Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Declining private investment in the infrastructure and ways to boost it
Declining private investment in the infrastructure needs policy overhaul. The article suggests the changes in the policy and approach on the part of the government to achieve the sustainable 40 per cent private investment in the infrastructure.
Declining private investment in infrastructure
Currently, private financing into the infrastructure sector has declined to around 20 per cent of the total funding.
Reasons for the decline are-
- 1) the crisis in the non-banking finance sector.
- 2) the financial challenges faced by infrastructure companies.
- 3) the inadequately developed Indian market for infrastructure financing.
- The Economic Survey 2017-18 has assessed India’s infrastructure financing needs at $4.5 trillion by 2040.
- Reviving private investment flows into infrastructure to around 40 per cent will be key to attaining this threshold.
Actions need to be taken to revive the private investment in infrastructure
- The Vijay Kelkar committee had put out a balanced report in 2015 on overhauling the PPP ecosystem, including governance reform, institutional redesign, and capacity-building.
Ramping up private investments in infrastructure will need action on two fronts:
- 1) Refreshing institutions and policies for channelling financing.
- 2) Providing a stable, durable, and empowering ecosystem for private players to partner with government entities.
1) Institutions and policies for channelling financing
- Due to long-duration profitability cycles of infrastructure projects, successful PPP requires stable revenue flow assurances and a settled ecosystem to investors over long periods.
- This could be achieved means of policy stability, assurances possibly secured by law.
- PPP contracts also need to provide for mid-course corrections to factor in uncertainties including utilisation patterns, as well as the creation of competing infra assets.
- Government partners in PPP arrangements need to ensure that open-ended arrangement that might entail unforeseeable risk are minimised for the private investor, including aspects such as land availability and community acceptance.
2) Institution and policies for financing
- There is a need to change the culture and attitude towards the conjoining of government entities and private partners.
- Kelkar committee has stated that there needs to be an approach of “give and take” and the Government should avoid a purely transactional approach.
- Government should avoid trying to minimise risk to themselves by passing on uncertain elements in a project — like the land acquisition risk — to the private partner.
- This attitudinal change can be achieved by amending the Prevention of Corruption Act to encompass modern-day requirements, including factoring in the need for government agents to take calibrated risks while engaging with the private sector.
- The private partners also need to be incentivised to focus on project outcomes, with guard-rails in place to discourage rent-seeking behaviour.
- In sum, risk avoidance by the public entity and rent-seeking by the private partner are the twin challenges that need to be carefully addressed.
- On the regulatory front, a compelling need would be to promulgate a PPP legislation which can provide a robust legal ecosystem and procedural comfort.
Consider the question “Declining private investment in the infrastructure has several implications for the economy. In ligh of this, examine the factor for such decline and suggest the measures to boost the private investment in the infrastructure.”
Conclusion
After we emerge out of this pandemic, a focus area for public policy has to be the creation of a modern-day, sustainable and resilient infrastructure. . Designing a fresh approach and creating a stable policy environment that provides comfort and incentives to private investors will be key to attaining this goal.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TRP, BARC
Mains level: TRAI and its regulations of telecom services
Mumbai police are investigating the alleged manipulation of Television Rating Points (TRP) by an extremely right-wing opinionated news reporter.
Try this question:
Q.What do you mean by “TRP Journalism”? Discuss the loopholes in the present system of self-regulation in Indian media.
What is TRP?
- In simple terms, anyone who watches television for more than a minute is considered a viewer.
- The TRP or Target Rating Point is the metric used by the marketing and advertising agencies to evaluate this viewership.
- In India, the TRP is recorded by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) using Bar-O-Meters that are installed in televisions in selected households.
- As on date, the BARC has installed these meters in 44,000 households across the country. Audio watermarks are embedded in video content prior to broadcast.
- These watermarks are not audible to the human ear, but can easily be detected and decoded using dedicated hardware and software.
- As viewing details are recorded by the Bar-O-Meters, so are the watermarks.
What is BARC?
- It is an industry body jointly owned by advertisers, ad agencies, and broadcasting companies, represented by The Indian Society of Advertisers, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the Advertising Agencies Association of India.
- Though it was created in 2010, the I&B Ministry notified the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India on January 10, 2014, and registered BARC in July 2015 under these guidelines, to carry out television ratings in India.
How are the households selected?
- Selection of households where Bar-O-Meters are installed is a two-stage process.
- The first step is the Establishment Survey, a large-scale face-to-face survey of a sample of approximately 3 lakh households from the target population. This is done annually.
- Out of these, the households which will have Bar-O-Meters or what the BARC calls the Recruitment Sample are randomly selected. The fieldwork to recruit households is not done directly by BARC.
- The BARC on its website has said that the viewing behaviour of panel homes is reported to BARC India daily. Coincidental checks either physically or telephonically are done regularly.
Vigilance activities by BARC
- Certain suspicious outliers are also checked directly by BARC India.
- BARC India also involves a separate vigilance agency to check on outliers that it considers highly suspicious.
- And as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, these households rotate every year.
- This rotation is in such a manner that older panel homes are removed first while maintaining the representativeness of the panel.
- The Ministry guidelines further say that the secrecy and privacy of the panel homes must be maintained, and asked the BARC to follow a voluntary code of conduct.
What are the loopholes in the process?
- Several doubts have been raised on many previous occasions about the working of the TRP.
- As per several reports, about 70% of the revenue for television channels comes from advertising and only 30% from subscriptions.
- It is claimed that households were being paid to manipulate the TRP.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GRAP
Mains level: Not Much
The Supreme Court has directed Delhi and neighbouring States to implement air pollution control measures under “very poor” and “severe” category air quality of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
Note the various measures under the GRAP under various grades of Air Quality.
Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)
- In 2014, when a study by the WHO found that Delhi was the most polluted city in the world, panic spread in the Centre and the state government.
- Approved by the Supreme Court in 2016, the plan was formulated after several meetings that the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) held with state government and experts.
- The result was a plan that institutionalized measures to be taken when air quality deteriorates.
- GRAP works only as an emergency measure.
How does it work?
- As such, the plan does not include action by various state governments to be taken throughout the year to tackle industrial, vehicular and combustion emissions.
- When the air quality shifts from poor to very poor, the measures listed under both sections have to be followed since the plan is incremental in nature.
- If air quality reaches the severe+ stage, GRAP talks about shutting down schools and implementing the odd-even road-space rationing scheme.
Measures taken under GRAP
1)Severe+ or Emergency
(PM 2.5 over 300 µg/cubic metre or PM10 over 500 µg/cu. m. for 48+ hours)
- Stop entry of trucks into Delhi (except essential commodities)
- Stop construction work
- Introduce odd/even scheme for private vehicles and minimise exemptions
- Task Force to decide any additional steps including shutting of schools
2) Severe
(PM 2.5 over 250 µg/cu. m. or PM10 over 430 µg/cu. m.)
- Close brick kilns, hot mix plants, stone crushers
- Maximise power generation from natural gas to reduce generation from coal
- Encourage public transport, with differential rates
- More frequent mechanized cleaning of road and sprinkling of water
3) Very Poor
(PM2.5 121-250 µg/cu. m. or PM10 351-430 µg/cu. m.)
- Stop use of diesel generator sets
- Enhance parking fee by 3-4 times
- Increase bus and Metro services
- Apartment owners to discourage burning fires in winter by providing electric heaters during winter
- Advisories to people with respiratory and cardiac conditions to restrict outdoor movement
4) Moderate to poor
(PM2.5 61-120 µg/cu. m. or PM10 101-350 µg/cu. m.)
- Heavy fines for garbage burning
- Close/enforce pollution control regulations in brick kilns and industries
- Mechanized sweeping on roads with heavy traffic and water sprinkling
- Strictly enforce a ban on firecrackers
Has GRAP helped?
- The biggest success of GRAP has been in fixing accountability and deadlines.
- For each action to be taken under a particular air quality category, executing agencies are clearly marked.
- In a territory like Delhi, where a multiplicity of authorities has been a long-standing impediment to effective governance, this step made a crucial difference.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Quad Group
Mains level: Deterrence in Australia-China Ties
Australia and China’s cordial economic ties, established over the last three decades, have been soured this year over several points of friction.
Try this question
Q. Discuss the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (or the Quad) and its purpose to establish “Asian Arc of Democracy”.
Various points of friction
(1) Australia’s Covid-19 inquiry
- Australia’s appeal for an independent global inquiry into the origins and initial response of Covid-19 created fury in Beijing.
- China alleged that Australia was teaming up with the US to spread “anti-China propaganda”.
(2) Tension over journalists
- The second diplomatic spat began with the detention of an Australian news anchor based in Beijing by the Chinese authorities after she was suspected of “criminal activities” that endangered China’s national security.
- The Australian government said the journalist was held under “residential surveillance” at an unknown location.
- Following this, the journalists sought refuge in Australian diplomatic missions, as they were not allowed to leave the country.
(3) Ideological issues
- The two countries have also been at loggerheads on other ideological issues previously too.
- After reports of China keeping Uighur Muslims in state-run detention camps surfaced, Australia was swift to respond and expressed “deep concern” over the “human rights situation.”
- Australia also supported Hong Kong’s autonomy cause. It decided to extend visas for Hong Kong residents.
- In both instances, China responded staunchly and asked Australia to not meddle in its “internal matters.”
(4) Economic dependence
- China is Australia’s largest trading partner in terms of both exports and imports.
- China’s share in Australia’s exports reached a record A$117 billion, or 38 per cent, in 2019, more than any other country.
- Australian sectors like mining, tourism, education benefit from trade with China. China even imports products such as milk, cheese, wine and meat.
- Over the years, it has been increasing its investment in Australian infrastructure and real estate products too.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Abortelphusa Namdaphaensis
Mains level: Eastern Himalayas and its biodiversity
A crab specie was recently named after Arunachal Pradesh’s pristine forests on the edge of a small stream in Namdapha Tiger Reserve.
Try this question from CSP 2020:
Q.With reference to India’s Biodiversity, Ceylon frogmouth, Coppersmith barbet, Gray-chinned minivet and White-throated redstart are:
(a) Birds
(b) Primates
(c) Reptiles
(d) Amphibians
Abortelphusa Namdaphaensis
- The species, a small freshwater crab species, is a tribute to Namdapha, the largest protected area in the Eastern Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot and the Abor Hills.
- It is the first Gecarcinucidae to be found in the Himalayan region. Freshwater crabs are divided into two families/categories: Potamidae and Gecarcinucidae.
- Both differ in abdomen shape and size. Potamidae species have a broad triangular abdomen, whereas, in Gecarcinucidae, the abdomen is mostly T-shaped.
- While the Gecarcinucidae is found in the peninsular region, the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, Potamidae are found in the Himalayan region.
What makes it special?
- The new species was found in a dry area, despite being a “freshwater” crab.
- Freshwater crabs use their gills to absorb dissolved oxygen from water, but for food, breeding, and other purposes, they do not need water, and thus roam on the land near water.
- The only reason it was possible to spot this on land is that the habitat around the water body has been preserved, untouched even.
- Of the 125 freshwater crabs in India, the north-east accounts for 37. Arunachal Pradesh has 15 and Assam has 21.
- The discovery highlights the potential of Arunachal Pradesh as one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in the country.
Back2Basics: Namdapha
- Namdapha (named a National Park in 1983) is known for its rich biodiversity and believed to be the rare area that harbours four large cats: tigers, snow leopards, clouded leopards and leopards.
- The Abor Hills, bordered by the Mishmi Hills and Miri Hills, is historically known for the Abor Expedition.
- It is a punitive expedition against the Abors in the North-Eastern Frontier Agency (which corresponds to parts of present-day Assam and Arunachal Pradesh) from October 1911 to April 1912.
- The expedition had thrown up a plethora of new floral and faunal species, making it a zoological and botanical expedition as well.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WPI and CPI, MPC inflation targeting framework etc
Mains level: Paper 3- Role of MPC and inflation targeting issue
The article analyses the challenge faced by the Monetary Policy Committee in wake of a pandemic where falling growth is accompanied by the rising inflation.
Dilemma with inflation targetting in pandemic
- After the RBI’s adoption of a flexible inflation targeting framework from August 2020, it became even more focused on anchoring inflation and inflation expectations than ever before.
- But the COVID pandemic has created a dilemma for the RBI.
- Higher-than-anticipated inflation compelled the monetary policy committee (MPC) to hold policy rates despite the contraction in April-June GDP by 23.9 per cent.
CPI vs. WPI: Which should be focused for inflation targeting?
- Inflation-targeting framework based on one narrow nominal consumer price index (CPI) has highlighted the challenges of conducting monetary policy in a severe growth shock scenario.
- Inflation targeting is particularly challenging if it coincides with a sharp increase in headline CPI inflation as in the current period.
- The current framework has led to an excessive and obsessive emphasis on point CPI estimates, at the cost of ignoring other indicators.
- WPI core inflation, which essentially represents the manufacturing sector, is below 1 per cent but this does not find much mention.
- This is strange because ultimately, the GDP deflator is calculated using both CPI and WPI inflation, with the latter having a greater weight.
- This should be taken into consideration, while reviewing the existing monetary policy framework.
- Given the composition of the current CPI basket, RBI’s monetary policy actions can at best impact only 41.35 per cent of the overall items.
- Food and beverages, fuel items, gold and silver tobacco/intoxicants are items over which the RBI does not have any control.[58.65 per cent of the overall items]
This is a different time
- In normal times, a sustained increase in food and fuel prices can lead to a generalised increase in prices.
- But this argument is not valid in the current context where a large number of people have lost their jobs or have seen fall in incomes.
- In the current context, higher food and fuel prices would lead to reduction in expenditure on discretionary items.
- So there will be only a relative shift in prices, without any fear of a generalised spiral, as households will not be in any position to demand higher wages to compensate for the increase in prices of food and fuel items.
- Given the amount of slack in the economy, a scenario of sustained generalised increase in prices seems unlikely over the next 6-9 months.
How to measure the success of inflation targeting
- The CPI inflation targeting framework has helped to reduce inflation expectations during FY17-FY21 on average (9.3 per cent) compared to the previous period of FY12- FY16 (12.8 per cent).
- However, the gap between inflation expectations and actual CPI inflation has remained unchanged at 5.1 per cent during these two periods.
- The success of the inflation-targeting framework should not only be judged by the actual CPI inflation trend, but also in terms of gap between the two.
How RBI performed without inflation targeting framework in the past
- Even without any formal inflation-targeting framework, India had successfully managed to keep inflation low during FY02-FY06.
- The RBI’s stance then was based on a multiple-indicator approach to conduct monetary policy.
- First factor that made it possible was the increase in minimum support prices of food-grains was kept below 3 per cent on average.
- Second factor was the composition of growth which was better during this period with investment growth surpassing consumption growth by several percentage points.
- It is for this reason that CPI inflation remained contained at 4 per cent on average during this period even with 7 per cent real GDP growth.
Risk of structural increase in inflation
- In the current cycle, investment growth is likely to be impacted more severely than consumption growth.
- Given the acute weakness in the demand side of the economy, persistent problems in the real estate sector, continued deleveraging of the NBFC sector and significant job losses structural increase in inflation is limited.
What should be the policy response
- The scope for rate cuts remains dim in the near-term.
- But the RBI to remain active with a host of unconventional measures, which will likely include more proactive bond purchases to ensure that market interest rates do not rise significantly due to fiscal and market borrowing-related concerns.
Conclusion
Given the prevailing unholy mix of growth and inflation, it is tempting to categorise India’s economic situation as one of “stagflation”. But, in our view, it is too early to conclude decisively on this matter, given the fluid nature of things.
Back2Basics: Inflation expectations
- Inflation expectations are what people expect future inflation to be, and they matter because these expectations actually affect people’s behavior.
- If people expect inflation to be lower and they act on those beliefs, they could, in fact, cause inflation to be lower.
- If businesses expect lower inflation, they may raise prices at a slower rate; they don’t want the prices of their items to look too out of line with those of their competitors.
- If workers expect lower inflation, they may ask for smaller wage increases.
- The combination of businesses and workers acting in this manner will result in the economy experiencing lower inflation.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Provision in labour codes
Mains level: Paper 2- Provisions for gig workers and platform workers in the labour codes
The article examines the provision made for the platform workers and the gig workers in the labour codes passed by the Parliament recently and explains the issues with it.
Context
- The three new labour codes passed by Parliament recently acknowledge platform and gig workers as new occupational categories in the making.
Definition issue
- The specific issues of working in factories, the duration of time needed on a factory floor, and associated issues are recognised as the parameters for defining an ideal worker.
- The Code on Wages, 2019, tries to expand this idea by using ‘wages’ as the primary definition of who an ‘employee’ is.
- Yet, the terms ‘gig worker’, ‘platform worker’ and ‘gig economy’ not defined with in connection with their wages.
- The new Code on Social Security allows a platform worker to be defined by their vulnerability — not their labour, nor the vulnerabilities of platform work.
Issues with the code
- Since the laws are prescriptive, what is written within them creates the limits to what rights can be demanded, and how these rights can be demanded.
- Platform delivery people can claim benefits, but not labour rights.
- This distinction makes them beneficiaries of State programmes.
- This does not allow them to go to court to demand better and stable pay, or regulate the algorithms that assign the tasks.
- This also means that the government or courts cannot pull up platform companies for lapses[ ex. choice of pay, work hours etc].
Benefits with no guarantee
- In the Code on Social Security, 2020, platform workers are now eligible for benefits like maternity benefits, life and disability cover, old age protection, provident fund, employment injury benefits, and so on.
- None of these are secure benefits.
- This means that from time to time, the Central government can formulate welfare schemes that cover these aspects of personal and work security, but they are not guaranteed.
- Actualising these benefits will depend on the political will at the Central and State government-levels and how unions elicit political support.
- The language in the Code is open enough to imply that platform companies can be called upon to contribute either solely or with the government.
Consider the question “What are the provisions for gig workers and platform workers in the new labour code? What are the issues with the provision?”
Conclusion
The ‘platform worker’ identity has the potential to grow in power and scope, but it will be mediated by politicians, election years, rates of under-employment, and large, investment- heavy technology companies that are notorious for not complying with local laws.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: H-1B term
Mains level: Paper 2- H-1B visa issue
Trump administration’s two moves on the visa could have implication for both India and corporate America. It needs to be seen whether the situations will remain the same after the Presidential elections in the U.S.
Context
- The U.S. President announced a hike in the salaries for those arriving in the U.S. on H-1B or skilled-worker visas.
Implications for India
- This hike is expected to cut visa applications by around 33%.
- Trump administration has in its earlier executive actions banned the issuance of new skilled worker visas and new green cards.
- India’s export of services to the U.S. is estimated to be at $29.6 billion in 2018, 4.9% more than in 2017, and 134% more than 2008 levels.
- The U.S. has been issuing 85,000 H-1B visas annually, of which 20,000 are given to graduate students and 65,000 to private sector applicants, approximately 70% of which are granted to Indian nationals.
- The visa issuance ban, combined with the mandatory salary floor soon to be instituted, will seriously hit U.S. imports of services from India.
Criticism of the move
- A federal judge in the Northern District of California blocked the enforcement of the new visa ban, ruling that the President “exceeded his authority” under the U.S. Constitution.
- Google CEO hit out at the ban, saying, “Immigration has contributed immensely to America’s economic success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today.”
Consider the question “What makes the H-1B visa important for India? What are the implications of the recent rise in the salary floor by the U.S. for the visa on India?”
Conclusion
While the ban and floor limit on salary come in the election milieu, India should prepare for the after election scenario.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Right to Protest
Mains level: Right to Protest and restrictions over it
The Supreme Court has found the indefinite “occupation” of a public road by the Shaheen Bagh protestors unacceptable.
Right to Protest
- The right to protest is the manifestation of the right to freedom of assembly, the right to freedom of association, and the right to freedom of speech.
- The Constitution of India provides the right of freedom, given in Article 19 with the view of guaranteeing individual rights that were considered vital by the framers of the constitution.
- The Right to protest peacefully is enshrined in Article 19(1) (a) guarantees the freedom of speech and expression; Article 19(1) (b) assures citizens the right to assemble peaceably and without arms.
- Article 19(2) imposes reasonable restrictions on the right to assemble peaceably and without arms.
What did the Court say?
- The court said the protest, considered an iconic dissent mounted by mothers, children and senior citizens of Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, became inconvenient to commuters.
- The judgment upheld the right to peaceful protest against the law but made it unequivocally clear that public ways and public spaces cannot be occupied, and that too indefinitely.
- Democracy and dissent go hand in hand, but then the demonstrations expressing dissent have to be in designated places alone.
- The present case was not even one of the protests taking place in an undesignated area but was a blockage of a public way which caused grave inconvenience to commuters.
Reasonable restrictions do exist in practice
- Fundamental rights do not live in isolation. The right of the protester has to be balanced with the right of the commuter. They have to co-exist in mutual respect.
- The court held it was entirely the responsibility of the administration to prevent encroachments in public spaces.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CRISPR, Cas9
Mains level: Gene Editing
French-American duo Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have been awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for the chemistry of CRISPR, which allows scientists to ‘cut-paste’ inside a genetic sequence.
Try this PYQ:
Q.What is Cas9 protein that is often mentioned in news?
(a) A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing
(b) A biosensor used in the accurate detection of pathogens in patients
(c) A gene that makes plants pest-resistant
(d) A herbicidal substance synthesized in genetically modified crops
The CRISPR technology
- The CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, developed in the year 2012
- CRISPR has made gene editing very easy and simple, and at the same time extremely efficient.
- The technology works in a simple way — it locates the specific area in the genetic sequence which has been diagnosed to be the cause of the problem, cuts it out, and replaces it with a new and correct sequence that no longer causes the problem.
- The technology replicates a natural defence mechanism in some bacteria that use a similar method to protect itself from virus attacks.
Working of CRISPR
- An RNA molecule is programmed to locate the particular problematic sequence on the DNA strand.
- A special protein called Cas9, often described in popular literature as ‘genetic scissor’, is used to break and remove the problematic sequence.
- A DNA strand, when broken, has a natural tendency to repair itself. But the auto-repair mechanism can lead to the re-growth of a problematic sequence.
- Scientists intervene during this auto-repair process by supplying the desired sequence of genetic codes, which replaces the original sequence.
- It is like cutting a portion of a long zipper somewhere in between and replacing that portion with a fresh segment.
- Because the entire process is programmable, it has a remarkable efficiency and has already brought almost miraculous results.
Uses of CRISPR
- There are a whole lot of diseases and disorders, including some forms of cancer, that are caused by an undesired genetic mutation.
- These can all be fixed with this technology. There are vast applications elsewhere as well. Genetic sequences of disease-causing organisms can be altered to make them ineffective.
- Genes of plants can be edited to make them withstand pests, or improve their tolerance to drought or temperature.
Ethical concerns
- In November 2018, a Chinese researcher in Shenzen created an international sensation with his claim that he had altered the genes of a human embryo that eventually resulted in the birth of twin baby girls.
- This was the first documented case of a ‘designer babies’ being produced using the new gene-editing tools like CRISPR.
- What made matters worse was that the gene-editing was probably done without any regulatory permission or oversight.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mascerene High, Global Warming Hiatus (GWH)
Mains level: Impact of global warming on Indian Monsoon
A new study on variability in the Mascarene High (MH) in the Southern Indian Ocean during global warming hiatus (GWH) has revealed that the region experienced significantly increased sea surface temperature (SST) during this period (1998-2016).
Try this PYQ:
Q.With reference to Ocean Mean Temperature (OMT), which of the following statements is/are correct? (CSP 2020)
- OMT is measured upto a depth of 26 degree Celsius isotherm which is 129 meters in the south-western Indian Ocean during January-March.
- OMT collected during January-March can be used in assessing whether the amount of rainfall in monsoon will be less or more than a certain long-term mean.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
What is Global Warming Hiatus (GWH)?
- A global warming hiatus is referred to a global warming pause, or a global warming slowdown, which is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures.
- The hiatus, however, can result in an increase in the SST.
What is Mascarene High (MH)?
- The Mascarene High (MH) is a semi-permanent subtropical high-pressure zone in the South Indian Ocean.
- It is also called the Indian Ocean subtropical high, which is a high-pressure area located between 20° to 35° South latitude and 40° to 90° East longitude.
- It is a region from where the cross-equatorial winds blow to India.
- It has been named after the Mascarene Islands, in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to Mauritius as well as the French Réunion Islands.
- Apart from its large influence on African and Australian weather patterns, it also helps in driving the inter-hemispheric circulation between the Indian Ocean in the south and subcontinental landmass in the north.
Role of MH
- The warming in SST due to global warming has resulted in a decrease in the pressure gradient between the MH and the Indian landmass.
- This in turn suppressed the intensity of low-level cross-equatorial winds over the western Indian Ocean affecting the onset of the monsoon over the Indian subcontinent and rainfall over East Asia.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Stockholm Convention, POPS
Mains level: POPs: Its threats and regulatory measures
The Union Cabinet has approved the Ratification of seven chemicals listed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
Stockholm Convention
- It is a global treaty to protect human health and environment from POPs, which are identified chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate in living organisms, adversely affect human health/ environment and have the property of long-range environmental transport (LRET).
Key Provisions: The provisions of the Convention require each party to:
- Prohibit and/or eliminate the production and use, as well as the import and export, of the intentionally, produced POPs that are listed in Annex A to the Convention
- Restrict the production and use, as well as the import and export, of the intentionally, produced POPs that are listed in Annex B to the Convention
- Reduce or eliminate releases from unintentionally produced POPs that are listed in Annex C to the Convention
- Ensure that stockpiles and wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with POPs are managed safely and in an environmentally sound manner
Do you know?
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) serves as a financial mechanism for the following conventions:
- Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
- UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
- Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
- Minamata Convention on Mercury
What are POPs?
- Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), sometimes known as “forever chemicals” are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes.
- Because of their persistence, POPs bioaccumulate with potential adverse impacts on human health and the environment.
- Many POPs are currently or were in the past used as pesticides, solvents, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals.
- Although some POPs arise naturally (e.g from volcanoes), most are man-made via total synthesis.
Threats of POPs
- Exposure to POPs can lead to cancer, damage to central & peripheral nervous systems, diseases of the immune system, reproductive disorders and interference with normal infant and child development.
India’s actions on POPs till now
- The MoEFCC had notified the ‘Regulation of Persistent Organic Pollutants Rules, on March 5, 2018, under the provisions of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
- The regulation prohibited the manufacture, trade, use, import and export seven chemicals which were already listed as POPs under Stockholm Convention-
- Chlordecone
- Hexabromobiphenyl
- Hexabromodiphenyl ether and Heptabromodiphenylether (Commercial octa-BDE)
- Tetrabromodiphenyl ether and Pentabromodiphenyl ether (Commercial Penta-BDE)
- Pentachlorobenzene
- Hexabromocyclododecane and
- Hexachlorobutadiene
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kasturi Cotton Brand
Mains level: Not Much
Now India’s premium Cotton would be known as ‘Kasturi Cotton’ in the world cotton trade.
Kasturi Cotton
- It is the first-ever Brand and Logo for Indian Cotton on Second World Cotton Day.
- The Kasturi Cotton brand will represent Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and Indianness.
Do you know?
- Cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of India and it provides livelihood to about 6.00 million cotton farmers.
- India is the 2nd largest cotton producer and the largest consumer of cotton in the world.
- India produces about 6.00 Million tons of cotton every year which is about 23% of the world cotton.
- India produces about 51% of the total organic cotton production of the world, which demonstrates India’s effort towards sustainability.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Women's representation
Asymmetric representation in India and Kenya has given rise to complex debate in both countries. The article analyses the similarities and difference.
Issue of women’s representation in Parliament
- Many political promises have been made in seven decades of the working of the Indian Constitution regarding 33 per cent reservation in Parliament.
- But the two bills, introduced in 1996 and 2010, have been allowed to lapse.
What are the hurdles?
- Every political party endorses the idea but the battle within political classes has been over “quota within a quota”.
- Some have argued that ways should be found to ensure that this reservation should contain 33 per cent reservation within for SC and ST women.
- Some have championed a systemic practice of reservation at the stage of distributing party tickets.
- Some continue to fight for underprivileged and rural women.
- Some maintain that a constitutional convention mandating increased representation for women by parties will be more appropriate than a constitutional amendment.
Comparison with Kenya
- While both fall short in equitable representation, Kenya has secured about 22 per cent women in the present National Assembly.
- India peaked to its highest number in the 2019 elections with 62 women (around 14.58 per cent),out of a total of 542 Lok Sabha seats.
- In the Kenyan Senate women number only 21 (or 31 per cent) of the 67-member House are female; in the Indian Rajya Sabha women comprise 25 out of 243 elected members.
- In both societies, women’s representation has always been “pyramidical”, most women remain below the constitutional radar at the bottom, even when a few scale national heights.
- Asymmetric representation in both societies has generated a long and complex debate concerning women’s representation.
Difference in constitutional histories and judicial actions
- India has nothing like the two-thirds rule in Kenya’s new constitution.
- Kenya’s Constitution requires that not more than two-thirds of the members of elective or appointive bodies shall be of the same gender.
- But the 2010 constitutional norm of a “two-thirds gender rule”, buttressed by the requirement that the electoral system shall comply with this rule has been breached.
- The judicial orders (from 2012) giving various timeframes to enact legislation to implement gender parity have found Parliament unresponsive.
- The stage was thus set for the exercise of constitutional power and function by the chief justice to advise the president to dissolve Parliament.
- This was a great victory for the Kenyan women.
Conclusion
Indian sisterhood can yearn wistfully, but valiantly, for another Vishakha moment in the demosprudential leadership of the nation by the apex court.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Social media and challenges
The article discusses the threat posed by the spread of misinformation on the internet and suggests the steps to tackle it.
Warning for India
- The U.S.’s experience with the Internet should serve as a stark warning to India.
- Most Americans now get their news from dubious Internet sources.
- This resulted in hardening of political stances and the acute polarisation of the average American’s viewpoint.
- For India, the danger is that like the U.S., such extreme polarisation can happen in a few short years.
- There are anywhere between 500 million and 700 million people are now newly online, almost all from towns and rural areas.
Use of targeted algorithm
- Social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter have become the source of news for the people, but these have no journalistic norms.
- The spread of the misinformation or news has been greatly enhanced by the highly targeted algorithms that these companies use.
- They are likely to bombard users with information that serves to reinforce what the algorithm thinks the searcher needs to know.
- As they familiarise themselves with the Internet, newly online Indians are bound to fall prey to algorithms that social network firms use.
Steps to control the misinformation on the internet
- 1) Tech firms are already under fire from all quarters, nonetheless, we need to act.
- They are struggling to meet calls to contain the online spread of misinformation and hate speech.
- 2) Unlike the U.S., India might need to chart its own path by regulating these firm before they proliferate.
- In the U.S., these issues were not sufficiently legislated for and have existed for over a decade.
- Free speech is inherent in the Constitution of many democracies, including India’s.
- This means that new Indian legislation needs to preserve free speech while still applying pressure to make sure that Internet content is filtered for accuracy, and sometimes, plain decency.
- 3) The third issue is corporate responsibility.
- Facebook, for instance, has started to address this matter by publishing ‘transparency reports’ and setting up an ‘oversight board’.
- But we cannot ignore the fact that these numbers reflect judgements that are made behind closed doors.
- What should be regulatory attempts to influence the transparency are instead being converted into secret corporate processes.
- We have no way of knowing the extent of biases that may be inherent inside each firm.
- The fact that their main algorithms target advertising and hyper-personalisation of content makes them further suspect as arbiters of balanced news.
- This means that those who use social media platforms must pull in another direction to maintain access to a range of sources and views.
Consider the question “What are the factors responsible for the spread of misinformation on social media and suggest the measures to tackle it.”
Conclusion
We need strong intervention now. Else, in addition to the media, which has largely been the responsible fourth estate, we may well witness the creation of an unmanageable fifth estate in the form of Big Tech.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ajit Singh , Pagri Sambhal Movement
Mains level: Peasants movements in colonial India
Sardar Ajit Singh Sandhu, the brain behind the ‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta’ movement is now being remembered in the ongoing agrarian resentments in Punjab.
Try this PYQ:
Q.What was the immediate cause for the launch of the Swadeshi movement?
(a) The partition of Bengal done by Lord Curzon.
(b) A sentence of 18 months rigorous imprisonment imposed on Lokmanya Tilak.
(c) The arrest and deportation of Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh; and passing of the Punjab Colonization Bill.
(d) Death sentence pronounced on the Chapekar brothers.
‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta’ Movement
- In 1879, the British constructed the Upper Bari Doab canal to draw water from the Chenab river and take it to Lyallpur (now in Pakistan and renamed Faisalabad) to set up settlements in uninhabited areas.
- Promising to allot free land with several amenities, the government persuaded peasants and ex-servicemen from Jalandhar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur to settle there.
- In 1907, in Lyallpur, Ajit Singh Sandhu also Bhagat Singh’s uncle headed the movement that articulated this discontent.
- The catchy slogan, Pagdi Sambhal Jatta, the name of the movement, was inspired by the song by Banke Lal, the editor of the Jang Sayal newspaper.
- The agitated protestors ransacked government buildings, post offices, banks, overturning telephone poles and pulling down telephone wires.
Who was Ajit Singh?
- He was a revolutionary and a nationalist during the time of British rule in India.
- With compatriots, he organised agitation by Punjabi peasants against anti-farmer laws known as the Punjab Colonization Act (Amendment) 1906 and administrative orders increasing water rate charges.
- He was an early protester in the Punjab region of India who challenged British rule and openly criticized the Indian colonial government.
- In May 1907, with Lala Lajpat Rai, he was exiled to Mandalay in Burma.
- Due to great public pressure and apprehension of unrest in the Indian Army, the bills of exile were withdrawn and both men were released in November 1907.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI)
Mains level: Not Much
The Ministry of Electronics and IT had approved some proposals by electronics manufacturers under its Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme.
Try this MCQ:
Q.The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme often seen in news is related to-
a) Electronics manufacture
b) Khadi and Village Industries
c) MSMEs
d) None of these
What is the PLI scheme?
- As a part of the National Policy on Electronics, the IT ministry had notified the PLI scheme on April 1 this year.
- The scheme will, on one hand, attract big foreign investment in the sector, while also encouraging domestic mobile phone makers to expand their units and presence in India.
- It would give incentives of 4-6 per cent to electronics companies which manufacture mobile phones and other electronic components.
- A/c to the scheme, companies that make mobile phones which sell for Rs 15,000 or more will get an incentive of up to 6 per cent on incremental sales of all such mobile phones made in India.
- In the same category, companies which are owned by Indian nationals and make such mobile phones, the incentive has been kept at Rs 200 crore for the next four years.
Tenure of the scheme
- The PLI scheme will be active for five years with financial year (FY) 2019-20 considered as the base year for calculation of incentives.
- This means that all investments and incremental sales registered after FY20 shall be taken into account while computing the incentive to be given to each company.
Which companies and what kind of investments are considered?
- All electronic manufacturing companies which are either Indian or have a registered unit in India will be eligible to apply for the scheme.
- These companies can either create a new unit or seek incentives for their existing units from one or more locations in India.
- Any additional expenditure incurred on the plant, machinery, equipment, research and development and transfer of technology for the manufacture of mobile phones and related electronic items will be eligible for the incentive.
- However, all investment done by companies on land and buildings for the project will not be considered for any incentives or determine the eligibility of the scheme.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Black Holes
Mains level: Black holes and gravitation waves
Three scientists won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for advancing our understanding of black holes, the all-consuming monsters that lurk in the darkest parts of the universe.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Recently, scientists observed the merger of giant ‘blackholes’ billions of light-years away from the Earth. What is the significance of this observation?
(a) ‘Higgs boson particles’ were detected.
(b) ‘Gravitational waves’ were detected.
(c) Possibility of inter-galactic space travel through ‘wormhole’ was confirmed.
(d) It enabled the scientists to understand ‘singularity’.
Who are these laureates?
- Briton Roger Penrose received half of this year’s prize for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.
- German Reinhard Genzel and American Andrea Ghez received the second half of the prize for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.
What are black holes?
- A black hole is formed when stars collapse and can be defined as a space in the universe with an escape velocity so strong that even light cannot escape it.
- Escape velocity is the speed at which an object must travel to override a planet or an object’s gravitational force.
- For instance, for a spacecraft to leave the surface of the Earth, it needs to be travelling at a speed of about 40,000 km per hour.
- Since light cannot get out, black holes are invisible and can only be tracked with the help of a space telescope or other special tools.
- And the reason light cannot escape is mainly that the gravity inside a black hole is very strong as a result of a lot of matter being squeezed into a small space.
Their contributions
- Penrose has been awarded the prize for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.
- Genzel and Ghez have been awarded the prize for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.
- Penrose’s work has shown that black holes are a direct consequence of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
- Einstein himself did not believe that black holes exist and presented his theory in November 1915, providing a new way to look at and understand the gravity that shapes the universe “at the largest scale”.
- Penrose used Einstein’s general theory of relativity in order to prove that the process of formation of black holes is a stable one.
- Genzel and Ghez, on the other hand, have discovered that an invisible and an extremely heavy object governs the stars’ orbit at the centre of the Milky Way.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SMART
Mains level: Indian navy's arsenal
DRDO successfully conducted the flight test of its Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) system.
Try this MCQ:
Q.The SMART system recently tested by the DRDO is essentially a-
a)Radar
b)Torpedo
c)UAV
d)Missile
What is the SMART system?
- Torpedoes are self-propelled weapons that travel underwater to hit a target but are limited by their range.
- In the mid-2010s, DRDO undertook a project to build capacity to launch torpedoes assisted by missiles; Monday’s was the first known flight test of the system.
- This SMART system comprises a mechanism by which the torpedo is launched from a supersonic missile system with modifications that would take the torpedo to a far longer range than its own.
- For example, a torpedo with a range of a few kilometres can be sent a distance to the tune of 1000 km by the missile system from where the torpedo is launched.
Why is it significant?
- SMART is a game-changing technology demonstration in anti-submarine warfare.
- India’s anti-submarine warfare capacity building is crucial in light of China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean region.
- Assets of such warfare consist of the deployment of submarines, specialised anti-submarine ships, air assets and state-of-the-art reconnaissance and detection mechanisms.
- The Navy’s anti-submarine warfare capability got a boost in June after the conclusion of a contract for Advanced Torpedo Decoy System Maareech, capable of being fired from all frontline warships.
- India has been indigenously developing and building several anti-submarine systems and vessels in the recent past.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: About the Tunnel, EIA
Mains level: NA
Kerala CM has launched a tunnel road project that would connect Kozhikode with Wayanad.
Try this PYQ:
Q.From the ecological point of view, which one of the following assumes importance in being a good link between the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats?
(a) Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve
(b) Nallamala Forest
(c) Nagarhole National Park
(d) Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve
Kozhikode-Wayanad Tunnel Project
- The 7-km tunnel, being described as the third-longest in the country, is part of an 8-km road cutting through sensitive forests and hills of the Western Ghats.
- Its endpoints are at Maripuzha in Thiruvambady village panchayat (Kozhikode) and Kalladi in Meppadi panchayat (Wayanad).
- The tunnel is an outcome of a decades-long campaign for an alternative road as the Thamarassery Ghat Road is congested and gets blocked by landslides during heavy monsoon.
How will the road impact the ecology?
- The Forest Department has identified the proposed route as a highly sensitive patch comprising evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, marshlands and shola tracts.
- This region is part of an elephant corridor spread between Wayanad and Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu.
- Two major rivers, Chaliyar and Kabani that flows to Karnataka, originate from these hills in Wayanad.
- Eruvazhanjipuzha, a tributary of Chaliyar and the lifeline of settlements in Malappuram and Kozhikode, begins in the other side of the hills.
- The region, known for torrential rain during the monsoon, has witnessed several landslides, including in 2019 at Kavalappura near Nilambur and at Puthumala, Meppadi in Wayanad.
Environmental clearance issues
- Proponents of the project have been stressing that the tunnel will not destroy forest (trees).
- The MoEFCC guidelines state that the Forest Act would apply not only to surface area but the entire underground area beneath the trees.
- For tunnel projects, conditions relating to underground mining would be applicable.
- As the proposed tunnel is 7 km long, it will require emergency exit points and air ventilation wells among other measures, which would impact the forest further.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now