Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bay Of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem (BOBLME) project
Mains level: Paper 2- BIMSTEC-challenges and opportunities
Context
As world attention remains focused on the war in Ukraine, leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) will attend a summit meeting of the regional organisation.
Fourteen pillars for special focus
- Founded in 1997, the seven-member BIMSTEC includes the littoral states of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Thailand is a member too) and the land-locked states of Nepal and Bhutan.
- BIMSTEC has identified 14 pillars for special focus.
- These are trade and investment, transport and communication, energy, tourism, technology, fisheries, agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter terrorism and transnational crime, environment and disaster management, people-to-people contact, cultural cooperation and climate change.
- While each sector is important, the segmented approach has resulted in aspirations rather than action.
- The upcoming summit is an opportunity to take concrete steps to address critical challenges confronting the region.
Challenges facing Bay of Benga
1] Threat facing marine ecosystem
- The Bay is an important source of natural resources for a coastal population of approximately 185 million people.
- The Bay of Bengal is home to a large network of beautiful yet fragile estuaries, mangrove forests of around 15,792 square kilometres, coral reefs of around 8,471 sq.km, sea grass meadows and mass nesting sites of sea turtles.
- Loss of mangrove and coral reefs: The annual loss of mangrove areas is estimated at 0.4% to 1.7% and coral reefs at 0.7%. I
- Increasing sea levels: It is predicted that the sea level will increase 0.5 metres in the next 50 years.
- Cyclonic storms: Moreover, there have been 13 cyclonic storms in the last five years.
- According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Bay of Bengal is one of IUU fishing hotspots in the Asia-Pacific.
- The pressing challenges that confront the Bay of Bengal include the emergence of a dead zone with zero oxygen where no fish survive;
- Leaching of plastic from rivers as well as the Indian Ocean;
- Destruction of natural protection against floods such as mangroves; sea erosion;
- Growing population pressure and industrial growth in the coastal areas and consequently, huge quantities of untreated waste flow.
2] Security threats
- Security threats such as terrorism, piracy and tensions between countries caused by the arrests of fishermen who cross maritime boundaries are additional problems.
- The problem of fishermen crossing into the territorial waters of neighbouring countries affect India and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and Myanmar (also Pakistan on the west coast).
Way forward
1] Tap the blue economy potential of Bay of Bengal by creating a regional mechanism
- There are many opportunities to develop maritime trade, shipping, aquaculture and tourism.
- The BIMSTEC Summit must create a new regional mechanism for coordinated activities on maritime issues of a transboundary nature.
- There is also a need for greater scientific research on the impact of climate change in general and on fisheries in particular.
- Cooperation on marine research: At present, there is limited cooperation between countries of the region in marine research.
- The use of modern technology and improved fishing practices can go a long way in restoring the health of the Bay.
2] Focus on the marine environmental protection
- Marine environmental protection must become a priority area for cooperation in the Bay of Bengal.
- Develop regional protocols: Regional protocols need to be developed and guidelines and standards on pollution control established.
- Need for home-grown solutions: There is a need for home-grown solutions based on the capabilities of local institutions and for mutual learning through regional success stories.
- Regional framework for data collection: There is a need to create regional frameworks for data collection.
- Participatory approaches must be evolved for near-real-time stock assessment and the creation of a regional open fisheries data alliance.
- The Bay of Bengal Programme (BOBP), an inter-governmental organisation based in Chennai, is doing good work to promote sustainable fishing.
- A Bay Of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem (BOBLME) project is also being launched by the FAO with funding from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and others.
- The BIMSTEC summit must express full support for both BOBP and BOBLME.
- The summit must mandate officials to come up with measures to curtail unsustainable as well as IUU fishing.
- Harmonisation of laws in littoral states: Laws and policies in littoral states must be harmonised and the humanitarian treatment of fishermen ensured during any encounter with maritime law enforcement agencies.
Conclusion
The challenges that confront the Bay of Bengal region brook no more delay. BIMSTEC must arise, awake and act before it is too late.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Building blocks of India's foreign policy
Context
This is the edited excerpts from the lecture delivered by India’s External Affairs Minister at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi on March 24.
Relevance of foreign policy at personal level
- Through a good foreign policy, our everyday needs from the world must be better met.
- And since we are a collective as a country, our national security must be assured.
- Foreign policy being the link to the outside, it should enable us to draw what we seek.
- This could be in terms of technology or capital, best practices, or even work opportunities.
- And obviously, we would all like to be strong; we would like to look good and we would like to feel appreciated.
Recent instances in which India’s foreign policy directly influence the common man
- Through Operation Ganga, Indian students stuck in Ukraine were brought home.
- It was the result of intervention by India’s foreign policy apparatus at the highest levels in Russia and Ukraine to ensure the ceasing of fire for safe passage.
- When the first wave of Covid hit India in 2020, we scrambled across the world to secure PPEs, masks and ventilators.
- And we did so in a seller’s market as the demand far exceeded supply.
- The second wave in 2021 saw a similar spike in demand for oxygen and specialised medicines from abroad.
- Locating, negotiating and contracting supplies became the priority for Indian diplomacy. And it bent its back to deliver.
Influence of foreign policy at the collective level
- When it comes to security, external or internal, diplomacy could be a preventive, a mitigator or a problem-solver.
- It can help raise awareness of a shared threat, just as it can find partners against common dangers.
- And then there is the economy, with its search for investment, technology and best practices.
- In each of these sectors, foreign relationships can accelerate India’s progress.
- And cumulatively, they expand employment and improve your quality of life.
- It also matters to all of us what other nations think of India, our culture and our way of life.
Role of foreign policy in delivering on development
- The most effective foreign policy is one that delivers on development.
- In Asia, all modernising economies have single-mindedly focused their external interactions on obtaining capital, technology and best practices from abroad.
- It may be information technology or auto manufacturing, food production or food processing, metros or bullet trains, space capabilities or nuclear energy; the fruits of foreign collaboration are there today for all of us to see.
- Newer challenges like green growth and climate action have started to open up still more possibilities.
- All this happens because of our ability to identify, engage, negotiate and leverage opportunities of interest abroad across many many domains.
Building blocks of India’s foreign policy
- The six broad objectives that were spelt out to the policy-makers and implementers were clear.
- 1] Shaping global perception: We must bring about a change of thinking in the world about us.
- 2] Partnership on equal terms: The partnerships we should create should be on more equal terms, and with smaller countries, more generous.
- 3] Shaping the global agenda: The global agenda and the big issues of our times should be shaped by India as much as possible.
- 4] Leveraging foreign policy for domestic progress: Foreign relationships should be actively explored and leveraged for domestic development and progress.
- 5] People-centric foreign policy: The very conceptualisation of foreign policy should be more people-centric.
- 6] Our culture, traditions and thoughts should percolate our own articulation as well as influence international debates and initiatives.
- Yoga and Ayurveda were obvious examples in this regard.
Conclusion
As we mark 75 years of independence, Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, there is good cause to be confident about our prospects. But to be so, it is equally important to be aware of the opportunities and challenges that the world currently presents. And surely, we can be so once we appreciate how much foreign policy really matters.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CUET
Mains level: Paper 2- CUET and related issues
Context
UGC introduced the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for admissions in undergraduate courses in 45 central universities in the country.
Benefits of Common University Entrance Test (CUET)
- Deals with the issue of uneven quality of different boards: In a country like ours, because of the uneven quality of different school boards, there is a huge trust deficit and suspicion about the academic quality of even the “toppers”.
- Eliminate the need for multiple exams: Furthermore, this centralised test would free the tension-ridden youngsters from the pressure of writing multiple entrance tests in different colleges/universities.
- Eliminate the inflated cut-off: Likewise, the supremacy of the CUET score/ranking in the selection process would invariably eliminate inflated cut-offs for admissions in “branded” colleges.
- It would avoid subjective biases, cherish objectivity, and quantify and measure one’s mental aptitude and domain knowledge in a specific discipline.
Issues with the CUET
- 1] Impact on true learning: the dominant structure of education prevalent in the country is essentially book-centric and exam-oriented.
- Either rote learning or strategic learning (a gift of coaching centres) is its essence; and far from learning and unlearning with joy, wonder and creativity, young students become strategists or exam-warriors.
- In the coming years, schools are going to lose their relevance as students and parents are likely to rely primarily on gigantic coaching centres and fancy Ed Tech companies.
- 2] No scope for subjective interpretation: The MCQ-centric “objective” tests diminishes what every genuine learner needs — creative exploration, interpretative understanding and self-reflexivity.
- In the name of “objective” tests, our students are deprived of the hermeneutic art of interpretation and skill of argumentation and compelled to reduce everything into an “objective” fact, we would do great damage to their creativity.
Conclusion
For real transformation, we have to see beyond the CUET, work on the quality of schools and creatively nuanced life-affirming pedagogy; and we must think of honest and fair recruitment of spirited teachers, and relative autonomy of academic institutions.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WPI and CPI
Mains level: Paper 3- Inflation challenge
Context
Despite being legally mandated to keep inflation in check, RBI has persisted with easy monetary policy, even as inflationary pressures have increased. We need to understand why, and what could be the repercussions.
Inflation problem in India
- For most of the past two years, CPI (consumer price index) inflation has been hovering close to the 6 per cent upper threshold of the RBI’s target band.
- Inflation averaged 6.1 per cent during the pandemic period (April 2020 to June 2021), despite a massive collapse in aggregate demand.
- Then in January 2022, as food prices recovered, headline inflation once again crossed the upper threshold of the inflation targeting band.
- Inflationary pressures do not seem to be diminishing either. Instead, they continue to build up.
- The standard measure of inflation “in the pipeline” is WPI (wholesale price index) inflation, since price increases at the wholesale level tend to translate into retail inflation in due course.
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in a sharp increase in global commodity prices, including prices of crude oil, edible oils, and fertilisers.
- Indian firms are already adapting to this situation, passing on commodity price increase to retail prices.
Issues with RBI’s stance
- Standard economics gives us a guide for how central banks should react in a situation like this.
- Two conditions: It says that monetary policy should accommodate the first round of commodity price increase, but only under certain conditions, notably that inflation is initially on target, and expectations are firmly anchored.
- But neither condition holds at present. Inflation is already too high, and so are expectations.
- An argument is nonetheless being made that monetary policy should not be tightened when inflation is driven by supply-side factors, as it can adversely impact growth.
- This is fallacious. When there are supply constraints, using easy monetary policy to boost demand is not going to boost output.
- And if firms are expecting high inflation, this will send things into a vicious spiral, as they will increase their prices even more in advance of any input price pressures.
- Surely the RBI is aware of all of this. So why is it still not acting on it?
Why RBI is ignoring inflationary pressure?
- Growth concerns: The problem seems to be that governments all over the world are worried about growth.
- The US Federal Reserve has been slow to raise rates even as inflation has reached a four-decade high. The European Central Bank has been even slower to react.
- Fiscal dominance in India: In India, monetary policy also suffers from a strong fiscal dominance.
- As a result, not only is the RBI expected to support growth, it is also expected to keep the government’s borrowing costs in check, which is in direct conflict with its inflation targeting objective.
Implications of RBI ignoring inflationary pressure
- Aggressive reduction in interest rates: A decade ago, we were in a similar situation when RBI delayed its response because it was focusing on growth.
- When inflation subsequently took off, it reached double digits and the RBI had to raise interest rates aggressively to bring it down.
- That was a very painful adjustment.
- Impact on credibility of the RBI: In addition, if the RBI does allow inflation to take off, there will be long-lasting repercussions for its credibility.
- Unachrored expectation: if the public sees the RBI consistently ignoring inflation, expectations can rapidly get unanchored, and then it becomes very costly to bring it down.
Conclusion
To conclude, inflation is best addressed by the central bank using monetary policy, not by the government adjusting taxes. The RBI needs to urgently revisit its inflation forecast and its monetary policy stance in order to avoid potentially painful adjustments down the road.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022
Mains level: Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022
The bill that would allow the police and prison authorities to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples, including retina and iris scans, was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill
- It authorises law enforcement agencies to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples of convicts and other persons for the purposes of identification and investigation in criminal matters.
- It seeks to repeal the Identification of Prisoners Act 1920 which provided for the collection of only fingerprints and footprints.
- The said Act, in its present form, provides access to a limited category of persons whose body measurements can be taken.
- As per the Bill, any state government OR Union Territory administration may notify an appropriate agency to collect, preserve and share the measurements of a person of interest in their respective jurisdictions.
Why need such law?
- The world has undergone technological and scientific changes, crime and its trend have increased.
- Advanced countries across the globe are relying on new “measurement” techniques for reliable results.
- It was felt necessary to expand the “ambit of persons” whose measurements can be taken as this will help investigating agencies gather sufficient legally admissible evidence and establish the crime of the accused person.
- The Bill will not only help our investigation agencies but also increase prosecution.
- There is also a chance of an increase in conviction rates in courts through this.
Key features of the Bill
The Bill seeks to:
- Define “measurements”: To include finger impressions, palm-print and foot-print impressions, photographs, iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis, etc.;
- Empower the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB): To collect, store and preserve the record of measurements and for sharing, dissemination, destruction and disposal of records;
- Empower a Magistrate: To direct any person to give measurements; a Magistrate can also direct law enforcement officials to collect fingerprints, footprint impressions and photographs in the case of a specified category of convicted and non-convicted persons;
- Empower police or prison officers: To take measurements of any person who resists or refuses to give measurements
- Authorises police to record signatures, handwriting or other behavioural attributes: Referred to in section 53 or section 53A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, for the purposes of analysis.
Notable feature: Maintenance of Record
- The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will be the repository of physical and biological samples, signature and handwriting data that can be preserved for at least 75 years.
- The record of these measurements will be retained in digital or electronic form for a period of seventy-five years from the date of collection.
- The court or Magistrate, for reasons to be recorded in writing, can direct agencies to maintain the records.
- The records are to be destroyed in the case of any person who has not been previously convicted of an offence punishable under any law with imprisonment for any term.
Refusal to Comply
- Resistance to or refusal to allow the taking of measurements under this Act shall be deemed to be an offence under section 186 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC);
- No suit or any other proceeding shall lie against any person for anything done, or intended to be done in good faith under this Act or any rule made thereunder;
- Central government or state government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this Act;
- Manner of collection, storing, preservation of measurements and sharing, dissemination, destruction and disposal of records under sub-section (1) of section 4;
Issues with the Bill
- Un-constitutionality: The proposed law will be debated against Article 20(3) of the Constitution, which is a fundamental right that guarantees the right against self-incrimination.
- Violation of Article 21: The Bill also seeks to apply these provisions to persons held under any preventive detention law.
- Legislative competence of Centre: The Bill was beyond the legislative competence of Parliament as it violated fundamental rights of citizens, including the right to privacy.
- Contentious provisions: The Bill proposes to collect samples even from protesters engaged in political protests.
- Lack of clarity: Several provisions are not defined in the Bill itself.. For instance, the statement of objects says it provides for collection of measurements for “convicts and other persons” but the expression “other persons” is not defined.
- Other: While the jurisprudence around the right to be forgotten is still in an early stage in India, the Puttaswamy judgment discusses it as a facet of the fundamental right to privacy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Definition and identification of Minorities
Mains level: Minority population issues
In an affidavit filed in the top court, the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs said “state governments can also declare a religious or linguistic community as a ‘minority community’ within the state”.
Why in news?
- The Centre was responding to a petition filed stating that the followers of Judaism, Baha’ism and Hinduism — who are the real minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur.
- They however cannot establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
- The Centre said the allegation was “not correct”.
- The government’s affidavit explained that Parliament and State legislatures have concurrent powers to enact laws to provide for the protection of minorities and their interests.
Various states on Minorities
- The Centre gave the example of how Maharashtra notified ‘Jews’ as a minority community within the State.
- Again, Karnataka notified Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, Lambadi, Hindi, Konkani and Gujarati as minority languages within the State.
Who are the Minorities?
- Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jain and Zorastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
- As per the Census 2011, the percentage of minorities in the country is about 19.3% of the total population of the country.
- The population of Muslims are 14.2%; Christians 2.3%; Sikhs 1.7%, Buddhists 0.7%, Jain 0.4% and Parsis 0.006%.
- Minority Concentration Districts (MCD), Minority Concentration Blocks and Minority Concentration Towns, have been identified on the basis of both population data and backwardness parameters of Census 2001 of these areas.
Defining Minorities
- The Constitution recognizes Religious minorities in India and Linguistic minorities in India through Article 29 and Article 30.
- But Minority is not defined in the Constitution.
- Currently, the Linguistic minorities in India are identified on a state-wise basis thus determined by the state government whereas Religious minorities in India are determined by the Central Government.
- The Parliament has the legislative powers and the Centre has the executive competence to notify a community as a minority under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992.
Article 29: It provides that any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script, or culture of its own, shall have the rights of minorities in India to conserve the same. Article 29 is applied to both minorities (religious minorities in India and Linguistic minorities in India) and also the majority. It also includes – rights of minorities in India to agitate for the protection of language.
Article 30: All minorities shall have the rights of minorities in India to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Article 30 recognises only Religious minorities in India and Linguistic minorities in India (not the majority). It includes the rights of minorities in India to impart education to their children in their own language.
Article 350-B: Originally, the Constitution of India did not make any provision with respect to the Special Officer for Linguistic minorities in India. However, the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956 inserted Article 350-B in the Constitution. It provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President of India. It would be the duty of the Special Officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under the Constitution.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Microplastics
Mains level: Microplastics Contamination
A study by researchers from The Netherlands has found Microplastics in blood samples. About half of these were PET (polyethylene tertraphthalate) plastics, which is used to make food grade bottles.
What are Microplastics?
- Microplastics are tiny bits of various types of plastic found in the environment.
- The name is used to differentiate them from “macroplastics” such as bottles and bags made of plastic.
- There is no universal agreement on the size of microplastics. It defines microplastic as less than 5mm in length.
- However, for the purposes of this study, since the authors were interested in measuring the quantities of plastic that can cross the membranes and diffuse into the body via the blood stream.
- Hence they agreed on an upper limit on the size of the particles as 0.0007 millimetre.
What were the plastics that the study looked for in the blood samples?
- The study looked at the most commonly used plastic polymers.
- These were polyethylene tetraphthalate (PET), polyethylene (used in making plastic carry bags), polymers of styrene (used in food packaging), poly (methyl methylacrylate) and poly propylene.
- They found a presence of the first four types.
Significance of the study
- Making a human health risk assessment in relation to plastic particles is not easy, perhaps not even possible, due to the lack of data on exposure of people to plastics.
- In this sense, it is important to have studies like this one.
- The authors of the paper also remark that validated methods to detect the tiny (trace) amounts of extremely small-sized (less than 10 micrometre) plastic particles are lacking.
- Hence this study, which builds up a methods to check the same, is important.
Health hazard of microplastics
- It is not yet clear if these microplastics can cross over from the blood stream to deposit in organs and cause diseases.
- The report point out that the human placenta has shown to be permeable to tiny particles of polystyrene ( 50, 80 and 24 nanometre beads).
- Experiments on rats where its lungs were exposed to polystryrene spheres (20 nanometre) led to translocation of the nanoparticles to the placental and foetal tissue.
- Oral administration of microplastics in rats led to accumulation of these in the liver, kidney and gut.
- Further studies have to be carried out to really assess the impact of plastics on humans.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Why is there a great concern about the ‘microbeads’ that are released into environment?
(a) They are considered harmful to marine ecosystems.
(b) They are considered to cause skin cancer in children.
(c) They are small enough to be absorbed by crop plants in irrigated fields.
(d) They are often found to be used as food adulterants.
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Coral Bleaching
Mains level: Coral Reefs and their significance
The management authority of the world’s largest coral reef system, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, confirmed on March 25 that the reef is experiencing a mass coral bleaching event.
What are Coral Reefs?
- Corals are marine invertebrates or animals not possessing a spine.
- Each coral is called a polyp and thousands of such polyps live together to form a colony, which grows when polyps multiply to make copies of themselves.
- Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest reef system stretching across 2,300 km.
- It hosts 400 different types of coral, gives shelter to 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusc.
- Corals are of two types — hard coral and soft coral:
- Hard corals, also called hermatypic or ‘reef building’ corals extract calcium carbonate (also found in limestone) from the seawater to build hard, white coral exoskeletons.
- Soft coral polyps, however, borrow their appearance from plants, attach themselves to such skeletons and older skeletons built by their ancestors. Soft corals also add their own skeletons to the hard structure over the years and these growing multiplying structures gradually form coral reefs. They are the largest living structures on the planet.
How do the feed themselves?
- Corals share a symbiotic relationship with single-celled algae called zooxanthellae.
- The algae provides the coral with food and nutrients, which they make through photosynthesis, using the sun’s light.
- In turn, the corals give the algae a home and key nutrients.
- The zooxanthellae also give corals their bright colour.
What is Coral Bleaching?
- Bleaching happens when corals experience stress in their environment due to changes in temperature, pollution or high levels of ocean acidity.
- Under stressed conditions, the zooxanthellae or food-producing algae living inside coral polyps start producing reactive oxygen species, which are not beneficial to the corals.
- So, the corals expel the colour-giving zooxanthellae from their polyps, which exposes their pale white exoskeleton, giving the corals a bleached appearance.
- This also ends the symbiotic relationship that helps the corals to survive and grow.
- Severe bleaching and prolonged heat stress in the external environment can lead to coral death.
Impact of climate change
- Over the last couple of decades, climate change and increased global warming owing to rising carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases have made seas warmer than usual.
- Under all positive outlooks and projections in terms of cutting greenhouse gases, sea temperatures are predicted to increase by 1.5°C to 2°C by the time the century nears its end.
- The first mass bleaching event had occurred in 1998 when the El Niño weather pattern caused sea surfaces in the pacific ocean to heat up; this event caused 8% of the world’s coral to die.
- The second event took place in 2002.
- In the past decade, however, mass bleaching occurrences have become more closely spaced in time, with the longest and most damaging bleaching event taking place from 2014 to 2017.
Significance of Corals
- Coral reefs support over 25% of marine biodiversity, including fish, turtles and lobsters; even as they only take up 1% of the seafloor.
- The marine life supported by reefs further fuels global fishing industries. Even giant clams and whales depend on the reefs to live.
- Besides, coral reef systems generate $2.7 trillion in annual economic value through goods and service trade and tourism.
- In Australia, the Barrier Reef, in pre-COVID times, generated $4.6 billion annually through tourism and employed over 60,000 people including divers and guides.
- Aside from adding economic value and being a support system for aquatic life, coral reefs also provide protection from storm waves.
- Dead reefs can revive over time if there are enough fish species that can graze off the weeds that settle on dead corals, but it takes almost a decade for the reef to start setting up again.
Current condition of the Great Barrier Reef
- The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its report this month, which warned that the life of the Great Barrier is in grave danger.
- The report said that if temperatures continue to rise, bleaching events may occur more often and a large proportion of the remaining reef cover in Australia could be lost.
- Just a couple of weeks after this warning, the Barrier Reef Authority confirmed a mass bleaching phenomenon affecting all pockets of the reef system.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Consider the following statements:
- Most of the world’s coral reefs are in tropical waters.
- More than one third of the world’s coral reefs are located in the territories of Australia, Indonesia and Philippines.
- Coral reefs host far more number of animal phyla than those hosted by tropical rainforests.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1 and 3 only
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Articulated All-Terrain Vehicles
Mains level: Not Much
The Indian Army has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for the supply of Articulated All-Terrain Vehicles to be deployed in Ladakh and Kutch.
What are Articulated All-Terrain Vehicles?
- Articulated ATV is a twin cabin, tracked, amphibious carrier for off road mobility.
- The special design of this equipment exerts low ground pressure on the soil and a pull-push mode of locomotion between two cabins facilitates mobility over varied terrains like snow, desert and slush.
- A ballistic protection in the cabin body ensures protection to troops travelling in it from small arms fire.
- They can reach where wheeled vehicles cannot due to deep snow, slush or marshy terrain and can be very effective for patrolling and rapid deployment in operational situations.
Utility of these vehicles
- These vehicles are very useful to move troops or supplies in snow-bound terrains and in marshy/sandy environments.
- The Indian Army wishes to use these vehicles in the snow-bound areas of Ladakh and in the marshy terrain of the Rann of Kutch.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Malabar Rebellion
Mains level: Not Much
The Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) has deferred its decision on a recommendation to remove the 1921 Malabar Rebellion martyrs, including Variamkunnaathu Kunhahamad Haji and Ali Musliyar, from the list of India’s freedom fighters.
Malabar Rebellion
- The Malabar Rebellion in 1921 started as resistance against the British colonial rule and the feudal system in southern Malabar but ended in communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.
- There were a series of clashes between Mappila peasantry and their landlords, supported by the British, throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
- It began as a reaction against a heavy-handed crackdown on the Khilafat Movement, a campaign in defence of the Ottoman Caliphate by the British authorities in the Eranad and Valluvanad taluks of Malabar.
- The Mappilas attacked and took control of police stations, British government offices, courts and government treasuries.
Who was Variyankunna Kunjahammed Haji?
- He was one of the leaders of the Malabar Rebellion of 1921.
- He raised 75000 natives, seized control of large territory from the British rule and set up a parallel government.
- In January 1922, under the guise of a treaty, the British betrayed Haji through his close friend Unyan Musaliyar, arresting him from his hideout and producing him before a British judge.
- He was sentenced to death along with his compatriots.
Back2Basics: “Dictionary of Martyrs” Project
- The project for compilation of “Dictionary of Martyrs” of India’s Freedom Struggle was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, to the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of uprising of 1857.
- In this dictionary a martyr has been defined as a person who died or who was killed in action or in detention, or was awarded capital punishment while participating in the national movement for emancipation of India.
- It includes ex-INA or ex-military personnel who died fighting the British.
- Information of about 13,500 martyrs has been recorded in these volumes.
Who are included?
- It includes the martyrs of 1857 Uprising, Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919), Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22), Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-34), Quit India Movement (1942-44), Revolutionary Movements (1915-34), Kissan Movements, Tribal Movements, Agitation for Responsible Government in the Princely States (Prajamandal), Indian National Army (INA, 1943-45), Royal Indian Navy Upsurge (RIN, 1946), etc.
Five Volumes
- Volume 1: In this volume, more than 4400 martyrs of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have been listed.
- Volume 2: In this volume more than 3500 martyrs of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir have been listed.
- Volume 3: The number of martyrs covered in this volume is more than 1400. This volume covers the martyrs of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Sind.
- Volume 4: The numbers of martyrs covered in this volume is more than 3300. This volume covers the martyrs of Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.
- Volume 5: The number of martyrs covered in this volume is more than 1450. This volume covers the martyrs of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Try this question from CSP 2020:
Q. With reference to the history of India, “Ulgulan” or the Great Tumult is the description of which of the following event?
(a) The Revolt of 1857
(b) The Mappila Rebellion of 1921
(c) The Indigo Revolt of 1859-60
(d) Birsa Munda’s Revolt of 1899-1900
Post your answers here.
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