Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WTO
Mains level: Paper 3- Challenges facing WTO
Context
Created in 1995, during the heyday of neoliberalism, the World Trade Organization (WTO) became a shining example of triumphant free-market capitalism. Now, the WTO is facing a serious existential crisis.
Challenges facing WTO
1) Disfunctional appellate body
- The United States, which played a pivotal role in establishing the WTO, seems to have lost interest in it.
- The feeling in the US is that the WTO hasn’t served the American national interest by failing to stem China’s rise and regularly indicting the U.S. in several trade disputes.
- The continuation of the U.S. policy on the WTO is most evident in the sustained crippling of the Appellate Body (AB).
- Three out of seven AB members serve on any one case.
- However, since December 2019, the AB has stopped functioning due to rising vacancies.
- Countries now have an easy option not to comply with the WTO panel decisions by appealing into the void.
- If no solution is found soon, the WTO’s rules-based order will start crumbling.
2) Public stockholding for food security purposes
- No solution has been found to the public stockholding for food security purposes despite a clear mandate to do so in the 2015 Nairobi ministerial meeting.
- This is of paramount concern for countries like India that use Minimum Support Price (MSP)-backed mechanisms to procure foodgrains.
- With rising prices and the need to do higher procurement to support farmers and provide food to the poor at subsidised prices, India might breach the cap.
- Although countries have agreed that legal suits will not be brought if countries breach the cap (the so-called ‘peace clause’), it is imperative to find a permanent solution such as not counting MSP-provided budgetary support as trade-distorting.
3) Disagreement on TRIPS waiver for Covid-19
- The WTO member countries continue to disagree on the need of waiving the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for COVID-19 related medical products.
- It was exactly a year back when India and South Africa proposed a TRIPS waiver to overcome intellectual property (IP)-related obstacles in increasing accessibility of COVID-19 medical products, including vaccines.
4) Regulating irrational subsidies provided for fishing
- Irrational subsidies provided for fishing that has led to the overexploitation of marine resources by countries like China, which is the largest catcher and exporter of fish.
- The WTO is close to signing a deal on regulating irrational subsidies
- This agreement should strike a balance between conserving ocean resources and the livelihood concerns of millions of small and marginal fishermen in countries like India.
5) Fragmentation of global governance due to plurilateral trade agreements
- The gridlock at the WTO has led to the emergence of mega plurilateral trade agreements like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement.
- These mega plurilateral agreements not only fragment the global governance on international trade but also push the multilateral order to the margin, converting the WTO to what some call an “institutional zombie”.
Conclusion
Notwithstanding its flaws, the WTO is the only forum where developing countries like India, not party to any mega plurilateral trade agreements, can push for evolving an inclusive global trading order that responds to the systemic imbalances of extant globalisation. What is at stake is the future of trade multilateralism and not just an institution, in which India has a huge interest.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Distortions in the Global Order
This article discusses new situations prompted by the tectonic shifts in India’s internal and external environment to take another look at India’s path to power in a world between orders.
New global order: No Order
- Multipolarity: The world is today adrift. We are neither in a bipolar Cold War nor in a multipolar world, though perhaps tending towards a world of several power centres.
- Lack of cohesion: The lack of a coherent international response to the COVID-19 pandemic is proof of an absence of international order and of the ineffectiveness of multilateral institutions.
- Climate ignorance: So is the ineffective international response to climate change and other transnational threats.
What are the major shifts in global order?
- Secular stagnation
- Retreat from globalisation
- Regionalisation of trade
- Shifting balance of power
- Rise of China and others
- Structural China-United States strategic rivalry
All above factors have shifted the geopolitical and economic centres of gravity from the Atlantic to Asia.
Major Concerns
- Chauvinism: Inequality between and within states has bred a narrow nationalism and parochialism.
- Existential threats: We are entering a new polarised information age, and face ecological crises of the Anthropocene, making climate change an existential threat.
Asia as the nucleus: With focus on China
- Shift of focus by the US: Over the next decade we expect Asia to remain the cockpit of geopolitical rivalries, and that the US remains the most formidable power, though its relative power is declining.
- China at the centre: China sees a window of opportunity but acts in a hurry, suggesting that she believes that window may close or is already closing due to push back from the West and others.
China’s expansionism
- China’s crowded geography constrains her both on land and at sea.
- Hence it expects her profile and power to continue expanding, particularly in our periphery.
- The result is likely continued friction, some cooperation, and quasi-adversarial relations between India and China, which others will take advantage of.
- Overall, we do not expect conventional conflict between the great powers in Asia, though other forms and levels of violence and contention in the international system will rise, with Taiwan a special case.
Opportunities in disguise for India
- The uncertainty and changing geopolitical environment clearly pose considerable challenges to Indian policy.
- However, it also throws up certain opportunities, enhancing our strategic options and diplomatic space, if we adjust policies internally and externally, particularly in the subcontinent.
How can India reap the benefits?
- Enhancing ties with the US: Increasing security congruence with the US could enable growing cooperation in fields significant for India’s transformation: energy, trade, investment, education and health.
- Climate cooperation: Other areas in which India and the U.S. could increase cooperation are: climate change and energy, tech solutions for renewable energy, and on digital cooperation.
- Neighbourhood first: Several middle powers like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia in the neighbourhood are now India’s natural partners.
- Digital space: This time of transition between orders is also when new standards and norms are being developed, particularly in the digital space. India can and must be present at the creation.
- Maritime cooperation: At sea, the balance is today more favourable to us than before, possibly more so than on the continent. India must bat for the creation of a Maritime Commission in IOR.
Bottlenecks in India’s neighbourhood policy
- Over securitisation of policy: towards our neighbours has driven trade underground, criminalised our borders.
- Conducive environment for entry of China: This has enabled the large-scale entry of Chinese goods destroying local industry in the northeast.
- Lack of self-strengthening: While lessening dependence on China, and seeking external balancing, our primary effort has to concentrate on self-strengthening.
- Lack of socio-political enterprise: If there is one country which in terms of its size, population, economic potential, scientific and technological capabilities can match or even surpass China, it is India.
Way forward for India
(A) Bringing multipolarity in Asia.
- The way forward should be based on the core strategic principles in Non-Alignment 2.0 which are still relevant: independent judgement, developing our capacities, and creating an equitable and enabling international order for India’s transformation.
- Today’s situation makes India’s strategic autonomy all the more essential.
(B) Making an issue-based coalition
- India must adjust to changing circumstances. We have no choice but to engage with this uncertain and more volatile world.
- One productive way to do so would be through issue-based coalitions including different actors, depending on who has an interest and capability.
(C) Reviving SAARC
- India must craft and reinvigorate regional institutions and processes in the neighbourhood, reviving the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for instance.
- India could be the primary source of both prosperity and security in the neighbourhood — the subcontinent and the Indian Ocean Region.
Conclusion
- Economic policy must match political and strategic engagement.
- Globalisation has been central to India’s growth.
- A more active regional and international role for India is incompatible with a position on the margins of the global economy.
- Self-reliance in today’s world and technologies can only be realised as part of the global economy.
- We should not imitate China’s claims to being a civilisational state and its adoption of victimhood.
- Instead, we should affirm our own strength and historic national identity.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Judgments in the newscard
Mains level: Quota in Promotions
The Union government has urged the Supreme Court to do away with the requirement of collecting quantifiable data by the Centre and states to determine the representation of people belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) while implementing reservation in promotion.
Supreme Court directive on Quota in Promotions
Background
- The top court has called it “disturbing” that the Union government did not discontinue reservation in promotion for people belonging to SC/STs.
- It referred to their numbers exceeded the upper ceiling of 15% and 7.5% respectively, of positions in some classes of central government jobs.
Quota in Promotions: A timeline
What was the case?
- The Union government has been pressing for reservation in promotion proportionate to the population of SCs and STs as per a 1995 judgment by the top court in the RK Sabharwal case.
- It wants it to be left open to the Centre and states to decide on promotional avenues for SCs and STs.
- It claims that the condition regarding collection of quantifiable data to show inadequacy of representation of SCs/STs is “vague”.
- Advocates representing general category have contended that the reservation cannot be for an indefinite period and that it must stop as soon as the upper ceiling has been reached.
- Further, they have emphasised that reservation in promotion should be cadre-based only after quantifiable data is collected and the creamy layer has been excluded.
Defying the need for quantifiable data
- Attorney General sought to convince the court that the roster system, based on the proportionate population of SCs/STs, has been working quite well in all government departments.
- The condition of collecting quantifiable data on inadequacy of representation of SCs/STs may not be required at all.
- He urged that there is no need to verify any further or collect quantifiable data after the roster system.
Referring to the Nagraj Case
- Article 16(4A) of Indian Constitution allows reservations to SCs and STs in promotions, as long as the government believes that they are not adequately represented in government services.
- In 2006, a Constitution bench’s ruling in the M Nagaraj case made it incumbent upon the state to collect quantifiable data showing inadequacy of representation in public employment.
- This was to be done in addition to maintaining overall administrative efficiency.
Why such demand by the Centre?
- The Attorney General has said that it is tough for a member of the SC/ST to reach the ‘Group A’ category jobs.
- The time has come for the apex court to firm up and draw the basis for reservation in promotions for SC/ST candidates to fill up vacancies in top jobs.
- The Bench referred to records filed before it to note that there was low representation of SC/ST category in Group A jobs.
- Instead of improving the situation in the Group A ranks, the court said, efforts are on to ensure adequate representation in Groups B and C. This was not fair, it remarked.
Must read:
[Burning Issue] SC judgement on Reservation not being a Fundamental Right
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nobel Price, BioCatalysts
Mains level: NA
(1) Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 2021
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded in one half to Canadian-born David Card and the other half jointly to Israeli-American Joshua D Angrist and Dutch-American Guido W Imbens.
- David Card has been awarded for his empirical contributions to labor economics. Joshua D Angrist and Guido W Imbens won the award “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships.”
- The 2020 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Paul R Milgrom and Robert B Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats”.
Contributions
- David Card: He has analyzed how minimum wages, immigration and education impact the labor market.
- One of the significant findings of this research was that“increasing the minimum wage does not necessarily lead to fewer jobs”.
- It also led to the understanding that“people who were born in a country can benefit from new immigration, while people who immigrated at an earlier time risk being negatively affected”.
- It also illuminated the role of resources available in school in shaping the future of students in the labor market.
- Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens: They were rewarded for their “methodological contributions” to the research tool.
- Their work demonstrated “how precise conclusions about cause and effect can be drawn from natural experiments”.
(2) Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2021
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Benjamin List and David MacMillan for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.
- Last year, the honour went to Frenchwoman Emmanuelle Charpentier and American Jennifer Doudna, for developing the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR-Cas9 – DNA snipping “scissors”.
About the Development
- They have developed a new and ingenious tool for molecule building: organocatalysis.
- Many research areas and industries are dependent on chemists’ ability to construct molecules that can form elastic and durable materials, store energy in batteries or inhibit the progression of diseases. This work requires catalysts.
- According to researchers, there were just two types of catalysts available: metals and enzymes. Catalysts are any substance that increases the rate of a reaction without itself being consumed.
- In 2000, they, independent of each other, developed a third type of catalysis. It is called asymmetric organocatalysis and builds upon small organic molecules.
- Significance:
- Its uses include research into new pharmaceuticals and it has also helped make chemistry greener.
- Both these sets of catalysts (metals and enzymes) had limitations.
- Heavier metals are expensive, difficult to mine, and toxic to humans and the environment.
- Despite the best processes, traces remained in the end product; this posed problems in situations where compounds of very high purity were required, like in the manufacture of medicines.
- Also, metals required an environment free of water and oxygen, which was difficult to ensure on an industrial scale.
- Enzymes on the other hand, work best when water is used as a medium for the chemical reaction. But that is not an environment suitable for all kinds of chemical reactions.
Organocatalysis
-
- Organic compounds are mostly naturally-occurring substances, built around a framework of carbon atoms and usually containing hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, or phosphorus.
- Life-supporting chemicals like proteins, which are long chains of amino acids (carbon compounds containing nitrogen and oxygen) are organic.
- Enzymes are also proteins, and therefore, organic compounds. These are responsible for many essential biochemical reactions.
- Organocatalysts allow several steps in a production process to be performed in an unbroken sequence, considerably reducing waste in chemical manufacturing.
- Organocatalysis has developed at an astounding speed since 2000. Benjamin List and David MacMillan remain leaders in the field, and have shown that organic catalysts can be used to drive multitudes of chemical reactions.
- Using these reactions, researchers can now more efficiently construct anything from new pharmaceuticals to molecules that can capture light in solar cells.
Asymmetric Organocatalysis
-
- The process called asymmetric organocatalysis has made it much easier to produce asymmetric molecules – chemicals that exist in two versions, where one is a mirror image of the other.
- Chemists often just want one of these mirror images – particularly when producing medicines – but it has been difficult to find efficient methods for doing this.
- Some molecules with mirror versions have different properties. An example is the chemical called carvone, which has one form that smells like spearmint and a counterpart that smells like the herb, dill.
- Different versions of the same molecule might have different effects when ingested. Then it becomes important to be able to make only the mirror image of a drug that has the desired physiological effect.
(3) Nobel Prize in Physics, 2021
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded with one half jointly to Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and the other half to Giorgio Parisi “for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems.”
- This is the first time climate scientists (Manabe and Hasselmann) have been awarded the Physics Nobel. Last year, the award was given for the research into black holes.
Manabe and Hasselmann
- Awarded for work in physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming.
- Demonstrated how increases in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would increase global temperatures, laying the foundations for current climate models.
Parisi
- Awarded for “the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.”
- He “built a deep physical and mathematical model” that made it possible to understand complex systems in fields such as mathematics, biology, neuroscience and machine learning.
(4) Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine, 2021
Recently, two United States-based scientists, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.
- They have focused their work on the field of somatosensation, that is the ability of specialized organs such as eyes, ears and skin to see, hear and feel.
About the Discoveries
David Julius:
- He discovered TRPV1, a heat-sensing receptor.
- His findings on the skin’s sense of temperature was based on how certain cells react to capsaicin, the molecule that makes chili peppers spicy, by simulating a false sensation of heat.
Ardem Patapoutian
- He discovered two mechanosensitive ion channels known as the Piezo channels.
- The Piezo1 is named after the Greek word for pressure, ‘píesi’.
- He is credited for finding the cellular mechanism and the underlying gene that translates a mechanical force on our skin into an electric nerve signal.
Significance of Discoveries
-
- The findings have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world around us.
- This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain.
Back To Basics: About Nobel Prizes
- The will of the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel established the five Nobel prizes in 1895.
- The Nobel Prizes are a set of recognition given to fields of Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine by The Nobel Foundation.
- The Nobel Foundation is a private institution established in 1900, has ultimate responsibility for fulfilling the intentions in Alfred Nobel’s will.
- The prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine were first awarded in 1901.
- In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Malaria and it vaccines
Mains level: Malaria menace in India
In a historic move, the World Health Organization (WHO) has endorsed the first anti-malarial vaccine, as mankind enters a key turning point in a battle waged relentlessly over decades between man and mosquito, the vector.
Mosquirix
- RTS,S/ASO1 (RTS.S), trade name Mosquirix acts against P. falciparum, the most deadly malaria parasite globally, and the most prevalent in Africa.
- The vaccine was able to prevent approximately 4 in 10 cases of malaria over a 4-year period in Africa.
- This is the first malaria vaccine that has completed the clinical development process.
- It is also the first malaria vaccine to be introduced by three national ministries of health through their childhood immunization programs — more than 800,000 children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.
- have been vaccinated, and are benefiting from the added protection provided by the vaccine as part of a pilot program.
How the vaccine can help?
- WHO’s recommendation is based on the advice of its two global advisory bodies, one for immunization and the other for malaria.
- WHO has recommended that in the context of comprehensive malaria control, the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine be used for the prevention of P. falciparum malaria in children living in regions with moderate to high transmission as defined by it.
- The malaria vaccine should be provided in a schedule of 4 doses in children from 5 months of age for the reduction of malaria disease and burden.
Back2Basics: Malaria
- Malaria is caused by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito if the mosquito itself is infected with a malarial parasite.
- There are five kinds of malarial parasites — Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax (the commonest ones), Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium knowlesi.
- Therefore, to say that someone has contracted the Plasmodium ovale type of malaria means that the person has been infected by that particular parasite.
- Malaria is treated with prescription drugs to kill the parasite. Chloroquine is the preferred treatment for any parasite that is sensitive to the drug.
Countries that have eliminated malaria
- Globally, the elimination net is widening, with more countries moving towards the goal of zero malaria.
- In 2019, 27 countries reported fewer than 100 indigenous cases of the disease, up from 6 countries in 2000.
- Countries that have achieved at least 3 consecutive years of zero indigenous cases of malaria are eligible to apply for the WHO certification of malaria elimination.
- 11 countries have been certified as malaria-free: United Arab Emirates (2007), Morocco (2010), Turkmenistan (2010), Armenia (2011), Sri Lanka (2016), Kyrgyzstan (2016), Paraguay (2018), Uzbekistan (2018), Algeria (2019), Argentina (2019), and El Salvador (2021).
Burden of Malaria in India
- In 2018, the National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) estimated that approximately 5 lakh people suffered from malaria.
- 63% of the cases were of Plasmodium falciparum.
- The recent World Malaria Report 2020 said cases in India dropped from about 20 million in 2000 to about 5.6 million in 2019.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Jim Corbett NP
Mains level: Tiger Conservation
The Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recently proposed to change the name of Corbett National Park to Ramganga National Park.
Who was Jim Corbett?
- Born in Nainital in 1875, Edward James Corbett lived in India till Independence, after which he left for Kenya where he died in 1955.
- India’s best known hunter, Corbett earned fame after he tracked down and killed a number of man-eating tigers and leopards (he is said to have killed over a dozen).
- An ace shot, Corbett was called upon regularly by the government to track and shoot man-eaters in the villages of Garhwal and Kumaon in Uttarakhand.
Corbett National Park
- Jim Corbett National Park is a national park in India located in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand state.
- The first national park in India, it was established in 1936 during the British Raj and named Haily National Park after a governor of the United Provinces in which it was then located.
- It was renamed Ramganga National Park, named after the river that flows through it, shortly after Independence and was rechristened yet again as Corbett National Park in 1956.
- Jim Corbett had played a leading role in its establishment and had died the year before.
- The park was the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative.
The tiger reserve
- The national park along with the neighbouring 301-sq km-Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary together make the critical tiger habitat of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
- With its hills, grasslands and streams, it is ideal tiger territory.
- The place from where Project Tiger was launched in 1973, with its tiger population at 163, it boasts of a single largest tiger population in a tiger reserve and one of the highest tiger densities in the country.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bhoramdeo Tiger Reserves
Mains level: Not Much
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved the Chhattisgarh government’s proposal to declare the combined areas of the Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary as a Tiger Reserve.
Bhoramdeo Tiger Reserve
- The new Reserve is located in the northern part of the state, bordering Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
- This will be the fourth Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh, after the Udanti-Sitanadi, Achanakmar, and Indravati Reserves.
- The proposal was considered under Section 38V(1) of The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
- This section says that the State Government shall, on the recommendation of the Tiger Conservation Authority, notify an area as a tiger reserve.
A decade in making
- The Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary was identified as part of the Sarguja Jashpur Elephant Reserve in 2011.
- The Guru Ghasidas National Park used to be part of the Sanjay National Park in undivided Madhya Pradesh.
- Both were identified as reserve forests, and had been in line to be notified as Tiger Reserve since 2011.
Medium-sized reserve
- The constituent units of the new Tiger Reserve, Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary, are spread over 1,44,000 hectares (1,440 sq km) and 60,850 hectares (608.5 sq km) respectively.
- Guru Ghasidas National Park is in Koriya district; Tamor Pingla is in Surajpur district in the northwestern corner of Chhattisgarh.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mundapota Kela, Denotified Tribes
Mains level: Tribal development
Members of the Mundapota Kela community in Odisha perform an unthinkable act of their head buried in soil, which requires exceptional breath control, for a living.
Mundapota Kela
- The community — Mundapota Kela (a denotified tribe) — is left with few members who earn a livelihood with this bizarre act.
- It is believed to have migrated to Odisha from Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh decades ago.
- Being street performers, they travel from one village to another and bury their heads in soil for several minutes.
- They collect rice, vegetables and money from villagers for putting up the show.
Try answering this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:
- PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
- A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.
- There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
- Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1, 2 and 3
(b) 2, 3 and 4
(c) 1, 2 and 4
(d) 1, 3 and 4
Post your answers here:
Back2Basics: De-Notified Tribes
- Denotified Tribes (DNTs), also known as Vimukta Jati are the tribes that were listed originally under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 as Criminal Tribes.
- Once a tribe became “notified” as criminal, all its members were required to register with the local magistrate, failing which they would be charged with a “crime” under the Indian Penal Code.
- The Criminal Tribes Act was repealed in 1949 and thus ‘de-notified’ the tribal communities.
- The denotified tribes were reclassified as “habitual offenders” in 1959.
- The UN’s anti-discrimination body Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) asked India to repeal the Habitual Offenders Act (1952) and effectively rehabilitate the denotified and nomadic tribes on 9 March 2007.
- A National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNSNT) was setup in 2003 to study various developmental aspects under the chairmanship of Shri. Balkrishna Renke.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Central Asian Flyway
Mains level: NA
The two-day meeting of 30 range countries of Central Asian Flyway has begun.
What is Central Asian Flyway?
- Central Asian Flyway (CAF) is a flyway covering a large continental area of Eurasia between the Arctic Ocean and the Indian Ocean and the associated island chains.
- It comprises several important migration routes of waterbirds, most of which extend from the northernmost breeding grounds in Siberia to the southernmost non-breeding wintering grounds in West Asia, India, the Maldives and the British Indian Ocean Territory.
- The CAF range is essentially centred on one of the three major wintering areas of waterfowl in the Old World, namely the Indian subcontinent, the other two being Africa.
- There are also the African-Eurasian Flyway (AEWA) to the west, and south-east Asia in the East Asian – Australasian Flyway (EAAF) to the east.
- These wintering areas are geographically separate, and present entirely different ecological, historical and cultural situations.
Range countries
- The flyway covers 30 countries of North, Central and South Asia and Trans-Caucasus.
- India is the core country of the CAF and supports 257 species of water birds.
Major migratory birds
- Critically Endangered – northern bald ibis, white-bellied heron, Baer’s pochard
- Endangered – greater adjutant
- Vulnerable – black-necked crane, Indian skimmer, lesser adjutant, masked finfoot, Socotra cormorant, wood snipe
- Near Threatened – black-headed ibis, lesser flamingo, pygmy cormorant, white-eyed gull
Why designate such flyways?
- Approximately one in five of the world’s 11,000 bird species11,000 bird species migrate, some covering enormous distances.
- Conserving migratory birds requires cooperation and coordination along the entire flyway between countries and across national boundaries.
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