Context: Recently, the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 (SOFI 2020) report presents the most recent and authoritative estimates of the extent of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition around the world.
About State of Food Se­curity and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2020 report

• The report is presented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund, World Food Programme and the World Health Organization. 
• Its first edition was brought out in 2017.
• It presents the latest estimates on food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition at the global and regional levels. 
• It is an annual flagship report.

Key findings of the report

• The five agencies warn that “five years after the world committed to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutri­tion, we are still off track to achieve this objective by 2030.”
• As per the report, hun­ger continues to be on the rise since 2014 and the global prevalence of undernourish­ment, or overall percentage of hungry people, is 8.9%.
• Asia remains home to the greatest number of under­nourished (38 crore), followed by Africa (25 crore).
• According to current esti­mates, in 2019, 21.3% (14.4.crore) of children un­der 5 years were stunted, 6.9% (4.7 crore) wasted and5.6% (3.8 million) overweight.

Note: Between 8.3 crore and 13 crore people globally are likely to go hungry this year due to the economic reces­sion triggered by COVID­19, as per the report.

Context: Recently, the World Intellectual Property Indicators-2019 report revealed that India is ranked among the top ten nations in the total (resident and abroad) Intellectual Property (IP) filing activity.
Key Points

• The global growth in IP filings was driven by China which accounted for over 50% of IP filings including patents, trademarks and design.
• The US was ranked second as it witnessed a 1.6% fall in patent filings, which is the first decline for the country in the previous decade.
• India was among the top ten countries of the total (resident and abroad) Intellectual Property(IP) filing activity by origin.
• India saw over 20% growth in trademark filing whereas, in respect of industrial design filing activity, it witnessed a 13.6% rise.
• India’s IP Filing and grant activity are likely to increase with a government push to schemes like ‘Make in India’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘Atma-nirbhar Bharat’.
• The Government of India has taken concrete steps to establish a favourable environment for the creation and protection of Intellectual Property Rights and strengthening IP administration in the country. 
• The National IPR Policy, launched in May 2016, to promote strong IP regime in the country.
• IP-intensive industries have been identified as an important and integral part of a country’s economy and account for more jobs and a larger share of its GDP.

About Intellectual property (IP)

• It refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, and symbols, names and images used in commerce.
• IP is protected by law, for example, patents, copyright and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from their inventions or creations.
• The IP system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish.
• Innovation and creative endeavours are indispensable elements that drive economic growth and sustain the competitive edge of the economy of any country.

About World Intellectual Property Indicators Report

• It is an annual report published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which provides a wide range of indicators covering the areas of intellectual property. 
• It draws on data from national and regional IP offices, the WIPO, the World Bank, and UNESCO.
• The WIPO has been publishing the reports annually since 2009.

About World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

• It is the global forum for intellectual property (IP) services, policy, information and cooperation. 
• It is a self-funding agency of the United Nations, with 193 member states.
• Its mission is to lead the development of a balanced and effective international IP system that enables innovation and creativity for the benefit of all. 
• Its mandate, governing bodies and procedures are set out in the WIPO Convention, which established WIPO in 1967.

Context: Recently, the Prime Minister of India has addressed the inaugural session of a three-day virtual conference of India Global Week 2020 organised in London, United Kingdom by India Inc.
Key Points

• It also marks the 100th birth anniversary of Pandit Ravi Shankar, a great Indian musician (Sitar player, composer and singer).
• Theme: Be The Revival: India and a Better New World.
• Objective: Explore business, strategic and cultural opportunities, understand the challenges and make informed decisions as the world looks ahead to a better, brighter future beyond Covid-19.

Significance for India

• Global Revival: As India is playing a leading role in the global revival, it has brought India's ancient culture (AYUSH), universal, peaceful ethos and the beauty of classical music to the world.
• Global Audience: The event as a forum has helped to bring the opportunities in India to a global audience and made the links between India and UK stronger.
• Trade and Investment: It would focus on India’s trade and foreign investment processes as it has done many reforms e.g. private investment in the space sector.
• Reforms in agriculture would provide an opportunity to invest in storage and logistics.
• Invest India Programme: It will help in improving the Invest India programme. India has recently been reviewing 50 investment proposals from China under its new screening policy which is being done under the new rules.
• New rules: India announced new investment rules in April 2020. Under the new rules, all the investments by the entities based in neighbouring countries have to be approved by Indian Government. This was introduced to curb opportunistic takeovers during Covid-19-period.
• Battle against the Covid-19: As India is fighting a strong battle against the global pandemic it would recognise India's efforts towards revival with care, compassion and sustainability - both for the environment and the economy.

Initiatives to fight Covid-19:

• AtmaNirbhar Bharat Initiative: It is about being self-sustaining and self-generating. AtmaNirbhar Bharat merges domestic production and consumption with global supply chains.
• Economic Relief Packages: The package has been targeted to help the poorest with aid of technology and providing free cooking gas, cash in the bank accounts, free food grains to millions.

Context: Fiscal council was first recommended by the Thirteenth Finance Commission and was subsequently endorsed by the Fourteenth Finance Commission and then by the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Review Committee headed by N.K. Singh.

• Fiscal Council: It is a permanent agency with a mandate to independently assess the government’s fiscal plans and projections against parameters of macroeconomic sustainability, and put out its findings in the public domain.

Reasons for need of a Fiscal Council 

• To maintain government’s credibility in the market: Government needs to borrow to create demand in economy which may not be appreciated by rating agencies. The government can signal its virtue to market in post-corona world, by establishing fiscal council as a n institutional mechanism for enforcing fiscal discipline.
• To aid Parliament: Fiscal council will give an independent and expert assessment of the government’s fiscal stance, and thereby aid an informed debate in Parliament.
• To act as a watchdog: It will prevent the government from gambling with the fiscal rules through creative accounting.

Arguments against the need of Fiscal Council

• Failure of FRBM: The FRBM enjoins the government to conform to pre-set fiscal targets, and in the event of failure to do so, to explain the reasons for deviation under ‘Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement’ (FPSS). Despite of this, there is in-depth discussion in Parliament on the government’s fiscal stance.
• Blame game and shifting of accountability: The fiscal council will give macroeconomic forecasts which the Finance Ministry is expected to use for the budget. Forcing the Finance Ministry to use someone else’s estimates will dilute its accountability. If the estimates go awry, it will simply shift the blame to the fiscal council.
• Strengthen existing watchdogs: There is already an institutional mechanism by way of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit to check government’s fiscal expenditure. If that mechanism has lost its teeth, then fixing it that rather than creating another costly bureaucratic structure is the prudent solution.

Committees recommending establishment of Fiscal Council

• In 2017, the N.K. Singh committee on the review of fiscal rules set up by the finance ministry suggested the creation of an independent fiscal council that would provide forecasts and advise the government on whether conditions exist for deviation from the mandated fiscal rules.
• In 2018, the D.K. Srivastava committee on fiscal statistics established by the National Statistical Commission (NSC) also suggested the establishment of a fiscal council that could co-ordinate with all levels of government to provide harmonized fiscal statistics across governmental levels and provide an annual assessment of overall public sector borrowing requirements.
• These recommendations follow similar recommendations from the 13th and 14th finance commissions, which also advocated the establishment of independent fiscal agencies to review the government’s adherence to fiscal rules, and to provide independent assessments of budget proposals.

Context: Recently, the Ministry of Finance has released a part of grants-in-aid of Rs. 15187.50 crore for around 2.63 lakh Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) of 28 States.

• This has been made on the recommendations of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
• This forms part of the Tied Grant as recommended by the 15th Finance Commission (FC) for the Financial Year (FY) 2020-2021.

Key Points

• Recommendation of 15th FC: It recommended the grant in aid of Rs. 60,750 crore for (FY 2020-21) the RLBs which is the highest ever allocation made by the Finance Commission in any single year.
• Allocation: It will be allocated in two parts, namely Basic Grant and Tied Grant in 50:50% mode.
• Basic Grant: These grants are untied and can be used by RLBs for location-specific needs, except for salary or other establishment expenditure
• Untied funds are utilised for the works of emergent nature which are normally not covered under the schemes decentralized at the district level.

Tied Grants: These are used for the basic services of:

• Sanitation and maintenance of Open-Defecation Free (ODF) status.
• Supply of drinking water, rain water harvesting and water recycling.
• The RLBs shall, as far as possible, earmark one half of these grants each to these two critical services.

However, if any RLB has fully saturated the needs of one category it can utilize the funds for the other category.

• Distribution: The State Governments will be distributing the grants to all the tiers of of the Panchayati Raj -village, block and district including the traditional bodies of 5th and 6th Schedule areas based on the accepted recommendations of the latest State Finance Commission (SFC) and in conformity with the recommendations of the 15th FC.
• Assistance: The Ministry of Panchayati Raj would support the states in effective utilization of the grants by providing Web/IT enabled platforms for planning, monitoring, accounting / auditing of the works and funds flow at the level of each of the RLBs.

Significance

• Fighting Covid 19: It would help RLBs in providing employment. E.g. migrant laborers who have returned to their native places owing to Covid-19 pandemic situation.
• Delivery of Basic Services: Availability of this fund will boost RLBs effectiveness in delivery of basic services to the rural citizens.
• Rural Infrastructure: It will augment the rural infrastructure in a constructive way e.g construction of roads, supply of water etc.

Context: Recently, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has launched ‘Aatamanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM)’ portal to help skilled people find sustainable livelihood opportunities.
About ASEEM digital platform

• The ASEEM portal aims to help skilled people find sustainable livelihood opportunities.
• Apart from recruiting a skilled workforce that spurs business competitiveness and economic growth, the Artificial Intelligence-based platform has been envisioned to strengthen their career pathways by handholding them through their journeys to attain industry-relevant skills and explore emerging job opportunities, especially in the post COVID era.
• Besides identifying the major skills gap in the sectors ?and providing a review of global best practices, ASEEM will provide employers a platform to assess the availability of skilled workforce and formulate their hiring plans.
• It refers to all the data, trends and analytics which describe the workforce market and map demand of skilled workforce to supply.
• It will provide real-time granular information by identifying relevant skilling requirements and employment prospects.

Who developed ASEEM?

• ASEEM, also available as an App, is developed and managed by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in collaboration with Bengaluru-based company Betterplace, specialising in blue-collar employee management.

The portal consists of three IT-based interfaces:

• Employer Portal: Employer onboarding, Demand Aggregation, candidate selection 
• Dashboard: Reports, Trends, analytics, and highlight gaps ?
• Candidate Application: Create & Track candidate profile, share job suggestion
• ASEEM will be used as a match-making engine to map skilled workers with the jobs available.

For employees/workers

• The portal and App will have provision for registration and data upload for workers across job roles, sectors and geographies. 
• The skilled workforce can register their profiles on the app and can search for employment opportunities in their neighbourhood.
• For employers: Through ASEEM, employers, agencies and job aggregators looking for skilled workforce in specific sectors will also have the required details at their fingertips.
• For governments: It will enable policymakers to take a more objective view of various sectors.

About National Skill Development Corporation

• NSDC is a not-for-profit public limited company incorporated in 2008 under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 (corresponding to section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013).
• It was set up by the Ministry of Finance as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
• The Government of India through the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) holds 49% of the share capital of NSDC, while the private sector has the balance 51% of the share capital.
• It aims to promote skill development by catalyzing creation of large, quality and for-profit vocational institutions.
• Its mandate is also to enable a support system which focuses on quality assurance, information systems and train the trainer academies either directly or through partnerships.
• Skill India Portal is an initiative by the NSDC.

Context: Recently, Indian Railways has stepped up its efforts to become a Green Railway within a span of 10 years. It has set the target to achieve net zero carbon emission by the year 2030. 
Key Points

• The Ministry of Railways has taken a number of major initiatives towards mitigation of global warming and combating climate change.
• Railway Electrification, improving the energy efficiency of locomotives & trains and fixed installations, green certification for installations/stations, fitting bio-toilets in coaches and switching to renewable sources of energy are parts of its strategy of achieving net zero carbon emission.
• The Railways has completed the electrification of more than 40000 route km (RKM). Further electrification of lines has also been commissioned.
• It has also taken a number of initiatives to promote solar energy.
• The Railways is harnessing solar energy through rooftop solar panels, on top of buildings including stations.
• The Railways is also trying to produce power from land-based solar installations for running trains.
• It has also commissioned wind-based power plants.
• The Railways has started other green initiatives like 100 percent LED illumination of buildings and stations.
• It has acquired Green Certifications for many of its production units, workshops, diesel sheds and stores depot, railway stations and campuses.
• In the field of green initiatives, a total of 69,000 coaches have been fitted with more than 2,44,000 bio-toilets.
• Railway Electrification: Indian Railways has completed electrification of more than 40,000 Route km (RKM) (63% of BG routes) in which 18,605 km electrification work has been done during 2014-20.
• Green certification for installations/stations: Indian Railways has also acquired Green Certification from CIII to 7 Production Units (PUs), 39 Workshops, 6 Diesel sheds and 1 Stores depot. 14 Railway Stations and 21 other buildings/ campuses have also been Green certified.
• Fitting bio toilets in coaches: A total of 69,000 coaches have been fitted with more than 2,44,000 bio-toilets in Indian Railways.
• Roof top Solar panels: Indian Railways is working to harness the potential of 500 Mega Watt (MW) energy through roof top Solar panels (Developer model). Till date, 100 Mega Watt (MW) of solar plants have been commissioned on roof-tops of various buildings including 900 stations.
• Total 505 pairs of trains have been converted to Head on Generation (HOG), unleashing approx 70 million litre diesel/ Rs 450 crore per annum potential of saving.

Context: Recently, NITI Aayog has represented the second voluntary national review of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) report titled as ‘Decade of Action: Taking SDGs from Global to Local’ to the United Nations High-level Political Forum.
Background

• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in September 2015 as a part of the resolution, ‘Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. 
• India is committed to achieve the 17 SDGs and the 169 associated targets, which comprehensively cover social, economic and environmental dimensions of development and focus on ending poverty in all its forms and dimensions. 
• At the Central Government level, NITI Aayog has been assigned the role of overseeing the implementation of SDGs in the country.
• NITI Aayog prepared and presented India’s first VNR in 2017.

About the India VNR 2020 Report

• The report is titled “Decade of Action: Taking SDGs from Global to Local”.
• The report is a comprehensive account of the adoption and implementation of the 2030 Agenda in India.
• Apart from presenting a review of progress on the 17 SDGs, the report discusses at length the policy and enabling environment, India’s approach to localising SDGs, and strengthening means of implementation.
• India’s VNR this year has undertaken a paradigm shift in terms of embodying a whole-of-society approach in letter and spirit. 
• NITI Aayog engaged with sub-national and local governments, civil society organizations, local communities, people in vulnerable situations and the private sector. 
• Goal-wise account with best practices: In line with the theme of “Taking SDGs from Global to Local”, the goal-wise account of progress on the SDGs along with a range of diverse good practices and success stories of interventions from the States, especially Aspirational Districts.
• Enabling environment: The report discusses at length the policy and enabling environment, India’s approach to localising SDGs, and strengthening means of implementation.
• Two levers of strengthening means of implementation: Leveraging science, technology and innovation for SDGs, and costing and financing of SDGs.

About United Nations High-level Political Forum

• The establishment of the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) was mandated in 2012 by the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), “The Future We Want”.
• HLPF, comprising the political representatives (heads of states or ministers) of the members, meets every July at the UN in New York to review progress on Agenda 2030.
• The Forum meets annually under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for eight days and every four years at the level of Heads of State and Government under the auspices of the General Assembly for two days.
• Voluntary National Reviews, which are voluntary and country driven, form the basis of this review.
• The Forum adopts inter-governmentally negotiated political declarations.

What is Voluntary National Review (VNR)?

• VNR is a process through which countries assess and present progress made in achieving the global goals and the pledge to leave no one behind.
• The purpose is to present a snapshot of where the country stands in SDG implementation, with a view to help accelerate progress through experience sharing, peer-learning, identifying gaps and good practices, and mobilizing partnerships.
• The reviews are voluntary and state-led and are aimed at facilitating the sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned.
• The process of preparation of a country’s VNR provides a platform for partnerships, including through the participation of various relevant stakeholders.

Context: A recent study indicates that some past approaches to calculating the impacts of forest fires have grossly overestimated the number of live trees that burn up and the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result.

Key Points
Vulnerability of Indian forests

• According to the report of the Forest Survey of India, over 54% of the forest cover in India is exposed to occasional fire. During the 2003–2017 period, a total of 5,20,861 active forest fire events were detected in India.
• The States of northeast India, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are the most fire-prone in India.
• The sharp increase in average and maximum air temperature, decline in precipitation, change in land-use patterns have caused the increased episodes of forest fires in most of the Asian countries including India.

Methodology of study

• The study used remote sensing-based models to measure primary productivity over an area and used burn indices to help demarcate the forest fire burn scars using satellite imagery.
• The normalized burn ratio is an effective burn index commonly used to identify burnt regions in large fire zones.
• In normal conditions, healthy vegetation exhibits a very high reflectance in the near-infrared spectral region and considerably low reflectance in the shortwave infrared spectral region. 
• These conditions get reversed in case of a forest fire incident. The spectral differences between healthy vegetation and burnt forest areas can be identified and highlighted by remote sensing burn indices.

Major observations

• Previous studies using forecasting models and in-situ observations in western Himalaya have shown a sharp increase of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and ozone during high fire activity periods.
• The current study noted very high to high carbon emissions in the eastern Himalayan states, western desert region and lower Himalayan region.
• The occurrence of high fire intensity at the low altitude Himalayan hilly regions may be due to the plant species (pine trees) in the area and proximity to villages. Villages make them more susceptible to anthropogenic activities like forest cover clearance, grazing and so on.

Road Ahead

• The new methodology offers a promising tool for land resource managers and fire officials.
• Given the fact that identifying the forest fire hotspots and forecasting the fire location and time accurately can play an important role in mitigating the risks involved, there is the need for further studies on the prediction of forest fires with the support of advanced machine learning models and AI-based techniques.

Context: Recently, a team of entomologists assessed three indigenous bugs that can control the pest woolly whitefly. 

• These native predators for the natural control of the woolly whiteflies are found to be the biological weapons against the pest and have been reported to control the pest by devouring them.
• Two of these indigenous predators were ladybird beetles of the Coccinellidae family and one was the green lacewing fly from the Neuroptera order.

Issues

• According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), pests damage 30-35% of crops in the country annually.
• Among the newest of the 118 exotic pests troubling farmers in India, particularly fruit growers, is the woolly whitefly.
• This whitefly (Aleurothrixus floccosus) is invasive and polyphagous, meaning a creature that feeds on various kinds of food.
• In 2019, ICAR’s National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources had reported the spread of woolly whiteflies through transportation of infested seedlings.

About Woolly Whitefly

• It was first described from Jamaica in 1896 and noticed in Florida, the U.S. in 1909.
• Its neo-tropical origin is found across the warmer parts of the world and also called citrus whitefly.
• This whitefly (Aleurothrixus floccosus) is invasive and polyphagous i.e. feeds on various kinds of food.
• ICAR’s National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources in Bengaluru had reported  the spread of the pest from the Caribbean island through transportation of infested seedlings  in 2019
• It has been found to attack some 20 plant families in India, exhibiting a strong preference for guava.

What are  Indigenous Bugs for fighting Pests?

• These indigenous predators were ladybird beetles of the Coccinellidae family and the green lacewing fly from the Neuroptera order.
• These insects have four life stages which are egg, grub, pupa and adult and they complete their life cycle in 30-40 days. 
• The bugs fed on the woolly whiteflies during the active grub stage for 10-12 days, consuming more of the flies as they grew.
• A tiny predator can eat 200-300 woolly whiteflies throughout its growing stage.

Significance: In could provide relief to fruit farmers and management of exotic pests is crucial for India’s farm economy, but it is important to employ economically viable and environmentally sound measures, therefore entomologists focussed on native predators for natural control of the woolly whiteflies.

Context: Recently, a geologist assigned to make a preliminary study on the frequent tremors in Mizoram has said that Mizoram’s zone of scary earthquakes is caught between two subterranean faults.
Background

• Mizoram experienced at least eight moderate earthquakes between June 21 and July 9, 2020. The tremors ranged from 4.2 to 5.5 on the Richter scale.
• The epicentre of most of these quakes was beneath Champhai district bordering Myanmar, including the last one of magnitude 4.3 and about 10 kilometres deep.
• A few were beneath the adjoining Saitual and Serchhip districts.

About Churachandpur-Mao Fault (CMF)

• According to the geologist, earthquakes have happened and will happen in that part of Mizoram because it is caught between two geological faults i.e, the Churachandpur Mao Fault and the Mat Fault.
• The Churachandpur Mao Fault is named after two places in Manipur and runs north-south into Myanmar along the border of Champhai.
• The Mat Fault runs northwest-southeast across Mizoram, beneath the river Mat near Serchhip.
• There are several shallower transverse or minor faults in between these two major faults that are deeper.
• People there have nothing to worry about if their magnitude does not measure above 5 on the Richter scale.

About Faults

• Faults are discontinuities or cracks that are the result of differential motion within the earth’s crust.
• It is a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock.
• Faults allow the blocks to move relative to each other. This movement may occur rapidly, in the form of an earthquake.
• Vertical or lateral slippage of the crust along the faults causes an earthquake.

About Earthquake swarms

• It is a series of many (sometimes thousands) low magnitude earthquakes without a discernible main shock.
• They occur in a localised region and over a period of time ranging from days, weeks to even months, without a clear sequence of foreshocks, main quakes and aftershocks.
• When seismic energy piles up inside the Earth and is released in small amounts from certain points, such a series of earthquakes can occur

Do these small earthquakes foretell a bigger one?

• Earthquakes of magnitude 4 or below hardly cause any damage anywhere and are mostly inconsequential for practical purposes.
• Thousands of such earthquakes are recorded around the world every year, and most of them are uneventful.

They certainly do not signal any big upcoming even

• When a big event happens, all the smaller earthquakes that have occurred in that region in the near past are classified as foreshocks.
• The description does not exist before any big earthquake has happened.
• So, the talk of these being foreshocks of a big earthquake in Delhi have no basis at all.
• A big earthquake might still occur, which no can rule out. But they cannot be predicted. So to say that these small earthquakes are precursors to the big one is totally unscientific.

Earthquake

•  An earthquake  is shaking of the earth. It is a natural event. It is caused due to release of energy, which generates waves that travel in all directions.
• The release of energy occurs along a fault. Rocks along a fault tend to move in opposite directions. This causes a release of energy, and the energy waves travel in all directions.
• The point where the energy is released is called the focus of an earthquake, alternatively, it is called the hypocentre.
• The point on the surface, nearest to the focus, is called epicentre. It is the first one to experience the waves. It is a point directly above the focus.

About Earthquake Waves

• All natural earthquakes take place in the lithosphere.
• Earthquake waves are basically of two types  body waves and surface waves. 
• Body waves are generated due to the release of energy at the focus and move in all directions travelling through the body of the earth.

There are 2 types of body waves and they are, Primary waves [P] and Secondary [S] waves

Primary waves are the first to appear on the surface and hence the name P waves.

• P-waves vibrate parallel to the direction of the wave. This exerts pressure on the material in the direction of the propagation
• P waves can travel through gaseous, liquid and solid materials.

Secondary waves

• S waves appear after P waves. The direction of vibrations of S-waves is perpendicular to the wave direction in the vertical plane. Hence, they create troughs and crests in the material through which they pass

Surface waves

• The body waves interact with the surface rocks and generate new set of waves called surface waves. These waves move along the surface.
• The velocity of waves changes as they travel through materials with different densities.
• The denser the material, the higher is the velocity.
• Their direction also changes as they reflect or refract when coming across materials with different densities.
• Surface waves are considered to be the most damaging waves.

Context: Recently, the government is aiming to cut down the cost of transportation of natural gas by setting a fixed tariff for the transportation of natural gas for longer distances to boost gas consumption.
Background  

• The proposal is part of a larger effort by it to boost the share of natural gas in India’s energy basket from around 6 percent currently to 25 percent by 2030.

How are tariffs decided currently?

• Tariffs for transportation of gas are set separately for each pipeline.
• It is set by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board.
• It is set based on the volume of gas transported on the pipeline and its operating life aimed at providing the operator a pre-tax return of 18%.
• Tariffs for pipeline usage are divided into zones of 300 km.
• Tariff increases for zones further away from the point where gas is injected.
• Further, if a buyer needs multiple pipelines even from the same operator, that transport tariff would increase.
• All of India’s imported natural gas arrives at terminals on the west coast.
• So, the further east the buyers are located, the costs increases.

What is the proposed move?

• The government is aiming to cut down the cost of transportation of natural gas by fixing a tariff for longer distances to boost consumption.
• It is proposing a unified price system with,
• One price for those transporting gas nearby within 300 km and
• One price for those transporting gas beyond 300km.
• This proposal is part of an effort to boost the share of natural gas in India’s energy basket from 6% currently to 25% by 2030.
• The move would fix tariff prices within an integrated pipeline network such as that of GAIL (Gas Authority of India Ltd.)
• GAIL has India’s largest gas transportation pipeline network that prevents the buyers to pay charges for the use of multiple pipelines.
• Such a move would help connect new markets.
• It would benefit consumers in parts of the country far from the western coast.

How would the costs be?

• The cost of gas transportation for oil marketing companies and fertiliser plants that are closer to the points of gas injection may go up.
• This is because the government lowers rates for transportation of gas to areas farther away from points of supply.
• GAIL would hope that the average tariff per unit of gas transported will not be very different from current tariffs.
• GAIL would hope for increased utilisation as demand for gas increases.
• The government is also expecting that as India boosts gas imports, it will be able to negotiate better prices on gas imports.

Context: Recently, the Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change has asked the State Government to submit fresh proposals for diversion of forest land to take up the Kalasa-Banduri drinking water project on the Goa border.
Key Points

• The Union government has asked the State government to submit a fresh proposal for forest clearance to take up the Kalasa and Banduri Nala Project in the forest areas of Belagavi district.
• The fresh proposal should be as per the Forest Conservation Second Amendment Rules of 2014.

Kalasa-Banduri Nala Project

• It is undertaken by the Government of Karnataka to improve drinking water supply to the three districts of Belagavi, Dharwad, and Gadag.
• This project is to be built across two tributaries of the Mahadayi river: Kalasa and Banduri, to divert water to the Malaprabha river which in turn is a tributary of Krishna river.
• Drinking water is supplied to Dharwad, Belgaum, and Gadag districts from Malaprabha river 
• Kalasa-Banduri project was planned as early as in 1989 but the opposition was faced from Goa.

Mahadayi River

• Mahadayi is a west-flowing river which joins the Arabian Sea.
• It originates in Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary along the Western Ghats in Belagavi district of Karnataka.
• It is a rain-fed river. 
• It is joined by a number of streams to form the Mandovi which is one of two major rivers that flows through Goa. (Zuari is the other major river) 

Context: Recently, the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Environment Ministry has recommended the grant of Environmental Clearance for the development of an economic corridor between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Key Points

• The Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) – greenfield highway is part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana and will be implemented by the National Highways Authority of India.
• The project will start in Dabaspet in Karnataka and end near Devarapalli village on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border.

Benefits

• The new road would provide better, fast, safe and smooth connectivity for commuters between the two States as well as in the region.
• Accident rates are also expected to be under control due to enhanced road safety measures.
• Development of the proposed project road will boost local agriculture and enable farmers to realise better value for their products as well as attract more investment to that region.

Bharatmala Pariyojana

• The Government of India launched “Bharatmala Pariyojana”, an umbrella program for the highways sector that focuses on optimizing the efficiency of road traffic movement across the country by bridging critical infrastructure gaps.
• The scheme was initiated with an aim to improve road traffic and improve trade through road transportation.

Some other key features of the Bharatmala Pariyojana include:

• The main aim was to improve the quality of roads in order to bring in a wave of development in every corner of the country.
• Construction of new roads is another important feature for the announcement for this scheme. 
• The Government plans to finish the construction of all the roads, under this scheme, within a time span of five years.
• Since the fund provided by the Government may not be sufficient for the construction of roads, hence the Ministry relies on various other sources for the completion of this project.
• The project aims to construct multiple roads and for proper executive of the project, the Ministry has decided to divide the project into various categories for proper construction of the roads. 

Context: Recently, the Union Minister of  Shipping flagged off the first trial movement of a container ship carrying steel and pulses from Kolkata port to Bangladesh’s Chattogram port.

• It will transport cargo to Assam and Tripura.
• This has been done under the Agreement on use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for movement of India’s transit cargo through Bangladesh.
• This is the first time after 1965 that Bangladesh is allowing its ports to be used as a transit for cargo movement from any part of India to northeastern states.

Key Highlights

• India and Bangladesh have enhanced cooperation in shipping and inland water trade in recent years, under the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade, in addition to the six existing Ports of Call, five more in each country have been added.
• The trial run is an outcome of discussions between the two countries at the highest level during the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister to India in October 2019. The standard operating procedure (SOP) on use of Chittagong and Mongla ports of Bangladesh was finalized in 2019 during this visit.
• The consignment of the trial movement includes two TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit)  carrying TMT steel bars destined for West Tripura district and two TEUs carrying pulses heading for Karimganj, Assam.
• After reaching Chattogram, the consignment will move to Agartala on Bangladeshi trucks.

Significance of this trial

• It will provide a shorter route to connect India’s north-east region through Bangladesh.
• It will increase economic activities, employment and will bring prosperity in India as well as Bangladesh.
• Job creation, investment in the logistical sector, enhanced business services and revenue generation are advantages that will accrue to Bangladesh.

Context: Covid-19 pandemic has sharpened need to make right choices for sustainable urban growth.
Urbanization in India

• In 2018, nearly 34% of India’s population lived in the cities.  This is expected to increase to 40% by 2030 contributing 75% of the GDP.
• Driven by growing urbanization, the real estate sector (the second-largest employer after agriculture) contributed 6-7% of the GDP in 2017. It is expected to increase to 13% by 2025.

Urbanization and the problem of Urban Heat Island

• Due to increased urbanization most of the open spaces in urban and semi-urban areas are being used up to create more of paved surface cover, heat-trapping roofs, buildings and roads.
• More than 60% of the roofs are made of concrete, metal and asbestos, all of which tend to trap heat. Over time, these hot surfaces lead to formation of urban heat island and thus soaring up temperatures. An urban heat island occurs when a city experiences much warmer temperatures than nearby rural areas.
• Urbanization and Electricity Consumption: Buildings account for more than 30% of India’s electricity consumption and a significant share of annual carbon dioxide emissions.

Making Buildings Smart- Lessons from Telangana

• Telangana has taken steps to ensure energy efficiency in its buildings by incorporating the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)’s Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC).
• It has included mandatory ECBC and green building codes, under section 176(4) in the newly promulgated Telangana Municipality Act 2019.

Interventions taken for cool-roofing

• Telangana has tested cool roof technologies through pilots undertaken in 2017. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) implemented a cool roofs pilot in low-income neighborhoods to showcase the benefits and impact of cool roofs in the city.
• Learning from the pilot projects, the government has designed Telangana Cool Roofs Programme. It is a target-based initiative to increase the percentage of cool roofs in the state. The programme will aim to install cool roofs in low-income housing and slum communities.

Cool Roofs

• A cool roof is one that has been designed to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat than a standard roof.
• Depending on the setting, they can help lower indoor temperatures by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius as compared to traditional roofs. These roofs also potentially lead to less air pollution since they save energy, especially on cooling appliances.

Suggested Reforms

• Short-term: It’s crucial to ascertain how to respond to extreme heat and urbanization challenges during a major pandemic.
• Long term: proactive pre-disaster actions to reduce risk and investment in forward-looking plans, policies and programmes to ensure right choices to balance urban growth and sustainable development.

Context: Recently, the Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous organization under the Department of Science & Technology has brought a report titled ‘Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients- Status, Issues, Technology Readiness, and Challenges’.
Major recommendations given in the report

• Focus on engineering and scale aspect of technology development.
• Need for Mission mode Chemical Engineering with defined targets for uninterrupted synthesis of molecules.
• Create mega drug manufacturing clusters with common infrastructure in India.
• Technology platform to be developed for biocatalysis towards reducing process steps for cost optimization.
• Scale supporting techno-economic feasibility.
• Attention to technologies like hazardous reactions, flow chemistry, cryogenic reactions, and membrane technology.

What is an API?

• Every medicine is made up of two main ingredients — the chemically active APIs and chemically inactive, excipients, which is a substance that delivers the effect of APIs to one’s system.
• API is a chemical compound that is the most important raw material to produce a finished medicine.
• In medicine, API produces the intended effects to cure the disease. For instance, Paracetamol is the API for Crocin and it is the API paracetamol that gives relief from body ache and fever.
• Fixed-dose combination drugs use multiple APIs, while single-dose drugs like Crocin use just one API.

How an API is manufactured? 

• API is not made by only one reaction from the raw materials but rather it becomes an API via several chemical compounds. The chemical compound which is in the process of becoming an API from raw material is called an intermediate.
• There are some APIs that pass “through over ten kinds of intermediates in a process when it changes from being a raw material into an API”. The long manufacturing process is continued until it is purified and reaches a very high degree of purity.

What’s the concern for India now? How COVID 19 induced pandemic has affected?

• Despite being a leading supplier of high-quality medicines to several countries, Indian pharmaceutical industry is highly dependent on China for APIs.
• In the 2018-19 fiscal, the government had informed the Lok Sabha that the country’s drug-makers had imported bulk drugs and intermediates worth $ 2.4 billion from China.
• But with frequent lockdowns due to the deadly coronavirus outbreak, supplies of raw materials from China to produce drugs for treating HIV, cancer, epilepsy, malaria, and also commonly-used antibiotics and vitamin pills, are likely to be hit.

How India lost its API market to China?

• During the early 90s, India was self-reliant in manufacturing APIs.
• However, with the rise of China as a producer of API, it captured the Indian market with cheaper products and it eventually led to high economies of scale for China.
• China created a low-cost API manufacturing industry. The industry was backed by the low cost of capital followed by aggressive government funding models, tax incentives.
• Their cost of operation is one-fourth of India’s cost. Even the cost of finance in China is 6-7 per cent against India’s 13-14 per cent.
• So, due to low-profit margins and non-lucrative industry, Indian pharma companies over the years stopped manufacturing APIs.

Context: Recently, the Smart Cities Mission (under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs) has opened the registration for India Cycles4Change Challenge which was launched in June 2020.
About the India Cycles4Change Challenge

• It is an initiative of the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India to inspire and support Indian cities to quickly implement cycling-friendly initiatives in response to COVID-19.
• The Challenge aims to help cities connect with their citizens as well as experts to develop a unified vision to promote cycling.
• In addition to creating extensive cycling-networks through low-cost interventions like pop-up cycle lanes and traffic-calmed or non-motorised zones, cities could launch programmes such as community-led cycle rental schemes that increase the availability of cycles to citizens and promote the usage of cycling through public events and outreach.
• In the longer term, the Smart Cities Mission encourages cities to convert temporary interventions into permanent.
• Cities are encouraged to collaborate with CSOs, experts, and volunteers as they develop and implement their plans.Citizen collaboration will also be a key metric in the evaluation of proposals submitted by the cities.

The Challenge will run in two stages:

• Stage One will run until October where cities will focus on piloting quick interventions to promote cycling and developing a scale-up strategy.
• In October 2020, 11 cities will be shortlisted and will receive Rs. 1 Crore award and guidance from national and international experts to further scale-up the initiatives in Stage Two, which will be held until May 2021.

Who can apply?

• Cities with a population of more than 5 lakh.
• Capital cities of states/UTs.
• Cities under the Smart Cities Mission.

Benefits for cities:

• Through this challenge, cities will be able to implement quick cycling interventions with support from experts and citizens.
• They will also receive guidance on how to create permanent interventions to encourage cycling in their city.

Need of Such an Initiative:

• The need for personalized forms of transport is expected to increase as a response to Covid-19. Some Indian cities have already started working towards promoting cycling as a response to the pandemic.
• Kolkata has proposed a dedicated cycle corridor by reclaiming parking spaces.
• In Guwahati, the Green lane Foundation, with the support of the Bicycle Mayor of Guwahati and Pedal for a Change, is conducting a survey for citizens to vote for the best routes for bicycle lanes in the city.
• A recent survey by the ITDP India Programme shows that cycling would increase by 50-65% as cities come out of lockdown.
• Cities around the world are leveraging the opportunity to expand their cycling networks and public bicycle-sharing systems.
• Further, increasing cycling can help cities in a green economic recovery.
• Investments in cycling infrastructure have economic benefits of up to 5.5 times the initial investment.
• Cycling for short distances can result in an annual benefit of Rs. 1.8 trillion to the Indian economy.

Context: Recently, India and the European Union (EU) held their 15th “annual” summit after a gap of more than two years.
Common interests

• Both aim to enhance strategic autonomy and their global standing.
• Diversifying strategic value chains is also a common interest.
• Both seek to address the issue of climate change on an urgent basis.

Economic ties with the EU

• The EU is India’s largest trading partner accounting for €80 billion worth of trade in goods in 2019.
• This is equal to 11.1% of total Indian trade.
• The EU is also the biggest foreign investor, with €67.7 billion worth of investments made in 2018.
• Which is equal to 22% of total FDI inflows.

Scope for improving the economic ties

• The EU’s investments in China amounted to €175.3 billion (2018).
• So, India could succeed in attracting EU investment that might be moving out of China.
• To attract this outflowing investment, India must address the mutual trust deficit.
• Enhanced business cooperation can help both the EU and India diversify their strategic value chains.
• Increasing people’s mobility and connectivity is another area that can create opportunities for innovation and growth.

Talks on FTA

• Both sides need to move further on the Free Trade Agreement.
• A new study from the European Parliament estimates the impact of an EU-India trade agreement between €8 billion and €8.5 billion.
• The study also mentions additional potential gains from enhanced coordination on the provision of global public goods, such as environmental standards.

Cooperation on climate change

• Under the new industrial strategy, the Green Deal, the EU has set an ambitious target to be carbon-emission neutral by 2050.
• If the EU and India succeed in transforming into carbon-neutral economies by 2050, we all would gain from the investment.

Strategic partnership with EU

• The Indo-Pacific region is becoming contentious, so India should capitalise on its geopolitical leverage there.
• Cooperation with like-minded, democratic powers can support this effort, especially towards assertive competitors like China.
• The EU as a whole offers more to India than the strongest bilateral relations with individual EU member state.
• New Delhi must learn how to maximise benefits from this strategic partnership.
• The disruption caused by COVID-19 has been the occasion for the EU to prove its worth.
• “Next-generation EU proposal” submitted by the European Commission has economic as well as geopolitical implications.
• The proposal shows that the ties that bind the EU extend well beyond treaties and individual members’ self-interest.
• The EU champions the rules-based international order, so the EU and India must act to promote sustainable reform of multilateral institutions starting from the WTO.

Challenges

• Though the EU is India’s biggest foreign investor, there is still room for improvement when compared to EU investments in China which, in the year 2018, amounted to €175.3 billion. The lack of finalization of the FTA between India and the EU is a concern.
• The EU is India’s biggest foreign investor, with €67.7 billion worth of investments made in 2018 which is equal to 22% of total FDI inflows.

Road Ahead

• There is a need to address the mutual trust deficit between India and the EU. The EU and India must take forward the negotiations on the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
• Facilitating people’s mobility and connectivity could help improve mutual understanding and create opportunities for innovation and growth.
• The present circumstances provide an opportune time for India and the EU to build a partnership that is both economic and strategic and both parties should invest efforts at strengthening this relationship far beyond the economic dimension.

Key Facts Related to Summit

• India-EU Strategic Partnership: A Roadmap to 2025: It was endorsed as a common roadmap to guide joint action and further strengthen the India-EU Strategic Partnership over the next five years.
• Civil Nuclear Cooperation agreement: India and the European Union (EU) have signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement which focuses on research and development cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
• Clean Energy and Climate Partnership: It was established by the European Union(EU) and India in 2016 to promote access to and dissemination of clean energy and climate friendly technologies and encourages research and the development of innovative solutions.
• International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF): It was launched in 2019.Its members are Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Norway, Switzerland and European Union.It aims to scale up the mobilization of private capital towards environmentally sustainable investments.
• International Conference on Chemical Management: The conference is to be held in Bonn in 2021.The leaders supported the ambitious mandate for an international chemical and waste management framework beyond 2020.

Context: Recently, India and the European Union (EU) are set to agree on a high-level dialogue on trade and investment to restart negotiations, seven years after talks on a free trade agreement were suspended.
Key Points

• Tackling COVID-19 and its impact on the economy and the global order will be high on the agenda. 
• The medical developments on testing vaccines and treating the coronavirus will be discussed along with the withdrawal of the U.S. from multilateral organisations (like the World Health Organisation). The ‘assertive’ nature of  China will be on the agenda too. 
• India and the E.U. are expected to conclude several agreements including a roadmap for cooperation, an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation and launch a maritime security dialogue as well as negotiations between Europol and the CBI.
• There will be a  trade and investment dialogue, which is expected to give a kickstart to negotiations on the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) as the EU-India FTA is known, which have failed to be resumed despite several commitments by the leaders, including at the last E.U.-India summit in 2017.
• Both sides are expected to officially adopt the ‘EU-India Strategic Partnership: A Roadmap to 2025’, which will seek to enhance strategic and security ties between both sides.

Reservations of EU

• It stated that there is a trend in India that goes towards the protectionist side. The Make in India programme was accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis and recent pronouncements that India wants to go ‘Self-reliant’, didn’t help the situation. 
• Bilateral trade with India formed under 3% of the E.U.’s global trade, which is “far below” what was expected of the relationship. 
• It stated that India maintains a quiet protectionist stance when it comes to offering us tariff relaxations.”
• It has reservations about the model “Bilateral Investment Treaty” (BIT) that India has proposed, especially on dispute mechanisms in Indian courts. 

Deadlock in Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA)

• India and the European Union continue to struggle to conclude a bilateral Free Trade Agreement even a decade after the negotiations were first launched in 2007.
• The BTIA negotiations have remained deadlocked over growing differences regarding greater market access sought by both sides for merchandise exports.

What is BTIA?

• In  2007, India and the EU began negotiations on a broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA). 
• These negotiations are in consonance with the commitment made by leaders of both sides at the 7th India-EU Summit held in 2006 to move towards negotiations for a broad-based trade and investment agreement on the basis of the report of India-EU High-Level Technical Group.
• Through its implementation, India and the EU expect to promote bilateral trade by removing barriers to trade in goods and services and investment across all sectors of the economy. 

About the European Union

• It is a group of 27 countries that operate as a cohesive economic and political block. 
• It was formed in 1993 and came into force after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty by 28 countries. 
• Its objectives are to increase political cooperation, to enhance economic integration by creating a single currency the EURO, unified security and foreign policy, common citizenship Rights, enhanced cooperation in the areas of judiciary, immigration and asylum.
• 19 of these countries use the EURO as their official currency. 8 EU members (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden) do not use the euro. 
• It was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2012.
• Until 2020, no member state had ever withdrawn or been suspended from the EU, though some dependent territories or semi-autonomous areas had previously left. The UK government invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union on 29 March 2017 to formally initiate the Brexit process. Completion occurred on 31 January 2020 (at 23:00 London time),[2] with all other arrangements remaining in place during a transition period while a free trade agreement is negotiated. Therefore, the total countries comes to 27 from 28 earlier.

Context: In the recent joint working group meeting of the Sustainable Growth Pillar, an India Energy Modeling Forum was launched.
About the Sustainable Growth Pillar

• The Sustainable Growth Pillar is an important pillar of the India–US Strategic Energy Partnership co-chaired by NITI Aayog and USAID.
• The SG pillar entails energy data management, energy modelling and collaboration on low carbon technologies as three key activities.

About the Energy Modeling Forum (EMF)

• The Energy Modelling Forum (EMF) in the USA was established in 1976 at the Stanford University to connect leading modelling experts and decision-makers from government, industry, universities, and other research organizations.
• The forum provides an unbiased platform to discuss the contemporary issues revolving around energy and environment.
• In India, there was no formalized and systematic process of having a modeling forum.
• Even then, various think-tanks/research organizations like TERI, IRADe, CSTEP, CEEW, NCAER, etc., have been consistently developing scenarios and contributing through modelling studies and analyses to provide the required inputs to the Environment Ministry and other relevant ministries, including NITI Aayog.

The India Energy Modelling Forum will accelerate this effort and aim to:

• Provide a platform to examine important energy and environmental-related issues;
• Inform decision-making process to the Indian Government;
• Improve cooperation between modelling teams, government, and knowledge partners, funders;
• Facilitate exchange of ideas, ensure production of high-quality studies;
• Identify knowledge gaps at different levels and across different areas;
• Build capacity of Indian institutions.

Note: The NITI Aayog will initially coordinate the activities of the forum and finalize its governing structure. The forum would include knowledge partners, data agencies and concerned government ministries.

Context: As per the data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the USA remained India's top trading partner for the second consecutive fiscal year in 2019-20.
Key Points

• According to the data of the commerce ministry, in 2019-20, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $88.75 billion as against $87.96 billion in 2018-19.
• The USA is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. The trade gap between the countries has increased to $17.42 billion in 2019-20 from $16.86 billion in 2018-19.
• In 2018-19, the USA first surpassed China to become India’s top trading partner. Before China, UAE was the largest trading nation.
• Presence of Indian diaspora in the USA is one of the main reasons for increasing bilateral trade. A balanced trade deal can further boost the economic ties.

Trade with China

• The bilateral trade between India and China has dipped to $81.87 billion in 2019-20 from $87.08 billion in 2018-19.
• The trade deficit has declined to $48.66 billion in 2019-20 from $53.57 billion in the previous fiscal.
• China was India’s top trading partner since the 2013-14 till 2017-18.
• India is considering certain steps like framing technical regulations and quality control orders for a host of items to cut import dependence on China and boost domestic manufacturing.

Road Ahead

• India and the US are negotiating a limited trade pact to iron out differences at trade front and boost commercial ties.
• India is seeking relaxation in US visa regime, exemption from high duties imposed by the US on certain steel and aluminium products, and greater market access for its products from sectors such as agriculture, automobile, automobile components and engineering.
• On the other hand, the US wants greater market access for its farm and manufacturing products, dairy items, medical devices, and data localisation, apart from a cut on import duties on some information and communication technology products.

Context: For the first time, the Indian Railways loads Special Parcel Train to Bangladesh carrying Dry Chillies from Reddipalem in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh state.
About Guntur Chillies

• Guntur and its surrounding areas in the state of Andhra Pradesh are well known for chillies cultivation.
• The quality of this farm produce is internationally renowned for its uniqueness in taste and brand.
• Guntur chillies are exported to Canada, Asia and Europe.
• Guntur district is the main producer and exporter of most varieties of chillies and chilli powder from India to countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Middle East, South Korea, U.K. and USA & Latin America.
• Chillies have various colours and flavours because of the level of Capsaicin in them.
• Guntur chillies form an important part of curries and various popular dishes of Andhra Pradesh.
• The main trading place for Guntur chilli is called Guntur Mirchi Yard which is also Asia’s largest dried red chilli market.
• There are various types of Guntur chilli.
• The Guntur Sannam Chilli is a variety which has the Geographical Indication (GI) Tag.
• Guntur Sannam chilli requires a warm and humid climate for its growth and dry weather during the period of maturation.
• Sannam chilli belongs to the variety of Capsicum annuum.
• This chilli has a thick skin and it is generally long (5 – 15 cm in length).
• Globally, India stands first in the production of chilli and in India, Andhra Pradesh leads in its production. Andhra Pradesh alone commands 46% of the chilli production in India.

Context: Recently, Iran has decided to proceed with the Chabahar rail line construction on its own, citing delays from the Indian side in beginning and funding the project.
Background

• In May 2016, India, Iran and Afghanistan signed the trilateral agreement which envisaged the establishment of Transit and Transport Corridor connecting the three countries and Chabahar port in Iran to be used as cardinal hub transportation.
• The agreement had the provision for the construction of a rail line from Chabahar port to Zahedan, along the border with Afghanistan which would serve as an alternate trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia bypassing Pakistan. 
• The state-owned Indian Railways Construction Ltd. (IRCON) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Iranian Rail Ministry for the development of the proposed railway line.

Key Points

• With this move China would expand its presence in Iran’s banking and telecommunications sectors as well as railways, ports and other projects.
• In exchange of this investment, Iran would supply Beijing with a heavily discounted supply of oil over the next 25 years.
• China is a key market for Iranian crude oil exports, which have been dampened by US economic sanctions.
• The deal would allow China to gain a foothold in a region where the US has had strategic residence for the last few decades.
• China has been stepping up its military cooperation with Iran over the past decade.

Why was there a delay?

• Despite several site visits by IRCON engineers, and preparations by Iranian railways, India never began the work, ostensibly due to worries that these could attract U.S. sanctions.
• The U.S. had provided a sanctions waiver for the Chabahar port and the rail line to Zahedan, but it has been difficult to find equipment suppliers and partners due to worries they could be targeted by the U.S.

Concerns

• Iran’s decision to cancel India’s participation in the project, coming in the backdrop of a fast-moving strategic deal with China, is a matter of concern for India.
• The development comes as China finalises a massive 25-year, $400 billion strategic partnership deal with Iran.
• Also, Iran had proposed a tie-up between the Chinese-run Pakistani port at Gwadar and Chabahar in 2019.
• Iran has offered interests to China in the Bandar-e-Jask port 350km away from Chabahar, as well as in the Chabahar duty-free zone.
• Each of those possibilities should be watched closely by India as the Iran-China deal could impinge on India’s strategic ties with Iran and the use of Chabahar port.

About India- Iran Chabahar Partnership

• In 2016, India and Iran signed a deal worth $8 billion investment in Chabahar port and industries in Chabahar Special Economic Zone. 
• Chabahar port is located on the Gulf of Oman and is only 72 km away from the Gwadar port in Pakistan which has been developed by China.
• The port serves as the only oceanic port of Iran and consists of two separate ports named Shahid Beheshti and Shahid Kalantari.
• The port is being developed as a transit route to Afghanistan and Central Asia and India has already built a 240-km road connecting Afghanistan with Iran.
• Completion of this project would give India access to Afghanistan and beyond to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Europe via 7,200-km-long multi-modal North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
• It also helps India counter Chinese presence in the Arabian Sea which China is trying to ensure by helping Pakistan develop the Gwadar port. Gwadar port is less than 400 km from Chabahar by road and 100 km by sea.
• From a diplomatic perspective, Chabahar port could be used as a point from where humanitarian operations could be coordinated.

Road Ahead

• The Iran-China deal impinges on India’s strategic ties with Iran and the use of Chabahar port. Bandar-e-Jask lies to the west of Chabahar and right before the Strait of Hormuz which would allow China to extend its control along the Pakistan-Iran coast.
• Each of these possibilities should be watched closely by India and it should strengthen its relations with the concerned countries.
• As an emerging power, India cannot remain confined to South Asia and a peaceful extended neighbourhood (Iran-Afghanistan) is not only good for trade and energy security but also plays a vital role in India's aspirations of becoming a superpower.

Context: Recently, Pakistan and China have signed an agreement for the 700 MW Azad Pattan hydel power project on the Jhelum river in Sudhnoti district of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
About the project

• It is one of five hydropower schemes on the Jhelum, the other four are Mahl, Kohala, Chakothi Hattian and Karot projects. All projects are being developed under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
• It is a run-of-the-river project with a reservoir located near Muslimabad village, 7 km upstream from the Azad Pattan bridge, in district Sudhnoti, one of the eight districts of PoK.
• It will be commissioned by 2024 and will comprise a 90-metre-high dam, with a 3.8 sq km reservoir. 
• It will be developed on the ‘Build, Own, Operate, Transfer (BOOT)’ model and will be transferred to the government of Pakistan after 30 years. 
• Total Cost: It is a 1.5-billion USD project and is part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Other projects in PoK

• Kohala project is a 1,124 MW hydel project that will come upon the Jhelum near Muzaffarabad. This project is one of the biggest investments by China in PoK.
• The Karot Hydropower station, the third project being executed by China on the Jhelum is on the boundaries of Kotli district in PoK and Rawalpindi district in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
• Two hydel projects are planned in Gilgit Baltistan – Phandar Hydro Power, and Gilgit KIU.
• Most recent in the news was Diamer-Bhasha dam in the PoK.

Concerns for India

• India has strongly protested the construction of dams and other infrastructure in PoK and Gilgit Baltistan, as India claims these territories as part of Jammu & Kashmir.
• With the commission of these projects, China will have a dominant presence in the PoK region which may further escalate the tensions between China and India. 
• These projects do not follow the principles of openness, transparency and financial responsibility given by the International agencies.
• Recently, Iran drops India From Chabahar Railway Project Citing Delay In Funding and this move Coincides with its Strategic Deal With China.

About China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

• The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a 3,218-km route consisting of highways, railways and pipelines that will
• connect Gwadar port to Xinjiang in China. The CPEC is crucial for China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative that aims to connect China to Europe and Asia.
• The Gwadar port is the showpiece of the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which Beijing sees as a crucial link that will help it in its drive to become a world power.
• India’s concerns- India has boycotted the OBOR and the CPEC organised by China citing sovereignty and security issues. 
• The construction work by China in the disputed area includes security issues for India.
• China’s maritime presence in Gwadar Port can be highly detrimental to India’s maritime and economic strategy because India also imports oil from the same region.

Context: Recently, Pakistan announced reopening a key border crossing from July 15 to resume exports from Afghanistan to India.

• "At the special request of the government of Afghanistan and with a view to facilitating Afghanistan’s transit trade, Pakistan has decided to resume Afghan exports through Wagah border.

Key Points

• The decision, which is part of Islamabad’s commitment under Pakistan-Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement, is expected to boost Afghanistan’s exports to India.
• India had cancelled the Most Favoured Nation status for Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack.
• The announcement from Pakistan has come at a time when Afghanistan’s melon harvesting season is at its peak and the availability of the Indian market is expected to help its economy.

About Afghanistan–Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement

• The Afghanistan–Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (also known as APTTA) is a bilateral trade agreement signed in 2010 by Pakistan and Afghanistan that calls for greater facilitation in the movement of goods amongst the two countries.
• In 2017, the President of Afghanistan announced that The Afghanistan and Pakistan Trade Agreement (APTA) has expired, and issued a decree banning Pakistani trucks from entering the country via the Torkham and Spin Boldak border crossings.
• The 2010 APTTA allows for both countries to use each other’s airports, railways, roads, and ports for transit trade along designated transit corridors.
• The agreement does not cover road transport vehicles from any third country, be it from India or any Central Asia country.

India – Afghanistan relations

• Afghanistan is India’s natural ally and India is interested in maintaining the relationship with Afghanistan as a friendly state. This will help India to counter Pakistan and cultivate assets to influence activities in Pakistan.
• The relations are spread over a number of realms like culture, trade, sports, ancient dynasty linkages etc. 
• Afghanistan has a mineral wealth of about $1-3 trillion of Iron ore, Lithium, Chromium, Natural Gas, Petroleum etc. India is willing to invest in Afghanistan to harness these resources for the development of both nations. 
• A strong relation with Afghanistan may open up the door to Central Asia for India. India may play a major role in the security and stability of the region with Afghanistan’s cooperation. 

Wagah Border

• The Wagah border crossing draws its name from Wahga village, near which the Radcliffe Line, the boundary demarcation line dividing India and Pakistan upon the Partition of British India, was drawn.
• At the time of the independence in 1947, migrants from India entered Pakistan through this border crossing.
• Wagah is a village situated on the Grand Trunk Road between Amritsar of India and Lahore in Pakistan.
• The Wagah border is known as the Attari border on the Indian side.

Wagah-Attari border ceremony

• The Wagah-Attari border ceremony happens at the border gate, two hours before sunset each day.
• The flag ceremony is conducted by the Pakistan Rangers and Indian Border Security Force (BSF).
• A marching ceremony, known as the “Silly Walk ceremony”, is conducted each evening along with the flag ceremony.

Context: Recently, the Election Commission announced the postal ballot facility for electors above the age of 65 in the Bihar Assembly elections would not be implemented.
Background

• A few days back, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that people above the age of 65 years and those under home or institutional quarantine will be allowed to vote by postal ballots during the Bihar elections as they are at a higher risk of contracting Covid-19 infection.
• After the notification of the Law Ministry for the extension of postal ballots to electors over 65, several political parties had raised concerns over the decision.
• Political Parties argued that allowing those aged 65 and above to vote by postal ballot violates secrecy in voting as a large segment of the population is uneducated and they might seek assistance from others at numerous stages, ending up disclosing their preferred candidate. 
• This also exposes them to “administrative influence or influence by the Government or the ruling party. 

What is postal voting or ballots?

• It is also called  Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot Papers (ETPB) and under this ballot papers are distributed electronically to electors and are then returned to the election officers via post.
• The postal voting refers only to the means by which the ballots are submitted, not to the method by which the votes are counted.

Who can avail of this facility?

• According to the Election Commission (EC) of India, the facility is available to a service voter — that is a voter having a service qualification.
• According to the provisions of subsection (8) of Section 20 of Representation of People Act, 1950, service qualification means –
• Being a member of the armed forces of the Union; or
• Being a member of a force to which provisions of the Army Act, 1950 (46 of 1950), have been made applicable whether with or without modification ;
• Being a member of an Armed Police Force of a State, and serving outside that state; or
• Being a person who is employed under the Government of India, in a post outside India.
• Recently, the Law Ministry, at the Election Commission’s behest, introduced a new category of ‘absentee voters’, who can now also opt for postal voting.

How are votes recorded by post?

• The Returning Officer is supposed to print ballot papers within 24 hours of the last date of nomination withdrawal and dispatch them within a day.
• This is done so that the ballot papers reach the concerned voter well before the polling date and she has enough time to send it back before the counting day.
• Postal ballot papers for members of the Armed Forces are sent through their record offices. For members of the armed police force of a state (serving outside the state), government employees posted outside India and their spouses, the ballot paper can be sent through post or electronically.
• After receiving it, the voter can mark her preference with a tick mark or cross mark against the candidate’s name. They also have to fill up a duly attested declaration to the effect that they have marked the ballot paper.
• The ballot paper and the declaration are then placed in a sealed cover and sent back to the Returning Officer before the time fixed for the commencement of counting of votes.

Context: Recently, various political parties have voiced their concerns over holding elections in Bihar amid Covid-19 pandemic and asked to postpone the same.
About mandate of elections

• The EC is mandated under law to hold elections at any time within six months before the five-year term of the Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly expires.
• The polls are timed in a way that the new Assembly or Lok Sabha is in place on the day of the dissolution of the outgoing House.
• In the case of early dissolution, EC has to ensure, as far as possible, a new Lok Sabha or Assembly is in place within six months of the dissolution.

Its Powers to delay

• An election once called usually proceeds as per schedule. However, in some exceptional cases, the process can be postponed or even scrapped after its announcement under extraordinary circumstances.
• Under Section 153 of the Representation of the People Act, the poll panel can “extend the time” for completing an election.
• But such extension should not go beyond the date of the normal dissolution of the Lok Sabha or the Assembly.
• In 1991, the Commission, under this provision read with Article 324 of the Constitution, postponed the ongoing parliamentary elections after then PM’s assassination during his campaign in Tamil Nadu.
• As recently as March this year, elections to 18 Rajya Sabha seats were postponed by the Commission due to the COVID19 pandemic.

Grounds for Election Postponement

• Article 172(1) states that, in case of a state of Emergency, an election can be postponed for one year at a time in addition to a period of six months after the Emergency is lifted.
• There is no specific legal provision that specifies the circumstances under which elections can be deferred in non-Emergency situations.
• However, law and order, natural calamities like earthquakes and floods, or any other compelling circumstances which are beyond EC’s control can be the grounds for extension.

Legal Issues Involved

• Powers under Section 153 can be exercised only after an election schedule has been notified.
• If the EC wants to postpone Bihar elections, it will have to be done through its extraordinary powers under Article 324.
• Under Article 324, the EC will have to inform the government of its inability to hold polls on time.
• The government can decide the future course — to impose President’s Rule or allow the incumbent Chief Minister to continue for six more months.

About Election Commission of India 

• It is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering Union and State election processes in India.
• The body administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and State Legislative Assemblies in India, and the offices of the President and Vice President in the country.
• Article 324 of the Constitution states that, the  EC is in charge of elections to parliament, state legislatures, the office of president of India and the office of vice president of India.
• It is common to both the Central government and the state governments.

Composition

• The Election Commission consists of the chief election commissioner and those many number of other election commissioners as the president decides.
• ECE and other EC’s are appointed by President.
• The President appoints regional commissioners to assist election commission.
• The conditions of service and tenure of office of the election  commissioners and the regional commissioners are determined by the president.

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court of India upheld the right of the Travancore royal family to manage the property of deity at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala).
Background

• The recent judgement is over a dispute of over a decade on whether the temple and its considerable assets should devolve to the Kerala Government following the death of the Travancore ruler Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma in July 1991.
• Arguments were raised on whether the 26th Constitutional Amendment, which put an end to privy purses enjoyed by erstwhile rulers, would nudge the temple and properties into the hands of the State.
• The Kerala High Court, in 2011, directed the State to take over the temple and exhibit its treasures for public viewing in a museum.
• About Privy Purse: The privy purse was a payment made to the ruling families of erstwhile princely states as a part of their agreement to integrate with India in 1947. The 26th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1971 brought an end to this privilege of princely states.

Supreme Court Judgement

• The recent judgement was given by a division bench comprising of Justices U.U. Lalit and Indu Malhotra.
• Justice Lalit, categorically held that the death of a ruler does not affect the royal family’s shebaitship of the temple.
• “Shebaitship was always in the royal family and the Ruler represented the unbroken line of shebaits,” the judgment said.
• According to the judgement, shebaitship does not lapse in favour of the State by the principle of escheat (reversion of property to the State).

Key Points

• The court defined ‘shebait’ as the “custodian of the idol, its earthly spokesman, its authorised representative entitled to deal with all its temporal affairs and to manage its property”.
• The court traced how the shebaitship descended from King Marthanda Varma.
• King Marthanda Varma rebuilt the temple and installed a new idol after a fire destroyed the temple in 1686.
• It referred to how the King surrendered his kingdom in January 1750 and assumed the role of ‘Padmanabhadasa’ after realising “the futility of battles as a means to an end and the conscious feeling that the Travancore he created was built on a foundation of sacrifice of the liver and limbs of countless numbers who fell due to him and for him.”
• Accepting the royals’ submission that the temple is a public temple, the court issued a slew of directions for its transparent administration in the future.
• It directed the setting up of an administrative committee, with the Thiruvananthapuram district judge as its chairperson. The panel would take care of the daily administration of the temple.

About Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple

• The Padmanabhaswamy temple is a Hindu temple located in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India.
• According to Historians, the temple dates back to the 8th century but the present structure was built in the 18th century by the then Travancore Maharaja Marthanda Varma.
• The temple is built in an intricate fusion of the Chera style and the Dravidian style of architecture, featuring high walls, and a 16th-century gopura.
• The temple is a replica of the Adikesava Perumal temple in Thiruvattar.
• The principal deity is Padmanabhaswamy (Vishnu).

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court has agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the Kerala Animals and Birds Sacrifices Prohibition Act of 1968 that prohibits sacrifice of animals and birds in temples to ‘please’ the deity.
Dichotomy over ritual slaughter

• The Supreme Court will analyse how the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 allows the killing of animals but prohibits cruelty to animals.
• It highlighted the “dichotomy” in animal protection law that allows the killing of animals for food but does prohibits killing of animals for an offer to a deity and then consumption.

Why did SC interfere?

• The 1968 Kerala law bans the killing of animals and birds for religious sacrifices but not for personal consumption. This amounted to arbitrary classification.

Legal protections to Animal sacrifice

• The Kerala Act criminalizes the intent behind the animal sacrifice.
• If the sacrifice is not for propitiating any deity but for personal consumption even in the precincts of the temple, it is not forbidden.
• Section 28 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1960 does not make the killing of animals for religious purposes and offence.

Appeal citing the necessity of the practice

• The oral remarks came in an appeal filed by P.E. Gopalakrishnan and some others, who are Shakthi worshippers, and for whom, animal sacrifice is an integral part of the worship.
• In their appeal, they said the animal sacrifice was an “essential religious practice” and the High Court had no power to interfere.

Why animal sacrifice needs a rethink?

• All religions call for compassion, no religion requires killing or eating animals and hacking animals to death with weapons.
• The way executioners handle, transport and kill animals for sacrifices and consumption violates animal transport and slaughter laws, making it a punishable offence.
• There exist ample ambiguities in religious texts over allowing the ritual slaughter of animals.
• Moreover, the practice of animal sacrifice normalizes killing and desensitizes humans to violence against animals.

Legal safeguard for animals

• In 1976, the 42nd amendment incorporated protection of wildlife and forests in the Directive Principles.
• It also included forests and protection of wild animals in the Concurrent List of the constitution.
• Article 48 A, mandate that the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country.
• Article 51 A (g) of the Constitution states that, it shall be the fundamental duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment including forests and Wildlife.
• According to the Twelfth Schedule of Indian constitution, Municipalities may undertake certain duties pertaining to the regulation of slaughterhouses and tanneries.

Wildlife Protection Act, 1972

• This Act provides for the protection of the country’s wild animals, birds and plant species, in order to ensure environmental and ecological security. Among other things, the Act lays down restrictions on hunting many animal species

Context:  Constitutional courts cannot judicially review disqualification proceedings under the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) of the Constitution until the Speaker or Chairman makes a final decision on merits.

• The judgment is significant in the case of the ousted Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and the 18 MLAs, who were issued a notice under the anti-defection law after the ruling Congress sought their disqualification and they have moved to Rajasthan Highcourt regarding defection.
• They said that the provision infringes into their right to express dissent and is a violation of their fundamental right to free speech as a legislator.

What is Anti-Defection Law?

• The anti-defection law seeks to prevent political defections which may be due to reward of office or other similar considerations. 
• It was inserted in the Constitution in 1985 by the 52nd amendment. 
• Defection means that an elected legislator changed their party after winning an election.
• Any member of the House can petition the Presiding Officer of a legislature— the speaker—to disqualify an MLA under the Tenth Schedule.

Disqualification criteria

• If a member of a house belonging to a political party involves in the following activities, he/she stands disqualified 
• Voluntarily gives up the membership of his political party, or
• Votes, or does not vote in the legislature, contrary to the directions of his political party. However, if the member has taken prior permission, or is condoned by the party within 15 days from such voting or abstention, the member shall not be disqualified.
• If an independent candidate joins a political party after the election.
• If a nominated member joins a party six months after he becomes a member of the legislature.
• The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.

Exemptions

• If a member goes out of his party as a result of a merger of the party with another party. A merger takes place when two-thirds of the members of the party have agreed to such a merger.
• If a member, after being elected as the presiding officer of the House, voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or rejoins it after he ceases to hold that office. This exemption has been provided in view of the dignity and impartiality of the office.

Speaker’s Powers with regard to Anti-Defection Law

• The power for the disqualification under 10th schedule arising out of defection is vested in the Speaker.
• In the verdict of  Kihoto Hollohan versus Zachilhu case (1993), the Supreme Court said that the decision of the speaker is not final and can be questioned in any court of law. It is subject to judicial review on the grounds of malafide, perversity, and any such grounds. 

What was the Kihoto Hollohan case?

• The law covering the disqualification of legislators and the powers of the Speaker in deciding such matters became part of the statute book in 1985 when the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution was adopted.
• A constitutional challenge to the Tenth Schedule was settled by the apex court in Kihoto Hollohan.
• The principal question before the Supreme Court in the case was whether the powerful role given to the Speaker violated the doctrine of Basic Structure — the judicial principle that certain basic features of the Constitution cannot be altered by amendments by Parliament, laid down in the landmark judgment in Kesavananda Bharati vs State Of Kerala (1973). 
• The Kihoto Hollohan judgment is significant in the case of ousted Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and other 18 MLAs, who were issued a notice under the anti-defection law after the ruling Congress sought their disqualification.
• The apex court has mentioned that anti-defection law is valid as a political party functions on the strength of shared beliefs. Its own political stability and social utility depend on the concerted action of its members in furtherance of those commonly held principles. 

Stand of Constitution bench of Rajasthan Highcourt

• It explained that the reason for limiting the role of courts in ongoing defection proceedings is that the “office of the Speaker is held in the highest respect and esteem in parliamentary traditions.
• It mentioned that the evolution of the institution of parliamentary democracy has as its pivot the institution of the Speaker. He is said to be the very embodiment of propriety and impartiality.

Context: Recently, the President of the USA has issued an order to end Hong Kong’s special status and signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, a legislation that would sanction banks doing business with Chinese officials.
What’s the issue?

• Until now the US has given Hong Kong – a global financial and trading hub – special status under US law.
• The provision dates from when the territory was a British colony and gives it favourable trading terms. 

Reasons Behind the Move

• China’s imposition of national security law in Hong Kong.
• USA’s blame on China for mishandling the Covid-19 pandemic and not informing the world about its severity.
• China's military buildup in the South China Sea and its treatment of Uighur Muslims.

Significance of Hong Kong Autonomy Act & Executive Order

• The law gives US administration powerful tools to hold responsible the individuals in the entities involved in extinguishing Hong Kong’s freedom.
• Hong Kong will now be treated the same as mainland China and no special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies.
• The executive order will hold China accountable for its oppressive actions against the people of Hong Kong.
• The Act will allow the Trump administration to levy sanctions against foreign individuals and banks for contributing to the erosion of Hong Kong`s autonomy.
• It imposes sanctions on entities that help violate Hong Kong's autonomy and financial institutions that do business with them.

Possible Outcomes

• The new law will force all but provincial Chinese banks to choose between assisting Beijing’s efforts in Hong Kong or being able to conduct transactions in USA dollars and operate in the world’s largest economy.
• It will have a devastating impact on Hong Kong as the financial gateway to Western markets.
• Completely ending Hong Kong's special treatment could prove self-defeating for the USA because it was the source of the largest bilateral US goods trade surplus last year, at USD 26.1 billion.
• Hong Kong is a major destination for USA’s legal and accounting services. Around 85,000 USA citizens lived in Hong Kong in 2018 and more than 1,300 USA companies operate there, including nearly every major financial firm.

China’s Response

• China has held that the Hong Kong Autonomy Act “maliciously slanders” its legislation in Hong Kong and has vowed to retaliate.
• It will make necessary responses to protect its legitimate interests and impose sanctions on relevant USA personnel and entities.

Impact of China's New Security Law for Hong Kong

• It criminalises four activities i.e. secession, subversion, organization and perpetration of terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.
• It includes some specific offences such as damaging government buildings and lobbying against the Chinese government.
• It also allows for a National Security Committee to investigate and prosecute.
• The Hong Kong Police are given extensive new controls to censor Internet content, track people online and seize electronic records.

Context: Recently, the Prime Minister will virtually address the high-level segment of United Nations Economic and Social Council(ECOSOC) as this year marks the 75th anniversary of the Council.
Key Points

• In his first after India's election to the UN Security Council, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver a keynote address virtually at this year’s High-Level Segment of the United Nations Economic & Social Council (UN ECOSOC) session on Friday.
• Friday marks as the eve of 75th anniversary of the United Nations.
• The High-Level Segment is held annually by ECOSOC and convenes a diverse group of high-level representatives from the Government, the private sector, civil society and academia. 
• The theme of the High-level Segment is "Multilateralism after COVID19: What kind of UN do we need at the 75th anniversary".
• The event assumes special significance as this will be the first opportunity wherein Prime Minister Modi will be addressing the broader UN membership since India's overwhelming election as a non-permanent member of the Security Council on 17th June 2020 (for the term 2021-22).

The session will focus on critical forces shaping the course of multilateralism and explore ways to 

• bolster the global agenda through strong leadership, 
• effective international institutions,  
• broadening of participation and enhanced significance of global public goods.

About United Nations Economic and Social Council(ECOSOC) 

• The United Nations Economic and Social Council(ECOSOC) was established in 1945. It is one of the six main organs of the United Nations.
• Other organs are UNSC, UNGA, Trusteeship Council, ICJ and UN secretariat.
• Aim: To serve as a forum for discussing international economic and social issues and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and the United Nations system.
• Headquarters: New York, United States.
• Members: The Council consists of 54 Member States which are elected for three-year terms by the General Assembly.

Context: Recently, the territorial dispute and ethnic conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh region have erupted again.
Background

• The conflict started in 1988 when the Karabakh Armenians demanded transfer of  Karabakh from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia.
• The enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh had held a referendum which was boycotted by Azerbaijan
• The Azerbaijan authorities organized massacres and ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population on the entire territory of Azerbaijan, particularly in Sumgait, Baku and Kirovabad.
• In 1992, the violence had increased and thousands of civilians had been displaced, compelling international bodies to take notice.
• In May 1994, Russia mediated a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but the conflict has continued for three decades, with instances of ceasefire violations and violence instigated from both sides.

About Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

• It is a territorial and ethnic conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, which are controlled by Armenia in reality but are internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. 
• The conflict has its origins in the early 20th century when the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin decided to make the Nagorno-Karabakh region an autonomous region of Soviet Azerbaijan.

Key Facts

• Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh.
• It is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Impact of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

• In this disputed region, there are hundreds of civilian settlements, residents of which would be directly impacted and potentially displaced if any large-scale war were to break out between the two countries.
• Any military escalation would draw regional powers like Turkey and Russia more deeply into the conflict.
• There is also the question of the network of oil and gas pipelines and strategic roads which access might be blocked or interrupted. 
• For both nations, these would create immediate challenges and war would not be in the interest of both countries.

Context: Recently, Prime Minister of lndia deliver an address to mark World Youth Skills Day on 15th July. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2014.
Key Facts

• World Youth Skills Day: It has been celebrated every year on 15th July since 2014.
• Aim:To acknowledge and celebrate the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.
• Theme: “Skills for a Resilient Youth in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond”.
• According to UNGA, Covid-19 has led to the worldwide closure of training institutions, threatening the continuity of skills development.
• Nearly 70% of the world’s youth are affected by school closures.
• According to the Global Trends for Youth 2020 report, since 2017, there has been an upward trend in the number of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET).
• Global Trends for Youth report is released by International Labour Organisation (ILO).
• Thus it has become important to impart relevant skills to the youth which can help them in the long run and successfully manage evolving challenges.
• 2030 Agenda: Education and training are central to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• The vision of the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030 is fully captured by Sustainable Development Goal-4, which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
• Education 2030 devotes attention to technical and vocational skills development, acquisition of technical and vocational skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.
• It also focuses on the elimination of gender disparity.

About Skill India

• Skill India is an initiative of the Government of India which has been launched to empower the youth of the country with skill sets which make them more employable and more productive in their work environment.
• Skill India offers courses across several sectors which are aligned to the standards recognised by both, the industry and the government under the National Skill Qualification Framework.
• The courses help a person focus on practical delivery of work and help him enhance his technical expertise so that he is ready for day one of his job and companies don’t have to invest into training him for his job profile.

Some facts

• In the whole world, one in five people is NEET that is not in employment, education, and training. Three out of four young NEETs are women.
• Between 1997 and 2017, the young population grew by 139 million and the population of the youth labour force shrank by 58.7 million.
• Almost 2 out of 5 young workers in emerging and developing economies live on less than US$3.10 a day.
• Before the current crisis, young people were 3 times as likely as adults (25 years and older) to be unemployed. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, currently, more than 1 in 6 young people are out of work.

Context: A recent study has shown that people unexposed to and not infected with novel coronavirus may still exhibit T cell responses specific to this virus. 

• It is thought that Coronavirus specific T cell responses seen in healthy people might arise from memory T cells derived from exposure to ‘common cold’ coronaviruses.

About T Cells

• They are also called T lymphocyte, type of leukocyte (white blood cell) that is an essential part of the immune system.
• They are one of two primary types of lymphocytes—B cells being the second type—that determine the specificity of the immune response to antigens (foreign substances) in the body.
• They originate in the bone marrow and mature in the thymus.

Why are they called memory cells?

• In the thymus, T cells multiply and differentiate into helper, regulatory, or cytotoxic T cells or become memory T cells.
• They are then sent to peripheral tissues or circulate in the blood or lymphatic system.
• Once stimulated by the appropriate antigen, helper T cells secrete chemical messengers called cytokines, which stimulate the differentiation of B cells into plasma cells (antibody-producing cells).

How do they control immunity?

• Regulatory T cells act to control immune reactions, hence their name.
• Cytotoxic T cells, which are activated by various cytokines, bind to and kill infected cells and cancer cells.
• Because the body contains millions of T and B cells, many of which carry unique receptors, it can respond to virtually any antigen.

Vaccination outcomes on T cells

• There is a possibility that pre-existing T cell memory might influence vaccination outcomes.
• Pre-existing immunity could help elicit better immune responses against novel coronavirus, and these responses can manifest faster.
• Meanwhile, pre-existing immunity could be mistaken as an enhanced efficacy of the vaccine in eliciting immune responses.
• This could be particularly confusing in Phase-1 trials where the vaccine is tested on a small group of healthy participants.

Its drawbacks

• The pre-existing immunity can reduce the immune responses that the vaccine causes through a mechanism called the “original antigenic sin”.
• It can also lead to antibody-mediated disease enhancement, where antibodies present at sub-neutralizing concentrations can actually augment virus infection and cause more severe disease.
• This was seen in the case of chikungunya and dengue.

Context: Recently, India has started phase I/II clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine - ZyCoV-D, designed and developed by Zydus (a pharmaceutical company) with support from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

• The Vaccine Discovery Programme supported by the Department of Biotechnology under the National Biopharma Mission, implemented by BIRAC moves into clinical trial.
• The other indigenously developed vaccine - Covaxin - produced by Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech is also underway to start clinical trials.

About COVID 19 Vaccine ZyCoV-D

• It is a plasmid DNA vaccine designed and developed by Zydus and partially funded by the Department of Biotechnology.
• It is the first indigenously developed vaccine for COVID-19 to be administered in humans in India.
• In the pre-clinical phase, the vaccine was found to elicit a strong immune response in multiple animal species like mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits.
• The antibodies produced by the vaccine were able to neutralize the wild type virus in virus neutralization assay indicating the protective potential of the vaccine candidate.

About National Biopharma Mission

• It is the Industry-Academia Collaborative Mission of Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
• Its aim is to accelerate discovery research to early development for Biopharmaceuticals approved by the Cabinet.
• It is being implemented at Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
• It is dedicated to deliver affordable products to the nation with an aim to improve the health standards of India’s population.

About Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)

• It is a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, setup by Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
• It is an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs.
• It is a industry-academia interface and implements its mandate through a wide range of impact initiatives.

Context: Recently, the Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd, Pune, has been granted permission to manufacture the first indigenously developed Pneumonia Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) i.e. Pneumococcal Polysaccharide.
Key Points

• The permission has been granted by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), a drug regulatory authority.
• This vaccine is used for active immunisation against invasive disease and pneumonia caused by “streptococcus pneumonia” in infants.
• India is planning for the nationwide rollout of PCV under Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).

About Pneumonia

• It is an infection in one or both lungs.The infection causes inflammation in the air sacs in your lungs which are called alveoli.The alveoli fill with fluid or pus making it difficult to breathe.
• It is caused by a number of infectious agents, including viruses, bacteria and fungi.
• Its Symptoms: High fever and chills, cough with phlegm, physical weakness and a feeling of being unwell, shortness of breath and rapid breathing and a racing pulse.

Transmission

• The viruses and bacteria that are commonly found in a child’s nose or throat can infect the lungs if they are inhaled.
• They may also spread via air-borne droplets from a cough or sneeze.
• It may also spread through blood especially during and shortly after birth.
• Treatment: Pneumonia is both preventable and treatable.

Initiatives against Pneumonia

• Integrated Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD): It was launched by WHO and UNICEF in 2009.It aims to end preventable childhood deaths due to pneumonia and diarrhoea by 2025.
• Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS) campaign: It was launched by the Union Health Ministry to mobilise people to protect children from pneumonia and train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the disease.

About Streptococcus Pneumonia 

• Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is a Gram-positive bacterium that is responsible for the majority of community-acquired pneumonia.
• It is a commensal organism in the human respiratory tract, meaning that it benefits from the human body, without harming it.
• However, in susceptible individuals with weaker immune systems, such as the elderly and young children, the bacterium may become pathogenic and spread to other locations to cause disease. 
• Many people carry the bacteria in their nose and throat without becoming ill. Streptococcus pneumoniae is spread from person to person by inhaling or direct exposure to the bacteria droplets through coughing or sneezing from an infected person.
• The contagious period varies and may last for as long as the organism is present in the nose and throat. A person can no longer spread S. pneumoniae after taking the proper antibiotics for 1-2 days.

Context: Recently, Scientists from the Institute of Nano Science & Technology (INST), Mohali, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology Government of India, have formulated nanoparticles with chitosan and loaded these nanoparticles with zinc gluconate for reducing the severity of rheumatoid arthritis
About Rheumatoid arthritis(RA)

• It is an autoimmune disease that can cause joint pain and damage throughout the human body.
• It is a chronic inflammatory disorder.
• In some people, the condition can damage a wide variety of body systems, including the skin, eyes, lungs, heart and blood vessels, apart from the joints.
• Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s tissues.
• Unlike the wear-and-tear damage of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis affects the lining of the joints, causing a painful swelling that can eventually result in bone erosion and joint deformity.
• Severe rheumatoid arthritis can cause physical disabilities.
• There is no cure for RA but there are treatments that can help manage it.
• Effect of zinc: Element Zinc is vital for maintaining normal bone homeostasis, and its levels are reported to get reduced in rheumatoid arthritis patients and arthritis-induced animals.

Context: Recently, scientists at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) have developed a simple, low-cost, environment-friendly, and sustainable supercapacitor device.

• ARCI is an autonomous organization of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

About Supercapacitor

• A supercapacitor is a high-capacity capacitor with a capacitance value much higher than other capacitors, but with lower voltage limits, that bridges the gap between electrolytic capacitors and rechargeable batteries.
• A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy in an electric field.
• It typically stores 10 to 100 times more energy per unit volume or mass than electrolytic capacitors, and can accept and deliver charge much faster than batteries.
• The supercapacitor is a next-generation energy storage device that has received extensive research attention owing to advantages such as high power density, long durability, and ultrafast charging characteristic as compared to conventional capacitors and lithium-ion batteries (LIB).
• Among the four main components of a supercapacitor – electrode, electrolyte, separator, and the current collector, the first two are the pivotal components, which directly determine the electrochemical behaviour of the supercapacitors.
• The fabrication cost of electrode materials, as well as electrolytes, should be reduced because these two components account for a major portion of the device manufacturing cost.

Key findings of the study

• In search of a cost-effective material for making affordable supercapacitor devices, scientists at ARCI have converted industrial waste cotton into highly porous carbon fibres by activation process and then utilised the porous carbon fibres to make high-performance supercapacitor electrodes.
• The team also demonstrated the feasibility of using seawater as a natural electrolyte for the fabrication of aqueous-based supercapacitor devices, which shows great potential for practical implementation.

Benefit

• This supercapacitor showed great potential for practical implementation.
• It exhibited maximum capacitance, good durability and high efficiency.
• Capacitance is the ability of a system to store an electric charge.
• Efficiency denotes the charge transfer in a system facilitating an electrochemical reaction.
• When integrated with a solar cell, the supercapacitor will become a low cost, eco-friendly, efficient and self-powering device.
• It has a long life cycle and can be used as maintenance-free power supply.
• It can also overcome the drawbacks of the intermittent nature of the solar irradiation.

Road Ahead

• For the first time, natural seawater is explored as an environmentally friendly, cost-effective, scalable, and alternative aqueous electrolyte, which may replace the existing aqueous-based electrolytes for the economic fabrication of supercapacitor.
• The development is an excellent example of creative science for the sustainable, green processes embedding principles of waste-to-wealth.

Context: Recently, United Arab Emirates first launch to Mars has been delayed two days by poor weather conditions at the Japan`s Tanegashima Space Center. 

• It is one of three missions launching to Mars this month. The USA and China, both have surface rovers in the late stages of preparation.

About Hope`s Mission

• The Emirates Mars Mission, or Hope is built by the United Arab Emirates. It is Arab region’s first foray into interplanetary space.
• It is a $200 million spacecraft. The mission will orbit Mars and study the dynamics of the martian atmosphere and its interaction with outer space and the solar wind.
• Hope is expected to spend about seven months traveling to Mars, arriving in early 2021. 
• The spacecraft will orbit over the Red Planet’s equator for a full Mars year (nearly two Earth years) studying the planet’s weather and atmosphere.

The primary scientific objectives are to 

• search for the connection between current martian weather and the ancient climate of Mars, 
• study the loss mechanisms of Mars’ atmosphere to space by tracking the behavior and escape of hydrogen and oxygen, 
• investigate how the lower and upper levels of the martian atmosphere are connected, and create a global picture of how the martian atmosphere varies throughout the day and year.
• The other Mars Mission which will be launched in the near future are China’s Tianwen-1 lander and NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

Objective Behind Mars Exploration

• Despite being starkly different in many ways, the Red Planet has several Earth-like features– such as clouds, polar ice caps, volcanoes, and seasonal weather patterns.
• For ages, scientists have wondered whether Mars can support life. In the past few years, Mars missions have been able to discover the possible presence of liquid water on the planet, either in the subsurface today or at some point in its past.

Context: The Chinese rocket named Kuaizhou-11 failed due to malfunction during the flight, losing both the satellites it was carrying.
About Kuaizhou-11

• Kuaizhou, meaning “fast ship” in Chinese, was operated by the commercial launch firm Expace and was originally scheduled for 2018 after being developed three years earlier.
• Also known as KZ-11, it had a lift-off mass of 70.8 tonnes, and was designed to launch low-Earth and Sun-synchronous orbit satellites.
• It was carrying two satellites — the first being a remote sensing satellite that would provide data to clients on a commercial basis for forecasting and managing geological disasters.
• It would also provide the information required for natural resource exploration. The second was part of a series of satellites for low-Earth orbit navigation.
• Both satellites were built by Changguang Satellite Co. Ltd., a commercial entity born out of the state-owned firms.

Commercial space industry in China

• According to an expert who spoke to SpaceNews, commercial launches are an emerging industry in China.
• Companies such as Expace, iSpace, and Landspace, created after the Chinese government opened its space sector to private investment in 2014, have cut down traditional launch operations and are developing rapid response capabilities, the report stated. This has provided greater advantages for both government and commercial customers.
• Since the start of 2020, there have been 19 launches from China, three of which have failed (including Kuaizhou-11).
• The 18th launch, which took place a day before, sent into space the APSTAR-6D telecommunications satellite — which would remain in orbit for 15 years as part of a broadband communications system for the Asia-Pacific region with speeds up to 50 gbps

Space Commercialization in India

• The development of low-cost carrier rockets must be seen in the backdrop of the fact that China gears up to compete with India to attract the lucrative global space launch market.
• According to an article published in 2017 in the Global Times, ‘China's space industry is lagging behind that of India in the commercial space industry.’
• The Chinese rockets will have to create a niche for themselves in the satellite market where the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has already gained a foothold.
• ISRO’s tried and trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has till now launched 297 foreign satellites and has various variants, which are meant for carrying different-size payloads and to different orbits.
• Small satellite revolution is underway, globally, 17,000 small satellites are expected to be launched between 2020 and 2030. A strong private sector in space will help India to tap into this lucrative commercial space launch market.
• However, apart from economic and efficient launch vehicles, India must also explore other domains, say, space tourism through private sector involvement.
• Space tourism is one among several opportunities that Indian businesses may be keen to explore. A policy framework to enable private participation in this sector, of course, would have to be formulated by the government.

Increasing Space Competitiveness at Global level

• USA: Recently, SpaceX became the first private company to launch people (human spaceflight) into orbit, a feat achieved by the US, Russia & China.
• The spacecraft Crew Dragon was used to successfully carry astronauts of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the International Space Station (ISS).
• Singapore is offering itself as a hub for space entrepreneurship based on its legal environment, availability of skilled manpower and equatorial location.
• New Zealand is positioning itself as a location for private rocket launches.

Steps Taken by India

• Approval to the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) to provide a level playing field for private companies to use Indian space infrastructure.
• New Space India Limited (NSIL), the newly created second commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
• ISRO has been a genuine global pioneer of aerospatial cost compression on several fronts. Cost-effectiveness has given the agency a distinct edge in the commercial arena of satellite launch services.
• With such a valuable base of expertise within the country, it is only natural to expect the emergence of a private space industry that could prove globally competitive.

Context: Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up to lift off Brazil’s Amazonia-1 satellite next month onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
About Amazonia -1

• It is the first Earth Observation satellite completely designed, integrated, tested and operated by Brazil.
• The operations of Amazonia-1 will be held jointly under China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite Programme (CBERS).
• Amazonia 1 is a Sun synchronous (polar) orbiting satellite that can generate images of any part of the world every 5 days. 
• Note: It will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), as a payload of PSLV.

What is the purpose of Amazonia-1 which PSLV will launch?

• The images from the Brazilian satellite will help in observing and monitoring the deforestation of the Amazon Region.
• The images will help in the agricultural and vegetation areas.

India-Brazil Space Cooperation

• At the 6th BRICS Summit in 2014, the two countries –India and Brazil had an agreement signed which talked about setting up a Brazilian earth station to receive data from the Indian satellites.
• ISRO provided training to the Brazilian scientists to operate and gather data through remote sensing.

India-Brazil space relations

• India gets tracking support from ground stations located Alcantara and Cuiaba, in Brazil.
• This tracking support is for Indian satellites and other space programmes including Chandrayaan-I, Megha Tropiques, MOM, and ASTROSAT.
• Note: Countries like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Bolivia are among some of the countries who have a Space Cooperation with ISRO at a different level. 

Context: Recently, a government committee headed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, in a Draft Non–Personal Data Governance Framework, has suggested that non-personal data generated in the country be allowed to be harnessed by various domestic companies and entities.
Background of Data protection and regulation in India

• The importance of data is increasing in this digital age and various countries are now concerned with data regulation and protection of data. While the European Union has come out with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), in India also, the Personal Data Protection Bill has been introduced already in the Lok Sabha.
• Now, the government is focusing on the non-personal data front also and is planning to introduce a bill in that regard also.
• The recommendations of the panel have been put up for public consultation as of now.

Key Suggestions

• It has also suggested setting up of a new authority which would be empowered to monitor the use and mining of such non-personal data.
• The development comes months after central government framed a draft personal data protection bill, which aims to build a framework to preserve the sanctity of consent in data sharing, and penalize those breaching privacy norms.

What is non-personal data?

• It is any set of data which does not contain personally identifiable information. This in essence means that no individual or living person can be identified by looking at such data.
• For example, while order details collected by a food delivery service will have the name, age, gender, and other contact information of an individual, it will become non-personal data if the identifiers such as name and contact information are taken out.

Three types of data

• The government committee has classified non-personal data into three main categories, namely public non-personal data, community non-personal data and private non-personal data.
• Public non-personal data: All the data collected by government and its agencies such as census, data collected by municipal corporations on the total tax receipts or any information collected during execution of all publicly funded works.
• Community non-personal data: Any data identifiers about a set of people who have either the same geographic location, religion, job, or other common social interests.
• For example, the metadata collected by ride-hailing apps, electricity distribution companies among others have been put under the community non-personal data category by the committee.
• Private non-personal data: Produced by individuals which can be derived from application of proprietary software or knowledge.

Need

• India, with the second-largest smartphone userbase, is one of the largest data markets in the world.
• A law that regulates the sharing, commercial use and privacy of non-personal data of users will ensure that big corporations don’t end up creating data monopolies which would invariably harm smaller businesses and tech startups. 

How sensitive can non-personal data be?

• Sharing of non-personal data with private players could lead to the creation of economic value, as the data could be useful for Indian entrepreneurs to develop new and innovative services and products.
• However, in certain categories such as data related to national security such as locations of government laboratories or research facilities, even if provided in anonymised form can be dangerous.
• Similarly, even if the data is about the health of a community, though it may be in anonymised form, it can still be dangerous.
• Therefore, as per the committee, the non-personal data arising from such sensitive personal data may be considered as sensitive non-personal data.

What are the global standards on non-personal data?

• In May 2019, the European Union came out with a regulation framework for the free flow of non-personal data in the European Union, in which it suggested that member states of the union would cooperate with each other when it came to data sharing. However, the regulation, had not defined what non-personal data constituted of.
• In several other countries across the world, there are no nationwide data protection laws, whether for personal or non-personal data.

Significance of this type of data

• It will spur innovation at an unprecedented scale in the country. 
• To promote and encourage the development of domestic industry and startups that can scale their data-based businesses.
• It will  help businesses create value of their data having an economic good, not just information.
• Minimize the possibility of data monopolies

Context: Recently, the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to access the centralised online database on FIRs and stolen vehicles.
Key highlights of the MoU

• This will provide NATGRID access to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) database, a platform that links around 14,000 police stations as all State police are mandated to file First Information Reports (FIR) in the CCTNS
• It enables the NATGRID to get information about details of a suspect as mentioned in the FIR such as his/her father’s name, telephone number and other details
• It will ensure that information of a suspect trail like telephone records etc. is shared through a secure platform, safeguarding it from leaks. 
• It will be a medium for at least 10 Central agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing to access data on a secured platform.
• The data will be procured by NATGRID from 21 organisations such as the telecom, tax records, bank, immigration etc.
• The State Police will not be part of NATGRID and they could directly contact different agencies for data. 

Issues

• Violate federalism principle: It would infringe on the federal system of the Constitution since the NCRB under the Union government is only a repository and the data pertaining to FIRs of a particular police station are a State subject, it does not violate any legal provisions as FIRs are shared with all the police stations.
• Data security: Many agencies have raised concerns regarding the accessibility of Data and privacy. The information and data accessed by any agency through the grid will not be accessible to any other agency as it will be an automated system and the request will land directly with the concerned department.
• More operational level, more is the issue of data breach: The Civil Aviation Ministry and airline companies had raised concerns in providing information to one another agency  NATGRID. They contended that they already provide information as asked for to the Bureau of Immigration and the Customs authorities. But, once NATGRID is operational, all agencies will have to route their requests through the secured platform. 

Expenditure for implementation

• The major amount is on account of expenditure “towards the NATGRID software solution” and for “building infrastructural works of NATGRID office, Data Centre etc. at Delhi and Bengaluru.”
• The MHA stated that  the solutions to be implemented by NATGRID are technology-intensive and in greenfield areas involving “multiple stakeholders and an ever-evolving ecosystem

About National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)

• Origin: The project initially started in 2009 after the Mumbai terrorist attack  with a budget of Rs 2,800 crores. Recently it has been pushed for completion by the present Home Minister and will be operational by December 31, 2020.
• Features: It is an online database for collating scattered pieces of information and putting them together on one platform.
• It links intelligence and investigation agencies and is exempted from the Right to Information Act, 2005 under sub-section (2) of Section 24.
• It will utilise technologies like Big Data and data analytics to study and analyse the huge amounts of data from various intelligence and enforcement agencies to help track suspects in various cases as required. It is intending to set up an Entity Extraction, Visualization, and Analytics (EVA) system.
• Mandate: It is mandated with a couter-terrorism measure that collects and collates a host of information from government databases including tax and bank account details, credit card transactions, visa and immigration records, itineraries of Rail and air travel etc. 

About National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)

• It was set up in 1986, based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Task Force (1985). It works under the aegis of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It has headquarters in New Delhi. 
• It is the nodal agency for authentic sources of data on crime on various parameters including accidents, suicides from across all the states of the country and prisons for policy matters and research.  
• It designed and operationalised the Crime & Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) in 2009 which aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for effective policing at all levels through the adoption of principles of e-Governance.
• It publishes 4 annual publications on Crime, Prison Statistics, Accidental Deaths & Suicides and Finger Prints. These publications serve as principal reference points on crime statistics.

Context: Recently, Iran and China have quietly drafted a sweeping economic and security partnership that would clear the way for billions of dollars of Chinese investments in energy and other sectors.
Key Points

• The partnership would vastly expand Chinese presence in banking, telecommunications, ports, railways and dozens of other projects.
• In exchange, China would receive a regular and heavily discounted supply of Iranian oil over the next 25 years.
• The proposed agreement also describes deepening military cooperation, potentially giving China a foothold in a region that has been a strategic preoccupation of the United States for decades.
• It calls for joint training and exercises, joint research and weapons development and intelligence sharing — all to fight “the lopsided battle with terrorism, drug and human trafficking and cross-border crimes.”

Issues

• The partnership undercuts U.S. efforts to isolate the Tehran government because of its nuclear and military ambitions.
• It represents a major blow to the Trump administration’s aggressive policy toward Iran since abandoning the nuclear deal reached in 2015 (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
• Renewed U.S. sanctions, including the threat to cut off access to the international banking system for any company that does business in Iran, have succeeded in suffocating the Iranian economy by scaring away badly needed foreign trade and investment.
• But Tehran’s desperation has pushed it into the arms of China, which has the technology and appetite for oil that Iran needs.
• Iran has been one of the world’s largest oil producers, but its exports, Tehran’s largest source of revenue, have plunged since the Trump administration began imposing sanctions in 2018; China gets about 75% of its oil from abroad and is the world’s largest importer, at more than 10 million barrels a day in 2019.
• It would create new and potentially dangerous flashpoints in the deteriorating relationship between China and the U.S.

Significance of the move for both the countries 

• Iran has been one of the world’s largest oil producers and exports are its largest source of revenue which have plunged since the US administration began imposing sanctions in 2018.
• China gets about 75% of its oil from abroad and is the world’s largest importer, at more than 10 million barrels a day last year.
• Iran and China both view this deal as a strategic partnership is not just expanding their own interests but confronting the U.S.

Concerns for India

• India’s concerns have increased exponentially due to expanding Chinese presence in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean through economic engagements, construction of ports and pipelines because all its energy imports from the Gulf and Africa
• Chinese closer ties with oil producers can bring governance and energy security issues for India.

Conclusion

• India may increase its dependency on oil imports from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• In addition, US shale production can offer India a reprieve.
• India also needs to improve its domestic production.

Context: Recently, the Ministry of Shipping has issued the draft of the Aids to Navigation Bill, 2020 for suggestions from the stakeholders and general public.

• It is done in accordance with Prime Minister Modi’s vision for augmenting people’s participation and transparency in governance. 
• The draft bill is uploaded on the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships website where citizens can submit their suggestions and opinions regarding the draft bill. 

Key Highlights of the Draft Bill

• Objective: The Bill is proposed to replace the colonial Lighthouse Act, 1927 to incorporate the best global practices, technological developments and India’s International obligations in the field of Aids to Marine Navigation.
• Contemporary approach: It is part of the proactive approach adopted by the Ministry of Shipping by repealing archaic colonial laws and replacing it with modern and contemporary needs of the maritime industry. It also provides for identification and development of heritage lighthouses. 
• Functions to Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL): It has provisions for empowering Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) with additional power and functions such as Vessel Traffic Service, Wreck flagging, training and certification, implementation of other obligations under International Conventions, where India is a signatory.
• Penalty for offences: It provides a new schedule of offences, along with commensurate penalties for obstructing and damaging the aids to navigation, and non-compliance with directives issued by the Central Government and other bodies. 

Need for new legislation

• The role of authorities regulating and operating maritime navigation has changed drastically in the age of modern technology and improved aids which eases maritime navigation.
• Therefore the new law encompasses a major shift from lighthouses to modern aids of navigation which will keep pace with changing technology. 

About Lighthouse Act of 1927

• It is an act which has the provision for maintenance and control of lighthouses. It was enacted by the Britishers in 1927.

Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships

• It is a subordinate office under the Ministry of Shipping. Its mission is to help the mariners and local fishermen to navigate safely in the Indian waters. It provides General Aids to Marine Navigation along the Indian coast. 
• It has headquarters at Noida. (U.P.) and for administrative control, the entire coastline has been divided into Nine Districts having their regional headquarters at Gandhidham, Jamnagar, Mumbai, Goa, Cochin, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata and Port Blair.

Context: The custodial deaths in Thoothukudi and the killing of eight policemen in an ambush in Uttar Pradesh has brought the country’s police force under scrutiny.
Background

• There are question marks on Vikas Dubey’s encounter.

Killing of George Flyod in USA

• It led to a series of protests against police atrocities in the US culminating into the Black Lives Matter campaign.
• The Minneapolis council has drafted a plan to abolish the police and replace it with a department of community safety and violence prevention.
• No such outrage in India:Some people justify police violence in Kashmir and the Northeast as the only solution to the insurgency.
• Maintenance of law and order: It is primarily the responsibility of the states.

Issues related to Training
Place of training

• IPS: They head the Police departments providing the system an anchor at the Central level. These officers are trained at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy for Administration, Mussoorie and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (NPA) at Hyderabad.
• Lower-level officials and constables: Theyare trained at different state police academies. Most of the force uses strong arm tactics that date back to the colonial era at the lower level.

Training time:

• An IPS officer is trained for about two years, an inspector-level officer receives a year’s training and a constable is trained for nine months.
• Quality of training:
• It varies according to state. Generally, the officials at the lower rungs only receive basic training for field challenges and human rights issues are not an essential part of their training.
• Fact: There are also two police universities in the country and the home ministry has recently approved the creation of a national police university.

Qualification

• One needs to be a graduate to become an IPS officer.
• For recruitment at the lower levels of the force: Only the physical agility of the candidate is tested.

Issues of police

• Police officials work 10 to 16 hours and seven days a week which takes a toll on the health of several officers.

The “Status of Policing in India Report 2019”

• It points out that 70 police stations across 20 states do not have wireless facilities and 214 police stations do not have a telephone.
• More than 40 per cent of police stations in the country cannot avail the help of forensic technology.
• Politicizing issue: The “depolicing society” needs to be discussed on its nature and scope.
• Need of modernization: The Bureau for Police Research and Development was established in 1970 for the “modernization” of police. The institution has rarely engaged with human rights issues.
• Only a few states have in-service training for lower level officers and the constabulary.
• All this is bound to affect the functioning of the police and reflect in the ways they engage with the public.

Need of NCF and Road Ahead

• It is high time that we address the infrastructural and organizational issues and concerns related to the police.
• There is a need to evolve a National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for police education and training like that for teachers and medical and engineering services.
• The curriculum must be informed by discussions at different levels — universities, NPA and the society itself.
• A progressive and democratic society and an aspiring economic superpower cannot be policed by a regressive system.
• An NCF can help the police act according to its motto-“With you, For you, Always”.

Context: Recently, Vikas Dubey, a gangster was killed by the Uttar Pradesh Police in an encounter (extra-judicial killing). However, many experts raised questions on the encounter and demanded a judicial enquiry into the matter.
Process

• Every state in India has a power to constitute a Special Task Force (STF) to deal with certain problems due to lack of adequate police forces for a task. 
• It was first constituted by Uttar Pradesh police to control the exponentially increasing crime rates.

What is Remand?

• Remand is a process by which a person keeps in the custody before its actual trial or conviction process.
• Meaning of the Remand is “to send back”.  It means when an accused is arrested by the police, then the police officer can’t keep the accused in its custody for more than 24 hours (sec. 57 CrPC), he has to present the accused before the Magistrate after the completion of 24 hours, for more detention in the custody.
• It is also known as “pre-trial detention”. Sections 56, 57, 167, and 309 of the code deal with the procedure to be adopted in relation to grant of remand.

Two types of Remand

• Judicial Remand or Judicial Custody: Accused is sent to the local jail/other establishment under the eyes of the judiciary. It means the custody of the accused is in the hands of the judiciary.
• Police Remand or Police Custody:  Accused is sent to the police station’s jail. In this police seeks custody of an accused to interrogate him.

Maximum period of remand

• Under section 167 of Cr.P.C., maximum period for which judicial magistrate can authorise the detention of accused is 15 days. The magistrate has the authority to remand the person into judicial or police custody.
• Police custody may extend only up to a period of 15 days from the date custody begins but judicial custody may extend to a period of 90 days for a crime which entails a punishment of death, life imprisonment etc. and 60 days for all other crimes if the magistrate is convinced that sufficient reasons exists, following which the accused must be released on bail.

Rights of accused

• The Constitution of India under Article 22 provides for the protection of the arrested person to the extent that he has a right to be informed of the reason for arrest and he must be produced before the nearest magistrate within a period of 24 hours.
• Article 22 (1) also provides that he shall be entitled to consult and to be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice.
• Section 50, Cr. P.C. which is a corollary to Article 22, says that the persons arrested should be informed of the ground of arrest, and of the right to bail.

What is Transit Remand?

• Section 80 in The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 defines the transit demand.
• It says “When a warrant of arrest is executed outside the district in which it was issued, the person has to be trialed in a court of that particular district for remand”.

Exception

• Unless the Court which issued the warrant is within 30 kms of the place of arrest OR
• Unless the Court is nearer than the Executive Magistrate/District Superintendent of Police/Commissioner of Police within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the arrest was made OR
• Unless security is taken under section 71.
• Example: An offense is committed in Uttar Pradesh but the offender is arrested in Madhya Pradesh. In this case, police will obtain transit remand from Madhya Pradesh court to produce offender in the Uttar Pradesh court so that he can be trialed and investigated.

Road Ahead

• Encounter killings must be investigated independently as they affect the credibility of rule of law. There is a need to ensure that there exists a rule of law in the society that needs to be adhered to by every State authority and the masses.
• Ensuring proper physical custody of the accused in order to prevent any attack by them on the police personnel.
• Further, there is a dire need for complete overhauling of the criminal justice system and bringing out required police reforms.
• Standard guidelines need to be laid down to better train the police personnel and equip them with all relevant skills so that they can effectively tackle every dreadful situation.
• Human rights angles need to be kept in the mind while dealing with arrested individuals/persons.

Context: According to the recent decision of the Supreme Court, persons with disabilities are entitled to the same benefits of SC/ST quota.
Background

• The decision came on a petition filed by Aryan Raj, a special needs person, against a Punjab and Haryana High Court order.
• Raj was denied relaxation in minimum qualifying marks in the Painting and Applied Art course in the Government College of Arts, Chandigarh.
• The college insisted that disabled persons too need to meet the general qualifying standard of 40% in the aptitude test, whereas SC/ST candidates were given a relaxation to 35%.

Upheld Delhi High Court Judgement

• In the Anmol Bhandari v. Delhi Technological University case (2012), the Delhi High Court held that people suffering from disabilities are also socially backward, and are therefore, at the very least, entitled to the same benefits as given to the Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe candidates.
• New academic courses should be designed to specifically cater to the needs of intellectually disabled persons.
• The Court observed the fact that intellectually/mentally challenged persons have certain limitations, which are not there in physically challenged persons.

Benefits to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe

• Article 15 (4) empowers the State to make special provision for the advancement of the SCs and the STs. E.g. providing fee concession in admission to any educational institution, building hostels for SCs/STs.
• Article 15 (5) empowers the State to reserve seats for SCs and the STs in admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State.
• However, it excludes minority educational institutions referred to in Article 30 (1).
• Article 16 (4) empowers the State to make provisions for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of SCs/STs.

Context: Recently, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under the Union Ministry of Social Justice withdrew the proposal to amend the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 to “decriminalise minor offences”.
Proposed amendment

• The DEPwD had proposed amendments to insert a new section “95A” in the existing law to allow that “any offence under certain sections (89, 92 (a) and 93) may be compounded by the chief commissioner or the state commissioner for persons with disabilities, with the consent of the aggrieved person with a disability in such manner which is specified by the Central government.
• Amendment sought “decriminalisation of minor offences and it would alleviate the risk of imprisonment for actions which do not necessarily have “malafide intent”.
• The Act was a hurdle in attracting investments by domestic and foreign investors which were necessary to revive the economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Activists stand

• The proposal had evoked a sharp response from activists and civil rights bodies who saw it as a means to dilute the legislation.
• The disabled community was unified in its view that this amendment would have made the Act toothless and removed the protection it gives to the disabled community.

About the Rights of Persons with Disability act, 2016

• The Act replaces the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, it came into force in  2016.
• It fulfils the obligations to the United National Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to which India is a signatory.   
• It aims to uphold the dignity of every Person with Disability (PwD) in society and prevent any form of discrimination. 
• The act also facilitates full acceptance of people with disability and ensures full participation and inclusion of such persons in the society. 
• It defines PwD as any person with long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which on interacting with barriers hinder effective and equal growth in the society.

Benefits

• Persons with at least 40% of a disability are entitled to certain benefits such as reservations in education and employment, preference in government schemes, etc.
• The Bill confers several rights and entitlements to disabled persons and these include disabled friendly access to all public buildings, hospitals, modes of transport, polling stations, etc. 
• In the case of mentally ill persons, district courts may award two types of guardianship.  A limited guardian takes decisions jointly with the mentally ill person.  A plenary guardian takes decisions on behalf of the mentally ill person, without consulting him. 
• Violation of any provision of the Act is punishable with imprisonment up to six months, and/or fine of Rs 10,000.  Subsequent violations carry a higher penalty.

Context: Recently, the National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) programme has been launched for the first time in online mode in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Key Points

• Around 23,000 Key Resource Persons and 17.5 lakh teachers and school heads have been trained under NISHTHA in face-to-face mode till date.
• For training the remaining 24 lakh teachers and school heads, NISHTHA has been customized for online mode.
• NISHTHA has been customized for online mode to be conducted through DIKSHA and NISHTHA portals by the NCERT, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting need for maintaining social distance and avoiding the congregation of people.

About the NISHTHA Programme

• It is a National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement at the elementary stage under the Samagra Shiksha scheme.
• The programme was launched in 2019 by the Department of School Education and Literacy.
• Thereafter, 33 states/UTs have launched this programme in their states/UTs in collaboration under Samagra Shiksha, which is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
• It is a capacity building programme for “Improving Quality of School Education through Integrated Teacher Training”.
• It aims to build competencies among all the teachers and school principals at the elementary stage.
• It is the world’s largest teachers’ training programme of its kind.
• The basic objective is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students.
• The expected outcomes of NISHTHA include, among others, improvement in the learning outcomes of students, creation of an enabling environment in the classrooms, improvement in the responsiveness of teachers to the social, emotional and psychological needs of students, ICT integration, etc.

Implementation

• In NISHTHA first level training has been provided by the National Resource Group (NRG) to the Key Resource Persons (KRPs) and State Resource Persons-Leadership (SRPs-L) identified by the states/UTs.
• The NRG has been constituted and oriented by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) drawing members from the NCERT, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS).
• KRPs and SRPs-L will provide training directly to teachers at block level.
• A robust portal/Management Information System (MIS) for delivery of the training, monitoring and support mechanism has been infused with this capacity building initiative.

About Samagra Shiksha Scheme

• The Government of India launched this scheme under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Department of School Education and Literacy looks after its administration. 
• The scheme was launched with a view to improving the quality of school education.
• The Scheme represents a paradigm shift in the conceptual design of school education, by treating ‘school’ holistically as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, and secondary to the senior secondary levels.
• The scheme was drafted with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling, and also equitable learning outcomes. 

Samagra Shiksha Scheme Genesis
The Samagra Shiksha Scheme was formed by subsuming the following three schemes to ensure an integrated and holistic school education:

1. (RMSA) Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan 
2. (SSA) Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan 
3. (TE) Teacher Education 

• The goal is to treat schooling as a smooth transition from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary and senior secondary level.
• It focuses on improving the quality of education at all levels by integrating the two T’s – Teachers and Technology.

Context: Recently, Union Human Resource Development Minister released PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education through online medium in New Delhi.
Background

• The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of schools and has impacted over 240 million children of the country who are enrolled in schools. Extended school closures may cause loss of learning.
• To mitigate the impact of the pandemic, schools will not only have to remodel and reimagine the way teaching and learning have happened so far, but will also need to introduce a suitable method of delivering quality education through a healthy mix of schooling at home and schooling at school.
• The PRAGYATA guidelines have been developed from the perspective of learners, with a focus on online/blended/digital education for students who are presently at home due to lockdown.

About PRAGYATA guidelines

• Guidelines have been prepared by the Union Ministry of HRD to ensure the safety and academic welfare of the students who are presently at home due to lockdown.
• The ministry has recommended a cap on the screen time for students.
• These guidelines for school heads and teachers describe the need assessment, planning and steps to implement digital education while ensuring cyber safety and privacy measures.
• Guidelines include eight steps of online/ digital learning that is, Plan- Review- Arrange- Guide- Yak (talk) – Assign- Track- Appreciate.
• The Guidelines also emphasize the need to unify all efforts related to digital/ online/on-air education such as DIKSHA, SWAYAM Prabha, SWAYAM MOOCS, Radio Vahini, Shiksha Vaani, Special content for children with special needs and ITPAL.

The guidelines outlines suggestions for administrators, school heads, teachers, parents and students on the following areas:

Need assessment

• Concerns while planning online and digital education like duration, screen time, inclusiveness, balanced online and offline activities etc. level wise
• Modalities of intervention including resource curation, level wise delivery etc.
• Physical, mental health and wellbeing during digital education
• Cyber safety and ethical practices including precautions and measures for maintaining cyber safety
• Collaboration and convergence with various initiatives

Guidelines for parents

• For parents, the guideline helps to understand the need for physical, mental health and wellbeing along with the cyber safety measures for children at home.
• Guidelines for physical health and mental wellness is stressed so that children do not get overly stretched or stressed, or get affected owing to prolonged use of digital devices.
• Also, it provides sufficient Dos and Don’ts regarding ergonomics and cyber safety.

Context: NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) launched the  ‘ATL App Development Module’ for school children all across the country.
Key Points

• It is a free online course on app development that aims to hone the skills of school students and transform them from App users to App makers under the Atal Tinkering Labs initiative.
• It has been launched by Atal Innovation Mission(AIM) in collaboration with Indian homegrown startup Plezmo.
• It  aims at transforming school students from App users to innovative App Developers.
• The vision is to foster creativity and innovation nationwide through its various integrated initiatives including incubators, Startups, community innovation Centers and Atal New India challenges for product and service innovations enabling socio economic growth of the country .
• The applicant schools would be provided financial support in the form of Grant-in-aid for a maximum period of 5 years.
• Till date, more than 5100 ATLs are established in more than 660 districts across the country by Atal Innovation Mission with more than 2 million students having access to the Tinkering Labs.

Additional Facts

• Atal innovation mission(AIM): It was set up by NITI Aayog in 2016 to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship by creating institutions and programs that enhance innovation in schools, colleges, and entrepreneurs in general.
• Atal Tinkering Labs(ATL): They have been established under the Atal Innovation Mission(AIM) with an aim to foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical computing among others.
• Funding: AIM will provide grant-in-aid of Rs. 20 Lakh to each school that includes a one-time establishment cost of Rs. 10 lakh and operational expenses of Rs. 10 lakh for a maximum period of 5 years to each ATL.
• Eligibility: Schools (minimum Grade VI – X) managed by Government, local body or private trusts/society can set up ATL.

Context: Recently, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has criticised the Rajasthan government for its new guidelines on elementary educatioThe new guidelines violate the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

• They deny children from economically weaker sections the right to free education in nursery classes.

Background

• Rajasthan’s Department of School Education issued guidelines stating that admissions to private schools under the RTE Act, 2009 for the 2020-21 academic year would take place only from class 1 or above, excluding pre-schoolers (children in the nursery).
• The guidelines recommend the age of admission to be “5 years or above but less than 7 years as of 31st March 2020”.

Violations

• These guidelines are violative of the RTE Act 2009 which states that at least 25% strength of a class in private schools should consist of children belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups.
• The guidelines only allow children less than 7 years but the RTE Act allows “male or female child of the age of six to fourteen years” for admission.

NCPCR’s Reaction

• It recommended the state to re-examine the guidelines in light of the Act and make necessary changes so that there is no loss of education to children.

About Indian Education System: The Present Pyramidal Structure
The Indian education system can broadly be considered as a pyramidal structure:

• Pre-primary level: 5-6 years of age.
• Primary (elementary) level: 6-14 years of age. The elementary-level education is guaranteed by our constitution under Article 21 A. For this level, the government has introduced Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) under the Right To Education(RTE) Act.
• Secondary level: Age group between 14-18. For this level, the government has extended SSA to secondary education in the form of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.
• Higher education: generally of three levels: UG→ PG→ MPhil/PhD. To cater to the requirements of higher education, the government has introduced Rashtriya Uchhattar Shiksha Abhiyan(RUSA).

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) related to Education

• Goal 4 of SDG: Education for all – ensures equitable, inclusive and quality education along with the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

Provisions in the Indian Constitution related to Education

• Under Article 45 in DPSP, it was mentioned that the government should provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14 years within 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution.
• As this was not achieved, Article 21A was introduced by the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002, making elementary education a fundamental right rather than a directive principle. And Article 45 was amended to provide for early childhood care and education to children below the age of six years.
• To implement Article 21A, the government legislated the RTE Act. Under this act, SSA – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – got a further impetus. SSA aims to provide Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) in a time-bound manner.
• SSA has been operational since 2000-2001. Its roots go back to 1993-1994 when the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was launched. However, under the RTE Act, it got legal backing.

RTE Act 2009

• 86th Amendment Act 2002 introduced Article 21-A, which provides for free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right.
• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act was enacted to implement this fundamental right.

Provisions of the RTE Act

• Right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school.
• ‘Compulsory education’ means an obligation of government to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education.
• Provision for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an age-appropriate class.
• Norms and standards like Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs), buildings and infrastructure, school-working days, teacher-working hours, appropriately trained and qualified teachers are enumerated.
• Rational deployment of teachers, ensuring that there is no urban-rural imbalance in their postings.
• Prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than services like decennial census, elections etc.
• It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment (b) screening procedures for admission of children (c) capitation fee (d) private tuition by teachers (e) running of schools without recognition.
• Development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the constitution, ensuring all-round development of the child, building a system of child-friendly and child-centred learning.
• To further inclusiveness, 25% reservation is provided for disadvantaged students in private schools.

About National Commission for Protection of Child Rights(NCPCR)

• It is a statutory body set up in March 2007 under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005.
• It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Mandate

• To ensure that all laws, policies, programmes and administrative mechanisms are in consonance with the child rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989.

Powers

• It monitors the implementation of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
• It can inquire into complaints about violation of the law and can summon an individual, demand evidence, seek a magisterial enquiry.

Context: Recently, the Office of the Registrar General’s Sample Registration System (SRS) has released a special bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2016-18.
Key Points

• The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in India has declined to 113 in 2016-18 from 122 in 2015-17 and 130 in 2014-2016.
• This is almost 100 deaths less than the 2007-09 period where MMR was at 212.
• Maternal mortality in a region is a measure of the reproductive health of women in the area.
• As per the World Health Organization, maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management.

Disparity amoung states

• The MMR of various States according to the bulletin includes  Assam (215), Bihar (149), Madhya Pradesh (173), Chhattisgarh (159), Odisha (150), Rajasthan (164), Uttar Pradesh (197) and Uttarakhand (99).
• The southern States registered a lower MMR Andhra Pradesh (65), Telangana (63), Karnataka (92), Kerala (43) and Tamil Nadu (60).

Reasons for Declining MMR
Focus on quality and coverage of health services through public health initiatives have contributed majorly to the decline.

Some of these initiatives are:

• LaQshya,
• Poshan Abhiyan,
• Janani Suraksha Yojana,
• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana,
• The implementation of the Aspirational District Programme and inter-sectoral action has helped to reach the most marginalized and vulnerable population.
• Recently launched Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan Initiative (SUMAN) especially focuses on zero preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
• The continuous progress in reducing the MMR will help the country to achieve the SDG 3 target of MMR below 70 by 2030.

About Maternal Mortality

• Maternal Death: It is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes.
• Maternal Mortality Ratio(MMR): It is defined as the number of maternal deaths during a given time period per 100,000 live births during the same time period.
• SDG 3.1: The target 3.1 of Sustainable Development Goals(SDG) set by the United Nations aims at reducing the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.

About Office of the Registrar General

• It comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs and primarily conducts the Population Census and monitors the implementation of the Registration of Births and Deaths in the country. 
• It also provides estimates on fertility and mortality using the Sample Registration System (SRS).

What is Sample Registration System (SRS)?

• It is the largest demographic sample survey in the country which provides direct estimates of maternal mortality through a nationally representative sample.

Context: According to a recent analysis by the Lancet, India’s population is forecasted to peak around 1.6 billion in 2048 from 1.38 billion in 2017. It will be followed by a 32% decline to around 1.09 billion in 2100.
World to see the peak

• A new analysis published in The Lancet has projected that the world population will peak much earlier than previously estimated.
• It projects the peak at 9.73 billion in 2064, which is 36 years earlier than the 11 billion peaks projected for 2100 by last year’s UN report World Population Prospects.
• For 2100, the new report projects a decline to 8.79 billion from the 2064 peak.

5 most populated countries

• The five largest countries in 2100 are projected to be India, Nigeria, China, the U.S. and Pakistan.
• However, these forecasts showed different future trajectories between countries.
• Nigeria is forecast to have continued population growth through 2100 and was expected to be the second-most populous country by then.

Predictions on India’s population

• For India, the report projects a peak population of 1.6 billion in 2048, up from 1.38 billion in 2017.
• By 2100, the population is projected to decline by 32% to 1.09 billion.
• However, meeting UN Sustainable Goal Development targets, the peak would be earlier and see a population decline to 929 million.
• Conventional wisdom is that though a decline in population is expected, it is expected to begin only around 2046.
• The fall according to the latest 2019 assessment by the UNDP calculation, is expected to see India’s population settle at a little over 1.4 billion.

Data related to Total Fertility Rate (TFR) 

• The country’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) declined to below 2.1 in 2019 (data taken from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017) and is projected to have a continued steep fertility decline until about 2040, reaching a TFR of 1.29 in 2100.
• TFR indicates the average number of children expected to be born to a woman during her reproductive span of 15-49 years.

Reasons for fall

• The sharper fall is due to the assumption that all women globally will have much higher access to contraception and education.
• This scenario will lead to a sharper reduction in the Total Fertility Rate, a metric that shows on average how many children a woman must have to keep replenishing the population.
• A TFR is lower than 2.1leads to a decline in a country’s population.

Challenges ahead

• Forecasts highlight huge challenges to the economic growth of a shrinking workforce, the high burden on health and social support systems of an ageing population.
• It forecasts continued trends in female educational attainment and access to contraception will hasten declines in fertility and slow population growth.

What needs to be done?

• Countries should address the potential catastrophic impact of a shrinking working-age population.
• Suggested Measures include: such as incentives to increase TFR, and using artificial intelligence as a path towards self-sufficiency.
• Wealthy countries such as the UK and the USA could counteract the impact of these changes through net migration of working-age adults from the countries with growing populations.
• The effect of fertility decline on women’s reproductive health rights has to be accompanied by greater economic independence. This would allow women to negotiate with the system on their own terms and for better support services as well.

Road Ahead

• India is on the right side of demographic transition that provides golden opportunity for its rapid socio-economic development, if policymakers align the developmental policies with this shift.
• This demographic transition or shift also brings complex challenges with it. If the increased workforce is not sufficiently skilled, educated and provided gainful employment, India would be facing demographic disaster instead.
• To reap the benefits of the shift, proper investment in human capital is needed by focussing on education, skill development and healthcare facilities.
• By learning from global approaches from countries such as Japan and Korea and designing solutions considering the domestic complexities, India would be able to reap the benefits.

Context: World Population Day is observed on July 11 every year to make people aware about the rising population and increase awareness about family planning, gender equality and maternal health.
Key Points

• The theme for 2020 is "How to safeguard the health and rights of women and girls amid the Covid-19 pandemic".
• Various reports have shown that domestic violence has increased globally amid the lockdown.
• The National Commission for Women in India reported a huge rise in the number of complaints related to domestic violence.
• A study by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says, "47 million women in low- and middle-income countries may not be able to access modern contraceptives" if the lockdown-like disruptions continue for six months.
• This could result in millions of unintended pregnancies and gender-based violence.
• Women are also hit harder economically due to the Covid-19 crisis.
• Around 60% of women across the world earn their livelihood by working in the informal sector, according to the report.

What is population dynamics?

• Population dynamics is study of the size and age composition of populations as dynamical systems, and the biological and environmental processes driving them (such as birth and death rates, and by immigration and emigration).
• Example scenarios are ageing populations, population growth, or population decline.

Why governments need to monitor their population?

• For proper administration of masses.
• For the direct benefit transfers.
• For creating a stable economic output.
• For calculating the indexes.
• For infrastructure developments.
• For health care policies.

What is the status of Indian population?

• There is falling birth rates and only slowly rising longevity.
• India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35.
• Demographic dividend with high working class population.
• The dependency ratio in Indian population is 0.4.
• Women have high fertility rate and child bearing women population is high in India.
• India has a closed population where refugee migration ratio is less, when compared with globe.

What are the issues with Indian population?

• India has just 2% of the world’s landmass and 16% of the global population. It is the second-most populous country in the world with an estimated population of around 1.37 billion by 2019.
• It has been reported that India will soon surpass China’s population.
• Mismatch in birth and death rate resulted in faster growth of population in the past few decades.
• Poverty and illiteracy contribute immensely to the population explosion.
• Children in rural areas are considered as assets, who will take care of parents at old age, also more children mean more earnings.
• The level of female education has a direct impact on fertility, as it is evidenced that the fertility rate of illiterate women tends to be higher than those who are literate.
• Lack of education prevents women from having full knowledge about the use of contraceptives, of the consequences of frequent childbirth.
• Although the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is declining in India, poorer states like Bihar (3.2), Uttar Pradesh (3.0), Rajasthan (2.6) and Jharkhand (2.5) still have TFRs above the national average of 2.2.
• Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is the average number of children born to women during their reproductive years. For the population to remain stable, an overall total fertility rate of 2.1 is needed.
• High youth unemployment in India is turning demographic dividend into a demographic disaster for India.
• This youth potential is often referred to as the ‘demographic dividend’ which means that if the youth available in the country are equipped with quality education and skills training, then they will not only get suitable employment but can also contribute effectively towards the economic development of the country.

How it can be addressed?

• Higher investment capital needed when there is a higher growth in population.
• Investment in different areas of civil society is needed.
• Women should be aware that it is the right to make their own childbearing decisions.
• National healthcare policies are needed to address the new age diseases.
• Proper population dynamics institutions and dedicated departments will help to understand better about Indian population.

Additional Facts
Population related terminologies

• Dependency Ratio: Ratio of persons in the ages defined as dependent (under 15 years and over 64 years) to persons in the ages defined as economically productive (15-64 years) in a population.
• Childbearing Years: The reproductive age span of women, assumed for statistical purposes to be 15-44 or 15-49 years of age.
• Closed population: A population with no migratory flow either in or out, so that changes in population size occur only through births and deaths.
• Demographic Transition:The historical shift of birth and death rates from high to low levels in a population.

Context: After facing flak from the transgender community, the Centre has done away with the requirement of a medical examination for trans persons applying for a certificate of identity in its latest draft rules framed under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
Overview of the draft ‘Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020’:

• All educational institutions are to have a committee which transgender persons can approach in case of any harassment or discrimination.
• The “appropriate government” is also required to take adequate steps to “prohibit discrimination in any government or private organisation or establishment.”
• States will be responsible for “timely prosecution of individuals” charged under Section 18 of the Act which proscribes offences against the transgender community and penalties therein.
• The offences would be punishable with imprisonment for six months upto two years, with a fine.
• State governments will have to set up a Transgender Protection Cell under the District Magistrate and DGP to monitor cases of offences against transgender persons and implement Section 18.

Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019
Definition of a transgender person

• It defines a transgender person as one whose gender does not match the gender assigned at birth. It includes trans-men and trans-women, persons with intersex variations, gender-queers, and persons with socio-cultural identities, such as kinnar and hijra.
• Intersex variations is defined to mean a person who at birth shows variation in his or her primary sexual characteristics, external genitalia, chromosomes, or hormones from the normative standard of male or female body.
• Prohibition against discrimination: Any person who is found to be compelling a transgender person into bonded labour denying right of public passage to a transgender person, evicting a transgender from his/her place of residence, causing physical, sexual, verbal, economic and emotional abuse, can be penalised with imprisonment of not less than six months, that can extend up to two years.
• The bill has a provision that provides transgender the right of residence with parents and immediate family members.

Background

• The law was a consequence of the directions of the Supreme Court of India in the National Legal Services Authority vs. Union of India case judgment, mandating the Central and State governments to ensure legal recognition of all transgender persons and proactive measures instituted for their welfare.
• It calls for establishing a National Council for Transgender persons (NCT).

The NCT will consist of:

• Union Minister for Social Justice (Chairperson)
• Minister of State for Social Justice (Vice-Chairperson)
• Secretary of the Ministry of Social Justice
• One representative from ministries including Health, Home Affairs, and Human Resources Development.
• Other members include representatives of the NITI Aayog and the National Human Rights Commission. 
• State governments will also be represented. The Council will also consist of five members from the transgender community and five experts from non-governmental organizations.

Context: Recently, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu had released a book titled Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study of the Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh.  
Who are the Tangams?

• The Tangams is a little-known community within the larger Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh and resides in the hamlet of Kugging in Upper Siang district’s Paindem circle.
• In 1975, the community’s population was pegged at 2,000 spread across 25 villages.
• From 2016 to 2020, a team from the Centre for Endangered Languages (CFEL) of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), carried out extensive field research and documented the community.
• Their survey revealed that Tangams were now concentrated in only one village (Kugging), with only 253 reported speakers.
• As per the UNESCO World Atlas of Endangered Languages (2009), Tangam — an oral language that belongs to the Tani group, under the greater Tibeto-Burman language family — is marked ‘critically endangered’.

Why are there only a few speakers?

• Kugging is surrounded by a number of villages inhabited by Adi subgroups such as Shimong, Minyongs, as well as the Buddhist tribal community of Khambas, among others.
• To communicate with their neighbours over the years, the Tangams have become multilingual, speaking not just Tangam, but other tongues such as Shimong, Khamba and Hindi.
• They rarely speak their own language now since their population is restricted to a single village. Moreover, the Tangams are relatively unknown — even within their state.
• The village lacks proper infrastructure in all basic sectors of education, health, drinking water facilities, road and electricity. Roads have reached Kugging only in 2018.
• Not a single person from the community has gone to university.

Languages of Arunachal Pradesh

• Till now there has been no systematic, scientific or official survey on the number of languages in Arunachal Pradesh.
• An official linguistic survey by the state government began only in 2018, which is currently underway.
• Before that, People’s Linguistic Survey of India was published in 2017.
• According to experts, there are around 32-34 languages with a disclaimer that it is not a conclusive figure.
• If various linguistic varieties or dialects embedded within these languages are enlisted then the numbers can go up to 90.
• The languages of Arunachal Pradesh have been classified under the Sino-Tibetan language family and more specifically under the Tibeto-Burman and Tai group of languages, such as Lolo-Burmish, Bodhic, Sal, Tani, Mishmi, Hruissh and Tai.
• The education system introduced Devanagari, Assamese and Roman scripts for most tribal languages but new scripts such as Tani Lipi and Wancho Script have been developed by native scholars as well.
• According to the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, more than 26 languages of Arunachal Pradesh have been identified as endangered with the degrees ranging from ‘unsafe’, ‘definitely endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’.

Risks to their languages

• The diversity of languages has led various communities to depend on English, Assamese and Arunachalee Hindi as the link languages.
• The younger generation of various tribes, especially in the urban areas, has mostly discarded the use of their mother tongue.

Road Ahead

• The diversity of languages has led various communities to depend on English, the Assamese, and the colloquial variety of Hindi called Arunachalee Hindi as the link languages. Many believe this shift has led to the loss of native languages of tribal communities. 
• The book attempts to cover “every aspect of Tangam life and culture that will help the future children retain their unique identity as an ethnolinguistic group.

Context: Recently, the Gujarat government has decided to form a five-member commission to identify members of Rabari, Bharvad and Charan communities, who are eligible for benefits of Schedule Tribe (ST) status.
Issue

• In October 1956, the central government conferred ST status on people of Rabari, Bharvad and Charan communities, living in nesses (tiny, oval-shaped hutments made of mud) of Gir, Barda and Alech areas of Gujarat.
• However, it has been alleged that a number of people not living in nesses have managed to get ST certificates and are enjoying undue reservation benefits, mainly in government jobs.
• Leaders of these three communities and other communities as well, have been protesting for quite some time against this.

Objective of the Commission

• To resolve this issue and identify the legitimate beneficiaries of ST status among the members of the three communities.
• To ensure that the eligible members of the tribes are not devoid of their right and the others do not get an undue benefit in their names.

Composition

• The five-member commission will comprise a retired judge of the high court as the head, two district judges, one retired forest officer and one retired revenue officer.

About Rabari Tribe

• They migrated from Rajasthan via Kutch and now most of them live in the Okhamandal region of Jamnagar district.
• They speak ‘Bhopa’ which is a mixture of Gujarati, Kachchi, Marwari words and Pharasi (Persian) and use Gujarati script.
• Women stand in almost equal status to that of men.
• The main economic activity is sheep breeding and selling of milk. Only a few of them own cultivable agricultural land. Recently, they have started engaging as wage labourers in industrial establishments both as skilled and unskilled labourers.
• They profess Hinduism and are followers of Shiva and Shakti.
• Their folk songs are called ‘Siya’.

About Bharvad Tribe

• The term Bharwad is a modified form of the word 'Badawad’.
• ‘Bada' means sheep and 'Wada' refers to compound or enclosure. The person who possesses compounds or pens is known as Badawad.
• They communicate in Gujarati and use Gujarati script.
• Bharwad women have a lower status.
• The Bharwads are pastorals who are permitted to graze their sheep and cattle in certain demarcated areas of the reserved forest. Some of them possess dry agricultural land and earn their livelihood as agricultural labourers.
• They profess Hinduism and Krishna is considered the supreme God.

About Charan Tribe

• The Charan, also called Gadhvi, is a small tribe in Gujarat and the name Charan is derived from the word ‘Char’ which means grazing.
• They speak Gujarati and use Gujarati script.
• They marry within their community and practice monogamy.
• The Charans are traditionally cattle breeders. They have also adopted agriculture as their secondary occupation.
• They profess Hinduism and the main deity is Pithorai Mata.