Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: RIMPAC
Mains level: Paper 2- AUKUS
Context
The trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) continues to be in the news.
Implications for ASEAN
- There is also the matter of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) disunity over the emergence of AUKUS.
- While AUKUS is clearly an attempt by the U.S. to bolster regional security, including securing Australia’s seaborne trade, any sudden accretion in Australia’s naval capabilities is bound to cause unease in the region.
- Even though Australia has denied that AUKUS is a defence alliance, this hardly prevents China from exploiting ASEAN’s concerns at having to face a Hobson’s choice amidst worsening U.S.-China regional rivalry.
- AUKUS is based on a shared commitment of its three members to deepening diplomatic, security and defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
- Even though this has not been stated explicitly, the rise of China, particularly its rapid militarisation and aggressive behaviour, is undoubtedly the trigger.
Relations of AUKUS members with China
- The AUKUS joint statement clearly acknowledges that trilateral defence ties are decades old, and that AUKUS aims to further joint capabilities and interoperability.
- For three nations, their relations with China have recently been marked by contretemps.
- Australia, especially, had for years subordinated its strategic assessment of China to transactional commercial interests.
- Much to China’s chagrin, its policy of deliberately targeting Australian exports has not yielded the desired results.
- Instead of kow-towing, the plucky Australian character has led Canberra to favour a fundamental overhaul of its China policy.
- The transfer of sensitive submarine technology by the U.S. to the U.K. is a sui generis arrangement based on their long-standing Mutual Defence Agreement of 1958.
- Elements in the broader agenda provide opportunities to the U.S., the U.K. and Australia to engage the regional countries.
AUKUS engagement with regional countries
- All three nations will also play a major role in U.S.-led programmes such as Build Back Better World, Blue Dot Network and Clean Network, to meet the challenge of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
- The Quad and AUKUS are distinct, yet complementary. Neither diminishes the other.
- Whereas the Quad initiatives straddle the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, a Pacific-centric orientation for AUKUS has advantages.
- Such a strategy could potentially strengthen Japan’s security as well as that of Taiwan in the face of China’s mounting bellicosity.
- Shifting AUKUS’s fulcrum to the Pacific Ocean could reassure ASEAN nations.
- It could also inure AUKUS to any insidious insinuation that accretion in the number of nuclear submarines plying the Indo-Pacific might upset the balance of power in the Indian Ocean.
Conclusion
There are limited options in the economic arena with China already having emerged as a global economic powerhouse. AUKUS, though, provides an opportunity to the U.S. to place proxy submarine forces to limit China’s forays, especially in the Pacific Ocean.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Issue of misuse of UAPA
Context
In Thwaha Fasal vs Union of India, the Court has acted in its introspective jurisdiction and deconstructed the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) with a great sense of legal realism. This paves the way for a formidable judicial authority against blatant misuse of this law.
Background of the case
- In this case from Kerala, there are three accused.
- The police registered the case and later the investigation was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
- During the investigation, some materials containing radical literature were found, which included a book on caste issues in India and a translation of the dissent notes written by Rosa Luxemburg to Lenin.
- Thus, the provisions of the UAPA were invoked.
- After initial rejection of the pleas, the trial judge granted bail to both the accused in September 2020.
- The Supreme Court was emphatic and liberal when it said that mere association with a terrorist organisation is not sufficient to attract the offences alleged.
- Unless and until the association and the support were “with intention of furthering the activities of a terrorist organisation”, offence under Section 38 or Section 39 is not made out, said the Court.
Issues with UAPA
- Section 43D(5) of the UAPA says that for many of the offences under the Act, bail should not be granted, if “on perusal of the case diary or the report (of the investigation), there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation is prima facie true”.
- Thus, the Act prompts the Court to consider the version of the prosecution alone while deciding the question of bail.
- Unlike the Criminal Procedure Code, the UAPA, by virtue of the proviso to Section 43D(2), permits keeping a person in prison for up to 180 days, without even filing a charge sheet.
- Prevents examination of the facts: The statute prevents a comprehensive examination of the facts of the case on the one hand, and prolongs the trial indefinitely by keeping the accused in prison on the other.
- Instead of presumption of innocence, the UAPA holds presumption of guilt of the accused.
- In Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, the Court said that by virtue of Section 43D(5) of UAPA, the burden is on the accused to show that the prosecution case is not prima facie true.
- The proposition in Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali is that the bail court should not even investigate deeply into the materials and evidence and should consider the bail plea, primarily based on the nature of allegations, for, according to the Court, Section 43D(5) prohibits a thorough and deeper examination.
- The top court has now altered this terrible legal landscape.
Key takeaways from the judgement
- The text of the laws sometimes poses immense challenge to the courts by limiting the space for judicial discretion and adjudication.
- The courts usually adopt two mutually contradictory methods in dealing with such tough provisions.
- One is to read and apply the provision literally and mechanically which has the effect of curtailing the individual freedom as intended by the makers of the law.
- In contrast to this approach, there could be a constitutional reading of the statute, which perceives the issues in a human rights angle and tries to mitigate the rigour of the content of the law.
Conclusion
The judgment should be invoked to release other political prisoners in the country who have been denied bail either due to the harshness of the law or due to the follies in understanding the law or both.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Greater global cooperation
Context
Our thinking about the international system is focussed on a new era of great power competition. An assertive China is seeking to refashion the international order and exercise greater regional hegemony.
Refashioning the international order
- Recently, Secretary Antony Blinken outlined the US approach to China: “Competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be, and adversarial when it must be.”
- This pretty much describes the approach of every country in the world to this geopolitical moment.
- The big question is whether the competitive and adversarial dynamics are now so deep that the space for “collaboration” is diminishing fast.
- There is now bipartisan consensus in the US that China needs to be contained; just as China is convinced that the US will not only not tolerate China’s further rise.
Great power competition between the US and China
- Two dynamics were supposed to counteract the risks of great power competition.
- Global economic interdependence: The first was global economic interdependence.
- Global trade has rebounded to its pre-pandemic levels.
- The logic of interdependence is now under severe ideological stress.
- Interdependence has not led to greater convergence on political values or a more open global political order.
- Common challenges fostering global cooperation: The second dynamic counteracting competition was the idea that common challenges like climate change, the pandemic and the risks posed by technology will foster greater global cooperation.
- All the global crises that should have been occasions for global cooperation have become the sites for intensifying global competition.
Climate and global health: Indicator of lack of global cooperation
- It is hard to convince anyone that most countries of the world were willing to treat the pandemic as a global public health crisis.
- The shift in the climate change discourse is about intensifying technological competition and maintaining national economic supremacy, rather than solving a global problem.
- It is not entirely clear that all the innovations induced by this competitive dynamic will, in fact, limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
- It also leaves the question of a modicum of justice in the international order entirely unresolved.
- We have also learnt over the last couple of decades that the international system, and all global public goods, including security, can be made extremely vulnerable even by small groups carrying a sense of grievance.
- So, the distribution of technology, finance, and developmental space will matter.
- India, in the context of what other countries are doing, takes a very well-judged stance at the international level.
- But it is difficult not to wonder whether a country that lets its citizens breathe the foulest air, and cannot get its head around a solvable problem of stubble burning, can project seriousness.
- So, climate and global public health, rather than acting as a spur to global cooperation are going to be symptoms of a deep pathology.
Global risks and declining multilateral institutions
- Areas where global risks are increasing include-Cyber threats, the possible risks of unregulated technology, whether in artificial intelligence or biological research, competition in space, a renewed competition in nuclear weapons and an intensifying arms race.
- In not a single one of these areas is there a serious prospect of any country thinking outside of an adversarial nationalist frame.
- The old multilateral system was undergirded by, and partially an instrument for, US power.
- The term multilateral has also been deeply damaged by a cynical use, where it simply refers to a group of countries rather than a single or a couple of countries acting together.
- It is high time the term be used only in a context where there is agreement on global rules or an architecture to genuinely solve a global public goods problem.
- These may still reflect power differentials, but at least they are oriented to problem-solving at a global level.
- In this sense, one would be hard-pressed to find any genuinely multilateral institutions left.
Consider the question “What are the challenge facing global order in the present context? Suggest the measures to preserve the global order aimed towards greater global cooperation.”
Conclusion
The real choice for the world is not just navigating between China and the United States. It is fundamentally between an orientation that is committed to global problem-solving rather than just preserving national supremacy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Poverty estimates in India
Mains level: Poverty in India
Poverty in India had increased between 2012 and 2020.
What is Poverty?
- Fundamentally, the concept of poverty is associated with socially perceived deprivation with respect to basic human needs (Tendulkar, 2009).
- This is a crucial definition to consider since the Tendulkar committee’s estimation method is the last officially recognized method for arriving at poverty numbers in India.
A relative term
- If you think about it for a moment, poverty is a “relative” concept.
- Poverty is essentially about how you are “relative” to those in your surroundings.
- For example, with Rs 1,000 in your pocket, you may be “rich” if those around you have no more than Rs 100 with them.
- But, in another setting, say around those who have no less than Rs 10,000 with them, you will come across as “poor”.
- As such, as long as there are variations in the income and/or wealth levels in a society, there will be “poverty”.
What is abject poverty?
- Apart from the relative nature of poverty, there is such a thing as abject poverty.
- It typically refers to a state where a person is unable to meet its most basic needs such as eating the minimum amount of food to stay alive.
What is a Poverty Line?
- From the point of view of policymaking, poverty levels typically refer to some level of income or expenditure below which one can reasonably argue that someone is poorer than the rest of the society.
- The whole point of the bulk of policymaking is to improve the living standards of the poorest in the country.
- But to design policies, one must first know what the target group is, how much does it earn (or spend, since robust data on income is not easily available).
- This is done by choosing a “poverty line” — or a level of income or consumption expenditure that divides the population between the poor and non-poor.
Why define a Poverty Line?
The purpose behind choosing a poverty line is two-fold.
(A) To accurately design policies for the poor
- Doing so allows you to target your policies towards the two poorest people in the country.
- Often such policies are redistributive in nature — such as giving subsidised food grains or providing some kind of social security like MGNREGA.
- In an ideal world a government would have the resources to help everyone in the economy but in reality, even the government’s works within some financial or budgetary constraints.
(B) To assess the success or failure of government policies over time
- Over time the overall GDP doubles but the income of the general public falls.
- Hence the government would know that its policies are not bearing fruit.
Poverty Estimation in India
- Planning Commission Expert Group (1962): It formulated the separate poverty lines for rural and urban areas at ₹20 and ₹25 per capita per year respectively.
- VM Dandekar and N Rath (1971): They made the first systematic assessment, based on National Sample Survey (NSS) data. They suggested providing 2250 calories per day in both rural and urban areas.
- YK Alagh Committee (1979): It constructed a poverty line for rural and urban areas on the basis of nutritional requirements and related consumption expenditure.
- Lakdawala Committee (1993): It suggested that consumption expenditure should be calculated based on calorie consumption as earlier. State specific poverty lines should be constructed. It asked for discontinuation of scaling of poverty estimates based on National Accounts Statistics.
- Tendulkar Committee (2009): The current official measures of poverty are based on the Tendulkar poverty line, fixed at daily expenditure of ₹27.2 in rural areas and ₹33.3 in urban areas is criticised by many for being too low.
What has happened in India’s fight against poverty?
- There are two ways to assess India’s performance.
- One is to look at the headcount ratio of poverty which is the percentage of India’s population that was designated to be below the poverty line
- The other variable to look at is the absolute number of poor people in the country
- If one looks at the headcount ratio then India made rapid strides since 1973.
- Even though India is home to possibly the largest number of poor people in the world, there has been no official update on India’s poverty levels since.
Who oversees the Poverty Level?
- Poverty levels are updated by using the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which is conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) once every five years.
- The last such survey was conducted in 2017-18.
- That survey reportedly showed that for the first time in four decades consumer expenditure in India had fallen.
What are the latest findings?
- Poverty levels, as well as the absolute number of poor, had risen between 2011-12 and 2017-18.
- The government claimed that the survey suffered from “data quality” issues.
- The next round of the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) was supposed to be conducted in 2021.
Causes of rise in Poverty
- GDP growth decline: It is a fact that India’s GDP growth rate had registered a secular deceleration between the start of 2017 and 2020.
- Jobless growth: The second and related factor is the unprecedented rise in joblessness.
- Wages decline: Millions were pulled out of poverty between 2004 and 2011 due to sharp rise in non-farm employment and associated wages. But for many of those workers, real wages have either fallen or stagnated.
- Pandemic impact: Covid induced lockdown sent millions of workers back to villages, seeking MGNREGA work at minimum wages.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Turmeric
Mains level: Not Much
Turmeric (Curcuma longa), native to India, has been studied extensively for its effects against viral diseases in recent decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic has renewed interest.
About Turmeric
- Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is used as a condiment, dye, drug and cosmetic in addition to its use in religious ceremonies.
- India is a leading producer and exporter of turmeric in the world.
- The top five turmeric-producing states of India in 2020-21 are Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Climate and Soil
- Turmeric can be grown in diverse tropical conditions from sea level to 1500 m above sea level.
- It requires a temperature range of 20-35 C with an annual rainfall of 1500 mm or more, under rainfed or irrigated conditions.
- Though it can be grown on different types of soils, it thrives best in well-drained sandy or clay loam soils with a pH range of 4.5-7.5 with good organic status.
Varieties
- A number of cultivars are available in the country and are known mostly by the name of locality where they are cultivated.
- Some of the popular cultivars are Duggirala, Tekkurpet, Sugandham, Amalapuram, Erode local, Salem, Alleppey, Moovattupuzha and Lakdong.
Preparation of land
- The land is prepared with the receipt of early monsoon showers.
- The soil is brought to a fine tilth by giving about four deep ploughings.
- Planting is also done by forming ridges and furrows.
Plantation
- Whole or split mother and finger rhizomes are used for planting and well-developed healthy and disease-free rhizomes are to be selected.
Why turmeric?
- Post pandemic, turmeric is one of the fastest-growing dietary supplements.
- The global curcumin market, valued at $58.4 million in 2019, is expected to witness a growth of 12.7 percent by 2027.
- As the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of turmeric, India stands to gain from this.
Global standing
- India produces 78 per cent of the world’s turmeric.
- The country’s turmeric production saw a near consistent growth since Independence till 2010-11 after which it started fluctuating.
- The pandemic has given a boost to the crop, with the production witnessing a rise of 23 per cent.
- Though the production and export of turmeric has risen, farmers have not benefitted from its pricing.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2020:
With reference to the current trends in the cultivation of sugarcane in India, consider the following statements:
- A substantial saving in seed material is made when ‘bud chip settlings are raised in a nursery and transplanted in the main field.
- When direct planting of setts is done, the germination percentage is better with single-budded setts as compared to setts with many buds.
- If bad weather conditions prevail when setts are directly planted, single-budded setts have better survival as compared to large setts.
- Sugarcane can be cultivated using settlings prepared from tissue culture.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 1 and 4 only
(d) 2,3 and 4 only
Post your answers here.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Species Extinction
Mains level: Mass Extinction
A paper published recently has come up with a new reason behind the first mass extinction, also known as the Late Ordovician mass extinction.
Species Extinction
- Extinction is a part of life, and animals and plants disappear all the time. About 98% of all the organisms that have ever existed on our planet are now extinct.
- When a species goes extinct, its role in the ecosystem is usually filled by new species, or other existing ones.
What is Mass Extinction?
- Earth’s ‘normal’ extinction rate is often thought to be somewhere between 0.1 and 1 species per 10,000 species per 100 years.
- This is known as the background rate of extinction.
- A mass extinction event is when species vanish much faster than they are replaced.
- This is usually defined as about 75% of the world’s species being lost in a ‘short’ amount of geological time – less than 2.8 million years.
How many mass extinctions have there been?
Five great mass extinctions have changed the face of life on Earth. We know what caused some of them, but others remain a mystery:
[I] Ordovician-Silurian ME
- It occurred 443 million years ago and wiped out approximately 85% of all species.
- Scientists think it was caused by temperatures plummeting and huge glaciers forming, which caused sea levels to drop dramatically.
- This was followed by a period of rapid warming. Many small marine creatures died out.
[II] Devonian ME
- It took place 374 million years ago and killed about three-quarters of the world’s species, most of which were marine invertebrates that lived at the bottom of the sea.
- This was a period of many environmental changes, including global warming and cooling, a rise and fall of sea levels and a reduction in oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
- We don’t know exactly what triggered the extinction event.
[III] Permian ME
- It happened 250 million years ago, was the largest and most devastating event of the five.
- Also known as the Great Dying, it eradicated more than 95% of all species, including most of the vertebrates which had begun to evolve by this time.
- Some scientists think Earth was hit by a large asteroid which filled the air with dust particles that blocked out the Sun and caused acid rain.
- Others think there was a large volcanic explosion that increased carbon dioxide and made the oceans toxic.
[IV] Triassic ME
- It took place 200 million years ago, eliminating about 80% of Earth’s species, including many types of dinosaurs.
- This was probably caused by colossal geological activity that increased carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures, as well as ocean acidification.
[V] Cretaceous ME
- It occurred 65 million years ago, killing 78% of all species, including the remaining non-avian dinosaurs.
- This was most likely caused by an asteroid hitting the Earth in what is now Mexico, potentially compounded by ongoing flood volcanism in what is now India.
What caused first ME?
- The cooling climate likely changed the ocean circulation pattern.
- This caused a disruption in the flow of oxygen-rich water from the shallow seas to deeper oceans, leading to a mass extinction of marine creatures.
- Ordovician Sea has familiar groups like clams and snails and sponges.
- Many other groups are now very reduced in diversity or entirely extinct like trilobites, brachiopods, and crinoids.
The sixth mass extinction
- We are currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction as the result of human-induced climate change.
- There have been several theories behind each mass extinction and with advances in new technologies, researchers have been uncovering more intricate details about these events.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2018
The term “sixth mass extinction/sixth extinction” is often mentioned in the news in the context of the discussion of:
(a) Widespread monoculture Practices agriculture and large-scale commercial farming with indiscriminate use of chemicals in many parts of the world that may result in the loss of good native ecosystems.
(b) Fears of a possible collision of a meteorite with the Earth in the near future in the manner it happened 65million years ago that caused the mass extinction of many species including those of dinosaurs.
(c) Large scale cultivation of genetically modified crops in many parts of the world and promoting their cultivation in other Parts of the world may cause the disappearance of good native crop plants and the loss of food biodiversity.
(d) Mankind’s over-exploitation/misuse of natural resources, fragmentation/loss, natural habitats, destruction of ecosystems, pollution and global climate change.
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Principles of Responsible Banking (PRBs)
Mains level: Not Much
Global banks are pledging to report annually on the carbon emissions linked to the projects they lend to in an extension to the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRBs).
What are PRBs?
- The PRBs are a unique framework for ensuring that signatory banks’ strategy and practice align with the vision society has set out for its future in the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement.
- It was created in 2019 through a partnership between founding banks and the United Nations.
- The framework consists of 6 Principles designed to bring purpose, vision and ambition to sustainable finance.
- Signatory banks commit to embedding these 6 principles across all business areas, at the strategic, portfolio and transactional levels:
Note: India’s YES BANK Limited is the only Indian signatory to this framework.
Significance of the PRBs
- Banks can contribute to solving the climate crisis from two angles: their lending and their investments.
- Many bank policies concentrate their investments on securities that were focused on sustainability.
Issues with PRB
- Being a signatory to the PRBs is a limited commitment.
- Signatories have four years to comply with the principles.
- Even then, everything is voluntary and non-binding, so signatories are not penalized or even named and shamed for failing to live up to the principles.
Way forward
- When signatories to the PRBs are lending money, they are supposed to carry out environmental impact assessments and to measure the greenhouse gas emissions of projects.
- This is not a minor issue considering that such work is beyond the traditional competencies of banks and will significantly affect their operational costs.
- Signatories are also supposed to ensure that loans go to projects that are carbon neutral.
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