Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Boha Geoglyphs
Mains level: NA
Using satellite observations and field visits, two independent researchers from France have identified eight sites around Jaisalmer in the Thar Desert, that show linear features resembling geoglyphs.
What are geoglyphs?
- Geoglyphs are large, un-explained geometrical patterns on land usually proposed to be man-made features.
- The largest concentration of geoglyphs is reported from southern Peru, covering an area of about 1,000 square km.
- A new paper published notes that the identified geoglyphs in the Thar Desert cover an area of about 6 square km.
Boha Geoglyphs in Thar
- The authors’ main area of interest was Boha, a small village 40 km to the north of Jaisalmer where they noticed a series of concentric and linear features.
- They named these features Boha geoglyphs and suggested that the features could be at least 150 years old.
- It is however conceivable that they were built at the beginning of the British colonial period, in the middle of the 19th century.
How are they patterned?
- The Boha geoglyphs are clearly manmade as the main unit is a giant spiral, but they have been eroded due to the cars running over the lines lately.
- So, they are clearly not formed by weathering or another natural phenomenon.”
- The observed features might have been formed naturally, but degraded over time due to both natural and human-related causes.
Degraded over time
- The rocky terrain is home to a typical weathering feature, especially over the iron-rich sandstone and shale beds.
- Here, extreme aridity and high temperature lead to slow geochemical translocation of minerals for centuries, such that the heavier minerals like iron and manganese move away from the lighter minerals.
- This lead to the gradual formation of alternate bands of harder and softer mineral concentrations.
- With time the areas with softer materials get slowly eroded, while the harder ones stand out, producing the typical concentric or box-like geometric features.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kinnaur Hydroelectric Project
Mains level: Hydel energy and its feasiblity
The people of Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh have been protesting against the proposed 804-megawatt Jangi Thopan Powari hydroelectricity project (JTP HEP) over the Satluj since April 2021.
Kinnaur Hydroelectric Project
- The run-of-the-river (ROR) project envisages the construction of a concrete gravity dam of ±88 metres high above the deepest foundation level across river Satluj near Jangi village.
- The diversion of water will involve the construction of a 12-km-long tunnel.
- The tentative land requirement for the project is 295.93 hectares, out of which 270.43 ha is forest land and 25.5 ha is private.
- Construction of the dam will result in the submergence of about 156.2917 ha of land, out of which 143.2093 ha is forest land and 13.0824 ha is private.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.What is common to the places known as Aliyar, Isapur and Kangsabati? (CSP 2017)
(a) Recently discovered uranium deposits
(b) Tropical rain forests
(c) Underground cave systems
(d) Water reservoirs
Why are people protesting?
- Kinnaur district is mainly marked by its cold desert, tribal population, fragile topography, rich and diverse culture, apple orchards, off-season vegetables and the Satluj river.
- The river has been dammed at multiple places along the valley to create an additional feature to Kinnaur’s identity as Himachal’s hydropower hub, which locals believe is a malediction.
- An integral part of the old Hindustan-Tibetan Route, Jangram Valley, lies on the right bank of the Satluj river in the district.
- This is not the first time that the cold desert has witnessed such a contestation.
Sutlej is oveloaded
- The Satluj has taken the biggest load of state hydropower ambition since the early 90s. Out of the total installed capacity, 56 per cent (5720MW) is done in the Satluj basin.
- According to the State of the Rivers of Himachal Pradesh Report 2017:
- In other words, 92 per cent of the river will either be flowing through tunnels or will be part of reservoirs.
- Such a cumulative scale of disturbance with the river’s natural state drastically impacted the life, livelihood and ecology in the Satluj basin.
Why need hydroelectric projects?
- Hydropower is a necessary choice for the nation’s clean energy transition.
- In purely technological terms, hydropower projects are an engineering marvel and generate clean, reliable electricity.
- HEPs are not viable just from the local livelihood and environmental point of view but they have also failed on the financial viability side.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Performance of the current government in the past seven years
The article compares the performance of the present government under Prime Minister Modi with the first seven years of the Manmohan Singh government on various fronts.
Context
The current government completed seven years at the Centre recently. It is time to reflect and look back at its performance on basic economic parameters over the last seven years. It may also be interesting to compare and see how it fared vis-à-vis the first seven years of UPA government (2004-05 to 2010-11) under Manmohan Singh.
Analysing the progress by studying key economic indicator
1) GDP growth
- One of the key economic parameters is GDP growth.
- It is not the most perfect one, as it does not capture specifically the impact on the poor, or on inequality.
- But higher GDP growth is considered central to economic performance as it enlarges the size of the economic pie.
- The average annual rate of growth of GDP under the Modi government so far has been just 4.8 per cent compared to 8.4 per cent during the first seven years of the Manmohan Singh government.
- If this continues as business as usual, the dream of a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 is not likely to be achieved.
2) Inflation
- The Modi government scores much better on the inflation front with CPI (rural and urban combined) rising at 4.8 per cent per annum.
- It is well within the tolerance limits of RBI’s targeted inflation band and also much lower than 7.8 per cent during the first seven years of the Manmohan Singh government.
3) Forex reserves
- Also, at macro level, foreign exchange reserves provide resilience to the economy against any external shocks.
- On this score too, the Modi government fares quite well with forex reserves rising from $313 billion on May 23, 2014 to $593 billion on May 21, 2021.
4) Food and agriculture
- It engages the largest share of the workforce in the economy and matters most to poorer segments.
- On the agri-front, both governments recorded an annual average growth of 3.5 per cent during their respective first seven years.
- However, on the food and fertiliser subsidy front, the Modi government broke all records in FY21, by spending Rs 6.52 lakh crore and accumulating grain stocks exceeding 100 million tonnes in May end, 2021.
- One area in which the Modi government performed very poorly is agri-exports.
- In 2013-14 agri-exports had crossed $43 billion while during all the seven years of the Modi government agri-exports remained below this mark of $43 billion.
- Sluggish agri-exports with rising output put downward pressure on food prices.
- It helped contain CPI inflation, but subdued farmers’ incomes.
5) Infrastructure development
- The Modi government has done better in power generation by increasing it from 720 billion units per annum to 1,280 billion units per annum.
- Similarly, road construction too has been at least 30 per cent faster under the Modi government.
6) Social sector
- Based on an international definition of extreme poverty (2011 PPP of $ 1.9 per capita per day), the World Bank estimated India’s extreme poverty in 2015 to be about 13.4 per cent, down from 21.6 per cent in FY 2011-12.
- Even the incidence of multidimensional poverty hovered around 28 per cent in 2015-16.
- Three key indicators can be used to assess performance on this front:
- One, average annual person days generated under MGNREGA in the first five years since this programme started under the UPA in 2006-07 to 2010-11, which was 200 crore, and under Modi government it improved to 230 crore.
- Two, average annual number of houses completed under the Indira Awaas Yojana and PM Awaas Yojana-Gramin, which improved from 21 lakhs to 30 lakhs per annum.
- Three, open defecation free (ODF) which was only 38.7 per cent on October 2, 2014 and shot up to 100 per cent by October 2, 2019, as per government records.
Conclusion
The current government has turned out to be more welfare-oriented than reformist in revving up GDP growth. How long this welfare approach is sustainable without enlarging the size of GDP pie is an open question.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- One nation one election
The article deals with the issue frequent elections in the country and highlights the need for debate on the idea of “one nation, one election”.
Need for debate on one nation one election
The idea has been around since at least 1983, when the Election Commission first mooted it. The concept needs to be debated mainly around five issues.
1) Financial costs of conducting elections
- The costs of conducting each assembly or parliamentary election are huge and, in some senses, incalculable.
- Directly budgeted costs are around Rs 300 crore for a state the size of Bihar.
- But there are other financial costs, and incalculable economic costs.
- Before each election, a “revision” of electoral rolls is mandatory.
- The costs of the millions of man-hours used are not charged to the election budget.
- The economic costs of lost teaching weeks, delayed public works, badly delivered or undelivered welfare schemes to the poor have never been calculated.
2) Cost of repeated administrative freezes
- The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has economic costs too.
- Works may have been announced long before an election is announced, but tenders cannot be finalised, nor work awarded, once the MCC comes into effect.
- Time overruns translate into cost overruns.
- But the huge costs of salaries and other administrative expenditures continue to be incurred.
- Add to this the invisible cost of a missing leadership.
- Important meetings and decisions get postponed, with costs and consequences that are difficult to calculate.
- A NITI Aayog paper says that the country has at least one election each year.
3) Visible and invisible costs of repeatedly deploying security forces
- There are also huge and visible costs of deploying security forces and transporting them, repeatedly.
- A bigger invisible cost is paid by the nation in terms of diverting these forces from sensitive areas.
4) Campaign and finance costs of political parties
- There is little doubt that the fiscal and economic costs of an election are not trivial, and that two elections, held separately, will almost double costs, including those incurred by political parties themselves.
5) Question of regional/smaller parties having a level playing field
- There are fears about the Centre somehow gaining greater power, or regional parties being at a disadvantage during simultaneously held elections.
- However, fixed five-year terms for state legislatures in fact take away the central government’s power to dissolve state assemblies.
- Until 1967 when simultaneous elections were the norm.
- The Constitution and other laws would need to be amended is obvious, but that is hardly an argument against the proposal.
Consider the question “There are huge costs associated with the frequent elections in the country. Is simultaneous elections a solution? What are the issues involved?”
Conclusion
As the elections in four states and one Union territory in March-April are suspected to have contributed to the second wave of Covid infections, a well-reasoned debate on a concept as important as “one nation, one election” is called for.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST council decision making
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with one state one vote system in GST council
The article highlights the issues with the one state one vote system adopted in the GST Council decision making.
Context
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council in India is still engaged in a discussion on whether life-saving and hard-to-come-by products should be taxed. Such delay in decision-making can largely be explained by the distorted design and incentive structure of the GST itself.
Imbalance in collection and distribution of taxes
- The taxes collected under GST are accumulated by the Union government and a portion is transferred back to each state under a formula.
- As is the case with most federal countries, there is a large imbalance in the collection and distribution of taxes between states.
- this holds true also for income accrued to, and distributed, from the GST pool.
- Four states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Gujarat contribute nearly as much as the remaining 27 states combined.
- Most federal countries exhibit this characteristic where a few large, rich, provinces or states contribute disproportionately.
Variation in dependence of States on transfers from the Union government
- Only about 30 per cent of the overall revenue of the states mentioned above — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Karnataka — comes from the Union government.
- But for the remaining 27 states, roughly 60 per cent of their revenues are obtained through transfers from the Union government.
- For the smaller Northeastern states, these transfers from the Union government constitute 80-90 per cent of their total revenues.
- In effect, the states that contribute the most to the GST pool are the least dependent on transfers from the Union government while the ones that contribute the least are the most dependent.
Two problems in net-transfers in India
1) One-sided transfers
- In almost every federal union, net-transfers work to reduce differences in development between states over time.
- However, Over the last 25 years or so, net transfers have become increasingly one-sided in India.
- That is, the quantum of net-transfers diminishes, as states become more equal through such transfers.
- But in India, the opposite has occurred.
2) Indirect taxes and cess
- The Union government of the last seven years has greatly exacerbated this problem through two actions.
- First, it has reconstructed the composition of taxation away from the fair and progressive channel of direct taxation towards the inherently regressive and unfair channel of indirect taxes.
- Second, the Union has shifted a large proportion of taxation roughly 18 per cent of its overall revenues into cesses, a special form of taxes that remain outside the GST pool and hence do not have to be shared with the states.
- Since 2014, cess revenues grew 21 per cent every year leading to a doubling in terms of its share of GDP.
Implications of these two problems for fiscal federalism
- The combined effect of these problems is that all states (collectively) get a lower share of overall revenues.
- Individual states face an ever-increasing disparity in the ratio of funds received from the Union as a proportion of taxes collected by the Union from that state.
- This is an affront to fiscal federalism and an assault on “cooperative federalism”.
Issue of ‘one state one vote’ system
- States that are more dependent on transfers from the Union want to maximise GST collections while states that are less dependent can afford to be more sensitive to citizens’ concerns.
- The case of taxes on Covid products is perhaps the starkest instance of such differences.
- Most large states are ready to forego this tax revenue for humanitarian considerations.
- But 19 states representing the remaining 30 per cent of the population seem keen to continue to levy GST on Covid products.
- These are mostly smaller states.
- Given the smaller population of such states, the adverse impact of Covid taxes will be minimal for them.
- But they will reap the benefits of additional revenues from GST on Covid products levied on the much larger populations of the bigger states.
Conclusion
When direct tax policy decisions are legislated by Parliament, which has proportional representation from states according to their size of the population, indirect tax policy decisions should not be subject to one state one vote system.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BRICS
Mains level: Future agenda of BRICS
As India is gearing up to host this year’s BRICS summit, the grouping is facing fresh challenges, from disputes among member countries to tackling COVID-triggered crises and opportunities.
What is BRICS?
- To be clear, BRICS was not invented by any of its members.
- In 2001, Goldman Sachs’ Jim O’Neill authored a paper called “Building Better Global Economic BRICs”, pointing out that future GDP growth in the world would come from China, India, Russia and Brazil.
- Significantly, the paper didn’t recommend a separate grouping for them, but made the case that the G-7 grouping, made up of the world’s most industrialized, and essentially Western countries, should include them.
- O’Neill also suggested that the G-7 group needed revamping after the introduction of a common currency for Europe, the euro, in 1999.
- In 2003, Goldman Sachs wrote another paper, “Dreaming with BRICs: Path to 2050”, predicting that the global map would significantly change due to these four emerging economies.
- In 2006, leaders of the BRIC countries met on the margins of a G-8 (now called G-7) summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, and BRIC was formalized that year.
Issues in its consolidation
- Common ground for the members was built by ensuring that no bilateral issues were brought up, but the contradictions remained.
- Many economists soon grew tired of “emerging” economies that didn’t reach the goals they had predicted.
- Others saw India’s closer ties with the US after the civil nuclear deal as a sign its bonds with BRICS would weaken.
- Meanwhile, Russia, which had hoped to bolster its own global influence through the group, had been cast out of the G-7 order altogether after its actions in Crimea in 2014.
- China, under Xi Jinping, grew increasingly aggressive, and impatient about the other underperforming economies in the group, as it became the U.S.’s main challenger on the global stage.
Long-term prospects
- China’s decision to launch the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative in 2017 was opposed by India, and even Russia did not join the BRI plan, although it has considerable infrastructure projects with China.
- South Africa’s debt-laden economy and the negative current account have led some to predict an economic collapse in the next decade.
- Brazil’s poor handling during the Covid-19 crisis has ranked it amongst the world’s worst-affected countries, and its recovery is expected to be delayed.
- India’s economic slowdown was a concern even before Covid-19 hit, and government policies like “Aatmanirbhar” were seen as a plan to turn inward.
Issues with BRICS nations
- Concerns about aggressions from Russia in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and China in the South China Sea, the border with India and internally in Hongkong and Xinjiang are clear visible.
- There is creeping authoritarianism in democracies like Brazil and India have made investors question long-term prospects of the group.
- In the market, BRICS has been mocked for being “broken”, while others have suggested it should be expanded to include more emerging economies like Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey, called the “Next-11”.
A roadmap to progress
- BRICS is an idea that has endured two decades, an idea its members remain committed to, and not one has skipped the annual summits held since 2009.
- Along the way, BRICS has created the New Development Bank (NDB) set up with an initial capital of $100 billion.
- There is a BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement fund to deal with global liquidity crunches, and a BRICS payment system proposing to be an alternative to the SWIFT payment system.
Reforming the multilaterals
- The BRICS ministerial meeting held this week sent several important signals to that end, issuing two outcome documents.
- It included the first “standalone” joint statement on reforming multilateral institutions, including the UN and the UNSC, IMF and World Bank and the WTO.
- It remains to be seen how far countries like China and Russia, which are already “inside the tent” at the UNSC, will go in advocating for the other BRICS members.
- Another important agreement was the BRICS ministerial decision to support negotiations at the WTO for the waiver of trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) for vaccines and medicines to tackle the Coronavirus.
Way forward
- What appears clear is in the post-Covid world, priorities for all economies will change, and offer up a churning in the world of the kind seen two decades ago, when the idea of a grouping of emerging economies was first floated.
- For BRICS, the next few months could crystallize that idea, or sink it further, leaving others to wonder whether the “Rise of the Rest” as it was once called, is an idea whose time will ever come at all.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Chinese encroachment of Lankan Sovereignty
Sri Lanka recently passed the controversial Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill, which governs the China-backed Colombo Port City project worth $1.4 billion, amid wide opposition to the creation of a “Chinese enclave” in the island nation.
Colombo Port City Project
- The Colombo Port City has grabbed headlines in Sri Lanka in recent months even as the relentless third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps through the country.
- Almost an artificial island, the territory coming up on 2.69 square kilometers of land reclaimed from Colombo’s seafront has stirred controversy since its inception.
- Those backing it see in that patch of land their dream of an international financial hub — a “Singapore or Dubai” in the Indian Ocean.
When was it launched?
- The project was launched in September 2014 by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to the island nation under the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration’s second term.
- After President Mahinda Rajapaksa was ousted in January 2015, the successor “national unity” government of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe went ahead with the project after briefly halting it.
- On returning to power in November 2019, the Rajapaksas vowed to expedite the project. The Sri Lankan government says the project will bring in around 83,000 jobs and $15 billion initially.
Issues with the project
- But skeptics claim that it could well become a “Chinese colony”, with the Bill, which is now an Act.
- The law provides China substantial “immunity” from Sri Lankan laws, besides huge tax exemptions and other incentives for investors.
What is the extent of China’s involvement?
Effectively, China has substantial control over two key infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka for a century.
- The port city project is financed chiefly through Chinese investment amounting to $1.4 billion.
- In return, the company will receive 116 hectares (of the total 269 hectares) on a 99-year lease.
- The city separates from but located adjacent to the Colombo Port, the country’s main harbor — is the third major port-related infrastructure project where China has a significant stake.
- China Merchants Port Holdings has an 85% stake in the Colombo International Container Terminal under a 35-year ‘Build Operate and Transfer’ agreement with the Sri Lanka Port Authority.
- In 2017, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration, unable to repay the Chinese loan with which it was saddled by the previous government, handed over the Hambantota Port to China on a 99-year lease.
Concerns from within Sri Lanka
- Since its launch, the Colombo Port City project has faced opposition from environmentalists and fisherfolk, who feared that the project would affect marine life and livelihoods.
- However, in the absence of wider political and societal support, their resistance did not dent successive governments’ resolve to pursue the project.
- The more recent opposition was specific to the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill.
- The resistance came from Opposition parties and civil society groups, including many who do not oppose the project per se, but rather its governance by “an all-powerful commission answerable to no one”.
- Significantly, a section of Buddhist monks, wielding much influence in Sri Lankan politics and the Sinhala society, also opposed the Bill and said that it eroded Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: G7, Global Minimum Tax
Mains level: Global Minimum Tax negotiaitions
Finance Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations have reached a landmark accord setting a global minimum corporate tax rate, an agreement that could form the basis of a worldwide deal.
Why a global minimum?
- Major economies are aiming to discourage multinationals from shifting profits — and tax revenues — to low-tax countries regardless of where their sales are made.
- Increasingly, income from intangible sources such as drug patents, software and royalties on intellectual property has migrated to these jurisdictions, allowing companies to avoid paying higher taxes in their traditional home countries.
- With its proposal for a minimum 15% tax rate, the Biden administration hopes to reduce such tax base erosion without putting American firms at a financial disadvantage, allowing competition on innovation, infrastructure and other attributes.
Where are the talks at?
- The G7 talks feed into a much broader, existing effort.
- The OECD has been coordinating tax negotiations among 140 countries for years on rules for taxing cross-border digital services and curbing tax base erosion, including a global corporate minimum tax.
- The OECD and G20 countries aim to reach a consensus on both by mid-year, but the talks on a global corporate minimum are technically simpler and less contentious.
- If a broad consensus is reached, it will be extremely hard for any low-tax country to try and block an accord.
How would a global minimum tax work?
- The global minimum tax rate would apply to overseas profits.
- Governments could still set whatever local corporate tax rate they want, but if companies pay lower rates in a particular country, their home governments could “top-up” their taxes to the minimum rate.
- This would eliminate the advantage of shifting profits.
What about that minimum rate?
- Talks are focusing on the U.S. proposal of a minimum global corporation tax rate of 15% – above the level in countries such as Ireland but below the lowest G7 level.
- Any final agreement could have major repercussions for low-tax countries and tax havens.
- The Irish economy has boomed with the influx of billions of dollars in investment from multinationals.
- Dublin, which has resisted EU attempts to harmonize its tax rules, is unlikely to accept a higher minimum rate without a fight.
- However, the battle for low-tax countries is less likely to be about scuppering the overall talks and more about building support for a minimum rate as close as possible to its 12.5% or seeking certain exemptions.
Back2Basics: G7
- The G7 or the Group of Seven is a group of the seven most advanced economies as per the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- The seven countries are Canada, USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan and Italy. The EU is also represented in the G7.
- These countries, with the seven largest IMF-described advanced economies in the world, represent 58% of the global net wealth ($317 trillion).
- The G7 countries also represent more than 46% of the global gross domestic product (GDP) based on nominal values, and more than 32% of the global GDP based on purchasing power parity.
- The requirements to be a member of the G7 are a high net national wealth and a high HDI (Human Development Index).
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Performance Grading Index
Mains level: NA
The Education Ministry’s Performance Grading Index for 2019-20 was recently released.
Performance Grading Index
- The PGI is a tool to provide insights on the status of school education in States and UTs including key levers that drive their performance and critical areas for improvement.
- It monitors the progress that States and UTs have made in school education with regard to learning outcomes, access and equity, infrastructure and facilities, and governance and management processes.
- Grading will allow all States and UTs to occupy the highest level i.e Grade I, at the same time which is a sign of a fully developed nation.
Its methodology
- This is the third edition of the index and uses 70 indicators to measure progress.
- Of these, the 16 indicators related to learning outcomes remain unchanged through all three editions, as they are based on data from the 2017 National Achievement Survey, which tested students in Classes 3, 5, 8, and 10.
Highlights of the 2019-20 Report
- Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala have all scored higher than 90%.
- Gujarat dropped from second to the eighth rank in the index, while MP and Chhattisgarh are the only States which have seen actual regression in scores over this period.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sea Snot, Marmara Sea
Mains level: Algal bloom
There has been growing environmental concern in Turkey over the accumulation of ‘sea snot’, a slimy layer of grey or green sludge in the country’s seas, which can cause considerable damage to the marine ecosystem.
What is ‘Sea Snot’?
- ‘Sea snot’ is marine mucilage that is formed when algae are overloaded with nutrients as a result of water pollution combined with the effects of climate change.
- A ‘sea snot’ outbreak was first recorded in the country in 2007. Back then, it was also spotted in the Aegean Sea near Greece.
- But the current outbreak in the Sea of Marmara is by far the biggest in the country’s history.
- The nutrient overload occurs when algae feast on warm weather caused by global warming. Water pollution adds to the problem.
- Environmental experts have said that the overproduction of phytoplankton caused by climate change and the uncontrolled dumping of household and industrial waste into the seas has led to the present crisis.
Where has it been found?
- Turkey’s Sea of Marmara, which connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, has witnessed the largest outbreak of ‘sea snot’.
- The sludge has also been spotted in the adjoining Black and Aegean seas.
How badly can the crisis affect the marine ecosystem?
- The growth of the mucilage, which floats upon the surface of the sea like brown phlegm, is posing a severe threat to the marine ecosystem of the country.
- Divers have said that it has caused mass deaths among the fish population, and also killed other aquatic organisms such as corals and sponges.
- The mucilage is now covering the surface of the sea and has also spread to 80-100 feet below the surface.
- If unchecked, this can collapse to the bottom and cover the sea floor, causing major damage to the marine ecosystem.
- Over a period of time, it could end up poisoning all aquatic life, including fishes, crabs, oysters, mussels and sea stars.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Reservation debate
The article highlights the issues with Maratha reservation judgement delivered by the Supreme Court which rejected the positive discrimination of lower classes of dominant caste.
About the verdict
- The Supreme Court rendered a unanimous verdict on the validity of the SEBC Act, 2018 that was to grant reservation to Marathas.
- The court held that the classification of Marathas as a socially and educationally backward class was unreasonable.
- Court held that Maratha belonged to a politically dominant caste with significant economic resources.
Justification for 50% limit
- The court also concluded that the majority opinion in the Indra Sawhney case was correct and that the limit of 50 per cent for caste-based reservation did not need consideration by a larger bench.
- The court justified the fixed quantitative limit on caste-based reservation by postulating that it was intrinsic to the fundamental principle of equality.
- The court highlighted the need to safeguard the interests of unreserved sections and said that all sections have progressed after 70 years of independence.
- Based on this, the court rejected the state’s argument that the breach of the limit was necessitated by the fact that the population of backward classes was over 80 per cent.
Missed opportunity to acknowledge growing socio-economic differentiation within the dominant castes
Growing income difference
- If in 2011-12, the average per capita income of the Marathas was second only to the Brahmins at Rs 36,548, against Rs 47,427.
- Their highest quintile -20 per cent of the caste group- got 48 per cent of the total income of the Marathas with a mean per capita income of Rs 86,750.
- The lowest quintile earned 10 times less (Rs 7,198) and the 40 per cent poorest got less than 13 per cent of the total income of the caste — and were lagging behind the Scheduled Castes elite.
- In fact, the mean incomes of the highest Dalit quintile, Rs 63,030, and that of the second-highest, Rs 28,897, were above those of the three lowest quintiles of the Marathas.
What explains growing income difference
- This is partly due to changes on the education front.
- The percentage of graduates among Dalits in 2004-05 was 1.9 per cent and has more than doubled to 5.1 per cent in 2011-12.
- The corresponding figure for the OBCs was 3.5 per cent and has doubled to 7.6 per cent, while for the Marathas it was 4.6 per cent in 2004-05 and has come up to 8 per cent in 2011-12.
- Correlatively, the percentage of salaried people among the Dalits was about 28 per cent in Maharashtra in 2011-12, as against 30 per cent among the Marathas.
Issues with the Maratha quota judgment
- The Court refused to recognise the need for positive discrimination of the lower classes of the dominant castes which continue to be seen as a dominant bloc.
- It fails to admit the complexity that the role of class has introduced in post-liberalisation India.
- This is unequivocal confirmation of a dated approach to social realities and a purely arithmetic limit that finds no expression in the Constitution.
- The judgement also raises the issue of judicial supremacy in the broad area of social policy as it could lead to undesirable exclusion of beneficiaries.
- The court seems to have forgotten its own observation in NM Thomas case that functional democracy postulates participation of all sections of the people and fair representation in administration is an index of such participation.
Conclusion
The Supreme Court has rejected the determination of Marathas as backward by holding that their relative deprivation and under-representation with regard to other sections of the general category did not entitle them to affirmative action.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: JAM trinity
Mains level: Paper 3- Digital payment boom in India
The article takes an overview of the progress made by India in the financial inclusion and role played by JAM trinity in it.
What is financial inclusion?
Financial inclusion is defined as the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to a process by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services. These include banking, loan, equity, and insurance products.
Growing adoption of digital payment in India
- India overtook China to register the highest number of countrywide digital payments.
- Real-time transactions crossed 25 billion, much higher than China’s 15 billion in 2020, as per the report of ACI Worldwide.
- The report also stated that digital payments in India are set to account for 71.7 per cent of all payments by volume by the year 2025.
- The digital payment boom is indicative of a larger paradigm shift in the ease of access to financial services.
What are the contributing factors
- More and more people, across all strata, are adopting digital payments as it is convenient, safe and limits exposure.
- It is also a result of the nudges and diligent policy and technology frameworks created by the central government in the last few years.
- By building the Jan-Dhan-Aadhar-Mobile (JAM) and Universal Payment Interface (UPI) platform, the government has been creating the ground for greater financial inclusion.
Significance of JAM trinity
- While Jan Dhan was the first pillar of the ambitious JAM trinity, Aadhaar card seeding and bank account linkages to mobile numbers have empowered people in hitherto unimagined ways.
- The JAM trinity has helped people know their account status, receive scholarships and fellowships, get fertiliser and LPG subsidy, disability pensions and farm income support — directly into their accounts.
- The trinity also helped eliminate middlemen, frauds, and leakages due to corruption.
- In the past one year alone, Rs 4.3 lakh crore was transferred, in over 477 crore transactions under 319 schemes.
- With an estimated saving of Rs 1.8 lakh crore, the success of DBT is a big thumbs up for the central government.
- The aid that reached people during the pandemic under the PM Garib Kalyan package is indicative of the success of the government’s financial inclusion and digitisation efforts.
Conclusion
The unmissable digital and financial revolution that has been unleashed is hard to miss for anyone. The digital journey, however, is long and one hopes to see the positive trends sustaining given their transformative impact on the lives of Indians.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GSAP
Mains level: Read the attached story
In a bid to infuse more liquidity in the market, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced undertake Government Securities Acquisition Program (G-SAP) 2.0 during the second quarter of FY22 and conduct secondary market purchase operations of Rs 1.20 lakh crore.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- The Reserve Bank of India manages and services the Government of India Securities but not any State Government Securities.
- Treasury bills are issued by the Government of India and there are no treasury bills issued by the State Governments.
- Treasury bills offer are issued at a discount from the par value.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 Only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
What are Government Securities?
- These are debt instruments issued by the government to borrow money.
- The two key categories are:
- Treasury bills (T-Bills) – short-term instruments which mature in 91 days, 182 days, or 364 days, and
- Dated securities – long-term instruments, which mature anywhere between 5 years and 40 years
Note: T-Bills are issued only by the central government, and the interest on them is determined by market forces.
Why G-Secs?
- Like bank fixed deposits, g-secs are not tax-free.
- They are generally considered the safest form of investment because they are backed by the government. So, the risk of default is almost nil.
- However, they are not completely risk-free, since they are subject to fluctuations in interest rates.
- Bank fixed deposits, on the other hand, are guaranteed only to the extent of Rs 5 lakh by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hailstorms
Mains level: NA
To help out horticulturists who face crop damage due to hailstorms, the Himachal Pradesh government will be testing the use of indigenously developed ‘anti-hail guns’.
What are anti-hail guns?
- An anti-hail gun is a machine that generates shock waves to disrupt the growth of hailstones in clouds, according to its makers.
- It comprises a tall, fixed structure somewhat resembling an inverted tower, several metres high, with a long and narrow cone opening towards the sky.
- The gun is “fired” by feeding an explosive mixture of acetylene gas and air into its lower chamber, which releases a shock wave (waves that travel faster than the speed of sound, such as those produced by supersonic aircraft).
- These shock waves supposedly stop water droplets in clouds from turning into hailstones, so that they fall simply as raindrops.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.During a thunderstorm, the thunder in the skies is produced by the
- meeting of cumulonimbus clouds in the sky
- lightning that separates the nimbus clouds
- violent upward movement of air and water particles
Select the correct option using the codes given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) None of the above
How do they ‘prevent’ a hailstorm?
- It is this hail formation process that the shock waves from anti-hail guns try to disrupt in a radius of 500 meters, so that the water droplets fall down before they can be lifted by the updrafts.
- The machine is repeatedly fired every few seconds during an approaching thunderstorm.
- However, the effectiveness of anti-hail guns has remained a contentious issue.
How do Hailstorms occur?
- Hail is produced by cumulonimbus clouds, which are generally large and dark and may cause thunder and lightning.
- In such clouds, winds can blow up the water droplets to heights where they freeze into ice.
- The frozen droplets begin to fall but are soon pushed back up by the winds and more droplets freeze onto them, resulting in multiple layers of ice on the hailstones.
- This fall and rise is repeated several times, till the hailstones become too heavy and fall down.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Echolocation
Mains level: NA
A technique used by animals such as dolphins, whales, and bats to navigate their surroundings can also be used by blind people to get around better and have greater independence and well-being, researchers at Durham University in the UK have shown.
What is Echolocation?
- Echolocation, also called biosonar, is a biological sonar used by several animal species.
- Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them.
- They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects.
What has the new study found?
- The same technique can help blind people locate still objects by producing clicking sounds from their mouth and hands.
- The researchers organized a 10-week training programme, in which 12 blind and 14 sighted volunteers aged between 21 and 79 were taught click-based echolocation.
- The volunteers were trained in distinguishing between the size of objects, orientation perception and virtual navigation.
- At the end of the training, the participants had been able to improve their ability to navigate using clicking noises either from one’s mouth, walking cane taps or footsteps.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CIBER 2 Mission
Mains level: NA
A NASA-funded rocket’s launch window will open at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, USA. The aim of this mission is to count the number of stars that exist in the Universe.
Answer this PYQ from CSP 2020 in the comment box:
Q.“The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation in the shape of an equilateral triangle that has sides one million kilometers long, with lasers shining between the craft.” The experiment in question refers to
(a) Voyager-2
(b) New horizons
(c) Lisa Pathfinder
(d) Evolved LISA
What is CIBER-2?
- In order to roughly estimate the number of stars in the Universe, scientists have estimated that on average each galaxy consists of about 100 million stars, but this figure is not exact.
- The figure of 100 million could easily be an underestimation, probably by a factor of 10 or more.
- To put this into perspective, an average of 100 million stars in each galaxy (there an estimated 2 trillion of them as per NASA), would give a total figure of one hundred quintillion stars or 1 with 21 zeroes after it.
- NASA notes that if this figure is accurate, it would mean that for every grain of sand on Earth, there are more than ten stars.
- But this calculation assumes that all stars are inside galaxies, which might not be true and this is what the CIBER-2 instrument will try to find out.
How will CIBER-2 count stars?
- NASA notes that the instrument will not actually count individual stars but it will instead detect the extragalactic background light
- It is all of the light that has been emitted throughout the history of the Universe.
- From all of this extragalactic background light, the CIBER-2 will focus on a portion of this called cosmic infrared background, which is emitted by some of the most common stars.
- Essentially, this approach is aiming to look at how bright this light is to give scientists an estimate of how many of these stars are out there.
- The ESA infrared space observatory Herschel also counted the number of galaxies in infrared and measured their luminosity previously.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SAGE Initiative
Mains level: Old age security
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched the SAGE (Seniorcare Aging Growth Engine) initiative and SAGE portal for elderly persons.
SAGE Initiative
- The SAGE will be a “one-stop access” of elderly care products and services by credible start-ups.
- The start-ups will be selected on the basis of innovative products and services.
- Their products should be able to provide across sectors such as health, housing, care centers, apart from technological access linked to finances, food and wealth management, and legal guidance.
- The start-ups who have applied will be selected by an independent screening committee of experts.
- A fund of upto Rs.1 crore as one-time equity will be granted to each selected start-up.
Why need such initiative?
- India’s elderly population is on the rise as per surveys.
- The share of elders, as a percentage of the total population in the country, is expected to increase from around 7.5% in 2001 to almost 12.5% by 2026, and surpass 19.5% by 2050.
- There is an urgent need to create a more robust eldercare ecosystem in India, especially in the post-COVID phase.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SPAG9
Mains level: NA
The National Institute of Immunology (NII) has received a trademark for India’s First Indigenous Tumor Antigen SPAG9.
About SPAG9
- India’s first indigenous tumor antigen SPAG9 was discovered by Dr Anil Suri in 1998 who is heading the Cancer Research Program at NII.
- In a recent development, the SPAG9 antigen has received the trademark ASPAGNII-TM.
- Currently, ASPAGNIITM is being used in dendritic cell (DC) based immunotherapy in cervical, ovarian cancer and will also be used in breast cancer.
What is immunotherapy?
- Immunotherapy is a new approach that exploits the body’s inner capability to put up a fight against cancer.
- With this approach, either the immune system is given a boost, or the T cells are “trained’’ to identify recalcitrant cancer cells and kill them.
- In this personalized intervention, those patients expressing SPAG9 protein can be treated with DC-based vaccine approach.
- In DC-based vaccine, patient’s cells called monocytes from their blood are collected and modified into what are called dendritic cells.
- These dendritic cells are primed with ASPAGNIITM and are injected back to the patient to help the ‘fighter’ cells, or T-cells, in the body to kill the cancer cells.
Why need such therapy?
- DC-based immunotherapy is safe, affordable and can promote antitumor immune responses and prolonged survival of cancer patients.
- The ASPAGNIITM is a true example of translational cancer research and the Atmanirbhar Bharat spirit.
- This will be a real morale boost in affordable, personalized, and indigenous products for cancer treatment.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.‘RNA Interference (RNAi)’ technology has gained popularity in the last few years. why?
- It is used in developing gene silencing therapies
- It can be used in developing therapies for the treatment of cancer
- It can be used to developer hormone replacement therapies
- It can be used to produce crop plants that are resistant to viral pathogens
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
a) 1, 2 and 4
b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3
d) 1 and 4 only
The burden of cancer in India
- Cancer kills 8.51 lakh people in India every year (International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2020).
- As per World Health Organization (WHO), one in 10 Indians will develop cancer during their lifetime, and one in 15 will die of cancer.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Section 124-A issue
Is the government entitled to the love and affection of the citizens? Answer to this question lies in the Kedar Nath judgment recently invoked by the Supreme Court in a case against a journalist. The article deals with this issue.
About the Kedar Nath judgement
- A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court observed that every journalist is entitled to the protection under the Kedar Nath judgment (1962) on the petition filed by journalist Vinod Dua.
- The court entertained Dua’s writ petition under Article 32.
- In the Kedar Nath judgement, the apex court had held that a citizen has the right to say or write whatever he likes about the government or its measures by way of criticism so long as he does not incite people to violence against the government or with the intention of creating public disorder.
- Section 124A read along with explanations is not attracted without such an allusion to violence.
Increasing use of the sedition law
- NCRB data shows that between 2016 to 2019, there has been a whopping 160 per cent increase in the filing of sedition charges with a conviction rate of just 3.3 per cent.
- Of the 96 people charged in 2019, only two could be convicted.
- A number of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protesters are facing sedition charges.
Background of Section 124-A
- Section 124-A was not a part of the original Indian Penal Code drafted by Lord Macaulay and treason was confined just to levying war.
- It was inserted in 1870 in response to the Wahabi movement that had asked Muslims to initiate jihad against the colonial regime.
- It was argued that Wahabis are going from village to village and preaching that it was the sacred religious duty of Muslims to wage a war against British rule.
Way forward
- In 2018, the Law Commission had recommended that the sedition law should not be used to curb free speech.
- Let the criminal law revision committee working under the Ministry of Home Affairs make the bold recommendation of dropping the draconian law.
- A political consensus needs to be forged on this issue.
Conclusion
No government, as Mahatma Gandhi told Judge R S Broomfield, has a right to love and affection and people in a free country committed to the liberty of thought and freedom of expression should not be criminally punished for expressing their opinion about the government.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: COVAX
Mains level: Paper 2- Dealing with the vaccine inequality
Why vaccination gap is cause of worry
- By the end of May 2021, only 2.1% of Africans had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
- A widely vaccinated world population is the only way to end the pandemic; otherwise, the multiplication of variants is likely to undermine the effectiveness of existing vaccines.
- Vaccination is also a prerequisite for lifting the restrictions that are holding back our economies and freedoms.
- If the vaccination gap persists, it risks reversing the trend in recent decades of declining poverty and global inequalities.
- Such a negative dynamic would hold back economic activity and increase geopolitical tensions.
- The cost of inaction would for sure be much higher for advanced economies than what we collectively would have to spend to help vaccinate the whole world.
- The International Monetary Fund has proposed $50 billion plan in order to be able to vaccinate 40% of the world population in 2021 and 60% by mid-2022.
Need to resist the vaccine nationalism
- To achieve the goal set by IMF, we need closely coordinated multilateral action.
- We must resist the threat posed by linking the provision of vaccines to political goals and vaccine nationalism.
- The EU has been vaccinating its own population, while exporting large volumes of vaccines and contributing substantially to the vaccines roll-out in low-income countries.
- The EU has also exported 240 million doses to 90 countries, which is about as much as used within the EU.
- One-third of all COVAX doses delivered so far have been financed by the EU.
- India’s Vaccine Maitri is another example of global solidarity.
- However, this effort is still far from sufficient to prevent the vaccination gap from widening.
Way forward
- To fill widening vaccination gap, countries with the required knowledge and means should increase their production capacities, so that they can both vaccinate their own populations and export more vaccines.
- All countries must avoid restrictive measures that affect vaccine supply chains.
- We also need to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology, so that more countries can produce vaccines.
- Voluntary licensing is the privileged way to ensure such transfer of technology and know-how.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that health is a global public good. Our common global COVID-19 vaccine action to close the vaccination gap must be the first step toward genuine global health cooperation, as foreseen by the Rome Declaration recently adopted at the Global Health Summit.
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