Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SDGs
Mains level: Paper 3- Climate change and its implications for hunger
The article suggests pathways to achieve SDG-2 by the adoption of climate-friendly agriculture practices.
Food and SDG
- Food is a common thread linking all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and critical to achieving overall goals within the timeframe.
- NITI Aayog recently released the SDG India Index 2020-21, highlighting the national and states’ progress on SDGs.
- The report states that 34.7% children aged under five in India are stunted.
- 40.5% of children between 6-59 months are anaemic.
- 50.3% of pregnant women between 15-49 years are anaemic.
- India shares a quarter of the global hunger burden.
- Four out of 10 children in India are not meeting their full human potential because of chronic undernutrition or stunting.
- NFHS-5 shows many states have not fared well on nutrition indicators.
- In addition to the malnutrition challenges, India’s food system faces negative consequences of the Green Revolution technologies.
Pathways to follow in meeting the targets under SDG-2 (Zero Hunger)
- Crop diversification especially in those areas where the existing practices are ecologically unsustainable should be promoted.
- While Indian agriculture is a significant contributor to GHG emissions.
- As per third Biennial Update Report submitted by Government of India to UNFCCC, agriculture sector contributes 14% of the total emissions.
- Some of the climate-smart interventions like conservation agriculture, organic farming and agro-ecological approaches can effectively address the environmental concerns while ensuring food security and nutrition.
- Crop-residue burning has become a huge problem in parts of the country.
- This is mainly propelled by monoculture and a package of subsidies.
- Conservation agriculture offers solutions to such problems with good agronomy and soil management such as zero-tillage or no-till farming, crop rotation, in-situ crop harvest residue management/mulching, etc, and industrial uses like baling and bio-fuel production.
- Use of botanical pesticides, green-manuring, biological pest control, etc. are nature-friendly and such practices lead to eco-conservation.
- The organic movement, fortunately, is catching up in Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, and a few other states.
- Modifying consumer behaviour forms an essential ingredient to transform Indian food systems and correlate positively with crop and diet diversity.
- POSHAN Abhiyaan, India’s national nutrition mission, can play an effective role in addressing the issues of persistent malnutrition.
- According to FAO estimates, 40% of the food produced in India is either lost or wasted in every stage of supply chain.
- Winning the fight against food loss and waste can save India $61 billion in 2050 through increased industry profitability and reduced food insecurity, as well as reduced GHG emissions, water usage, and environmental degradation.
- Shifting towards a circular economy can enable India progress towards the SDGs including halving food waste by 2030 and improving resource efficiency.
Conclusion
India’s success is essential to achieve the planetary goal of Zero Hunger. There is a need for transformation towards sustainable, nutritious and resilient food systems to achieve the goal of zero hunger.
Source:-
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/fighting-hunger-needs-fighting-climate-change/2279369/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: India-Africa Forum Summit
Mains level: Paper 2- India's policy for African countries
The article deals with India’s strategy to deepen the ties with African nations and suggest a critical review of the implementation of India’s strategy.
Need for review of India’s foreign policy for Africa
- Africa is considered a foreign policy priority by India.
- Even as the COVID-19 era began in March 2020, New Delhi took new initiatives to assist Africa through prompt despatch of medicines and later vaccines.
- But now the policy implementation needs a critical review.
Four factors that explain need for a review of policy implementation
1) Declining trade
- Declining trade: Bilateral trade valued at $55.9 billion in 2020-21, fell by $10.8 billion compared to 2019-20, and $15.5 billion compared to the peak year of 2014-15.
- Decline in investment: India’s investments in Africa too saw a decrease from $3.2 billion in 2019-20 to $2.9 billion in 2020-21.
- The composition of the India-Africa trade has not changed much over the two decades.
- Mineral fuels and oils, (essentially crude oil) and pearls, precious or semi-precious stones are the top two imports accounting for over 77% of our imports from Africa.
- India’s top five markets today are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and Togo.
- The countries from which India imports the most are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Angola and Guinea.
2) Covid impact
- COVID-19 has brought misery to Africa.
- As on June 24, 2021, Africa registered 5.2 million infections and 1,37,855 deaths.
- A recent World Health Organization survey revealed that 41 African countries had fewer than 2,000 working ventilators among them.
- Despite these shortcomings, Africa has not done so badly.
- Sadly though, with much of the world caught up in coping with the novel coronavirus pandemic’s ill effects, flows of assistance and investment to Africa have decreased.
- While China has successfully used the pandemic to expand its footprint by increasing the outflow of its vaccines.
- Unfortunately India’s ‘vax diplomacy’ has suffered a setback.
3) Global competition for influence
- Africa experienced a sharpened international competition, known as ‘the third scramble’, in the first two decades of the 21st century.
- A dozen nations from the Americas, Europe and Asia have striven to assist Africa in resolving the continent’s political and social challenge.
- These nations, in turn, stand to benefit from Africa’s markets, minerals, hydrocarbons and oceanic resources, and thereby to expand their geopolitical influence.
4) Geopolitical tensions in Asia
- Geopolitical tensions in Asia and the imperative to consolidate its position in the Indo-Pacific region have compelled New Delhi to concentrate on its ties with the United Kingdom, the EU, and the Quad powers, particularly the U.S.
- Consequently, the attention normally paid to Africa lost out.
- This must now change.
Way forward for India-Africa relation
- For mutual benefit, Africa and India should remain optimally engaged.
- The third India-Africa Forum Summit was held in 2015.
- The fourth summit, pending since last year, should be held as soon as possible, even if in a virtual format.
- Fresh financial resources for grants and concessional loans to Africa must be allocated, as previous allocations stand almost fully exhausted.
- The promotion of economic relations demands a higher priority.
- Industry representatives should be consulted about their grievances and challenges in the COVID-19 era.
- To impart a 21st-century complexion to the partnership, developing and deepening collaborations in health, space and digital technologies is essential.
- India should continue its role in peacekeeping in Africa, in lending support to African counter-terrorism operations, and contributing to African institutions through training and capacity-enhancing assistance.
- To overcome the China challenge in Africa, increased cooperation between India and its international allies, rates priority.
- The recent India-EU Summit has identified Africa as a region where a partnership-based approach will be followed.
- When the first in-person summit of the Quad powers is held in Washington, a robust partnership plan for Africa should be announced.
Conclusion
India should review the policy implementation and make changes in line with the changing geopolitical realities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 15
Mains level: Paper 2- Rights of sexual minority
The article highlights the plight of sexual minorities despite the landmark judgments by the Supreme Court.
Role played by the judiciary
- The Delhi High Court’s verdict in Naz Foundation vs Government of NCT of Delhi (2009) was a landmark in the law of sexuality and equality jurisprudence in India.
- The court held that Section 377 offended the guarantee of equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution, because it creates an unreasonable classification and targets homosexuals as a class.
- In a retrograde step, the Supreme Court, in Suresh Kumar Koushal vs Naz Foundation (2013), reinstated Section 377 to the IPC.
- However, the Supreme Court in Navtej Singh Johar & Ors. vs Union of India (2018) declared that the application of Section 377 IPC to consensual homosexual behaviour was “unconstitutional”.
- This Supreme Court judgment has been a great victory to the Indian individual in his quest for identity and dignity.
- It also underscored the doctrine of progressive realisation of rights.
No legal sanction to same-sex marriage
- Despite the judgments of the Supreme Court, there is still a lot of discrimination against sexual minorities in matters of employment, health and personal relationship.
- The Union of India has recently opposed any move to accord legal sanction to same-sex marriages in India.
- The Union of India stated that the decriminalisation of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code does not automatically translate into a fundamental right for same sex couples to marry.
- The U.S. Supreme Court, in Obergefell vs Hodges (2015) underscored the emotional and social value of the institution of marriage and asserted that the universal human right of marriage should not be denied to a same-sex couple.
- Indian society and the state should synchronise themselves with changing trends.
Need to amend Article 15 to prohibit discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation
- Article 15 secures the citizens from every sort of discrimination by the state, on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth or any of them.
- The grounds of non-discrimination should be expanded by including gender and sexual orientation.
- In May 1996, South Africa became the first country to constitutionally prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
- The United Kingdom passed the “Alan Turing law” in 2017 which ‘granted amnesty and pardon to the men who were cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts’.
Way forward
- Justice Rohinton F. Nariman had directed in Navtej Singh Johar & Ors., the Government to sensitise the general public and officials, to reduce and finally eliminate the stigma associated with LGBTQ+ community through the mass media and the official channels.
- School and university students too should be sensitised about the diversity of sexuality to deconstruct the myth of heteronormativity.
- Heteronormativity is the root cause of hetero-sexism and homophobia.
Conclusion
It is time for change, but the burden should not be left to the powers that be. The onus remains with the civil society, the citizenry concerned and the LGBTQ+ community itself.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Vaccine hesitancy
In rural India, concerns about COVID-19 vaccines are now increasingly commonplace.
Vaccination dilemma these days
- People voice their concern about what will happen to them if they get vaccinated and have doubts that the government is sending inferior quality vaccines to them.
- Vaccination sessions in local health centers often see very few or no takers.
- In contrast, urban vaccination sites face increased demand, especially in the 18-45 age group, and vaccine shortage is a major issue.
- From a public health and equity perspective, this is a cause for worry.
Why this failure?
- The fear of vaccines and rural communities not only resisting but also outright rejecting vaccination is a reality.
- Efforts by local health authorities to create awareness and convince people are of little avail.
- There are contrasting dimensions to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout: one where people are enthusiastically accepting it and the other of resistance.
- There are many diverse factors at play in this, which may go beyond the health concerns and have more to do with socio-anthropological aspects of health-seeking behavior.
Vaccine hesitancy
- Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services.
- It is complex and context-specific varying across time, place, and vaccines.
- It is influenced by factors such as complacency, convenience, and confidence.
Its scope
- Vaccine hesitancy is not a recent phenomenon. It is neither limited to a particular community or country nor have we seen it only in the context of COVID-19.
- We have also seen vaccine hesitancy among the urban and the more educated or ‘aware’ populations, with pockets of populations of socio-economically well-off communities refusing to get their kids vaccinated.
- While vaccine hesitancy can lead to a firm rejection of vaccines, there’s also a possibility of people changing their perceptions over time.
Socio-cultural context behind
- Most of our fears and apprehensions stem from a deep impact of something adverse or unfavorable that we have personally experienced or our social circles have experienced.
- Over time these become our beliefs, our innate guards.
- In the context of the concerns described at the beginning of this article, we must look at vaccine hesitancy from a distinct lens of fear and not necessarily skepticism for new vaccines.
- Rather, they seem to indicate deep-seated fears and belief in conspiracies, the fear of perhaps being discriminated and deceived, and of being omitted (from societal benefits).
Building trust
- Communities might not see the impact of a vaccine instantly, as it’s usually preventive in nature rather than curative.
- People are used to taking medications or intravenous fluids when they are unwell or in pain, and they may feel better almost immediately, but that’s not the case with vaccines.
- On the contrary, vaccines administered to a healthy person may lead to occasional side effects like fever, body aches, etc.
- Add to those rumors about deaths post-vaccination, and it may not be so easy for people to get convinced about the vaccines.
Way ahead
- Addressing vaccine hesitancy in rural India would first of all require health systems to be honest and transparent.
- Create awareness, let people know how vaccines work, how they help prevent disease, what are the probable side effects and how they can be managed.
- Health authorities need to be comfortable about people raising questions while providing the answers as best as possible.
- Being cognizant of local cultural sensitivities and working with trusted intermediaries is important in this effort.
- Sustained and meaningful efforts need to be made to build trust, gain the confidence of communities and meet their expectations.
- Even more crucial is to engage communities in planning, execution, and monitoring of health care services at all levels.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Mains level: GoI-Twitter row
Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology was locked out of his Twitter account for an hour allegedly over a notice received for violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Why such a move by Twitter?
- The DMCA oversees the implementation of two 1996 treaties signed by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) member nations.
What is the DMCA?
- The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, is a 1998 law passed in the US and is among the world’s first laws recognizing intellectual property on the internet.
- The law oversees the implementation of the two treaties signed and agreed upon by member nations of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1996.
- WIPO members had then agreed upon two treaties, namely the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
- The said protection, accorded by each member state, must not be any less in any way than the one being given to a domestic copyright holder.
- Further, it also obligates those signatories to the treaty to ensure ways to prevent circumvention of the technical measures used to protect copyrighted work.
- It also provides the necessary international legal protection to digital content.
What is WIPO and how does it ensure the protection of content on the internet?
- The rapid commercialization of the internet in the late 1990s started with static advertisement panels being displayed on the internet.
- It became important for website owners to get the user to spend more time on their webpage.
- For this, fresh content was generated by creators and shared over the Internet.
- The problem started when the content would be copied by unscrupulous websites or users, who did not generate content on their own.
- Further, as the Internet expanded worldwide, websites from countries other than the one where the content originated, also started to copy the unique content generated by the websites.
- To avoid this and bring to task the unauthorized copiers, the members of WIPO, which was established in 1967, also agreed to extend the copyright and intellectual property protection to digital content.
- As of date, 193 nations across the world, including India, are members of WIPO.
Who can generate a DMCA notice and how are they sent to companies or websites?
- Any content creator of any form, who believes that their original content has been copied by the user or a website without authorization can file an application citing their intellectual property has been stolen or violated.
- Users can either approach the website on which the content has been hosted, or third-party service providers like DMCA.com, which utilize a team of experts to help take down the stolen content for a small fee.
- In the case of social media intermediaries like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, content creators can directly approach the platform with proof of them being original creators.
- Since these companies operate in nations that are signatories to the WIPO treaty, they are obligated to remove the said content if they receive a valid and legal DMCA takedown notice.
- Platforms, however, also give the other users against whom allegations of content cheating have been made, a chance to reply to the DMCA notice by filing a counter-notice.
- The platform shall then decide which party is telling the truth and shall accordingly, either restore the content or keep it hidden.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Small and Medium Companies
Mains level: MSME sector updates
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has expanded the turnover and borrowing thresholds for Small and Medium-sized Companies (SMC), allowing a larger number of firms to benefit from reporting exemptions under accounting norms.
What is the change?
- The MCA has increased the turnover threshold for SMCs to Rs 250 crore from Rs 50 crore, and the borrowing threshold to Rs 50 crore from Rs 10 crore.
- SMCs are permitted to avail a number of exemptions under the Company (Accounting Standards) Rule 2021 to reduce the complexity of regulatory filings for smaller firms.
- Banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, and listed companies cannot be classified as SMCs.
- Further, any company which is either the holding company or subsidiary of a company that is not an SMC cannot be classified as an SMC.
What are the exemptions available to SMCs that are not available to other firms?
- SMC are completely exempted from having to file cash flow statements and provide a segmental break up of their financial performance in mandatory filings.
- SMCs can also avail partial reporting exemptions in areas including reporting on employee benefits obligations such as pensions.
- SMCs are exempted from having to provide a detailed analysis of benefit obligations to employees, but are still required to provide actuarial assumptions used in valuing the company’s obligations to employees.
- SMCs are also exempted from having to report diluted earnings per share in their filings.
- Diluted earnings per share reflect the per-share earnings of a company assuming that all options to convert other securities into shares are exercised.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q. What is/ are the recent policy initiative(s) of the Government of India to promote the growth of the manufacturing sector?
- Setting up of National Investment and Manufacturing Zones.
- Providing the benefit of single window clearance.
- Establishing the Technology Acquisition and Development Fund.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
How does this impact these firms?
- Experts have noted that the move would promote ease of doing business for the firms that would now be included under the definition of SMC.
- The Accounting Standards for SMC, which were notified in December 2006 and amended from time to time, are much simpler as compared to Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS).
- These accounting standards involve less complexity in their application, including the number of required disclosures being less onerous.
- Ind AS standards are applied to larger firms and are largely similar to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) used in most developed jurisdictions.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Stone age man and his evolution
Mains level: Not Much
Scientists have announced that a skull discovered in northeast China represents a newly discovered human species they have named Homo longi, or “Dragon Man”.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.The word ‘Denisovan’ is sometimes mentioned in media in reference to (CSP 2019):
(a) fossils of a kind of dinosaurs
(b) an early human species
(c) a cave system found in North-East India.
(d) a geological period in the history of Indian subcontinent
Who is the “Dragon Man”, the latest Chinese discovery?
- The cranium found in China has been dubbed the “Dragaon Man” or Homo longi, a name that has been derived from the Long Jiang or Dragon River in the Heilongjiang province of China where the city of Harbin is located.
- The skull was reportedly discovered back in 1933, when a bridge was built over the Songhua River.
- For thousands of years, the skull remained buried in sediments.
- Because of the distinctive shape of the skull, which was found almost complete, some members of the team have suggested that it be declared a part of a new species of the genus Homo.
- Significantly, the size of the skull, which has a considerable brain capacity, is comparable to that of modern humans and Neanderthals.
Why is this discovery being considered significant?
- For one, it brings new knowledge about the evolution of Homo sapiens.
- It might help to bridge the gaps between our ancient ancestors called Homo erectus and us.
- This knowledge is important because there is very little consensus in the scientific community about how different human species are related, and which species are our immediate ancestors.
- Smithsonian for instance notes that some palaeontologists believe Homo heidelbergensis to be our immediate ancestors.
- This species was discovered in 1908, and lived about 700,000 to 200,000 years ago in Europe and possibly China and some parts of Africa.
Back2Basics: Species of Humans
- Modern humans are the only human species that exist in the world today.
- While the exact number of human species is a matter of debate, most scientists believe that there are at least 21 of them.
As per the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, there are over 21 human species. Major among these are:
(1) Sahelanthropus tchadensis
- Sahelanthropus tchadensis is believed to be the oldest member of the human family tree.
- It lived about 7-6 million years ago somewhere around present-day Chad in Africa.
- It had both ape-like and human-like features and was bipedalled, an ability that may have increased its chances of survival.
(2) Homo erectus
- Homo erectus lived about 1.89 million-110,000 years ago, in Northern, Eastern, and Southern Africa and Western and East Asia.
- ‘Turkana Boy’ is the most complete fossil belonging to this species and is dated to be around 1.6 million years old.
(3) Modern man
- Homo neanderthalensis lived about 400,000-40,000 years ago and co-existed with Homo sapiens for a few thousand years.
- They lived in Europe and in southwestern and central Asia.
- Homo sapiens evolved about 300,000 years ago, and are found worldwide.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Euphlyctis Kerala
Mains level: NA
A new species of skittering frog has been identified from the surroundings of the Thattekkad bird sanctuary.
Euphlyctis Kerala
- The new species is named Euphlyctis Kerala in honor of the remarkable biodiversity of the State, which is also known for many endemic species of frogs.
- The new species is known to be found in the freshwater bodies of the foothills of the Western Ghats, south of the Palakkad Gap.
- Although multiple skittering frogs have been described from India for almost two centuries (since 1799), the taxonomic mess within this group created a lot of confusion due to “morphological character crypticity”.
- Members of the genus Euphlyctis (skittering frogs) have their distribution range from Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand.
- As of now, Kerala is known to have 180 species of frogs and there could be many more new species awaiting formal descriptions.
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