Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Demand-side strategies to tackle climate change
Context
A paradigm shift in the way we think about climate action has been reported for the first time in the recent IPCC report through a chapter on “demand, services and social aspects of mitigation”.
Demand side strategies and their impact
- The report shows how, through comprehensive demand-side strategies, carbon dioxide and non-carbon GHG emissions globally can be reduced by 40–70 per cent compared to the 2050 emissions projection.
- This can be achieved through reduced food waste, following sustainable healthy dietary choices that acknowledge nutritional needs, adaptive heating and cooling, climate-friendly dressing culture, integration of renewable energy in buildings, shifting to electric light-duty vehicles, and to walking, cycling, shared and public transit, sustainable consumption by intensive use of longer-lived repairable products, compact city design and efficient floor area use of buildings.
- The IPCC report also shows that individuals with high socioeconomic status contribute disproportionately to emissions and have the highest potential for emissions reductions, as citizens, investors, consumers, role models, and professionals.
- Of the 60 actions assessed in this report, on an individual level, the biggest contribution comes from walking and cycling wherever possible and using electricity-powered transport.
Need for systemic changes
- To be effective, these shifts will need to be supported by systemic changes in some areas — for example, land use and urban planning policies to avoid urban sprawl, support for green spaces, reallocation of street spaces for walking and physical exercise, investment in public transport and infrastructure design for active and electric vehicles.
- Electrification and shifts to public transport also bring benefits in terms of enhancing health, employment, and equality.
- By providing user-level access to more efficient energy conversion technologies, the need for primary energy can be reduced by 45 per cent by 2050, compared to 2020.
- Demand-side changes cannot deliver the net-zero goal on their own.
- But this requires investment in and transformation across every sector, along with policies and incentives that encourage people to make low-carbon choices in all aspects of their lives.
- There is huge untapped potential in the near term through changes across transport, industry, buildings, and food that will take away the supply-side uncertainties and make it easier for people to lead low-carbon lifestyles and, at the same time, improve well-being.
Conclusion
The latest IPCC report puts people and their well-being at the centre of climate change mitigation. The messages are from a global perspective but have relevance to the national context of every country.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 27
Mains level: Paper 2- Secularism in India
Context
The High Court of Karnataka has not been able to settle the hijab issue. The petition has been filed in the apex court by a Muslim student against the high court judgement.
Political and Constitutional dimensions of the issue
- The issue of the hijab is political as well as constitutional.
- The top court will examine the constitutional aspect and its judgment will hopefully settle the issue.
- But the political dimension of the hijab issue will continue to trouble Indian society for a long time.
- The Indian Constitution provides for freedom of religion and conscience on the one hand and secularism for the governance of the country on the other.
Understanding the freedom of religion under Indian Constitution
- Under the Indian Constitution, there is a separation of religion from the state as in Europe.
- The essence of India’s secularism is that the state has no religion.
- This is clear from Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution.
- Article 27 says that no tax can be levied for promoting any particular religion.
- In other words, no public revenue is permitted to be spent in favour of any particular religion.
- Article 28 says that no religious instruction shall be given in any educational institutions wholly maintained out of state funds.
- The same Article says that no educational institution recognised or aided by the state shall compel any person to attend religious classes or worship therein.
- Article 25(2)(a) empowers the state to regulate secular activities associated with religious practice.
- Article 15 prohibits any kind of discrimination on the ground of religion.
- Freedom of religion is subject to other fundamental rights: Above all, freedom of religion is made subject to other fundamental rights, apart from the reasonable restrictions on the grounds of public order, morality and health.
- Thus, the freedom of religion under the Constitution does not enjoy the same status as other secular rights such as equality before law, non-discrimination, right to life and liberty, etc.
Why India needs to be secular
- Theocracy will ensure the disintegration of the country.
- 1] India is a multi-religious country where the largest minority is around 200 million.
- The Government of India had notified as many as six minority religions in the country.
- So, a theocratic state with the majority religion as the state religion is an unworkable proposition.
- 2] Complex structure: Another crucial factor which makes a theocratic state impossible in India is the complex, inegalitarian, hierarchical and oppressive social structure of the majority religion.
- 3] There would be no equality: Since a theocratic state based on the religious texts, in the Indian context, would mean a state which would deny equality before law and equal protection of law to the subaltern class and discriminate against them on the basis of caste, it will be inherently unstable.
- This may lead to perennial conflicts and the eventual disintegration of society.
- Therefore, we reach the inevitable conclusion that India, as a nation, can survive only as a secular state where the state has no religion and does not promote any religion.
Conclusion
Secularism was chosen as the foundational principle of the republic to keep the nation united. Enlightened citizens should realise that if secularism is jettisoned, the hard-won national unity will be in peril. It is the patriotic duty of every citizen to strengthen secularism and thus save the republic.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Renke Commission, Idate Commission
Mains level: Undoing the historic injustice to DNTs
A standing committee of Parliament, tabled last week, has criticised the functioning of the development programme for de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.
Who are de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes?
- These are communities who are the most vulnerable and deprived.
- Denotified tribes (DNTs) are communities that were ‘notified’ as being ‘born criminal’ during the British regime under a series of laws starting with the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.
- They mostly belong to the medieval period Banjaras.
- Nomadic and semi-nomadic communities are defined as those who move from one place to another rather than living at one place all the time.
What is the history of deprivation faced by these communities?
- This has a long history, first during colonial rule, and then in independent India.
- These communities are largely politically ‘quiet’ — they do not place their demands concretely before the government for they lack vocal leadership and also lack the patronage of a national leader.
- Many commissions and committees constituted since Independence have referred to the problems of these communities. These include the:
- Criminal Tribes Inquiry Committee, 1947 constituted in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh)
- Ananthasayanam Ayyangar Committee in 1949 (it was based on the report of this committee the Criminal Tribes Act was repealed)
- Kaka Kalelkar Commission (also called first OBC Commission) constituted in 1953
- In 1965, an Advisory Committee constituted for revision of the SC and ST list under the chairmanship of B N Lokur referred to denotified tribes
- The B P Mandal Commission constituted in 1980 also made some recommendations on the issue
Policy measures for DNTs
- A National Commission for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) was constituted in 2006 by the then government.
- It was headed by Balkrishna Sidram Renke and submitted its report in June 2008.
- It said that it is an irony that these tribes somehow escaped the attention of our Constitution makers and thus got deprived of the Constitutional support unlike SCs and STs.
- The Renke commission estimated their population at around 10.74 crore based on Census 2001.
- A new Commission constituted in February 2014 to prepare a state-wise list, which submitted its report on January 8, 2018, identified 1,262 communities as de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic.
- Much recently, the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment launched the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of De-notified, Nomadic, and Semi Nomadic Communities (SEED).
Why in news now?
- While a number of these tribes are categorised under SC, ST and OBC, many are not.
- The standing committee report in Parliament has cited a statement by the Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, that 269 DNT communities are not covered under any reserved categories.
- These communities are frequently left out because they are less visible and difficult to reach.
What is DWBDNC, and what is its role?
- The DWBDNC stands for the Scheme for welfare of Denotified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic communities (DWBDNC).
- The commission report submitted in 2018 had recommended the setting of up a permanent commission for these communities.
- But since most DNTs are covered under SC, ST or OBC, the government felt setting up a permanent commission, which would deal with redress of grievances.
- The government therefore set up the DWBDNCs under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 under the aegis of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
The Idate Commission
- The DWBDNC was constituted on February 21, 2019 under the chairmanship of Bhiku Ramji Idate.
- Also, a committee has been set up by the NITI Aayog to complete the process of identification of the de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities (DNCs).
- Ethnographic studies of DNCs are being conducted by the Anthropological Survey of India, with a budget of Rs 2.26 crore sanctioned.
- On March 30, 2022 the DoPT issued an advertisement for the recruitment of consultants in the DWBDNC.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Electoral Bonds
Mains level: Issues with Electoral Bonds
The CJI N will soon take up a long-pending challenge against the government’s electoral bonds scheme.
What are Electoral Bonds?
- Electoral bonds are banking instruments that can be purchased by any citizen or company to make donations to political parties, without the donor’s identity being disclosed.
- It is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of State Bank of India.
- The citizen or corporate can then donate the same to any eligible political party of his/her choice.
- An individual or party will be allowed to purchase these bonds digitally or through cheque.
About the scheme
- A citizen of India or a body incorporated in India will be eligible to purchase the bond
- Such bonds can be purchased for any value in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹10 lakh, and ₹1 crore from any of the specified branches of the State Bank of India
- The purchaser will be allowed to buy electoral bonds only on due fulfillment of all the extant KYC norms and by making payment from a bank account
- The bonds will have a life of 15 days (15 days time has been prescribed for the bonds to ensure that they do not become a parallel currency).
- Donors who contribute less than ₹20,000 to political parties through purchase of electoral bonds need not provide their identity details, such as Permanent Account Number (PAN).
Objective of the scheme
- Transparency in political funding: To ensure that the funds being collected by the political parties is accounted money or clean money.
Who can redeem such bonds?
- The Electoral Bonds shall be encashed by an eligible Political Party only through a Bank account with the Authorized Bank.
- Only the Political Parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and which secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last General Election to the Lok Sabha or the State Legislative Assembly, shall be eligible to receive the Electoral Bonds.
Restrictions that are done away
- Earlier, no foreign company could donate to any political party under the Companies Act
- A firm could donate a maximum of 7.5 per cent of its average three year net profit as political donations according to Section 182 of the Companies Act.
- As per the same section of the Act, companies had to disclose details of their political donations in their annual statement of accounts.
- The government moved an amendment in the Finance Bill to ensure that this proviso would not be applicable to companies in case of electoral bonds.
- Thus, Indian, foreign and even shell companies can now donate to political parties without having to inform anyone of the contribution.
Issues with the Scheme
- Opaque funding: While the identity of the donor is captured, it is not revealed to the party or public. So transparency is not enhanced for the voter.
- No IT break: Also income tax breaks may not be available for donations through electoral bonds. This pushes the donor to choose between remaining anonymous and saving on taxes.
- No anonymity for donors: The privacy of the donor is compromised as the bank will know their identity.
- Differential benefits: These bonds will help any party that is in power because the government can know who donated what money and to whom.
- Unlimited donations: The electoral bonds scheme and amendments in the Finance Act of 2017 allows for “unlimited donations from individuals and foreign companies to political parties without any record of the sources of funding”.
Way ahead
- The worries over the electoral bond scheme, however, go beyond its patent unconstitutionality.
- The concern about the possibility of misuse of funds is very pertinent.
- The EC has been demanding that a law be passed to make political parties liable to get their accounts audited by an auditor from a panel suggested by the CAG or EC. This should get prominence.
- Another feasible option is to establish a National Election Fund to which all donations could be directed.
- This would take care of the imaginary fear of political reprisal of the donors.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Recombination vs Mutation in viruses
Mains level: Severity of COVID
The World Health Organization (WHO) has flagged the emergence of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus — the XE recombinant.
How are variants created?
- SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is an RNA virus which evolves by accumulating genetic errors in its genome.
- These errors are produced when the virus infects a person and makes copies of itself inside the host’s cells.
- These errors (otherwise called mutations) are therefore a by-product of replication of SARS-CoV-2 inside the cell and may be carried forward as the virus continues to infect people.
- When viruses having a specific set of errors or mutations infect a number of people, this forms a cluster of infections descending from a common parental virus genome and is known as a lineage or a variant of the virus.
Who name these variants?
- The PANGO network, an open global consortium of researchers from across the world, provides a system for naming different lineages of SARS-CoV-2.
- Pangolin was developed to implement the dynamic nomenclature of SARS-CoV-2 lineages, known as the Pango nomenclature.
- These variants or lineages are widely followed by epidemiologists for tracking the evolution of SARS-CoV-2.
What is a recombinant variant?
- Apart from the errors in the virus genome, another process through which a virus increases its genetic diversity is recombination.
- Recombination occurs when, in extremely rare situations, two different lineages of the virus co-infect the same cell in the host and exchange fragments of their individual genomes.
- This generates a descendent variant having mutations that occurred in both the original lineages of the virus.
- Recombination of lineages happens in a variety of other viruses, including those that cause influenza, as well as other coronaviruses.
- Such recombination events occur typically in situations where two or more lineages of SARS-CoV-2 may be co-circulating in a certain region during the same time period.
- This co-circulation of lineages provides an opportunity for recombination to occur between these two lineages of SARS-CoV-2.
How many recombinant viruses have been detected?
- While recombination events are not frequently observed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, multiple recombinant lineages have been designated during the pandemic.
- The recombinant lineages are annotated by PANGO with an ‘X’ followed by an alphabet which indicates the order of discovery.
- Some previously detected and designated lineages include XA, a recombinant of B.1.1.7 (Alpha) and B.1.177 detected in the U.K., lineage XB detected in the U.S., and lineage XC detected in Japan, which is a recombinant of B.1.1.7 (Alpha) and AY.29 sublineage of Delta.
- Three new recombinant lineages of SARS-CoV-2 have been recently designated by the PANGO network and are being monitored — XD, XE, and XF.
- Although currently present in a very low proportion of genomes in the U.K., early data from the country show evidence of community transmission of XF.
Are recombinant variants more deadly?
- Although recombination has been detected in SARS-CoV-2, it has not yet impacted public health in a unique way.
- There is little evidence to suggest that recombinant lineages have a varied clinical outcome compared to the currently dominant Omicron variant.
- It is certain at this point in time that more data will be needed to ascertain the impact of these lineages on the epidemiology of COVID-19.
What are the methods through which recombinants are identified?
- Identifying and tracking recombinant lineages for SARS-CoV-2 is a challenging task.
- This would require specialised tools and the availability of primary (or raw) data for genome sequences as similar variant combinations could also arise from inadvertent errors in sequencing or analysis as well as contamination of sequencing experiments.
- A cluster of recombinant genomes can be designated a lineage name by the PANGO network if it can be confirmed that samples in the cluster have a common origin and descend from two individual lineages of SARS-CoV-2.
- Additionally, there should be at least 5 genomes in the public domain belonging to the cluster, indicating an ongoing transmission of the lineage.
- Furthermore, screening the sequencing data of these samples should show no signs of contamination and meet the definition of a recombinant.
Way ahead
- Since recombinations are extremely rare occurrences, it is unclear how and why the viruses recombine.
- It is, therefore, important to track the recombination of SARS-CoV-2 lineages because it may lead to the generation of a viral lineage that is better at infecting people or transmitting from host to host.
- Monitoring circulating SARS-CoV-2 genomes for evidence of recombination will help gain a better understanding of the ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2.
- It will also provide information if a more “concerning” variant of the virus were to emerge.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Definition of War Crimes
Mains level: War crimes and genocides
India condemned the killing of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) calling for an independent UN inquiry. (However India abstained from blaming Russia for the civilian deaths.)
Note: Such events are of least GS importance. However, one must recognize the severity of such massacres and the imprint that it left on entire humanity. Yes, it is not India’s war, but it is no mean activity for a military superpower to march and annexe a small neighbour. This topic holds much importance for personality test.
Bucha massacre
- The grimmest discoveries have been made in a Kyiv suburb called Bucha, a town located about 25 km to the northwest of the capital.
- More than 300 bodies have been found in the town, some with their hands bound, flesh burned, and shot in the back of the head.
- Satellite images now available show streets strewn with corpses, and many of the bodies seen by journalists in the past couple of days appear to have lain in the open for weeks.
- The reports and pictures of corpses wearing civilian clothes, some clutching shopping bags, suggest that ordinary citizens were murdered without provocation, as they went about their daily business.
A no lesser holocaust event
- The discoveries have drawn comparisons with the killings of civilians in this area during World War II.
- It reminds of the First Battle of Kyiv (part of Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union that began in June 1941) and the Second Battle of Kyiv (November-December 1943).
- The Red (Soviet) Army started to push back the Germans from Ukraine, the area around the Ukrainian capital, including Bucha.
- It saw the “Holocaust by bullets” during which an estimated 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were shot dead at close range.
A genocide or war crimes?
- War crimes are defined as “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions, agreements signed after World War II that laid down international humanitarian laws during war time.
- Deliberately targeting civilians amounts to a war crime.
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague has already opened an investigation into possible war crimes by Russia.
- The investigation could in theory target even Putin. But it will be difficult to bring Russian defendants to trial or to prove intent.
- Russia does not recognise the ICC and will likely not cooperate with the investigation.
- The crimes of genocide are defined by the United Nations Genocide Convention of December 1948.
- It includes acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. Genocide is seen as the gravest and most serious of all crimes against humanity.
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