the need to debar any “extra-regional power” to interfere in the process.
Implications for India-Russia ties
- By this remark, Russia expects India to give up all efforts to reverse Beijing’s encroachment strategies.
- The remarks can only be seen as reinforcing China’s claim that the Quadrilateral or Quad is aimed at containing China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
- Russia’s continued criticism of the Indo-Pacific and the Quad suggests the divergent perspectives of India and Russia on how to deal with China’s rise to global prominence.
- While India needs Russia’s partnership for its defence needs, India cannot endorse the Russian perspective on the Indo-Pacific and the Quad
- The Russian attitude toward China’s growing power and influence will be the touchstone of Russia’s relations with India.
- Russia has rejected the Indo-Pacific construct in favour of the Asia-Pacific on the ground that the first is primarily an American initiative designed to contain both China and Russia.
- With the rise of populist nationalism amidst the decline of globalisation, the resolution of the Sino-Indian boundary dispute appears a difficult task.
Background of India’s balancing strategies
- Following the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), India soon realised Russia was much weaker than the erstwhile USSR and incapable of helping India balance potential threats from Beijing.
- On the other hand, Russia began to cast Moscow as the leader of a supposed trilateral grouping of Russia-India-China against a U.S.-led unipolar world.
- Russia became an early proponent of the ‘strategic triangle’ to bring together the three major powers.
- India’s fear of the unipolar moment too made it easier for India to become part of this initiative.
- But China’s dismissive attitude toward Indian capabilities, coupled with an emerging China-Pakistan nexus, prevented the success of this trilateral.
- India, instead, invested its diplomatic energies in rapprochement with the United States.
- Thus, India decided to get integrated in the economic order it once denounced.
- Economic liberalisation also allowed India to buy sophisticated weapons from a wider global market that included suppliers such as Israel and France.
- As the logic of intensive engagement with the West was effectively established, strategic partnership with the U.S. was a logical corollary.
- India has been searching for other major powers to balance against China as it does not have the sufficient means for hard balancing.
- India has deepened its ties with Japan and Australia in a way that is close to soft balancing.
- among all of India’s balancing efforts, the stupendous growth in ties with the U.S. has been the greatest source of concern for China which views the India-U.S. rapprochement as containment.
Way forward for India-Russia ties
- While other powers such as France, Australia, Japan and Russia will have an impact on the emerging maritime structures of the Indo-Pacific region, it is the triangular dynamic between India, China and the U.S. that is going to be the most consequential.
- Russia is yet to realise that it will gain immensely from the multilateralism that the Indo-Pacific seeks to promote.
- Being China’s junior partner only undermines Moscow’s great-power ambitions.
- Given Russia’s preoccupation with ‘status’ rivalry with the U.S., Russia’s view of India-China relations seems understandable.
- But there is a danger in permitting it to harden into a permanent attitude as an increasingly pro-Beijing Russia might adopt more aggressive blocking of India’s policy agendas.
- That is why India is particularly interested in a normalisation of relations between Washington and Moscow.
- The normalisation of relations between the U.S. and Russia will help India steer ties among the great powers.
India-China ties
- Non-alignment, painful memories of colonial subjugation, opposition to great-power hegemony, and strong beliefs in sovereignty and strategic autonomy have been the key influencers in shaping India’s and China’s engagement with each other as well as the western world.
- But this has begun to change as Beijing is asserting its hegemony over Asia.
- In such circumstances, multilateral forums such as the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have little practical value for Indian diplomacy.
- Without China’s reciprocity, options before India are limited.
- The response cannot be just symbolic or rhetorical. The absence of any material evidence of reciprocity is bound to doom an attempt at Sino-Indian rapprochement.
Conclusion
China is undoubtedly the most powerful actor in its neighbourhood but it cannot simply have its way in shaping Asia’s new geopolitics.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Agri-exports from India
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with India's agri-exports
The article highlights the unsustainability of agri-exports owing to their water-intensive nature and subsidies provided in their production.
India’s agri-exports
- Agri-exports touched $41.8 billion in FY 2020-21, registering a growth of 18 per cent over the previous year.
- Amongst the various agri-commodity exports, rice ranks first with 17.7 million tonnes valued at $8.8 billion, roughly 21 per cent of the total value of agri-exports.
- It is followed by marine products ($6 billion), spices ($4 billion), bovine (buffalo) meat ($3.2 billion) and sugar ($2.8 billion).
Trend analysis of agri-exports
- During the last seven years, agri-exports have remained lower than the level reached in FY2013-14 ($43.3 billion).
- That was when the highest agri-trade surplus (exports minus imports) was generated ($27.8 billion).
- That was also when Indian agriculture was most globally integrated, with agri-trade (exports plus imports) touching 20 per cent of the agri-GDP.
- It has slid to 13.5 per cent by FY2020-21, indicating India is becoming less globally competitive in exports and more protectionist in imports, presumably in the name of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
- It is high time to review current agri-trade policies and accompanying tariff structures.
Why sustainability of agri-exports is a concern?
- From a strategic point of view, however, one must ask whether this growth rate can be sustained over a longer period, and the implications it has for Indian agriculture.
- Water consumption: India is a water-stressed country with per capita water availability of 1,544 cubic metres in 2011, down from 5,178 cubic metres in 1951.
- It is well known that a kg of sugar has a virtual water intake of about 2,000 litres.
- In 2020-21, India exported 7.5 million tonnes of sugar, implying that at least 15 billion cubic metres of water was exported through sugar alone.
- Rice, needs around 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water for irrigating a kg, depending upon topography.
- Also, rice cultivation contributes to more than 18 per cent of the GHG emission generated from agriculture.
- Subsidies: Power and fertiliser subsidies account for about 15 per cent of its value in states like Punjab and Haryana.
- If these subsidies are withdrawn, rice will not be as preferred a crop with farmers as it is today.
Way forward
- Farming practices such as alternate wetting drying (AWD), direct-seeded rice (DSR) and micro-irrigation will have to be taken up on a war footing.
- Farmers may be incentivised and rewarded to save water, switch from paddy and sugar to other less water guzzler crops, and reduce the carbon footprint.
- It is high time that policymakers revisit the entire gamut of rice and sugar systems from their MSP/FRP to their production in an environmentally sustainable manner.
- At least in the case of rice, procurement will have to be limited to the needs of PDS, and within PDS, it is high time to introduce the option of direct cash transfers.
Consider the question “Rice and sugar forms the part of India’s agri-basket. However, there are concerns over their sustainability. What are the reasons for concerns and suggest the measure to deal with these concerns”
Conclusion
To maintain the sustainability of the agri-exports, crops must be produced efficiently and with minimal subsidies. The government needs to take steps to ensure that with rice and sugar.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Role of the States in health crisis
The States are better equipped to deal with the health emergencies and the Centre needs to augment them in their efforts. The article deals with this issue.
Role of the States in health crisis
- Covid-19 pandemic is a national crisis calling for concerted efforts by both, the Government of India (GoI) and state governments.
- Health is a state subject, and the states have been pioneering many health programmes on their own, some with support and funding from the GoI, for a very long time.
- The number of employees in the health wing of the GoI is negligible as compared to that in any state government.
- The GoI must help them, motivate them to do better and assist them in their task.
- Also, the GoI must and can play a major role is in vaccination.
Role of the Central government
- It must try to augment supplies by encouraging companies to produce more and through imports/gifts.
- However, whatever it procures must be allotted to states in proportion to their eligible population.
- State governments must be involved in this policy.
- The vaccination policy may be left to the state governments based on the allocation.
- The GoI must also augment supplies of critical medical goods through imports and donations from friendly nations in view of their acute shortage.
- It must distribute them to the needy states transparently and equitably.
Steps that need to be taken
- Lockdowns need to be lifted in a calibrated manner depending on local conditions.
- Lockdowns are not the solution, they just buy breathing time which can be used by governments to ramp up capacity.
- State governments must set up efficient and well-functioning control rooms and telemedicine centres to guide people on home treatment and timely admission to hospitals.
- The private sector can also be fully involved in these efforts.
- Bed capacity must be increased in both private and public sectors, with all necessary requirements such as oxygen, medicines, and health workers.
- It is also important to put in place a standard guidance protocol for health workers and control rooms to guide patients through the disease.
- Enforcement of masks and distancing in public places must go on till the country is fully vaccinated.
- The measures suggested above require hard work and efficient management by state governments, by a team of reputed professionals and civil servants.
- Daily briefing by a professional, not a politician, is the need of the hour at both the Centre and state level, giving some confidence and assurance to the public.
Consider the question “In dealing with the health crisis the Union Government and the State governments are better placed for certain roles. In light of this, examine the important role of the States in dealing with the Covid pandemic and how the Union government can complement it.”
Conclusion
The central government must realise that states are on the forefront in this war, and therefore, play a supporting and proactive role. It has only a minor, behind-the-scenes role in the health sector.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NATO
Mains level: Rise of China in the global agenda
In a communiqué issued following the June 14 summit of its member-states in Brussels, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), for the first time, explicitly described China as a security risk.
Try answering this question:
Q.NATO has been an ideal vehicle for power-projection around the world by the US. Critically comment.
China as a global threat
- China has never figured in NATO summit declarations before, except for a minor reference in 2019 to the “opportunities and challenges” it presented.
- But China’s stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to NATO security.
- China has reacted sharply. It has urged NATO to view China’s development rationally, stop exaggerating various forms of China threat theory.
- The other two threats identified by the NATO communiqué are on predictable lines: Russia and terrorism.
Focus over two nations
- There is a significant difference, however, between a strategic focus on countering Russia and casting China as a “systemic challenge”.
- This goes back to NATO’s founding mandate and subsequent history.
What is NATO, btw?
- NATO, the planet’s largest — and largest-ever — military alliance, was formed in 1949 by 12 Allied powers to counter the massive Soviet armies stationed in Eastern and Central Europe after Second World War.
- According to Paul-Henri Spaak, the second Secretary-General of NATO, it was, ironically enough, Joseph Stalin who is the true father of NATO.
- It was Stalin’s overreach — especially with the Berlin blockade of 1948-49 and the orchestrated coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948 — that convinced a diverse set of war-ravaged European nations to come together under an American security blanket.
- The collective defence principle enshrined in NATO’s Article V states that “an attack against one ally is considered as an attack against all allies”.
- The formation of NATO, and its Soviet counterpart, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955, inaugurated the Cold War era.
NATO and its relevance now
- NATO was completely successful in its mission of protecting the “Euro-Atlantic area” from Soviet expansion and preventing war between the two superpowers.
- When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, questions were raised about NATO’s relevance and future.
- Since the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) became irrelevant when the Communist bloc disappeared, one cannot justify the continuation of a military alliance formed to protect Europe from Communist expansion.
Post-Cold War era mandate of NATO
- Its bureaucracy succeeded in refashioning NATO for the post-Cold war era.
- The refashioning rested on a paradigm shift — from collective defence, which implied a known adversary, to collective security, which is open-ended, and might require action against any number of threats.
- The threat included unknown ones and non-state actors.
- In other words, the elimination of one threat to Europe — communist Russia — did not necessarily mean that security risks to Europe have vanished.
Why dismantle a beneficial arrangement
- Another factor in the persistence of NATO is that, like all successful alliances, it has been a mutually beneficial arrangement.
- For Europe, it was an attractive bargain where, in exchange for a marginal loss in autonomy, it enjoyed absolute security at a cheap price.
- Not having to spend massively on defence allowed Europe to focus on building powerful economies and invest its surplus in a strong welfare state.
- NATO also offered the added bonus of keeping Germany down — historically a major factor for peace and stability in the region.
An effective American weapon
- For the US, NATO has been an ideal vehicle for power projection around the world — in places beyond the Euro-Atlantic area, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
- It views NATO as a tool to ensure the primacy of American interests across the globe.
- Unsurprisingly, NATO’s post-Cold War role has evolved in tandem with U.S. foreign policy priorities.
- The NATO doctrine of “enlargement”, which Russia calls “expansion”, is essentially about extending the American military footprint by bringing in new members.
- That is how NATO’s membership today stands at 30, having added 14 members between 1999 and 2020.
The final truth
- The Biden administration wants to mobilize NATO member-states behind its larger objective of containing China.
- NATO’s European member states may view China as an economic rival and adversary, but they are unconvinced by the American line that it is an outright security threat.
- This line also, in a way, points to the underlying logic behind NATO’s persistence in the post-Soviet world.
- Unlike the Soviet Union, China offers no alternative vision of society that could make Western capitalism insecure.
- In fact, its own economy is already deeply integrated into Western markets. China, nonetheless, is perceived as posing a ‘threat’.
- It remains to be seen how far an ageing Europe would be willing to commit itself to a strategic path that prefers confrontation to collaboration like the US.
Also read:
India & NATO
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: NDPS Act
Last week, the Tripura High Court, in a significant verdict, discovered an oversight in drafting the 2014 amendments to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
What is Section 27A?
- The NDPS had unintentionally rendered a key provision of the Act, Section 27A which provides for punishment of those financing illicit trafficking, inoperable.
- This section has been consistently evoked since a year after the alleged suicide of a notable Bollywood actor after drugs intoxication.
What is the provision?
- The NDPS Act, 1985 is the principal legislation through which the state regulates the operations of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
- It provides a stringent framework for punishing offenses related to illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances through imprisonments and forfeiture of property.
- Section 27A of the NDPS Act, 1985, prescribes the punishment for financing illicit traffic and harboring offenders.
- The court may, for reasons to be recorded in the judgment, impose a fine exceeding two lakh rupees.”
So why is this provision inoperable?
- The text of the provision says that offences mentioned under Section 2(viiia) sub-clauses i-v are punishable through Section 27A.
- However, Section 2 (viiia) sub-clauses i-v, which is supposed to be the catalog of offences, does not exist after the 2014 amendment.
- So, if Section 27A penalises a blank list or a non-existent provision, it can be argued that it is virtually inoperable.
What was the 2014 amendment?
- In 2014, a key amendment was made to the NDPS Act to allow for better medical access to narcotic drugs.
- Since the regulation under NDPS was very stringent, despite being a leading manufacturer of morphine, an opioid analgesic used as a painkiller, it was difficult to access the drug even for hospitals.
Exceptions for essential drugs
- The 2014 amendment essentially removed state-barriers in transporting, licensing drugs classified as “essential narcotic drugs”, and made it centralized.
- This was done by first introducing a provision in Section 2 that defines essential narcotic drugs, and subsequently in Section 9 allowing the manufacture, possession, transport, import inter-State, export inter-State, sale, purchase, consumption and use of essential narcotic drugs.
- The amendment to add the definition of essential narcotic drugs re-lettered the old Section 2(viii)a that was the catalog of offences as Section 2(viii)b, and under the Section 2(viii)a, defined essential narcotic drugs.
- However, the drafters missed amending the enabling provision in Section 27A to change Section 2(viii)a to Section 2(viii)b.
How was this error noticed?
- In 2016, an accused sought bail before a special judge in West Tripura in Agartala citing this omission in drafting.
- The accused’s plea was that since Section 27A penalized a blank list, he could not be charged under the offence.
- The district judge then referred the case to the Tripura High Court.
What did the HC decide?
- The Law Ministry had argued that the court must overlook the omission and read the legislation as a whole. It also told the court that the provision would be amended to rectify the dissonance.
- The Tripura HC agreed with the government’s view, but said that it may not be the best solution.
- The amendment is yet to take place. However, criminal laws cannot be amended retrospectively.
- Article 20 of the Constitution guarantees protection against double jeopardy.
- So even if the amendment is brought in, the result of the drafting error could lead to more constitutional questions being raised.
Back2Basics: Article 20 of the Indian Constitution
The Article 20 is one of the pillars of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. It mainly deals with protection of certain rights in case of conviction for offences.
(1) No person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the Act charged as an offence, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offence.
(2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once.
(3) No person accused of any offense shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Rotation and Revolution of Earth
Mains level: NA
The summer solstice will happen today around 9:02 am on Monday (Indian Standard Time).
What is Summer Solstice?
- Solstice means “sun stands still” in Latin.
- The longest day of 2021 for those living north of the Equator is June 21.
- This day is characterized by a greater amount of energy received from the sun.
- In technical terms, this day is referred to as the summer solstice, the longest day of the summer season. It occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, or more specifically right over 23.5-degree north latitude.
The Southern Hemisphere receives most sunlight on December 21, 22 or 23 when the northern hemisphere has its longest nights– or the winter solstice.
Why do we have summer solstice?
- Since Earth rotates on its axis, the Northern Hemisphere gets more direct sunlight between March and September over the course of a day.
- This also means people living in the Northern Hemisphere experience summer during this time.
- The rest of the year, the Southern Hemisphere gets more sunlight.
- During the solstice, the Earth’s axis — around which the planet spins, completing one turn each day — is tilted in a way that the North Pole is tipped towards the sun and the South Pole is away from it.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.On 21st June, the Sun (CSP 2019):
(a) Does not set below the horizon at the Arctic Circle
(b) Does not set below the horizon at Antarctic Circle
(c) Shines vertically overhead at noon on the Equator
(d) Shines vertically overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn
Some other facts
- Summer solstice does not mean the earliest sunrise or latest sunset.
- Although June 21 will be the longest day in 2021, it does not necessarily mean that it brings the earliest sunrise or latest sunset.
- It depends on the latitudinal location of the country.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gain-of-function research
Mains level: Bio-engineering and associated threats
With the re-emergence of the Wuhan lab-leak origin theory, questions are also being raised on what gain-of-function research is, and whether the benefits of conducting such research outweigh the risks of pathogens escaping from labs.
What is gain-of-function research?
- In virology, gain-of-function research involves deliberately altering an organism in the lab, altering a gene, or introducing a mutation in a pathogen to study its transmissibility, virulence and immunogenicity.
- It is believed that this allows researchers to study potential therapies, vaccine possibilities and ways to control the disease better in future.
- Gain-of-function research involves manipulations that make certain pathogenic microbes more deadly or more transmissible.
- This is done by genetically engineering the virus and by allowing them to grow in different growth mediums, a technique called as serial passage.
Antithesis to this theory
- There is also ‘loss-of-function’ research, which involves inactivating mutations, resulting in a significant loss of original function, or no function to the pathogen.
- When mutations occur, they alter the structure of the virus that is being studied, resulting in altered functions. Some of these significant mutations might weaken the virus or enhance its function.
Associated risks
- Some forms of gain-of-function research reportedly carry inherent biosafety and biosecurity risks and are thus referred to as ‘dual-use research of concern’ (DURC).
- This indicates that while the research may result in benefits for humanity, there is also the potential to cause harm — accidental or deliberate escape of these altered pathogens from labs may cause even pandemics.
Essential component of vaccine development
- The current medical countermeasures are often insufficient largely because of resistance mechanisms that lead to ‘escape mutants’, i.e., drug-resistant strains.
- There is, hence, a continual need to develop new antiviral drugs and additional options, such as immunotherapy, based on neutralizing monoclonal antibodies.
- Ultimately, gain-of-function studies, which enhance viral yield and immunogenicity, are required for vaccine development.
What is the situation in India?
- In India, all activities related to genetically engineered organisms or cells and hazardous microorganisms and products are regulated as per the “Manufacture, Use, Import, Export and Storage of Hazardous Microorganisms/Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells Rules, 1989”.
- Last year, the Department of Biotechnology issued guidelines for the establishment of containment facilities, called ‘Biosafety labs’, at levels two and three.
- The notification provides operational guidance on the containment of biohazards and levels of biosafety that all institutions involved in research, development and handling of these microorganisms must comply with.
Should research continue?
- Scientists have differing opinions on the issue, particularly since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- While those on the side of gain-of-function research say that it makes science and governments battle-ready for future pandemics, there have been a rising number of calls to suspend such research.
- Proponents of gain-of-function research believe that “nature is the ultimate bioterrorist and we need to do all we can to stay one step ahead”.
- Some researchers thinks it is time to stop such research.
- Science policymakers “must wrestle with defining the rare instances in which the benefits of experiments that enhance a virus’s capacity to survive and flourish in human hosts outweigh any risks.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nilssonia nigricans
Mains level: Not Much
A major temple in Assam has signed a MoU with NGOs, the Assam State Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden and the Kamrup district administration for the long-term conservation of the rare freshwater black softshell turtle or the Nilssonia nigricans.
Two years back, one species from our newscard: Species in news: Hump-backed Mahseer made it into the CSP 2019. The ‘Puntius Sanctus’ fish in the newscard creates such a vibe yet again.
A stand-alone species being mentioned in the news for the first time (and that too from Southern India) find their way into the prelims. Make special note here.
Q.Consider the following pairs
| Wildlife |
Naturally found in |
| 1. |
Blue-finned Mahseer |
Cauvery River |
| 2. |
Irrawaddy Dolphin |
Chambal River |
| 3. |
Rusty-spotted Cat |
Eastern Ghats |
Which of the pairs given correctly matched? (CSP 2019)
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Nilssonia nigricans
- Until sightings along the Brahmaputra’s drainage in Assam, the black softshell turtle was thought to be “extinct in the wild”.
- It was confined only to ponds of temples in northeastern India and Bangladesh.
- The International Union for Conservation of Nature had in 2021 listed the turtle as “critically endangered”.
- But it does not enjoy legal protection under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, although it has traditionally been hunted for its meat and cartilage, traded in regional and international markets.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Flag Satyagraha
Mains level: Not Much
The Minister of State (IC) for Culture and Tourism has organized to observe the Flag Satyagraha in Jabalpur to commemorate the Jhanda Satyagraha of the year 1923.
Flag Satyagraha
- Flag satyagrahas were one of the most common acts of defiance during the nationalist rebellions led by Gandhi and the Indian National Congress throughout the struggle.
- It is a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience during the Indian independence movement.
- It was against the defiance of laws prohibiting the hoisting of nationalist flags and restricting civil freedoms.
- Flag Satyagrahas were conducted most notably in the city of Jabalpur and Nagpur in 1923 but also in many other parts of India.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.The ‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Boycott’ adopted as methods of struggle for the first time during the:
(a) Agitation against the Partition of Bengal
(b) Home Rule Movement
(c) Non-Cooperation Movement
(d) Visit of the Simon Commission to India
Course of the movement
- The arrest of nationalist protestors demanding the right to hoist the flag caused an outcry across India especially as Gandhi had recently been arrested.
- Nationalist leaders such as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jamnalal Bajaj, Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and Vinoba Bhave organized the revolt.
- Thousands of people from different regions including as far south as the Princely state of Travancore traveled to Nagpur and other parts of the Central Provinces to participate in civil disobedience.
- In the end, the British negotiated an agreement with Patel and other Congress leaders permitting the protestors to conduct their march unhindered and obtaining the release of all those arrested.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Green Hydrogen, BRICS
Mains level: NA
India is all set to host a two-day summit on Green Hydrogen initiatives involving the BRICS nations.
What is Green Hydrogen?
- Hydrogen, when produced by electrolysis using renewable energy is known as Green Hydrogen which has no carbon footprint.
- This gives hydrogen the edge over other fuels to unlock various avenues of green usage.
- However, challenges lie in terms of technology, efficiency, financial viability, and scaling up which the summit will aim to address.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.With reference to ‘fuel cells’ in which hydrogen-rich fuel and oxygen are used to generate electricity, consider the following statements:
- If pure hydrogen is used as a fuel, the fuel cell emits heat and water as by products.
- Fuel cells can be used for powering buildings and not for small devices like laptop computers.
- Fuel cells produce electricity in the form of Alternating Current (AC).
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Applications of green hydrogen
- Green hydrogen has innumerable applications.
- Green Chemicals like ammonia and methanol can directly be utilized in existing applications like fertilizers, mobility, power, chemicals, shipping among others.
- Green Hydrogen blending up to 10 percent may be adopted in CGD networks to gain widespread acceptance.
- Further scaling up with greening of hard to abate sectors like steel and cement through hydrogen is to be explored.
- Many countries have brought out their strategies and defined targets and roadmaps based on their resources and strengths.
Back2Basics: BRICS Countries
- BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
- To be clear, BRICS was not invented by any of its members.
- In 2001, Goldman Sachs’ Jim O’Neill authored a paper called “Building Better Global Economic BRICs”, pointing out that future GDP growth in the world would come from China, India, Russia and Brazil.
- Significantly, the paper didn’t recommend a separate grouping for them, but made the case that the G-7 grouping, made up of the world’s most industrialized, and essentially Western countries, should include them.
- O’Neill also suggested that the G-7 group needed revamping after the introduction of a common currency for Europe, the euro, in 1999.
- In 2003, Goldman Sachs wrote another paper, “Dreaming with BRICs: Path to 2050”, predicting that the global map would significantly change due to these four emerging economies.
- In 2006, leaders of the BRIC countries met on the margins of a G-8 (now called G-7) summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, and BRIC was formalized that year.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now